Front of house is everything your guests meet on the way in: the doors, the check-in table, the ushers and the room itself. This checklist is for organizers who sell tickets on BrightStar and want to walk into their event ready. Work through it when you book the venue, and again in the week of the event. Some parts apply only to some events, such as alcohol, open flame, plant medicine, outdoor weather or assigned seating.
Your role and BrightStar's
You are the organizer. You choose the venue, set your ticket quantities, staff the room and run the event. You are responsible for following the law and for the accuracy of everything your guests see. On an assigned-seating event, BrightStar builds the seat map from your floor plan, but you are responsible for reviewing it before sales open, and once sales open on it, the map is yours. BrightStar's Terms say BrightStar is not responsible for the safety of events, so safety in the room and your venue's rules are yours to manage.
BrightStar provides the software. When a guest buys a ticket, the purchase is between you and your guest, and BrightStar is the platform that facilitates it. BrightStar delivers the tickets and gives you the tools to check guests in and manage orders. BrightStar does not run your event, staff your door or inspect your venue, unless you have a separate written agreement with BrightStar for on-site services.
Your venue, your staffing and safety in the room are governed by local law, your permits and your venue's rules. What you agree to as an organizer is set out in BrightStar's Terms of Service. In the section called Event Organizer Terms, they ask every organizer to give accurate event information, honour every ticket sold, comply with the law, keep appropriate insurance, handle attendee data under privacy law, tell guests promptly about changes, and process refunds under the policy you state. Under Refunds and Cancellations and Limitation of Liability, they say BrightStar's role is limited to the ticketing platform, and that BrightStar is not responsible for the quality, safety or legality of events. Under Indemnification, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless BrightStar against claims arising out of your events. Read them in full before you publish.
Before the event: venue, safety and the law
Settle these with your venue and the local authorities well before sales open.
- Your venue contract is signed, and you know what it says about access times, setup, load-out, noise, curfew, and who staffs what.
- You know the room's legal capacity from the venue or the fire authority. Your ticket quantities, plus staff, artists and volunteers, never add up to more than that number.
- Any permit or licence your event needs is in hand, such as for assembly, amplified sound, food, or outdoor use. Your venue or your local government can tell you what applies.
- You hold insurance suited to the event, such as public liability cover, and you know whether the venue must be named on it. BrightStar's Terms also ask you to keep appropriate insurance for your events.
- You know how accessible the venue is, and your event page says so plainly: step-free entry, toilets, seating, parking and hearing support.
- Security fits the size of the event and follows any entry rules your venue requires. For a small gathering, that may simply be a team member at the door.
- First aid is on site, every team member knows where it is, and one person is named to call emergency services.
- You have an emergency plan with exits, an evacuation route, a meeting point, and the name of the person who can stop the event. Your team has walked it.
- If you use candles, incense, sage, ghee lamps, a fire ceremony or a burner, your venue has agreed to it in writing. Each flame sits on a stable, non-flammable base away from cushions, fabric, hair and walkways, is never left unattended, and has an extinguisher or fire blanket within reach. Your event page says if smoke or incense is used, for guests with asthma or allergies.
- If alcohol is served, the server holds the right licence and checks ID. If minors may attend, you know the rules on age and supervision, and your event page states them.
- If your gathering involves plant medicine or any other substance, you have confirmed it is legal where you hold it, screened every participant for health conditions and medications, and have trained, sober facilitators and a medical plan in place. BrightStar's Terms ask you to comply with all applicable laws and never to use the platform for an illegal purpose.
- If your practice affects the body, such as breathwork, heat, fasting, cold water or intense movement, you ask guests before they arrive about conditions that may make it unsafe for them, such as pregnancy, heart conditions, epilepsy or recent surgery, and you have an emergency contact for each guest. On Elevate and Amplify, the Attendee Questions step can ask at checkout, including an emergency contact question and a Waiver / Agreement question. The buyer answers once for the whole order, so on a group booking, collect each guest's health answers, emergency contact and agreement yourself, before the event or at the door. Decide with your own adviser whether guests sign a waiver and what it says.
- You have decided whether photos, filming or audio recording are allowed, and your event page and door signs say so. If you will film or photograph guests, you tell them before they buy and offer a way to opt out, and you have the artist's written agreement for any recording.
- For an outdoor event, you have a weather plan: what conditions pause or cancel it, who decides, and how guests are told. If you cancel, BrightStar's Terms entitle guests to a full refund of the ticket price. If you move the event to a new date, their tickets usually stay valid for it, and refunds for guests who cannot make the new date follow your refund policy.
Before the event: your team
A calm door comes from clear roles, decided in advance.
- One person is in charge on the day, with the authority to make safety calls, and everyone knows who it is.
- Every role has a name next to it, even if one person holds several: door and check-in, first aid, and someone free to help guests. Larger events add ushers, security and a runner.
- Your door team has their own BrightStar access with a role that includes Check-in, such as Box Office. Add them from Settings → Team in your dashboard with + Add teammate. Never share your own login.
- You have a short code of conduct covering consent and harassment, including whether teachers give hands-on assists and how guests can decline touch. It is on your event page and at the door. One named team member receives concerns on the day, guests know who it is, and the person in charge can remove anyone who breaks the code. You have decided in advance, under your refund policy, whether someone removed gets a refund.
- You will brief the team before doors: capacity, entry rules, the emergency plan, how to scan, and who decides refunds and disputes.
- Everyone can reach the person in charge, and there is a fallback if phones fail.
Ticketing and check-in on BrightStar
At least a week before the event, check your setup in the BrightStar dashboard.
- Your event's date, start time, time zone and address are right. If reminder emails are on, they are timed from your start time in your event's time zone, so a wrong time zone sends them at the wrong hour.
- Ticket quantities match what the room can safely hold, not what you hope to sell.
- Your refund policy is decided and written on your event page. BrightStar does not add one for you, so add a Cancellation Policy section under Event Details, below your description. If you turn on Self-Serve Refunds, set it to match what you wrote. BrightStar's Terms tell buyers that your refund policy is the one shown on your event page, and that by buying they agree to it.
- You have chosen whether guests may pass tickets on. Guests get a Share option on their ticket page only when you turn on Ticket Distribution, part of Elevate and Amplify. If you turn on Self-Serve Refunds, guests can also be offered a Transfer option on your event page, unless you switch Transfer off in its settings.
- You know what guests receive before the event. On Elevate and Amplify, reminder emails come from the Automated Reminders tool, and only when it is on for your event. With it on, BrightStar emails each buyer who holds a valid ticket a week before, the day before and two hours before, and you can switch any of the three off. On Seva, or with the tool off, do not count on a reminder email: send your own message if guests need one. Reminders go to the buyer, not to someone they shared a ticket with.
- You have tested the scanner on each phone or laptop you will use at the door, with a ticket in your own name, never a guest's. A test scan checks that ticket in for real, so undo each test check-in afterwards from your event's Sangha tab. Only the event's owner can undo a check-in there.
- You have downloaded your Attendee List from Insights, your Reports page, so you have a copy if the connection drops. On assigned-seating events it has a Seat column. It leaves out every guest whose order has had a refund, full or partial, even though a refunded ticket that was not voided may still scan. On an order where some tickets were voided, a seat on the list can be wrong, so check a doubtful seat on the order in your dashboard.
- If you plan to sell tickets at the door, you have the BrightStar Organizer app on each device you will sell from, because door sales are not in the web scanner or your dashboard. Any teammate who sells has the Box office permission. The app is in beta, so set this up early, try a sale on each device before doors, and void the test order afterwards.
- Your Stripe account holds enough available balance to cover any refunds you may give. A refund the balance cannot cover may wait, or fail.
Where to find it
Check guests in by name: Dashboard → Gatherings → your event → Sangha. The Check In button there works only for the event's host.
Scan tickets: the BrightStar web scanner, which runs in a phone or laptop browser. On a phone, tap Scanner in the bar at the bottom of your dashboard. On a laptop, go to brightstarevents.com/scanner, or on the day of your event, open your event in the dashboard and choose Open Scanner. Scanner & POS in the laptop sidebar opens the Organizer app beta page, not the web scanner. Teammates whose role includes Check-in, such as Box Office, use the same scanner. Its Guests tab lets you search for guests and check them in by name.
Your guest list as a spreadsheet: Dashboard → Insights → Attendee List. Insights opens your Reports page.
Refund or void an order: open the order from your event, choose Edit Order, then Issue a Refund or Void Entire Order. A single ticket can be voided from its own row.
Cancel the whole event: your event → Settings → Event Actions → Mass Cancellation.
The BrightStar Organizer app is in beta, and you can join it yourself. On a laptop, choose Scanner & POS in your dashboard sidebar to open the beta page, with TestFlight for iPhone, Google Play testing, and a direct Android download. If your invite does not arrive, ask us.
On the day: before doors open
Give yourself an hour before doors for these.
- Walk the venue with the person in charge. Exits are clear and signed, aisles are open, and hazards are removed or taped off.
- Count your team in and run the briefing.
- Open the scanner on every door device, sign in, choose the event, and scan one test ticket at the door itself, because the scanner needs a connection to check a ticket. A test scan is a real check-in, so undo it from your event's Sangha tab before doors open.
- Charge every device. Keep a power bank and your downloaded Attendee List at the door.
- A printed or downloaded guest list holds guests' personal details, and may hold health answers. Print only the columns the door needs, keep it with a team member, never photograph it, and shred or delete every copy after the event. BrightStar's Terms ask you to handle attendee data under privacy law.
- Agree how you will keep count against capacity. The scanner shows how many guests are checked in.
- For breathwork, hot rooms, long sits or ecstatic dance, drinking water is easy to reach and someone watches the room temperature. One facilitator who is not leading is free to help anyone who feels faint, numb or distressed, and to walk them to a quiet space. Guests are told before you begin that they can stop at any time.
- Put out signs for the entrance, accessible entrance, toilets, first aid and your house rules.
On the day: checking guests in
Keep the line moving and the decisions consistent:
- 1Ask guests to have their ticket QR code ready on their phone. The code in their confirmation email, a reminder email, their Apple Wallet pass, the ticket PDF and their BrightStar account all scan the same way, and a screenshot or a printout works too.
- 2Scan the QR code. A valid ticket is checked in at once. Any other result shows the reason, such as already checked in, a different event, or a voided ticket.
- 3If a code will not scan, find the guest by name in the Guests tab and check them in there. If your event requires ID, check it against the name on the order.
- 4If a ticket shows as already checked in, look at the time it was used. Decide by your house rules and the order details, and note what you decided.
- 5A shared ticket keeps the same QR code, so the code your guest's friend received and the code still in the buyer's own email are one ticket. Whichever copy is scanned first is checked in, and any later scan shows as already checked in.
- 6If guests may step out and come back, use a wristband or hand stamp. The scanner has no check-out, so a guest who scans again shows as already checked in, and the count does not go down when people leave. For silent practices, your event page says when doors close and where latecomers wait.
- 7When the room reaches capacity, stop admitting and call the person in charge.
On the day: refunds, voids and disputes
A refund and a void are different actions. A refund sends money back to the buyer. A void cancels the ticket so it can no longer be used. A void never moves money, so refund first if money is owed. After a refund, the order page usually asks whether to void the order too. Choosing Void Order there cancels every ticket on the order, so after a partial refund choose Skip and void only the refunded tickets from their rows. If it does not ask, for example because the refund is waiting on your Stripe balance, choose Edit Order, then Void Entire Order, or void single tickets from their rows. Do both when the guest should not be admitted.
Disputes at the door. Move the conversation away from the line and look up the order by name. Decide by the refund policy you published, and note what you decided and why. If a buyer later disputes the charge with their bank, your notes are part of your record.
Incidents. Write down any injury, safety incident or removal the same day: the time, the place, who was involved, any witnesses, and what you did. Follow your venue's and your insurer's reporting rules.
Assigned seating: before sales open
Assigned seating is part of Elevate and Amplify. You send BrightStar a floor plan in the Assigned Seating step of the event wizard. BrightStar builds your seat map from it and connects it to your event within 2 business days. Your event waits as a draft until then. The map can only be as accurate as the plan you send and the review you give it.
- Your floor plan comes from the venue's current seating manifest, not an old brochure or a past event.
- The plan is colour-coded by section, using exactly the same names as your tickets. Each colour sells as the ticket with that exact name, at that ticket's price. A colour with no ticket of that exact name cannot be booked at all, so if you give wheelchair or companion seats a colour of their own, create a ticket with that name too.
- Every section name, row letter and seat number matches what is printed on the venue's seats.
- Wheelchair spaces and their companion seats are marked, and you know how guests who need them will book.
- Holds are marked on the plan you send: seats to keep off sale for artists' guests, access needs, staff, or moving a guest on the night. When the map is connected, check that none of them can be chosen. Your dashboard has no way to take a seat off sale or put a held seat back on sale, so ask BrightStar when you need a held seat released.
- Kills are marked on the plan you send: seats that must never be sold, such as those lost to the sound desk, a camera position or a wider aisle. When the map is connected, check that none of them can be chosen.
- Seats with an obstructed or limited view are marked, and either described as such or kept off sale.
- When the map is connected, you check it against the manifest seat by seat, and send any correction before you publish.
- You publish only when the map is right. Under BrightStar's Terms (Setup, Seating, and Ancillary Services), you review and approve the chart before sales open, and once sales open on a chart you approved, the configuration is yours. There is no separate approve button, so treat publishing as your approval.
Assigned seating: in the room
On the day, the room has to match the map your guests bought from.
- Walk the room with the map before doors. Every row letter and seat number is on the seats, matches the map, and can be read in low light.
- Where the venue's labels are missing or different, relabel the room to match the map. The map is what your guests bought.
- Killed seats are removed or taped off.
- Accessible seats and companion seats are clear, with a step-free route to them.
- Ushers are assigned by section, with a flashlight and a seat list printed from your Attendee List. The scanner's Guests tab also shows a seat for each guest. On an order where some tickets were voided, either list can show the wrong seat, so check a doubtful seat on the order in your dashboard.
- Ushers know your rule for late arrivals: whether latecomers wait for a break, and who seats them.
- Ushers know who to call about a seat problem, and never move a guest into a seat that is still on sale.
Assigned seating: duplicate claims, moves and comps
Two guests, one seat. Check both tickets first. Look each order up by name and open it in your dashboard: the seat shown on each ticket there is the seat on the guest's ticket. The scanner's Guests tab shows seats too, but it can be wrong on an order where some tickets were voided. Where you can, settle it in the guests' favour by offering an equal or better seat from the ones you held. Do not void either ticket at the door unless you mean to put that seat back on sale. Afterwards, tell BrightStar which orders were involved so they can be looked into.
Moving a guest. Your dashboard has no tool to move a sold ticket to a different seat, so a move on the night is your call, made in the room. Use only seats you held for this and checked are off sale, so the seat you give cannot also be sold online. Note every move on your seat list.
Comps. A comp is a real seat. A discount code for the full ticket price lets whoever uses it choose a seat that is on sale and check out at no charge, and the seat is then booked on the map. To keep comps in one section, limit the code to that section's ticket. Ask comp guests to finish checkout within 15 minutes of opening the seat map, or the seat may stay on sale even though their order shows it.
What happens to a seat when you void or refund
Voiding releases the seat. When you void a ticket on an assigned-seating event, BrightStar releases its seat on your map, and the seat goes back on sale straight away. Before you confirm, the void screen lists the seats it will release. If a seat cannot be released automatically, the result shows a warning so you can ask us to release it.
Void only when you want the seat back on sale. A released seat can be bought by someone else at once. When you are moving a guest or settling a dispute, decide where everyone sits before you void anything.
A refund is not a reliable way to free a seat. A partial refund never releases one, and a full refund does not always. A refunded ticket may also still scan. If the guest should not be admitted, or the seat should go back on sale, void the ticket as well.
After the event
Close the event while the details are fresh.
- Download the Check-in Report and No-shows from Insights, your Reports page, and keep them with your event records.
- If you took cash at the door, reconcile it against your door orders the same night.
- Answer refund requests and messages under the policy you published.
- Finish any incident report and send it to your venue and your insurer as they require.
- Leave the venue as your contract requires, and note what to change next time.
- Thank your team.
Before you publish
Before you publish, make sure that:
- the information on your event page is accurate, including the date, time, time zone, location, ticket quantities and refund policy
- your venue, permits, insurance, staffing and safety plan are in place for the event you are about to sell
- on an assigned-seating event, you have checked the connected seat map against your venue, seat by seat
- you are ready to honour every ticket sold, and to handle refunds under the policy you state
- you have read BrightStar's Terms of Service
What comes from BrightStar's Terms. The Terms of Service apply whenever you use BrightStar, including to every event you publish. Under Event Organizer Terms, you agree to give accurate and complete event information, honour every ticket sold, comply with all applicable laws, keep appropriate insurance for your events, handle attendee data under privacy law, tell guests promptly about changes or cancellations, and process refunds under your stated refund policy. Under Refunds and Cancellations, guests are entitled to a full refund of the ticket price if you cancel. Under Setup, Seating, and Ancillary Services, you are responsible for reviewing and approving any seating chart before sales open, and once sales open on a chart you approved, its configuration is yours. Under Indemnification, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless BrightStar against any claim, loss, liability or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your events, your content, your use of the platform, your relationship with your guests, or a breach of the Terms or the law. Under Limitation of Liability, BrightStar is not responsible for the quality, safety or legality of events, and is not liable for any injury, loss or damage at or in connection with them.
What comes from your venue and the law. The room's legal capacity, permits and licences, fire safety, first aid, security, staffing, access, alcohol, age rules and your venue's own rules are set by local law, your permits and your venue contract. The Terms ask you to comply with the law without listing these one by one, which is why this checklist does.