Creating an Event: Setup and Publishing

If you only use a free personal account, new events live in your Personal workspace automatically. If you belong to an organization, the dashboard header has a Workspace switcher. New events start in that workspace. Open the Workspace section in the builder to put this one on Personal or the org without changing the header. That choice decides who can manage the event, which plan limits apply, whether it appears on the public org page, and which contact book receives new signups.

Start with the event details, schedule, and signup slots. Open Starting point for starter templates or AI setup. Optional polls, cover art, participant details, privacy, and email settings live in expandable sections with a summary of your current choices. Closing a section keeps its settings.

At the top of the builder, What are you making? chooses the page guests will see. Collect signups is the default: slots, shifts, items, or a simple RSVP. Run a poll builds a poll-only page with no signup form. Ask about dates, labeled choices, or both, then lock a winner when you are ready.

You can also keep a sign-up sheet and still poll the group. Under When is this event? choose Poll the group instead of a fixed date or several dates, or add custom choices further down. Guests vote on the same public page as the signup form. See Polls for the full flow, including pick-one questions, hidden results, and converting between a poll and a sign-up sheet.

Turn on Use signup slots to list contributions, roles, or times. Each slot can have one optional reference photo. Select Add reference photo below the slot to show guests a themed treat, a craft, or the supplies you need.

The photo previews in the editor. Select Create draft to keep it on a new event, or press Save in the unsaved changes bar when editing an existing event. Replacing or removing a photo also requires Save. See the reference photo instructions.

Every event starts with a title and an optional description. The title becomes the headline of your public page and the subject of your confirmation emails, so keep it recognizable. The description appears right under the headline and is a good place for what to bring, parking notes, or anything guests should know before they commit to a spot.

Under When is this event? pick one of three setups. Times use your timezone, detected automatically.

• Fixed date & time. You already know when it happens. Date and time are still optional: supply drives and open lists work fine without them. When you set them, they appear as pills on the public page, drive dashboard banners, and control when reminder emails go out.
• Poll the group. Propose a few times. Guests vote, then you lock a winner. Covered in the poll section above.
• Several dates & times. A window of days (office hours, volunteer week, conference sessions). Set a first day and a last day, then add a slot for each time people can claim. Slot selection is turned on. Each slot has a date, a time, an optional label (Gym, Saturday shift), and a spot count. Guests pick a slot. Confirmation and reminder emails use that person's date and time, not the whole window. See Slots, RSVPs, and Capacity and Emails and Reminders.

Under Location and meeting links, choose what physical location to show. You can also share a video meeting link alongside it:

• No location. No physical location appears on the page. For an online event, use the video meeting settings below to share joining details with confirmed attendees.
• General location. Free text like "School gym" or "Meyer Park pavilion" shown as a pill on the event page.
• Street address. The address is shown and automatically linked to Google Maps, so guests get directions in one tap.

In Location and meeting links, turn on Share video meeting links to share links to calls hosted by your video provider. Signup Bubble does not create or host video calls. Choose One link for everyone for a group call, or Individual meeting links to assign links to each signup or booked session from Manage attendees. You can save without a link and add it later. Keep a physical location too if guests can attend in person or online.

Put meeting links and passcodes in the video fields, where they are shared with confirmed attendees, instead of the public description. See the Video meeting links guide for setup, assigning links, and emailing attendees.

Choose how the top of your public page looks. The default is None / solid color (purple header, no image). A live preview updates as you pick. You can also:

• Upload your own photo or flyer art. Large camera photos are automatically resized to a max of 2000px wide as JPEG before uploading. There is no file-size or megapixel limit on your original photo.
• Your photos reuses an image from one of your other events. A copy is saved for this event. This option only appears when you already have a cover on another event.
• Bubble art picks from ready-made covers shipped with Signup Bubble. New art can be added over time.

For your own photos (upload or reuse) you can pick a display style. Bubble art and the solid color header always use the standard cover layout; flyer style is not offered for those.

• Banner cover fills the header as a cropped background with your title overlaid on the image.
• Full flyer starts with the entire image and places the title below. Keep it whole for posters and text-heavy art, or choose a square, wide, or original-proportion crop.

After choosing an image, Adjust image lets you drag to reposition, pinch or use the zoom controls, and check the phone and desktop banner previews. Select Use image, then save the event. Cancel keeps your previous image.

You can reopen Adjust image anytime without losing the uncropped image. Switch cover and flyer without re-uploading, or swap sources (for example solid color to Bubble art) and save. Archived events are read-only for banner changes.

A group of toggles controls what the signup form asks for. Each one is off by default so the form stays as short as possible:

• Allow comments adds an optional comment box, with a placeholder you can customize, for example "What dish are you bringing?"
• Collect phone numbers adds a phone field for day-of coordination.
• Collect additional guest count lets a guest say how many extra people they are bringing, up to 50 including themselves. Only then does each slot show Count whole party toward slot capacity: seats and cars should count everyone, a dessert slot usually should not. If guest count is off, that slot toggle stays hidden because every signup is already one person. See Slots, RSVPs, and Capacity.
• Custom questions ask anything else you need, covered in Custom Questions.
• Require confirmation turns on double opt-in: signups hold a spot temporarily and become confirmed when the guest clicks the link in their email.

Two settings control who sees what. Show names publicly decides whether the list of signed-up guests appears on the event page, and private mode hides event details from anyone who has not confirmed a signup. Both are covered in depth in Privacy and Visibility Controls.

Separate from per-slot capacity, the attendee limit caps the total headcount for the whole event. When the limit is reached the form closes automatically, even if individual slots still have room. Leave it empty for unlimited attendance. Guest counts always count toward this event-wide cap, so a signup for 4 people uses 4 of the total even if a slot only uses one spot.

Check your setup summarizes the title, schedule, signup format, and visibility. Choose Create draft to save. If something needs fixing, the error message links to the relevant controls and your entries stay in place. Optional dates and details do not become new requirements.

While you work, the save bar stays at the bottom of the screen. Use Create draft for a new event or Save when editing. Success and error messages appear above the bar so the save button stays accessible.

New events start as drafts. A draft has no public page yet, so you can take your time getting slots and wording right. When you publish, the link goes live instantly. You can unpublish at any time to take the page down without deleting anything. Your dashboard shows contextual banners that walk you through what to do next at each stage.

The organizer overview shows Review before publishing with your saved settings. Save any edits before publishing. After publishing, open Share to copy the public link or invitation text, view the public page, open Quick Send, or jump to the existing cover and flyer tools. Copied invitations for private events omit the protected event details.

Each event carries a type, such as item signup, shift signup, RSVP, appointment, or registration, which mostly affects the wording the app uses around your slots. Personal accounts can have up to 10 active events or polls at a time; archiving finished ones frees up room, and organizations get higher limits.

Use the RSVP, slots, or poll guide when choosing your setup. For dated sessions, follow Several dates and times.