Registering a training course or CPD day comes down to two questions: how many people fit in each session, and what can you show afterwards about who attended which one. Session booking with a capacity per session answers the first. Session scanning at each session door answers the second, with a first-in time for every attendee.
What Does a CPD Day Need from Registration?
More than a ticket. A training provider running a one day programme with four parallel workshops is really running four small events inside one, and each has a room with a fixed number of chairs and a delegate who wants a specific session, not a general admission wristband.
So the form has to ask who is coming and which sessions they want. The door has to keep the full room full and nobody else in it. And afterwards someone, often an accrediting body or a line manager, will ask who attended what. If registration handles those three jobs, the day runs itself. If it handles one, you end up with a clipboard.
How Do You Set a Capacity for Each Session?
In the session itself. Each session in the agenda has an Enable Booking switch, and with it on you set a capacity from 1 up to 100,000, or leave it blank for no limit. The capacity counts bookings only, so places included with a ticket are not counted against it: size the room for both when you set the number.
A few details save arguments later:
Sessions can be free or paid. A paid session takes a price in the event currency, and VAT follows the organisation's setting, inclusive or exclusive.
Booking closes a set number of minutes before the start, which you choose. The same cut-off applies at checkout, in the event app and in the attendee portal.
You choose who can book: every ticket type that asks for attendee details per ticket, or only selected ticket types.
A session can be included with chosen ticket types, so a full day pass already covers the morning workshop.
One attendee cannot book two sessions that overlap by even a minute. Back-to-back sessions are fine.
One rule trips people up: only ticket types that ask for attendee details per ticket can book sessions. If you sell a group of ten places on one order, give each place its own name so each person can choose their own sessions. The registration features show how ticket groups and forms fit together.
What Does the Delegate See When They Book?
A Sessions step at checkout, with one card for each named attendee and sessions grouped by day. Bookable sessions are tick boxes, included sessions are ticked and fixed, and a full session reads "Fully booked". When ten or fewer places remain the row says how many are left, and a clashing session is disabled with the title of the one it clashes with.
Attendees who would rather decide later can book after registering. In the event app (a web app, nothing to download, phones only) and in the attendee portal, a free session books in one tap and a paid one opens a card payment. The booking confirmation lists each session with its time, room and price, or "Free" or "Included", and a calendar file (.ics) lands with it.
What Can You Prove with Session Scanning?
Who went into each session and when they first came in. Session scanning works at a session's own door, per session rather than per room: the staffer picks the session on the check-in link, scans the QR code on a ticket or types its code, and one scan admits or refuses. A valid ticket that booked the session, or whose ticket type includes it, is admitted. Anyone else is refused.
A Form for Every Audience. Answers on Every Badge.
Delegates, speakers and exhibitors each get their own registration form, and every answer flows to badges, emails and the Excel export.
Re-entry is admitted and flagged, so a delegate who steps out for a phone call is not turned away, and every device at the door shows a running count of admissions against capacity. That count is what lets a volunteer say "we have three seats" rather than "it looks quite full".
Afterwards each session has an attendee list showing when each person first came in, with a spreadsheet download, and Insights shows bookings, takings and attendance for your most booked sessions. That is the record to hand to a line manager or file for your own audit.
Coming soon: attendance certificates and CPD or CE credits. Need them for your accrediting body? Tell us what your body asks for and how your delegates claim today.
How Do Other Platforms Handle Sessions and Check-in?
Differently, and the pricing pages tell you where each one puts the capability. These are the vendors' own published pages as read on the dates shown, and "not stated" means the page does not say.
| Platform | Sessions, per the Vendor Page | Check-in, per the Vendor Page |
|---|---|---|
| eventcloud | Session booking with a capacity per session; free, paid or included with a ticket type | Session scanning at each session door, with a running count against capacity and an attendee list per session |
| Zoho Backstage | Free plan: 3 sessions per event of up to 45 minutes; Essentials and above: unlimited sessions of up to 8 hours (pricing page, no date shown, read 9 November 2026) | Check-in and badging solutions listed on the Free plan; per session scanning not stated |
| Eventcombo | Not stated on the pricing page as read on 9 November 2026 (page updated 22 October 2026) | Check-in software listed on the Business tier; per session scanning not stated |
Sources: Zoho Backstage pricing and Eventcombo pricing. The column to look at is the last one: ask any vendor whether scanning happens at the session door or only at the entrance, because an entrance scan tells you someone arrived, not that they sat in your 2pm workshop.
What About a Course That Runs Over Several Days or Arrives as a Booked Cohort?
Each session starts and ends on a single day within the event's dates, so a three day course is simply sessions spread across three days, each with its own capacity and its own door. Delegates can see their clashes before they pay, and the same attendee list works for every day.
If a client has already booked forty places on your course, you do not need forty people to click through a form. Attendee import reads an Excel or CSV file, checks every row before anything is written, and creates real orders and tickets, sending emails only if you choose. It works on published events, so rehearse the form in the free trial first and import once the event is live. Then the cohort books sessions through the attendee portal like everyone else.
How Do You Set Up a CPD Day in Order?
Create the sessions in the agenda with their rooms, times and capacities, sized for booked and included places together.
Set the ticket types that book sessions to ask for attendee details per ticket.
Decide which sessions are included with which tickets, and which are paid extras.
Choose a booking cut-off that gives your team time to print room lists.
Give each session door a phone running the check-in link, with the session chosen on the scanning list.
After the day, download each session's attendee list.
The training and workshops page shows how this fits a course provider's year, and the check-in page covers the door. Next time you plan a CPD day, write the room capacities on one sheet first. Everything else follows from the smallest room.
