Manage invitation lists

Invitation lists help you organize your guest lists and control how invitations are sent. This guide covers how to create, manage, and optimize your invitation lists with different distribution options.

Understanding invitation lists

An invitation list is a collection of potential attendees for your event. Each event starts with a single Default list but you can create multiple invitation lists to organize attendees into different groups, each with its own settings and options.

When to use multiple invitation lists

• For keeping track of different groups of attendees (e.g., VIPs, general admission, sponsors)

• To control access to specific ticket types

• To send customized email templates to different groups

• To manage staggered invitation distribution

Creating an invitation list

1. Navigate to the invitations section

   Log in to your IO account and select the event you want to add people to. Click on Invitations in the menu. This will be on the left of the screen on desktop or at the bottom of the screen on mobile.
   

2. Create a new list

   Click on Default list at the top of the screen, and then on + Create new list.
   

3. Configure settings

   There are a few options at Invitation list level, some of which are advanced or more experimental. We'll cover the main ones here:

   • Name: Give your list a descriptive name (e.g., "VIP Guests", "Media Partners")
     

   • Expires at: Add an optional date and time that invitations to people on this list should stop being valid.
     

   • Distribution option:

     • First come, first served: spaces are not reserved.

     • Guaranteed until expiration: spaces are reserved and additional invitations will not be sent until a space is freed up by someone higher in the list declining their invite.
       

   • Public registration: A shareable link where people can either join your event directly, or request an invite (if you check Registrations require approval). You can also specify whether people are allowed to bring additional guests.
     

   • Custom HTML templates: Override the event-level RSVP flow templates for this list specifically.
     

4. Save the new list

   Click Save to create your new invitation list.

Editing an invitation list

You can navigate between invitation lists via the dropdown in the top-left of the Invitations list view. To edit an invitation list, select it from the dropdown and then click on the three-dots menu (⁝) at the top, and select Edit invitation list. This will reopen the form so you can make changes.

Viewing invitation list stats

Click on the three-dots menu (⁝) at the top, and select Show list stats to see a filtered overview of your lists performance, including:

• Total number of people on the list

• Invitations sent

• Responses

• Email report

Next steps

After setting up your invitation lists, you can:

• Add individual people to your lists

• Import people in bulk to populate your lists

• Send invitations based on your distribution settings

• Configure ticket types and batches to control what's offered to each list