How do I set up HubSpot for running events?
Short answer
Start from the object you already have. Marketing Event is native in HubSpot, so you do not build an event object, ... you mirror two facts onto the contact: registration status and attendance.
Then add a Sponsorship pipeline with a hold expiry, a Session object for tracks, and the onsite ticket types. Professional covers nearly all of it. The trap: a workflow cannot write to a Marketing Event or branch on it, so every automation reads the local copy.
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What a spec looks like
The nine sections, and the files
Every spec follows the same nine sections, so a team reads one and knows how to read all of them.
- Outcome, when to use it and when not to
- Prerequisites: properties, lists, tiers, with the JSON to create them
- Enrollment and re-enrollment, then every step with its parameters
- Known pitfalls, a test plan, variants, and the YAML build spec
PDF, Markdown, properties JSON, workflow JSON, custom code where used. Test plan and known pitfalls in every spec.
Each spec states its minimum tier. The 12 free ones open in full, the others show their public preview.
The 43 specs, in build order
40 chosen from the library, 3 written for this kit.
The data model: what HubSpot already gives you, and what it does not
Marketing Event is native and read only as far as automation goes. This block sets up the mirrored contact fields, the company and email domain links, and the consent capture the registration form needs.
What each spec doesHide
Registration to the room
A registration produces a confirmation in seconds, a reminder seven days out and a practical one the day before, with the audience frozen so next year you can still see who was invited to this edition.
What each spec doesHide
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Attendance, and the split it makes possible
Once the badge file is in, the people who came and the people who did not stop getting the same email. Attendees get the next step, no shows get the recording, and the track decides who follows up.
What each spec doesHide
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Selling the floor
A stand enquiry reaches somebody inside the hour, a returning sponsor reaches their own account manager, and the meetings booked from the prospectus page land with context attached.
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The sponsorship pipeline and its deadlines
A held package has an expiry date, an unsigned contract gets chased three times, and the artwork nobody sent is escalated before the printer closes the file rather than after.
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Show days, and the fortnight that decides next year
Onsite issues, badge requests and speaker logistics route to their own queues with a minutes based clock, then the survey opens the renewal pipeline for the sponsors who scored you well.
What each spec doesHide
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The data model, 55 properties
A kit is not a folder of specs. It is the property schema the trade needs, then the workflows that run on it.
Contacts12 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
registration_status |
attended |
ticket_type |
track |
dietary |
speaker_yn |
sponsor_contact_yn |
badge_id |
first_event_date |
edition_start_date |
events_attended_count |
current_edition |
Companies6 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
sponsor_tier |
booth_size |
contract_value |
exhibitor_yn |
sponsor_nps_last |
past_editions |
Deals9 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
package |
booth_number |
contract_value |
renewal_of_edition |
edition |
package_hold_expiry |
artwork_deadline |
artwork_received |
passes_allocated |
Tickets6 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
request_type |
onsite_issue_category |
badge_request_type |
speaker_logistics_type |
ticket_edition |
onsite_yn |
Session (custom object)11 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
session_title |
session_start |
session_end |
track |
session_type |
room |
capacity |
registered_count |
speaker_name |
session_edition |
recording_url |
Sponsor package (custom object)11 properties
| Internal name |
|---|
package_name |
list_price |
package_tier |
passes_included |
booth_size_included |
slots_total |
slots_sold |
slots_held |
slots_remaining |
package_edition |
visible_on_prospectus |
The pack ships this as JSON, ready for one call to the properties API, plus a README that says what each field is for and which spec reads it.
The 3 things that break this, and how the specs stop them
A workflow cannot write to a Marketing Event, or enrol on one
The object is native and it holds the participation history, which is more than any contact property can do.
What it will not do is take a value from a Set property value action or act as an enrolment object. Lists read it, automation does not drive it. Every spec in the kit therefore enrols contacts, deals or tickets and branches on a mirrored copy of the two facts that matter.
How the specs stop itShow less
Not yet known is not the same as no show
On a physical event, attendance arrives as a CSV from the scanners at the end of the last day, and somebody imports it the following week.
A workflow that counts days from the event date will treat every attendee as a no show for as long as the file is late. The attendance property has four values for this reason, and the follow up waits for the property to be set rather than for a delay to expire.
How the specs stop itShow less
Workflows do not do date arithmetic
Setting a package hold to expire in fourteen days, or adding this edition's contract value to a lifetime total, is not a Set property value action.
It is a custom coded action, which means Data Hub Professional, or it is a date somebody types when they place the hold. The specs say which of the two they assume rather than pretending the native action exists.
How the specs stop itShow less
What this kit builds
An event runs on two clocks that never touch each other, and most portals only track one. The attendee clock starts when someone registers and ends when they walk through a door, months later, and the gap between those two numbers is the whole commercial story of the edition. The sponsor clock starts with a stand enquiry and ends when the printer closes the artwork file, and every day it slips is a day of floor space you cannot sell twice.
This kit is the data model and the forty three workflow specs that put both clocks in one portal. The model starts from what HubSpot already ships, because Marketing Event is native here and nothing needs inventing. On top of it sit twelve contact fields, six company fields, nine deal fields, six ticket fields, and two custom objects, Session for the programme and Sponsor package for the slot counts. Fifty five properties in a JSON body you can post, with the option lists spelled out and the four that have to match each other flagged.
Then the workflows. Confirmation, reminder at seven days, reminder the day before, and a follow up that branches on whether the person turned up. Sponsorship from enquiry to held package to signed contract, with the hold expiry and the artwork chase. Onsite issues, badge requests and speaker logistics in their own queues with a clock measured in minutes. And the survey that decides which sponsors get next year's deal opened for them in the fortnight after the doors close.
It fits an organiser running two to twenty editions a year, and the operations person at an association rebuilding the same setup for every event on the calendar.
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How the pieces fit together
Check the integration before you build anything. Which participation states your webinar or ticketing tool writes back into Marketing Event decides how much of the registration half is automatic and how much arrives as a file. Half a day of checking here saves the week where nothing branches and nobody knows why.
Properties second, and rename the four edition option lists in one sitting. The edition value on the contact, on the company history, on the deal and on the Session record has to be identical, and the track on the contact has to match the track on the Session character for character. This is the single most common reason an attendee follow up goes to the wrong rep.
Pipelines third. The Sponsorship pipeline before any sponsorship workflow, because every wait step filters on a stage. Ticket pipeline and request types before the onsite specs, because the priority rule reads the request type at creation and there is no second chance on the morning of the show.
Registration and attendance last on the attendee side, sponsorship first on the commercial side, since sponsorship sells eight months out and registration opens three. In practice you build the sponsorship half in the quiet season and the registration half in the two months before the doors, which is also the order the specs are numbered in.
What you get
- 43 specs: 40 selected from the library and 3 written for this sector
- Each spec ships as PDF and Markdown
- The kit data model: 55 properties across contacts, companies, deals, tickets, the Session object and the Sponsor package object, as ready to post JSON, plus the two schema calls and the Sponsorship pipeline body
- A README that says what each property is for, which specs break without it, and exactly what the native Marketing Event object will and will not do
- Workflow JSON in Automation API format, switched off on import
- Custom coded actions: three steps across the kit name code as the honest path, on Data Hub Professional, and each says what the manual alternative is
- A test plan per spec, with the records to create and the history tab to check
- Variants per spec, including wait until versions of the delay based steps and a Professional fallback for both custom objects
- One click install for Full and Agency buyers
Who it is for, and who should skip it
Take it if you run editions rather than one off webinars, and you are rebuilding the same reminder chain, the same sponsor chase and the same post event follow up from scratch every year with a blog post and last year's screenshots. Take it if you sell floor space and the words held, provisional and confirmed currently mean different things to different people on your team.
Skip it if you run four webinars a year and nothing else. Your integration writes attendance back on its own, and two specs from the free library plus a reminder email cover most of what you need. Skip the sponsorship half if you have no paid exhibitors, which removes about a third of the kit. And if your problem is ticket sales rather than everything around them, the ticketing platform is the answer and no workflow library will change that.
Questions admins ask
Does HubSpot have an events object?
Yes, and this is the one sector where you do not have to build anything. Marketing Event is a native CRM object with its own API, and the webinar and ticketing integrations write participation states into it. What it does not give you is a workflow you can trigger from it or a property you can set on it. The kit uses it as a list filter and mirrors registration and attendance onto the contact so branches have something local to read.
Can I track who actually attended, not just who registered?
Yes, but not automatically on a physical event. A webinar integration usually writes attendance back within the hour. A badge scanner exports a file, so attendance reaches the portal when somebody imports it. The kit models that honestly with a four value field where unknown and no show are separate, and the post event follow up waits for the value to arrive instead of guessing from the date.
Can I run sponsorship sales in HubSpot?
That is the half of the kit most organisers underestimate. It needs its own deal pipeline with Delivered rather than Signed as the winning stage, a hold expiry date on held packages, and a Sponsor package object so two salespeople cannot promise the same headline slot in the same afternoon. The package object needs Enterprise. On Professional you keep the pipeline and the chases and lose the slot count.
What tier do I need for this?
One spec runs as low as Service Hub Starter. Two need Marketing Hub Enterprise, because they roll campaign and event attribution up onto records. The other forty need Professional, on Marketing, Sales or Service depending on the spec. The two custom objects, Session and Sponsor package, need an Enterprise subscription on at least one hub, and three steps across the kit need Data Hub Professional for a custom coded action. Every spec states its own floor on the first screen.
Does this work for webinars and for seminars as well as for conferences?
The registration to attendance half works unchanged for a webinar and gets easier, since the integration writes attendance back and the wait step resolves in under an hour. Seminars and corporate groups use the same model with the sponsorship half switched off and the deal pipeline pointed at the booking instead. The part that assumes a physical venue is the onsite ticket queue and the badge fields, which you can simply not create.
Read 12 complete specs before you pay.
One per category, same format as the paid ones. Email only, no card.
We email the link, then a short note when specs change. Nothing else.
Here it is. Download the pack now (.zip) The link is in your inbox too.
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