Eventact's seat maps allow attendees to select their seats from an interactive map, while you maintain control over pricing, reservations, and seat allocation for each group.
Seat selection is ideal for shows, performances, ceremonies, galas, and ticketed presentations — any event where assigned seating is expected. For these events, seat location is often a key consideration. Theatergoers evaluate the view before purchasing tickets, and for ceremonies or VIP events, seating arrangements are significant and require careful planning. Eventact's seat selection feature provides attendees with a straightforward, visual method to choose seats, while offering you the necessary pricing and access controls to manage seating according to your event's requirements.
Many platforms support seat selection for these standard scenarios. However, its value extends further to settings such as conferences and exhibitions, where it is less commonly used.
Seat Selection at Conferences
Most conferences do not provide reserved seating for lectures, as open seating is generally appropriate. However, conferences often include sub-events where assigned seating is important, such as gala dinners, concerts, awards ceremonies, or headline shows. Allowing attendees to select seats for these sub-events during registration adds valuable flexibility.
This approach encourages early registration. Typically, there is little incentive to register immediately, since prices and experiences remain unchanged. Seat reservation alters this dynamic. When seat selection is included in registration, early registrants have access to the best available seats, while those who delay may find limited options. This provides a genuine motivation to register sooner, benefiting organizers seeking to fill the venue in advance.
Exhibitions present additional opportunities. Exhibitors who offer demonstrations or workshops with limited seating can allow guests to pre-reserve seats during registration. This helps exhibitors assess interest and ensures attendees have a confirmed place.
What Is a Seat Map?
A seat map is a visual, interactive representation of a venue — a conference hall, theater, aircraft, or bus — showing where each seat is located relative to key elements such as the stage or aisle.
During registration, attendees navigate the map independently. They can pan across the venue, zoom for detail, and select their preferred seats before completing registration. This eliminates confusion and ensures clarity regarding seat locations.
Build It Once and Reuse It
Seat maps are created at the company level rather than for each event, significantly reducing repetitive work.
A single map can be linked to multiple sub-events, projects, or recurring sessions. For example, if a keynote is delivered three times in the same hall, the map is created once and assigned to each session. Seat availability is tracked separately for each session, ensuring attendees always see accurate, current options.
For conferences with multiple sessions in the same rooms, this reusability saves significant time.
Subdivide Larger Venues Into Areas
Large venues can be challenging to navigate. To simplify this, you can divide the map into named areas such as Orchestra, Balcony, or Golden Ring, tailored to your space.
When areas are defined, attendees initially view the full venue overview. Selecting an area zooms in to display available seats within that section. If no areas are defined, the map opens directly at the seat level. This approach allows attendees to navigate the space efficiently.
What Each Seat Holds
Comprehensive information enables attendees to make informed choices. Each seat on the map includes:
- Title — a friendly, readable name shown in the registration summary and on the ticket, such as "Row 3, Seat 12."
- Area, Row, and Column — used to enforce selection logic and printed on the ticket.
- Category — groups seats together for pricing and access control, and links to a specific ticket type in your price list.
- Additional information — optional notes the attendee can see, like whether a seat reclines or has a power outlet nearby.
These details serve two purposes: they assist attendees in making selections and support the underlying rules and pricing.
Adding Seat Selection to Your Registration Form
Attendees use the Seat Selection field to interact with the map, which can be placed on any page of your registration form.
When you configure the field, you set:
- Seat map — which map to display.
- Price list group — the group of ticket types tied to this seating session.
- Category mapping — assign each seat category to a ticket type. Any unmapped category is automatically blocked and unavailable for selection.
- Maximum seats per registrant — set a limit on how many seats each person can select, which is useful for group bookings.
A key benefit for organizers is that when a registrant selects a seat, Eventact automatically generates an order for the corresponding ticket type. This eliminates manual price lookups and reconciliation. The attendee selects a seat, and the correct charge is applied.
Selection Rules That Prevent Problems
Eventact enforces several rules during seat selection to prevent common seating issues:
- No isolated seats. By default, attendees cannot leave a single empty seat between their selection and an occupied seat in the same row. This prevents unbookable, isolated seats. You may disable this rule for specific events as needed.
- Real-time conflict detection. When a registrant submits the form, the system verifies seat availability. If a seat has been taken in the interim, the registrant is immediately notified and can select an alternative, preventing double bookings.
Advanced Control for Organizers
Full Control From the Back Office
The back office provides full control over the seat map. You can reserve specific seats exclusively for back-office use — such as for speakers, VIPs, sponsors, or accessibility requirements — making them unavailable for selection. Attendees can view these seats but cannot select them.
In addition to blocking seats, you can assign attendees to specific seats directly from the back office, ensuring guests are placed as needed rather than waiting for them to choose. This is particularly valuable for ceremonies and VIP events, where seating arrangements require careful planning. By reserving and assigning seats, you can fully manage the room when a curated seating plan is necessary.
Charge Different Prices for Different Sections
Since each seat is assigned a category, you can set different prices for various sections. For example, front-row seats may correspond to a Premium ticket type, while general seating aligns with a Standard ticket type. The attendee selects a seat, and the appropriate price is applied automatically. Category mapping can also be used to restrict access to certain zones by leaving specific categories unmapped.
Offer Different Options to Different Registrant Types
If you want sponsors to select from premium categories while staff are limited to standard seats, use a differentiating field to identify each group and create separate registration pages with conditions based on that field.
On each page, include a Seat Selection field with its own category mapping, all of which reference the same seat map and price list group. This ensures consistent and accurate availability for all registrant types. For example, speakers and VIPs may select seats in the front rows, while general attendees choose seats in other sections, all within a synchronized map.
Layer On Flexible Pricing and Promotions
Because seat selection generates standard price list orders, all existing pricing features remain available. You can apply promotion codes and early-bird date ranges to seat categories to incentivize early registration or target specific groups. Prices can vary by date, code, and category, providing full flexibility within Eventact's pricing system.
A Quick Tip for Recurring Sessions
For sessions repeated in the same hall throughout the day, create the seat map once at the company level and attach it to each session's sub-event. Availability is tracked separately for each session, ensuring attendees see accurate options for their selected time slot.
Summary
Eventact's seat maps provide attendees with a clear visual way to select their seats and give you precise control over the venue. You create a map once at the company level and reuse it across sessions and sub-events, subdivide large venues for easier navigation, and link seat categories to ticket types for automatic pricing. From the back office, you can reserve or assign seats directly, simplifying the creation of curated seating plans for ceremonies and VIP events.
In addition to shows and performances, seat selection is valuable for less expected scenarios such as conference sub-events and exhibitor demonstrations. In these settings, it not only organizes the room but also incentivizes early registration by rewarding prompt booking with better seat choices. Once a map is set up, it can be used for any event that requires it.