Event and MICE Companies: Registration Sites, Ticketing and Data

Structuring a website for many events

Event companies run a series of conferences, exhibitions or incentive trips, each with its own agenda, speakers and sponsors. The usual choices are:

Whichever you choose, keep registration and payments in one system so reports, refunds and data handling are consistent. Use subdomains of your main domain (summit.yourcompany.com) rather than many unrelated domains, which makes it easier for attendees to recognise the real site.

Ticket tiers, GST and payments

Common tiers are early bird, standard, group, student or member rates, and VIP or workshop add-ons. Set each with its own price, quantity cap, sale window and refund rule.

• Payment methods: cards for overseas delegates, PayNow for local ones, and invoices with bank transfer for corporate group bookings.
• Fees: platform and payment fees can eat into low-priced tickets. Our Stripe fees guide works through card, PayNow and international card costs.
• Booking fees: if you add a booking or service fee that every buyer must pay, include it in the headline price rather than revealing it at checkout.
• Invoices: corporate buyers need a tax invoice with your GST registration number and the delegate names.

Attendee data, sponsors and exhibitors under the PDPA

Sponsors and exhibitors often ask for the attendee list. Under the PDPA, an organisation generally needs a person's consent to collect, use or disclose their personal data for a purpose, and must tell them that purpose. Registering for a conference is not consent to be contacted by every sponsor.

Do not ask for NRIC numbers to register unless the venue's security genuinely requires it, and delete delegate data you no longer need after the event. Our guide to privacy policies and cookie consent under the PDPA covers the notice on your site. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

Photos and videos at events

PDPC's Advisory Guidelines on the PDPA for Selected Topics discuss photography at private events. To make attendees aware of the purpose, PDPC suggests stating in the invitation that photographs will be taken and how they will be used, putting an obvious notice at the reception or entrance, or including it on the registration or confirmation form.

If an attendee later withdraws consent for publication, PDPC's guidelines say you must stop future publication of that photo, though you do not have to recall material already distributed. Keep a simple process for these requests, and brief your photographer on attendees who ask not to be photographed.

Badges, check-in and exports

Most registration platforms export attendee lists for badge printing and check-in. Plan the export before the event, not the night before.

1. 1

   Decide the badge fields

   Usually name, company, job title and a QR code. Leave email and phone off the badge itself.

2. 2

   Set a QR code per ticket

   A unique QR code lets staff check people in quickly and stops a screenshot being reused.

3. 3

   Export only what the printer needs

   Send the badge vendor the badge fields, not the full registration data, and ask them to delete it after the event.

4. 4

   Test check-in on site

   Test the scanners and the venue Wi-Fi or mobile data the day before, with an offline list as backup.

5. 5

   Close the loop after the event

   Send the thank-you and survey, then archive or delete data according to your retention rule.

Follow-up emails, survey reminders and sponsor lead handover can be automated. Our guide to automating lead follow-up from enquiry forms shows how.

Refund terms and ticket scams

Ticket scams on social media and resale platforms are a recurring problem in Singapore. The government's ScamShield site lets people check and report suspected scams. Our guide on stopping fake ticket sellers using your event covers the official ticket page, verified accounts and email authentication in detail.

STB support for business events

The Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau (SECB), part of the Singapore Tourism Board, is the lead government agency for business events. STB's MICE page lists programmes such as In Singapore Incentives & Rewards (INSPIRE) and the Singapore MICE Advantage Programme (SMAP), and STB's MICE experience programmes page also mentions SHINE, a hotel partnership with negotiated room rates for meeting organisers. These complement STB's Business Events in Singapore incentive scheme. Contact SECB through STB to check eligibility for a specific event.

Do it yourself or get help?

Many organisers run registration on an off-the-shelf ticketing platform and link it from a simple website. That works well if the platform handles GST-inclusive pricing, separate consent boxes and clean exports.

If you want it set up properly on your own accounts, our Website Pro (S$2,990) builds a site of up to 12 pages with registration forms and full on-page SEO. Online Payment Setup (S$290) adds cards and PayNow checkout, and our PDPA Compliance Pack (S$690) prepares the privacy policy, data inventory and breach response plan your attendee data needs.