Orientation events are planned blind at most institutions. Invitations go out by mass email; replies trickle into an inbox or never come; the headcount is a guess refined by experience and hope. Every year the guess is wrong in one direction or the other, and either budget or student experience pays.
Why headcounts stay unknown
Email RSVP fails quietly: students mean to reply and do not, reply ambiguously, or reply to the wrong thread. Compiling responses is manual, so it happens once, early, and goes stale as plans change. Students who registered get no reminder; students who did not register face no consequence; the data ends as a number scribbled on a printout. With international cohorts the stakes are higher — some orientation sessions carry compliance weight, and "we think they attended" is not a record.
What event registration changes
Each session becomes an Event with a Registration Form attached: students RSVP in two taps, capacity is visible in real time, reminders go automatically to registrants, and the attendance list exists before anyone prints anything. Changes update the event itself, so the information students check stays true.
Six steps inside SumHubs
You don't have to start from a blank page.
Orientation event RSVP is a ready SumHubs template — set up with your event calendar in an afternoon. Request a sample hub to see your orientation week in it.