Guides → Build an event site on SGEN in 30 minutes

Build an event site on SGEN in 30 minutes

A 30-minute walkthrough for conference organizers, wedding planners, and fundraiser leads â€" schedule, RSVP, venue, sponsors, all published.

This tutorial takes an event organizer from a fresh SGEN account to a live event site in about thirty minutes. The build covers a one-page event homepage with a schedule grid, a speaker or honoree section, a venue location with embedded map, a sponsor strip, and a working RSVP form that captures responses to a list view in the admin. The same build shape works for a tech conference, a wedding, a fundraiser gala, or a community block party â€" the data changes, the structure does not.

What you'll have at the end: a live event site at a *.sgen.com preview URL, a single long-scroll Home page covering Hero â†' Schedule â†' Speakers â†' Venue â†' Sponsors â†' RSVP, a working RSVP form that captures responses to a CSV-exportable list in the admin, an embedded venue map, and a sponsor strip with linked logos. Mobile-responsive out of the box.

What is this for?

This page is for anyone running a real-world event who needs a real-world web presence â€" fast. The thirty-minute target assumes you have the event details on paper or in a doc: dates, location, schedule, speakers or honorees, sponsors, and a clear ask of attendees (RSVP, register, donate, or all three).

Events live and die on clear logistics. A visitor lands on the site, has thirty seconds to decide whether to attend, and needs five facts in those thirty seconds: what, when, where, who, and how to commit. The build below puts those five facts on screen in the top half of Home and the fuller detail below.

This is a tutorial in the strict sense â€" the example you build is meant to be the real event site, not a throwaway. Sample data slots are placeholders for your actual schedule, speakers, and venue; swap them inline as you go.

If you have shipped an event site before on Eventbrite, Splash, or a one-off WordPress build, the SGEN path will feel familiar in structure. The RSVP flow is built into the platform â€" you do not install or configure a separate forms plugin.

Good use cases

Reach for this tutorial when:

You are organizing a tech or industry conference (under five hundred attendees) and you need a registration site with schedule, speakers, and venue details.
You are planning a wedding and you want a destination URL for guests covering ceremony details, schedule, accommodations, and RSVPs.
You are running a fundraiser gala or benefit and you need a site that pairs event logistics with a clear donation or ticket-purchase ask.
You are running a community event â€" a block party, a school auction, a meetup series â€" and you want a presentable page beyond a Facebook event listing.
You are coordinating a multi-day retreat or workshop and you need a single canonical URL for guests to reference during the lead-up.
You are launching a recurring event series (monthly meetup, quarterly conference) and you want a template you can clone for each occurrence.

What NOT to use this for

This tutorial does not cover:

Ticketed-event payment processing with seat selection, tier pricing, and refund workflows. That is an ecommerce-style build covered in a separate tutorial.
Multi-track conference platforms with hundreds of sessions, room assignments, and attendee personalization. That scale needs a dedicated event platform; SGEN can host the landing site but not the session app.
Recurring class or course schedules with attendee dashboards. Use the SaaS or membership starter shapes instead.
Live-streamed virtual events with chat, breakouts, and polling. SGEN can host the registration and post-event recap; the live experience runs in a video platform.
Long-running event registries (state-fair schedules, festival lineups across cities). Build a custom area-aware structure with SGEN Modules rather than the single-page event template.

How this connects to other features

The event build touches six surfaces. Each is named here so you know where to come back when you extend the site later.

SG-Builder â€" the visual editor where the schedule grid, speaker tiles, venue block, and sponsor strip get arranged. Most of the build happens here.
SG-Core â†' Media â€" the image library for speaker headshots, venue photos, and sponsor logos.
SG-Modules â†' Forms â€" the form module powering the RSVP. Submissions land in a list view inside the admin.
SG-Modules â†' Maps â€" the venue map block, backed by a map provider (OpenStreetMap by default). No API key needed for basic embeds.
SG-Modules â†' SEO â€" meta description and OG image, important for sharing to social and group chats.
SG-Dashboard â†' Notifications â€" optional email-on-new-RSVP, configurable in the form's right rail.

For the build steps, the active surfaces are SG-Builder and SG-Modules â†' Forms. The others are flagged so you know they exist when you extend.

See the SGEN quickstart for the foundational five-minute account-creation flow, and the portfolio tutorial, SaaS landing tutorial, and nonprofit tutorial for adjacent vertical builds.

Before you start

You need five things gathered before you begin.

An SGEN account with at least the Launch tier active. The free trial covers the build.
Event basics on one page: name, date, start and end time, location (street address), one-line description.
Schedule data: a list of sessions, talks, ceremony steps, or activities with start times, durations, and presenter or activity names. Eight to fifteen line items is the typical range for a one-day event.
Speaker or honoree info: name, headshot, one-sentence bio, title or affiliation. Four to twelve people for a conference; one to four for a wedding or fundraiser.
Sponsor or partner data: logo files (PNG or SVG), organization names, optional link targets. Three to ten sponsors is typical.

You do not need:

A custom domain on day one. The *.sgen.com preview URL is shareable from the moment step 7 finishes.
A registered event in any external platform. SGEN handles RSVP capture natively.
A payment processor for free events. Ticketed events with payment use a different starter.

Where to find it

Every step in the build starts from one of these three URLs:

Step	URL	What lives here
1 (template)	`https://dashboard.sgen.com`	New-site flow, Event Starter pick
2-7 (build)	`https://.sgen.com/sg-admin`	Per-site editor, pages, forms, media
8 (view)	`https://.sgen.com`	The live public event site

Steps

Eight steps. Steps 1 through 6 are the build. Step 7 is SEO and notification wiring. Step 8 is publish-and-view. Time budgets are per step; total runs about thirty minutes.

1. Pick the Event Starter template (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

From SG-Dashboard, click Create New Site. The starter grid shows six templates; pick Event Starter. The thumbnail shows a single-page layout with hero, schedule grid, speaker tiles, venue map, sponsor strip, and an RSVP form anchored at the bottom.

Name the site with the event name (for example, "Summit 2026" or "The Lee-Park Wedding"). Accept the suggested preview subdomain or pick a shorter version. Click Create Site. SGEN provisions in about five seconds.

What you'll see at the end of step 1: SG-Admin loaded with a single Home page containing six placeholder sections (Hero, Schedule, Speakers, Venue, Sponsors, RSVP), all in Draft status.

2. Customize the hero with event basics (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Home. The page opens in SG-Builder. Click the hero section to select it. The right rail shows hero settings: title, date display, location line, primary CTA, and hero background image.

Update the title to the event name. Update the date display to your real date (the template ships with format presets â€" pick the one that matches your event style, for example "March 14, 2026" for a conference or "Saturday, June 12" for a wedding). Update the location line to "City, Venue Name" or similar short form. Set the primary CTA to RSVP or Register with the link target set to #rsvp (the anchor on the same page).

Upload a hero background image using the right-rail Replace Image button. For a conference, use a venue interior or a past-event crowd shot. For a wedding, a couple photo or a venue exterior. For a fundraiser, a cause-relevant image. The template handles any aspect ratio over 1600 pixels wide.

What you'll see at the end of step 2: the hero section showing your event name, real date, real location, working RSVP CTA, and a fitting background image.

3. Fill the schedule grid (â‰¤ 6 minutes)

Click the Schedule section in the page outline. The schedule shows a placeholder grid with eight rows, three columns (Time, Item, Presenter or Speaker). Click the first row; the right rail shows row settings.

Add or remove rows using Add Row at the bottom of the grid and right-click â†' Delete Row on any extra. For multi-day events, click Add Day Tab at the top of the schedule section; SGEN adds a tab strip so visitors can switch between days. Up to seven day tabs are supported in the default template.

What you'll see at the end of step 3: the schedule section showing your real schedule rows, accurate times, presenter or activity names, with day tabs configured if your event runs multiple days.

4. Add speakers or honorees (â‰¤ 5 minutes)

Click the Speakers section in the page outline. The section shows a placeholder grid of six tiles, each with a headshot, name, title, and one-sentence bio.

For each tile, click Replace Image in the right rail and upload the speaker headshot. Update the name, title (for a conference, "VP Engineering at Stripe"; for a wedding, "Bride's father"; for a fundraiser, "Honoree, Lifetime Service Award"), and the one-sentence bio.

If you have more than six speakers, click Add Speaker at the bottom of the section. If fewer, right-click and Delete Tile on the extras. For a wedding, this section often holds two to four honorees (couple, parents, officiant); rename the section title from "Speakers" to "Wedding Party" or similar via the section right rail.

What you'll see at the end of step 4: the Speakers section showing real headshots, real names, real titles, and real bios, with the section title appropriate to your event type.

5. Wire the venue map (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

Click the Venue section in the page outline. The section shows a placeholder map block, an address line, and a parking-and-access notes block.

In the right rail of the map block, enter the venue's street address. SGEN geocodes the address against OpenStreetMap and pins the location automatically; the map updates within about two seconds. If the pin lands wrong (rural addresses sometimes do), drag the pin to the correct spot â€" the dragged position becomes the canonical pin.

Update the address line to the human-readable venue name and street address. Update the parking-and-access notes with real logistics: nearest parking lot, accessibility entrance, public transit station, anything a visitor needs to find the door.

What you'll see at the end of step 5: the Venue section showing an accurate map centered on your venue, a readable address, and real parking-and-access notes.

6. Add sponsors or partners (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

Click the Sponsors section in the page outline. The section shows a placeholder strip with six logo slots in a single row, with an optional Tier label above (default tiers: Lead, Major, Supporting).

For each slot, click Replace Logo and upload the sponsor's logo file. Set the link target to the sponsor's URL if you want logos clickable. Set the tier label appropriately â€" for a wedding, use Family, Friends, Vendors as labels; for a fundraiser, Lead Sponsor, Gold, Silver; for a conference, Title, Platinum, Gold.

If you have more than six sponsors, click Add Sponsor Slot. If fewer, right-click and Delete Slot. The strip handles up to twenty-four slots before wrapping to a new row.

What you'll see at the end of step 6: the Sponsors section showing real logos in tier-appropriate rows, linked to sponsor URLs, with tier labels that match your event vocabulary.

7. Configure the RSVP form and notifications (â‰¤ 4 minutes)

Click the RSVP section at the bottom of the page outline. The section shows a five-field form: name, email, party size, dietary requirements, and a comments box.

Verify the Delivery Email field in the form's right rail shows the email you want RSVP notifications routed to. Toggle Notify on each submission to receive a per-RSVP email, or toggle Daily digest to receive a once-per-day batch (better for high-volume events).

Update the form fields to match your event. For a conference, swap "Party Size" for "Track Preference" using Field â†' Edit. For a wedding, keep "Party Size" and add an "Attending" yes-or-no field using Add Field â†' Yes/No. For a fundraiser, swap "Comments" for "Donation Pledge (optional)" using Field â†' Rename.

Click the form once, then Test Submission in the right rail. SGEN sends a test message; check your inbox to confirm. The submission also appears in SG-Modules â†' Forms â†' Submissions as a list-view row you can export to CSV later.

What you'll see at the end of step 7: the RSVP section showing your customized form fields, your delivery email confirmed, a test submission visible in the Submissions list view, and a confirmed test email in your inbox.

8. Publish and view the live site (â‰¤ 1 minute)

Click Publish in the top right of SG-Admin. SGEN publishes the Home page (the only page in the event template) in about three seconds; the status pill switches from Draft to Published.

Click View Site. The live event site opens in a new browser tab at https://.sgen.com. Scroll through Hero â†' Schedule â†' Speakers â†' Venue â†' Sponsors â†' RSVP to verify each section renders with your real data.

Open the same URL on your phone. The schedule grid reflows to a card-stack on mobile, the speaker tiles drop to two columns, the venue map stays full-width, and the RSVP form scales to full screen with one field per row.

What you'll see at the end of step 8: a live event site at your *.sgen.com preview URL, one published Home page containing all six sections with your real data, a working RSVP form, and a responsive mobile view.

What success looks like

You finish the build with six concrete artifacts:

A live event site at https://.sgen.com, publicly accessible
One Home page with all six event sections published and ordered Hero â†' Schedule â†' Speakers â†' Venue â†' Sponsors â†' RSVP
A schedule grid with your real session or activity rows, accurate times, and presenters or activity owners
A Speakers section with real headshots, names, titles, and bios for everyone listed
A working venue map centered on your real address with realistic parking notes
A Sponsors strip with real logos linked to sponsor URLs
An RSVP form delivering submissions to your inbox and to the Submissions list view in the admin

If you send the live URL to a co-organizer who has not seen the site, and they can RSVP from their phone and you receive both the notification email and a row in the Submissions list view, the build worked.

Variations

Six adaptations of the base build.

Multi-day conference (two-day to five-day). Use Add Day Tab in the Schedule section to add tab strips. The default template supports up to seven day tabs. Each tab carries its own schedule grid.

Wedding with separate ceremony and reception venues. Duplicate the Venue section using Section â†' Duplicate in the right rail. Rename the first to "Ceremony" with the church address and the second to "Reception" with the venue address. Both maps render at full width.

Fundraiser with a donation ask alongside RSVP. Add a Donate section between Sponsors and RSVP using Add Section â†' Donation. The donation block links to an external payment platform or to an SGEN ecommerce product configured separately.

Single-track conference under fifty attendees. Skip the Sponsors section entirely (right-click in the page outline â†' Delete Section). Replace with a Code of Conduct or About section using Add Section â†' Text Block.

Recurring meetup or event series. After publishing, use Site â†' Duplicate in the admin to clone the site as a starter for the next event. Update the date, schedule, and speakers; reuse the venue and sponsors as-is.

Hybrid in-person plus virtual event. Add a Virtual Access section above the Venue section using Add Section â†' CTA Block. Include the streaming platform URL and the live-stream start time. Visitors who can't attend in person have a parallel path.

Common pitfalls

Four things go wrong most often during an event build.

The venue map points to the wrong location. Geocoding accuracy varies for rural addresses and venues without a street number. Drag the pin to the correct location in the map block's right rail. The drag overrides the geocoded position permanently.

RSVP submissions don't trigger email notifications. First-time deliveries from a new *.sgen.com subdomain sometimes land in spam. Send yourself a test submission, mark it as Not Spam in your inbox, and subsequent submissions deliver to inbox. Do this in the week before the event launches publicly so the path is warm.

Sponsor logos look inconsistent at different sizes. Logo files often come in mixed dimensions and aspect ratios. Use Image â†' Fit to Slot in the Sponsors section right rail to normalize. The slot crops or letterboxes to the same height across all logos, so the strip reads as a row rather than as a ransom note.

The schedule grid breaks on mobile when row content is long. Sessions with long titles or multiple presenters overflow the single-column mobile layout. Either shorten the title (move the descriptive sub-line into a sub-row in the same time slot) or toggle the schedule section's Mobile Layout â†' Stacked option in the right rail. Stacked layout shows each row as a card instead of a grid row.

Examples

Three real-shape event builds.

Example A â€" Tech conference (Summit 2026)

A two-day developer conference with twenty-four sessions across two tracks and six sponsors. The organizer picks the Event Starter, adds two day tabs to the Schedule section, fills twenty-four rows across the two days, adds eight speaker tiles, wires the venue map to a downtown conference center, adds six sponsor logos at three tier levels, and customizes the RSVP form to capture track preference and dietary requirements. Total build time: 34 minutes.

Example B â€" Wedding (The Lee-Park Wedding)

A one-day wedding with ceremony at one venue and reception at another. The couple picks the Event Starter, duplicates the Venue section for the two locations, fills eight schedule rows (ceremony, photos, cocktail hour, dinner, toasts, dance), adds four speaker tiles relabeled "Wedding Party," adds twelve sponsor slots relabeled "Vendors" (florist, caterer, photographer, band, etc.), and customizes the RSVP form to capture attending yes/no, party size, dietary requirements, and song requests. Total build time: 29 minutes.

Example C â€" Fundraiser gala (Annual Benefit 2026)

A one-night fundraiser with twelve sponsors, three honorees, and a donation ask alongside RSVP. The organizer picks the Event Starter, adds a Donate section between Sponsors and RSVP, fills six schedule rows (reception, dinner, awards, dance), adds three speaker tiles relabeled "Honorees," wires the venue map to the gala location, adds twelve sponsor logos at three tier levels, and customizes the RSVP form to add a "Donation Pledge (optional)" field that captures dollar amounts. Total build time: 31 minutes.

Why the thirty-minute target works

The thirty-minute target is honest, not marketing. Internal timing runs on a prepared event build consistently land between twenty-six and thirty-six minutes for a first-time SGEN user and between sixteen and twenty-two minutes for an operator who has shipped one event on the platform already. The variance lives in three steps.

Step 3 (schedule) varies the most. A single-day event with eight to twelve rows fills in three to four minutes. A two-day conference with twenty-plus rows runs closer to seven minutes, and a multi-day retreat with forty rows pushes the budget. If the schedule is large, prepare it as a spreadsheet first and paste row-by-row; the manual entry slows dramatically when you context-switch between schedule source and SG-Builder.

Step 5 (venue map) sometimes surprises with geocoding accuracy. Urban venues geocode in two seconds; rural venues, churches without street numbers, and freshly-built venues sometimes need the pin dragged. Budget an extra minute if the venue is unusual.

Step 7 (RSVP and notifications) is where most builds add unplanned time. Customizing the form fields beyond the defaults â€" adding meal choices, plus-one names, song requests, registration tier â€" each adds about thirty seconds. Plan field additions in advance rather than discovering them during the build.

After the build â€" second and third passes

The build covers logistics. Second and third passes cover engagement and follow-through.

Second pass (recommended: in the weeks before the event, 30-60 minutes):

Set up an email sequence for new RSVPs â€" confirmation email, week-before reminder, day-before reminder. Configure in SG-Modules â†' Forms â†' Email Sequence.
Add an FAQ section between Venue and Sponsors. Six to ten common questions (parking, dress code, accessibility, photography policy) cut a high percentage of inbound questions.
Embed a code of conduct or attendee guidelines page, linked from the hero CTA.
Update the Speakers section weekly as additions confirm. Track speaker count via the admin page summary view.

Third pass (recommended: post-event, 30 minutes):

Replace the hero CTA from RSVP to View Recap. Repurpose the page as the event's permanent archive.
Add a Photos section using Add Section â†' Gallery with the event-day photo highlights.
Export the Submissions list to CSV for thank-you outreach and future-event invites.
For recurring events, duplicate the site as the starter for next year's build before archiving.

What to do if it does not work

The RSVP form submissions are not arriving. SMTP must be configured under Site Settings → Email for confirmation emails to send. Open My Forms and check the submission inbox to confirm submissions are landing before troubleshooting email delivery.
The event countdown is showing the wrong time. Confirm the event date and time in the event record and check that the site timezone (Site Settings → General → Timezone) matches the event's timezone.
The schedule grid is empty on the public page. Confirm each session record is Published (not Draft) and the SG-Builder schedule block is pointing at the correct event.
The venue map is not loading. The map requires a Google Maps API key configured under Tools → Google Integrations. Confirm the key is saved and the map block has the correct address.
Attendees report they cannot complete RSVP. Check that the RSVP form capacity limit (if set) has not been reached. Also confirm the form is Published and test a submission yourself in a private browser window.

What's next â€" pick your second read

The event site is live. Pick one of three next reads:

You want to add ticketing or paid registration. Read the Ecommerce setup guide for adding a paid checkout alongside the RSVP form.
You want to schedule reminder emails to attendees. Read the Forms module â€" email sequences for confirmation, reminder, and post-event sequence configuration.
You want to point a custom domain at the event site. Read the Custom domains guide for the DNS records and the canonical-URL update.

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