Add Participants to an Event

Most event participants register themselves through the public-facing landing page form. This guide covers the cases where they do not: legacy lists you carry over from another tool, manual operator entries, or attendees you confirmed offline.

For the public registration flow, read the Event Landing Pages guide.

When you add participants manually​

Three cases:

• Pre-event migration. You captured registrations in another tool before wiring the Mailtarget event. Import the existing list so the registrant count matches.
• Operator entry. A registrant signed up through a non-form channel (phone, email, in-person) and you record them in the system on their behalf.
• Comp tickets and VIPs. Sponsors, speakers, or invited guests who do not go through the public registration flow.

In all three cases, the participant ends up in both the event registrant list and the Contact Book, identical to what would happen if they had registered through the form.

Two methods​

Method 1: CSV import​

Use this for batches. The fastest path for migrations.

1. Prepare a CSV file. Required column: email. Recommended columns: name, ticket type, any custom fields you want preserved.
2. Open the event in Event Management.
3. Open the Registrant menu.
4. Click Import.
5. Pick the product category and coupon (if applicable) to apply to every row in the file.
6. Upload the CSV.
7. Click Import to commit.

The import:

• Creates contacts in the Contact Book for any new email addresses.
• Updates fields for existing contacts.
• Adds each row as a registrant on the event.

If a row has invalid email syntax or other validation failure, that row is skipped and reported. The rest of the file imports normally.

Method 2: Manual entry​

Use this for one-off additions.

1. Open the event in Event Management.
2. Open the Registrant menu.
3. Click Add Registrant.
4. Fill in the participant fields (email, name, any custom data).
5. Click Add Registrant to commit.

The participant appears in the registrant list immediately.

What does not happen automatically​

Manually added participants do not auto-trigger the post-registration email flow that the form-based path triggers. Two consequences:

• No ticket email. If the event uses Transactional Email for tickets, you need to send the ticket email manually after import. The Event Email Configuration in the dashboard can fire it on demand. Alternatively, use the Transmission API to send the same template programmatically.
• No Email Automation entry. If you wired an Email Automation triggered by the form (see the Event Email Automation guide), manually added participants do not enter the automation. The form is the trigger; manual entry bypasses the form.

If you want manually added participants to receive the same email as form registrants, the cleanest path is to send the email programmatically through the Transmission API after the import completes.

CSV format guidance​

A minimal CSV:

email,name
alice@example.com,Alice Tan
bob@example.com,Bob Wijaya

A richer CSV with custom fields and ticket types:

email,name,ticket_type,coupon,company
alice@example.com,Alice Tan,early-bird,VIP-2026,Acme
bob@example.com,Bob Wijaya,standard,,Beta Inc

The first row is the header. Column names map to system fields and custom fields by name. Empty cells are valid; the import preserves the existing value or leaves the field empty.

UTF-8 encoding is required. Excel sometimes saves CSV in a different encoding; if non-ASCII characters import garbled, re-export from Excel as CSV UTF-8 or use a text editor to verify the encoding.

Where the data ends up​

After import or manual add, the participant exists in three places:

The Contact Book record is shared. Multiple events the same person attends share one Contact Book entry.

Next​

• Event Landing Pages guide for the public registration flow.
• Event Email Automation guide for the automation alternative.
• Contacts for the Contact Book data model.