A decision, not a scoreboard
Two ways to fill a room: an unlisted page you share widely, or a closed page carrying a password and an exact number of seats. Here is how each reads from the guest's side.
Both setups collect the same thing: name, email, and any extra question you add. Both cap at a seat limit you choose, and both send each registrant a private access link. The difference is the front door. An open page is unlisted but public to anyone holding the link; a closed page additionally asks for a password you hand out deliberately, so an address found in a forwarded message is not enough on its own.
That is worth stating precisely, because people over-read it. A password does not verify identity. It raises the cost of wandering in, which is usually the actual requirement: the client-only session, the internal training, the workshop where the room has to stay small.
Post it in groups, put it in a bio, add it to a newsletter. Registrations arrive from people you have never spoken to, and the seat limit is what protects the room.
The link and the password go to specific addresses together. Fewer people reach the form, and each one was intended to.
Open feels like a public event and needs no explanation. Closed feels like being invited, which is warmer for a client list and slightly more friction for a stranger.
Open brings volume and a proportion of people with no real intention of coming. Closed brings fewer names who were individually expected, and usually a higher share who show.
Plenty of sessions are neither fully public nor strictly named. The practical version is a closed page opened for a window: password out to the list you trust, an exact seat count that matches the room, and the link left shareable so a colleague can pass it on — they will still need the password. Marta Keller, who runs quarterly sessions for a client group, keeps it simpler than that: closed page, one seat cap slightly under the room, and no broadcast beyond her own list.
Whatever you pick, the follow-up reads the same afterwards. Both setups give you a list with statuses you can export, both send reminders by email to registered people, and both let you send the replay and your slides to the segment that actually showed up.
How it works
Anyone holding the link, or only people you sent the password to. This one choice changes the send plan more than anything else on the page.
Set the limit before you promote, so a warm response cannot overrun the session. Say it plainly on the page: places left, and full when it is full.
Turn the gate on and send link and password together to the named list. Never publish the password in the same place as the link.
Registrations arrive with statuses, notify you over WhatsApp, and export as CSV or PDF when you need to plan against real names.
Questions
It does not stop the link travelling, which you cannot prevent. It stops the link doing anything on its own. A forwarded address without the password reaches a locked door rather than your form.
The list records one registration per address, and the seat limit bounds the total. If a colleague genuinely needs their own place, they register their own name and their own access link.
This product does not take payment or sell tickets, so neither setup handles money. Collect registrations here and arrange anything you charge separately.
You can turn the password on, but people already holding the link will be asked for something they were not promised. Better to choose the door before the first send than to change it under way.
Closed usually converts a higher share of fewer names; open brings volume and more no-shows. Neither is a trick. Decide what the room is for and let the seat limit do the protecting.
Get Started
Open if you want strangers to find you, closed if you want only the names you chose. The form, the reminders and the list look the same either way.
