Auto-enrolling event attendees as bidders

With the Events app, you can have attendees become bidders in an associated auction automatically, so you are not adding them by hand before the event.

To turn auto-enrollment on:

1. Open the Events Manager.
2. Click the title of the event you want to edit.
3. Open the Auction section.
4. For Auction, click Select and choose the auction these attendees should bid in.
5. For Auto-Enroll Attendees as Bidders, select an option:

• Off — no bidders are created automatically
• All attendees — every attendee becomes a bidder
• Selected ticket type(s) — only attendees holding the ticket types you choose
• At check-in — attendees become bidders when they are checked in, in the Soapbox Engage Onsite app or on the event's Tickets tab in the administrator

1. If you chose Selected ticket type(s), select the ticket types.
2. Click Save.

When bidders are created

This depends on the option you chose.

All attendees and Selected ticket type(s) create a bidder as each registration is completed. Someone who registers after you turn the setting on becomes a bidder; someone who registered before does not.

Important: for these two options, auto-enrollment is not retroactive. Turning it on partway through a registration period leaves everyone who already registered without a bidder record. Add those attendees yourself from the auction's Bidders tab, choosing From event attendee — see the Auctions article on adding a bidder.

This is the single most common surprise with this setting, so it is worth turning on at the same time you associate the auction, before registration opens.

At check-in creates a bidder when the attendee is checked in, not when they register. Registering does not create a bidder under this option, so the auction's bidder list stays empty until the doors open and fills as people arrive. Because enrollment happens at the door, turning this option on partway through registration is not a problem — anyone who has not yet been checked in is still covered. A guest who was checked in before you chose At check-in does not get a bidder; add them from the event's Tickets tab with Create Bidders.

It makes no difference whether the check-in is made in the Onsite app or on the event's Tickets tab. On the Tickets tab, the message above the list gives the new bidder number. See Checking in guests from the Tickets tab of an Event.

A ticket with no email address is checked in but is not made a bidder. Add an email address to the ticket first, or create the bidder from the Tickets tab.

Choose At check-in when you want bidder numbers to go only to people who actually turn up, rather than to everyone who bought a ticket.

Undoing a check-in removes the bidder that the check-in created, unless that bidder has auction activity such as bids, purchases or paddle raise commitments. Checking the attendee in again creates a bidder again if the first one was removed. It never creates a second bidder.

Related articles:

• Why didn't my event attendees become bidders?
• Associating an Auction with an Event