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TutorialHow to Create an Event Workshop Registration + Waitlist System in WordPress

A workshop registration waitlist system keeps your event signups clean when seats are limited: it registers people until capacity is reached, then automatically moves the overflow to a waitlist and handles approvals when a spot opens. The moment you add a real capacity limit, things get messy fast.

Who gets in first?
Where do you put the overflow?
How do you stop manually emailing people every time a spot opens?

In this tutorial, you’ll build a workshop registration + waitlist system that handles all of that using:

  • Gravity Forms for the registration form and email notifications
  • Gravity Flow for capacity decisions, approvals, and automatic entry updates
  • GravityView (GravityKit) for a clean dashboard that shows attendees, statuses, workflow steps, and approval links
  • GravityWP Advanced Merge Tags (used in this build to calculate the Registered Count automatically)
Get Gravity Flow
Get Gravity Forms
Get Gravity View
Get Advanced Merge Tags

Workshop registration waitlist system: what you’re building

This workshop registration waitlist system uses one registration form and a workflow to control capacity and approvals.

By the end, your system will work like this:

  1. A visitor submits a Workshop Registration form.
  2. If the workshop still has space, they become Registered and get a confirmation email.
  3. If the workshop is full, they become Waitlist and get a waitlist email.
  4. An admin can approve or reject waitlisted entries.
  5. When approved, the entry is automatically promoted to Registered, and the attendee receives a “Spot Opened” email.
  6. A GravityView dashboard shows all attendees in one place, including: workshop type, registration status, workflow status, current workflow step, approval links, and a view details link.

This matters because it removes the two biggest admin headaches:

  • Capacity enforcement without manually counting entries
  • Waitlist handling without manual email follow-ups

Step 1: Create the workshop registration waitlist system form (Gravity Forms)

Go to Forms → New Form and create a form named:

Workshop Registration

1.1 Visitor fields for the workshop registration waitlist system

These are the only fields your visitors should fill out. Keep it short so conversions stay high:

  • Name (First + Last)
  • Email
  • Workshop Type (Dropdown)
    • Workshop A
    • Workshop B
    • Workshop C