Hi all,
We recently held our Gala and we tracked everything through an elevated event but we think there are ways we can still streamline. I have a couple of questions about your process:
How do you track invite lists? We used constituencies this year but I'm thinking that attributes would be a better way to go.
Guests list for tables. With the event report, the table guests show up with the sort name of the table. Is there any way to ensure their sort names appear in the event report when it's pulled or is that something that has to be manually updated in excel?
What do you use for your reporting? We used the event listing report but the way it pulls is strange. Even when you sort by table number or event level, it's still mixed up. It doesn't seem to pull clean unless I open in excel and sort manually. Any tips on this?
Also, if you could share any other elevated event best practices that you've discovered, that would be incredibly helpful.
Thanks!Lesley
I have also used the elevated events campaigns, etc. It is very useful and helpful. Contributions that were not for attendees were entered as underwriting.
When we listed the names into the guest list, we found entering them as last name, first name allowed us to save as an excel spreadsheet and the do a text to columns function. It separated the names at the comma rather than a space for difficult names. That allowed us to create merge records name tags or table place cards without a custom report. It also allowed us to alpha sort the guest list for check in functions.
Michelle
Michelle Wohlers Tessitura Operations Manager
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From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Beth Gilliland Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 12:55 PM To: Michelle Wohlers Subject: Re: [Tessitura Development Forum] Elevated Event Set up
Lesley-
At UMS, we actually do everything in Elevated Events for an auction, a gala, and special pre-show dinners - even down to the guest names, nametags, food choices and sometimes tables. All of that can be entered into Tessitura out of the box - but we have one custom report that pulls the data as we want to see it - and can also convert into "mergeable" nametag data.
Staying in elevated events also helps you track status of Invited or Attending or Not Attending, which we've found very useful. The only catch is if you are processing a contribution to that elevated event campaign, but the person is NOT attending (just giving a gift), the software automatically assumes they are attending, and you can't change that status while processing the contribution. But you CAN change it later - or as we do it here at UMS - someone actually updates or enters the elevated event info in advance via the History/Events tab in the constituent record.
Hope that makes sense - I'm happy to share the report or more info if that helps...
Beth
From: Lesley Lewis <bounce-lesleylewis4764@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 4/17/2014 4:44:40 PM
Thanks! Lesley
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That's close to what we do Michelle - but we actually separate by a slash (i.e. - Beth/Gilliland). I'm also remembering that our report pulls VIP constituencies (board, staff, etc) and puts those on nametags as well. All that is somewhat hardcoded in our report, but I'd still be happy to share with those of you that are interested when I get a free moment. If you have an SSRS or SQL guru around, I'm sure they can help customize it for your organization.
Thanks all! We've used the elevated event for everything as well. It's very helpful to have it all in one place. How do you all keep track of your invite lists?
Beth, I'd love to see that report as well!
Cheers,Lesley
Hi Lesley,
Depending on what your needs are in terms of tracking invite lists, I think the easiest thing is to have a dedicated Appeal for each elevated event, and create an inhouse source (or sources) for the group(s) you are inviting. When you go to promote the sources there's a checkbox for "Create Event Invitations." That will add the event to everybody's History/Events tab with the status "Invited." Then you can pull reports and lists based on the event and status. I think that's been mostly sufficient for our needs.
Lesley, Marley, and Jessica -
I've posted a zip file in my profile of our custom Event Guest List Report It includes sample data and exports as well as the nametag template we used. Obviously it would need some customization for your use, but its a place to start. Let me know if you have any questions!