If you want to seat your guests all in one go through your guest list excel upload, Automated Seating is the option for you! (You can also seat guests individually instead)
Pro Tip: You have the option to use the 'Auto Seat' functionality to randomly seat your guests. This feature is included in the 'Seating' feature and enables you to assign available seats to guests who do not have any specific seating preferences, including their plus ones. If you like to learn more about 'Auto Seat' please visit Seating: Multiple Guests Selection and Auto Seat.
Setting up your Excel Spreadsheet for Automated Seating
Please bear these important things in mind for Automated Seating to work:
All zkipster tables must be set up on the floor plan prior to uploading your spreadsheet file (otherwise your Tabel Label, Table Name and Seat Label fields will have nothing to match to). Learn how to set up your tables in zkipster.
If the same guest will be seated on multiple floorplans, the 'Allow guests to be seated in more than one floorplan' checkbox on the Event Settings needs to be selected.
Guests must be designated both a Seat Label and a Table Label, or a Seat Label and Table Name, through your excel columns in order to be automatically seated. Guests will not be seated without one or the other.
The Seat Label must account for any additional guests. The picture example in the next section below clarifies this further.
If you are seating guests on more than one floor plan, the columns' headings should contain the name of each floor plan as configured in zkipster. You can find more information about this below.
On your excel file, you are additionally able to assign Seating Colors (and/ or different custom color field information, such as dining requirements etc., which you are then able to filter on later on at the 'Overview & Printing' stage). You can currently choose from 20 different color options. Find out more about color coding by seat via this article here.
If you are using the Invitations feature and are collecting RSVP statuses, please note that only Confirmed guests will be able to be seated.
Accounting for Additional Guests
If a Main Guest has been attributed additional guests they will be seated directly next to the Main Guest according to the seating direction stated in the table configuration.
The Seating Labels need to account for additional guests by inputting the right seat label for each Main Guest at a table.
As you can see from the example below, the Seat Labels account for additional guests by starting with:
Table 1 Seat 1 for Sarah Green who has 2 additional guests.
The next guest, Nicole Ross, has Table 1 Seat 4 to account for those 3 total guests Sarah Green is representing.
This pattern would continue for the remaining guests and tables.
The spreadsheet for Seating fields should look like the below:
Seating Guests Automatically in Multiple Floor Plans
It is possible to seat guests automatically in multiple floor plans via the spreadsheet import.
In order to achieve that, you need to add columns correspondent to the table and seating labels for each floor plan in your event where you want your guests to be seated.
You also need to add the name of the specific floor plan to the columns' headings, so that the system knows which floor plan the data should be uploaded to.
In summary, the column header convention should be "[Floorplan Name] Table Label" and '[Floorplan Name] Seat Label".
So for example, if you have two floor plans in your event named 'Dinner Floorplan' and 'Cocktail Floorplan', you should have columns correspondent to the Dinner Floorplan: 'Dinner Floorplan Table Label' and 'Dinner Floorplan Seat Label'. Additionally, you would also include columns for the Cocktail Floorplan, named 'Cocktail Floorplan Table Label' and 'Cocktail Floorplan Seat Label'.
Please note: if the same guest will be seated in more than one floor plan, you need to make sure that the checkbox for 'Allow guests to be seated in more than one floorplan' is selected on the Event Settings.
Seating Colors
Before importing your list into zkipster, you can indicate the seating color you'd like to categorize your guests by. To do this, use the label Seating Color and add one of the colors below for each guest you'd like to denote a color for as shown above.
Color Options
Choose from the following color options:
Once the zkipster tables have been placed and the excel is thereafter uploaded, these guests will be automatically placed in those seats within the Seating interface.
You can view your list by seating color by customizing your desktop view. Just click the small web view icon with three gray bars, at the top of your guest list. Display the Seating Color along with any other information you'd like to see. Click the field name to sort by color.
On the seating chart, if you click on the pencil icon beside the guest name on the left hand side you are able to edit the details of the guest, for example their seating color or the total number of +1's they are coming with.
Pro Tip: You can also click on the table label to add/remove and filter by table.
If you are using the Relationships feature, you can build your seating map taking into consideration the relationships your guests have in your event. For more information on how to use the Relationships feature when seating your guests, please click here.