July 23, 2025
Exhibitors play a crucial role in the success of an event—helping generate revenue, attract attendees, and foster valuable networking opportunities. To support organizers, Whova provides comprehensive exhibitor registration tools that streamline booth selection, staff management, and company info collection. All registration info flows directly into the exhibitor center within the Whova Event App, saving organizers valuable setup time.
Plus, before the event app is even published, Whova’s exhibitor portal acts as a central hub where exhibitors can set up their profiles, customize lead tags, manage booth staff, and schedule social media posts—all in one place.
However, some organizers run into special cases that fall outside the typical registration flow—especially when exhibitors have already paid or been secured through annual sponsorships, bundled deals, or external systems before using Whova exhibitor registration.
In those cases, organizers were stuck managing things manually—juggling spreadsheets, coordinating over email, and trying to match exhibitor info across disconnected systems—just to get those exhibitors onboarded. In these cases, exhibitors miss out on valuable features like booth selection, registration forms and staff management.
While some events use our Exhibitor Offline Payment feature as a work-around for pre-paid exhibitors, it’s not an ideal fit. This option isn’t always intuitive—it still prompts exhibitors to select a package and follow payment instructions, which can cause confusion for pre-paid exhibitors.
We’re excited to introduce Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets—a new add-on that simplifies the process for exhibitors who have already paid through other channels. Rather than going through the standard registration and payment flow, organizers can now direct these exhibitors to a dedicated registration page where they can select their booth, complete required forms, and add booth staff—all without selecting a package tier or making a payment in Whova. This ensures a smooth, professional experience while keeping everything seamlessly organized within the platform.
This feature is especially valuable for events with:
- Exhibitors secured through long-term sponsorship agreements or bundled packages. Many events work with sponsors or exhibitors on multi-year contracts or across multiple events. These partners often pre-pay as part of a broader sponsorship or marketing strategy, making traditional ticketed registration unnecessary or redundant.
- Exhibitors that are booked long before organizers find a registration platform. It’s common for returning exhibitors to commit months in advance, especially for recurring events. In such cases, organizers may finalize exhibitor participation long before settling on the event tech stack. This feature allows organizers to retroactively add those pre-paid exhibitors without forcing them through a confusing payment process.
Organizers can now offer a seamless, professional experience to all exhibitors—no matter how they paid.
Getting Started with Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets
To activate this feature:
- Navigate to the Tickets tab in your Whova dashboard.
- On the left-hand menu, expand Exhibitor Registration and click on Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets.
- Click Get Started to begin.
Click ‘Get Started’ to enable Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets.
Adding exhibitors approved for prepaid registration
Once you enable Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets, you can add exhibitors who already have prepaid access—typically those who paid through bundled sponsorships or third-party platforms and don’t need to go through the standard Whova payment process.
You can choose to upload exhibitors in bulk using a spreadsheet or add them manually.
Upload via Spreadsheet
Recommended if you’re onboarding more than 10 exhibitors:
- Download Whova’s spreadsheet template
- Fill in each exhibitor’s company name, main contact info, exhibitor tier, number of booth staff included, and optional booth number
- Upload the completed file back into Whova
Manual Entry
Best for 10 or fewer exhibitors:
- Manually input the company name, contact info, exhibitor tier, included booth staff, and booth number (if applicable)
This provides your pre-paid exhibitors access to register without making an additional payment, but it does not complete registration on their behalf.
Pre-paid exhibitors can be added manually or through spreadsheet upload.
Prepaid Exhibitor Registration: What the Exhibitor Sees
Exhibitors approved for prepaid registration will receive a personalized email containing a link to their dedicated registration page. Organizers also have the option to share this link if needed. This separate page ensures pre-paid exhibitors have a tailored experience that skips any package selection or payment steps.
After clicking the link, exhibitors will:
- Verify their email address
- Confirm the company and contact details provided by the organizer
- Select their booth (if applicable)
- Enter additional company and staff information
This allows exhibitors to complete their onboarding independently while still taking full advantage of Whova’s exhibitor tools—just like those who registered through the standard paid process.
Exhibitors can review details, choose a booth, and submit more info. The page title can be customized by the organizers.
Track Progress and Send Reminders
Within the Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets tab, organizers can monitor the registration status for each exhibitor. You’ll see a clear breakdown of:
- Which exhibitors have completed registration
- Who still needs to submit their details
- Any changes in participation (you can revoke access at any time)
Organizers can also send customizable reminder emails directly from this page, helping ensure no one slips through the cracks.
For example, if a long-term sponsor hasn’t selected their booth yet, you can quickly identify that status and nudge them to complete registration. That means no more chasing down updates across email chains or spreadsheets.
This progress tracking doesn’t just reduce manual effort, it also provides cleaner, more accurate reporting on exhibitor status and payments. Because Whova separates pre-paid exhibitors from those who paid through the platform, organizers avoid the confusion of reconciling data across disconnected systems.
Track registration status of all pre-paid exhibitors.
Give Every Exhibitor a Seamless Experience
Whether an exhibitor paid through Whova or via a sponsorship deal nine months ago, they deserve a consistent and professional onboarding experience. With Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets, you can make that happen—without adding more work to your plate.
Say goodbye to spreadsheets and piecemeal coordination. Everything from booth assignments to staff registration now happens in one place, even for pre-paid exhibitors.
Ready to get started? Log into your Whova dashboard and enable Prepaid Exhibitor Tickets today.