Two “total number of participants”?

Question

I'm defining a two day event. For the first day there will be a 120 max participant limit and for the second day a much lower limit.

I also want to have "Early", "Regular" and "Late" fee levels with appropriate "discounts", which are limited in time as "Early Bird" fees are usually handled.

In addition I want to give some discount if you sign up for both days.

My current configuration is based on the three fee levels as time limited price sets each having three options, first day, second day and both with appropriate fees (where the fee is manually calculated according to the strategy I want).

The problem is that with this approach I cannot limit the second day participants to the level I want.

What are my options? Is there a way to do this completely with CiviCRM:s current feature set?

Answer 1

Since you have a different participant limit, its really a distinct event and you should treat it that way by creating a second event. Yes your participants have to register twice but then you'll have a much nicer record of which day they attended (and all the benefits of automated reminders as well).

With the two-event configuration you can offer registrants of the first event a special discount for the second - just include the discount code in the confirmation email. You'll need to configure your discount codes carefully to activate and de-activate at the correct time. As a bonus, include a checksum link to the registration page, then the registrant won't have to re-enter all their information.

Answer 2

Try using a price set, as that lets you specify the maximum registrations by field. Then you could have a field for each day.