Discussion Draft

Registration Platform

Feasibility and Definition of Done

A starting point for B Line Events and Empower Labs to align on the outcome, technical approach, risks, and evidence needed for a production ready Swoogo replacement.

Prepared ForHayden and the Empower Labs team
Target WindowSeptember 1 through November 30, 2026

Purpose

Hayden, thank you for sharing the registration platform concept with us. We are excited about the potential to create a more flexible, scalable, and cost effective alternative to our current Swoogo process.

Because registration touches so many parts of our client work, we want to make sure we are aligned on what a production ready replacement would need to do before we move into a formal scope. This document is intended to give you and your team a clear picture of the outcome we have in mind and invite your candid assessment of what can realistically be completed by November 30.

We are not asking Empower Labs to recreate every feature Swoogo offers. We are asking whether the proposed system can fully and reliably replace the Swoogo capabilities B Line depends on for its marketing events and client programs.

The Proposed Outcome

  • A repeatable system for creating and managing registration sites
  • Three completed, production capable event sites
  • Training for a variable resource who can manage future builds
  • A target future build cost of approximately $1,000 per standard site
  • A target recurring software cost of approximately $4,000 per year
  • Completion by November 30, allowing B Line to make an informed decision before its January Swoogo renewal

For B Line, success would mean more than launching three websites. It would mean that our team can confidently run real events from registration through post event reporting without needing Swoogo as a backup for any agreed critical workflow.

B Line Manages the Day to Day

Empower Labs may build the initial sites, and B Line is comfortable having the option to hire your team for occasional future builds at the proposed approximately $1,000 standard site price. That support should be optional, not required for normal event operations.

Once a site is handed over, B Line's team needs to be able to manage the day to day work internally, much as we currently do in Swoogo.

  • Update event details, deadlines, copy, graphics, links, pages, navigation, FAQs, speakers, travel information, and agendas
  • Manage registration questions, attendee types, codes, invite lists, capacities, waitlists, sessions, activities, and hotel inventory
  • Create, test, schedule, pause, revise, and resend routine communications using personalization and merge fields
  • View, filter, export, schedule, and securely share reports
  • Add, modify, cancel, transfer, or troubleshoot attendee registrations
  • Handle routine payment adjustments, housing changes, session assignments, onsite check in, and badge reprints within approved permissions
  • Review client feedback, make ordinary revisions, test the changes, and publish them safely

Usability standard: If a task is part of normal event setup or day to day registration management in Swoogo today, the default expectation is that a trained B Line user can perform the equivalent task through a clear administrative interface.

Empower Labs support may still be appropriate for a net new build, new integration, major design change, custom code, unusual troubleshooting, or platform enhancement. The boundary should be documented so B Line knows what it can manage independently and what requires technical support.

Fit With B Line's Client Onboarding Template

B Line currently uses a registration builder and communications template when onboarding a new program. The replacement should support that practical workflow rather than requiring the team to translate the template into a developer ticket.

  • Registration launch timeline and client deliverable dates
  • Landing page, event details, venue, hotel, travel, parking, weather, and packing information
  • Agendas, speakers, event specific FAQs, registration questions, payment, group registration, and confirmation pages
  • Invitation, confirmation, reminder, incomplete registration, modification, cancellation, password reset, hotel confirmation, Know Before You Go, speaker, follow up, and miscellaneous messages
  • Add to calendar copy, sender details, reply addresses, merge fields, links, and email testing
  • Client feedback tracking by page, registration area, communication, and completion status

The system should make it easy for B Line to take a completed client template, configure the event, track missing inputs, build or update the site, test it, route it for client review, make revisions, and publish it.

Acceptance test: Give a trained B Line user a blank event and a completed client onboarding template. The user should be able to configure, test, publish, and maintain the event without Hayden or another developer performing the work. Any exception should be documented in advance.

How We Would Like to Use This

We would like Empower Labs to review each section and tell us:

  • What your team can deliver by November 30
  • What already exists and what would be built from scratch
  • What would be custom built and what would rely on established third party services
  • What you would recommend changing or simplifying
  • What may require additional time, cost, or support
  • What risks or limitations we should understand before proceeding

We welcome your recommendations. If there is a more effective technical path to the same business outcome, we would like to understand it.

What Production Ready Means

  1. A working multi event platform in production, not a prototype or collection of unrelated sites.
  2. Three production capable sites representing simple, paid, and complex event use cases.
  3. Successful testing of registration, payments, refunds, emails, housing, agendas, reporting, onsite check in, and badge printing where applicable.
  4. A clear comparison showing how B Line's critical Swoogo workflows will be handled.
  5. An administrative experience that a trained nondeveloper can use for normal builds, edits, communications, and reports.
  6. Documented security, privacy, accessibility, performance, backup, recovery, monitoring, and support procedures.
  7. B Line ownership and administrative access to the production accounts, data, code, domains, configurations, and documentation.
  8. A verified recurring cost model and demonstrated process supporting the proposed future site cost.

Proposed Workstreams

Swoogo's published capabilities include registration logic, websites, communications, payments, housing, agendas, reporting, client access, onsite check in, badging, integrations, permissions, and security controls. Discovery should confirm the exact B Line subset required for 2027 events.

1. Discovery and Workflow Review

  • Review representative past and current events, templates, reports, communications, and integrations.
  • Gather input from B Line builders, registration and housing managers, client reporting users, payment reconcilers, and onsite staff.
  • Create a shared capability matrix for launch requirements, later enhancements, and items not needed.
  • Document third party services, limitations, workarounds, assumptions, and open decisions.

2. Event and Website Creation

  • Create or clone events from approved templates.
  • Build responsive branded sites with multiple pages or tabs.
  • Edit content, navigation, forms, images, files, links, and reusable sections without developer support.
  • Preview, publish, unpublish, and safely update live sites.
  • Control content visibility for different attendee groups.
  • Provide a guided setup that maps logically to B Line's onboarding template and shows missing inputs, testing, client review, and publish readiness.

3. Registration and Attendee Management

  • Support multiple attendee types, custom questions, validation, and conditional paths.
  • Support invitation, approval, capacity, waitlist, code, modification, cancellation, and substitution workflows where required.
  • Provide duplicate detection, safe administrative updates, audit history, and mobile friendly registration.
  • Enforce capacity across registrations, activities, sessions, and hotel inventory.

4. Payments and Financial Reporting

  • Integrate and test the gateways B Line and its clients require.
  • Support pricing rules, discounts, add ons, taxes, fees, complimentary registrations, and manual payments where needed.
  • Use secure PCI compliant checkout architecture and prevent duplicate charges.
  • Support failures, receipts, balances, cancellations, refunds, and accurate reconciliation.
  • Keep merchant accounts and funds appropriately separated by client or event.

5. Sessions and Personalized Agendas

  • Create sessions and activities with schedules, locations, tracks, speakers, rules, and capacities.
  • Allow eligible selections and administrative assignments.
  • Enforce capacity, eligibility, and scheduling conflict rules.
  • Display full and personalized agendas, preserve selections through updates, and report on attendance.

6. Housing and Room Blocks

  • Support multiple hotels, room types, rates, taxes, booking instructions, and night by night inventory.
  • Manage room blocks and subblocks for different attendee groups.
  • Capture dates, roommates, requests, accessibility needs, and billing indicators.
  • Support additions, changes, cancellations, cutoff rules, and oversell prevention.
  • Produce hotel ready rooming, pickup, arrival, departure, change, and consolidated block reports.
  • Support Passkey or another hotel integration when required, or document the manual process.

7. Email Communications

  • Create branded responsive invitations, confirmations, reminders, payment messages, operational updates, cancellations, and post event emails.
  • Segment by attendee, registration, payment, hotel, session, activity, and check in data.
  • Support personalization, tests, previews, scheduling, automation, and send history.
  • Address email authentication, delivery, suppression, bounce, complaint, open, and click reporting.
  • Support a representative complex plan of up to 18 registration related messages.

8. Reporting and Client Access

  • Provide current dashboards for registration, payment, housing, session, and check in activity.
  • Support configurable reports, saved views, scheduled delivery, and complete exports.
  • Provide secure client access to up to 10 report views or links for a complex event.
  • Restrict access to the correct event and approved fields.
  • Reconcile registrations, payments, refunds, rooms, sessions, communications, and attendance.

9. Onsite Check In and Badges

  • Provide mobile or tablet friendly check in by search, identifier, QR code, or barcode.
  • Synchronize event, session, package, or activity attendance with the central record and reporting.
  • Support offline operation, safe resynchronization, walk ins, authorized edits, and duplicate warnings.
  • Design and print badges using the exact devices, printers, stock, and network approach B Line intends to use.
  • Complete a realistic onsite rehearsal including a simulated internet outage.

10. Integrations and Data Flow

  • Document the approach for payments, email, Zoho, client CRM tools, analytics, hotel systems, badging, mobile, streaming, imports, exports, API, and webhooks.
  • Define data mappings, timing, error handling, alerts, retry behavior, and reconciliation for each launch critical integration.

11. Security, Privacy, Accessibility, and Reliability

  • Provide role based access, multifactor authentication, secure client data separation, encryption, secret management, and audit logging.
  • Address PCI architecture, privacy notices, consent, retention, data rights, hosting locations, and subprocessors.
  • Complete appropriate security, accessibility, browser, mobile, capacity, and performance testing.
  • Document monitoring, alerts, backups, restoration, rollback, incident response, and support coverage.
  • Recommend an independent security review appropriate for the platform and schedule.

12. Migration and Swoogo Exit

  • Inventory and retain required historical data, templates, reports, files, and configurations.
  • Preserve important field definitions and relationships through migration or archive.
  • Reconcile imported data and provide B Line with a complete export at any time.
  • Prepare a transition checklist covering domains, redirects, emails, reports, refunds, privacy requests, and historical records.

13. Training and Repeatability

  • Provide guides, recorded training, checklists, reusable templates, and troubleshooting procedures.
  • Train the primary variable resource and one B Line backup administrator.
  • Have the trained resource complete an independent fourth test build or formal simulation.
  • Have a B Line team member complete a separate day to day administration test after handoff.
  • Document the assumptions supporting the approximately $1,000 standard site target.
  • Define routine B Line administration, optional build support, and work requiring engineering or additional fees.

14. Ongoing Operations and Cost

  • Define ownership for routine support, urgent event issues, bugs, maintenance, and enhancements.
  • Clarify response coverage for launches, nights, weekends, and onsite events.
  • Provide a stabilization period through the renewal decision and first agreed live events.
  • Provide a complete annual cost model and scenarios for normal use, 1,200 attendees, and higher volume.
  • Separate the software estimate from support, maintenance, security, equipment, payment processing, and client specific integration costs.

The Three Proposed Pilot Sites

Site 01

B Line Marketing Event

  • Free RSVP or registration
  • Branded multipage site
  • Registration status tracking
  • Confirmations and reminders
  • Live reporting
  • Check in and attendance
Site 02

Paid Client Event

  • Multiple ticket types
  • Live payment gateway
  • Discounts and refunds
  • Financial reconciliation
  • Client report access
  • Check in and badges
Site 03

Complex Client Event

  • Conditional registration paths
  • Housing and room blocks
  • Personalized agendas
  • Up to 1,200 attendees
  • Up to 18 emails and 10 reports
  • Offline onsite testing

Proposed Validation

  • All agreed critical workflows pass complete testing.
  • No unresolved critical issue remains in registration, payments, communications, housing, reporting, security, check in, badges, backup, or recovery.
  • Registrations, transactions, refunds, room inventory, sessions, emails, and attendance reconcile accurately.
  • Client access works correctly and does not expose another client's information.
  • Performance, offline synchronization, backup restoration, and release rollback are demonstrated.
  • Agreed security, privacy, payment, and accessibility reviews are complete.
  • B Line controls the production accounts, data, code, domains, and documentation.
  • The trained resource successfully completes an independent build.
  • A B Line user successfully manages day to day work using the current client onboarding template.
  • The complete cost and ongoing support model are approved.

At least one real event or controlled end to end scenario should be run in parallel with Swoogo before the renewal decision. We would welcome your recommendation on the safest and most useful test.

Questions for Empower Labs

  1. Which parts of the proposed platform already exist, and which would be built during the September through November window?
  2. Based on this document, what can your team confidently deliver by November 30?
  3. Which requirements would you recommend changing, simplifying, or delivering later?
  4. Which third party services would the platform depend on?
  5. Which payment gateways would be live and tested?
  6. How would client and event data be separated and tested?
  7. How would housing inventory, changes, and night by night reporting work?
  8. How would offline check in synchronize and resolve conflicts?
  9. Which badge printers and devices would be supported and tested?
  10. What security, accessibility, backup, recovery, and performance testing would be completed?
  11. What simultaneous registration and onsite check in volume would the system support?
  12. What is included in the approximately $4,000 annual software estimate, and what would be separate?
  13. What ongoing maintenance and support would be needed after launch?
  14. How would B Line continue operating if a key team member or vendor were unavailable?
  15. How would we demonstrate that future standard sites can be built for approximately $1,000?
  16. Which normal administration tasks, if any, would still require Empower Labs after handoff?
  17. How would the platform use or mirror B Line's current client onboarding and registration builder template?
  18. What contingency would you recommend if a critical requirement is not ready by November 30?

Requested Response

For each workstream, please classify the proposed requirement as:

  • Deliverable by November 30 as described
  • Deliverable with a recommended modification
  • Deliverable through a named third party service
  • Better suited for a later phase
  • Not recommended or not feasible
  • Requires additional cost or a separate decision

Please include assumptions, dependencies, risks, and questions that would help us refine the scope together.

Next Step

Once we have your feedback, we can align on the final capabilities, pilot events, technical approach, testing plan, timeline, complete cost, and ongoing support model. From there, we can turn the agreed approach into a formal scope with clear milestones and responsibilities.

We want this project to succeed, and we would be pleased to stop paying for Swoogo if B Line no longer needs it. This review is intended to make sure the replacement is ready for the real workflows our clients and team depend on before we make that decision.

Research Reference