Open days are the most expensive recruitment events on the calendar — months of planning, all-hands staffing, real budget. The conversion infrastructure behind them is routinely a sign-in sheet and good intentions, which is how an institution spends thousands attracting prospects and then loses their contact details on the way to the car park.
Why open day value leaks
Before the event: registrations scattered across email, web forms, and walk-up intentions, so headcount and session planning run on guesswork. During: inquiries answered verbally and instantly forgotten — the prospect who asked the detailed scholarship question is unidentifiable by Monday. After: whatever contact data survived gets compiled too slowly for follow-up to land while interest is warm. Recruitment teams know the brutal arithmetic — a prospect contacted within days converts at multiples of one contacted in three weeks — and the clipboard pipeline guarantees three weeks.
What managed events change
Registration Forms capture every prospect cleanly before the day — with their interests, so follow-up is relevant, not generic. Events structure the sessions, tours, and capacity. Announcements handle the day's changes without hallway shouting. And when the doors close, the follow-up list already exists: complete, legible, segmented by interest, ready while the visit is still vivid.
Six steps inside SumHubs
You don't have to start from a blank page.
Open day event management is a free SumHubs template — configured for your event format in an afternoon. Request a sample hub to see an open day built end to end.