For organizers whose RSVPs don't all turn up
Turnout DeskHow many registrations to accept - and how many lunches to order.
About half the people who sign up for a free event come. Enter your room and your numbers: free in your browser you get the registration ceiling with its arithmetic (double on a free event and never past it, no overbooking on a paid one), what happens to the room if more people show than expected, the waitlist rule and the date to drain it, the day-of lane, and the number to give catering - never the registration count. A run then writes the plan you hand to your team.
1 Your event free
2 The numbers free
The ceiling, in five lines
Against the room
Waitlist and the day
What the page flags
3 The capacity plan metered
One run writes the plan you hand to your team: the ceiling and who closes the form, the occupancy check, the waitlist rule as published, the day-of lane, the catering number, the deposit question, hand-offs with the numbers each person needs, and what to count on the day.
Pricing as soon as the session is ready...
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The ceiling
The room
Waitlist
Day of
Catering
Deposits
Hand-offs
Count on the day
Caveats
The page's check of this plan
4 After the event free
Count what happened - this is the number that turns a borrowed ratio into your own next time.
5 Saved events
How it works
The figure you plan against depends on what a seat cost. For free registration the page uses the MLH hackathon organizer guide's trendline - about 50% of registrants show up across 323 events - so the ceiling is double your aimed attendance, and never past double; the free band is 40-60% no-shows (Event Tech Live). For a paid or nominal-fee event it takes no overbooking at all: paid events convert 90-97% of tickets. Your own last edition's rate replaces the borrowed one only for a recurring free event whose catering or venue headcount locks before doors, and is still held under double.
The room's occupancy limit is a gate, not a lever: overflow counts only with the venue's written approval. The page shows what the ceiling brings at the top of the band and the chance - from the exact binomial - that attendance goes over the limit even at the planned rate. Catering gets the expected show-ups with the buffer named, never the registration count. The waitlist is drained in signup order on a named date (proximity only when someone can sort it and the list is long), before the headcount locks; the day-of lane is a separate late form opened after pre-registered check-in, or a pre-doors release to the waitlist when nobody can walk up. Deposits are not recommended - there is no established practice behind them for developer events.