How to Set Up a Ticketed Event in Under 10 Minutes

Most people assume setting up ticketed events involves a lot of admin. A complicated dashboard, payment setup, a learning curve. In practice, if you've got the basics of your event sorted, getting tickets on sale should take less time than your morning coffee.

Here's how to do it on Ticket HQ, step by step.

Before you start

You'll need three things ready:

• Event details: name, date, time, and venue (or "online" if it's virtual)
• Ticket price: or a decision that it's free
• A rough capacity: how many tickets you want to sell

That's it. Everything else can be filled in or refined later.

Step 1: Create your account (2 minutes)

Head to Ticket HQ and sign up. No credit card required, you only pay when you sell a ticket.

Once you're in, you'll land on your organiser dashboard. This is your home base for managing events, tracking sales, and handling attendees.

Step 2: Create a new event (3 minutes)

Click New event and fill in the essentials:

• Event name: keep it clear and descriptive; this is what buyers will see
• Date and time: including doors open vs event start if they differ
• Location: venue name and address, or a link if it's online
• Description: a short paragraph is enough to start; you can expand it later

Don't get stuck on the description. A few sentences that answer "what is this, when is it, where is it" will do the job.

Step 3: Set up your tickets (3 minutes)

This is where you define what you're selling. Add one or more ticket types:

• Name: General Admission, Early Bird, VIP, Free Entry, etc.
• Price: set to 0 for free tickets
• Quantity: how many of this ticket type are available
• Sale dates: when this ticket type goes on sale and when it closes

A single General Admission ticket type is enough for most events. You can always add early bird or tiered pricing later.

A note on fees

On Ticket HQ's Standard plan, a 2% fee applies per ticket sold. You can choose to absorb this or pass it on to buyers as a booking fee at checkout, whichever you decide, it's shown transparently before the buyer confirms.

Step 4: Publish and share (2 minutes)

Once you're happy, hit Publish. Your event is now live with its own dedicated page and a unique URL you can share anywhere:

• Paste it directly into social posts, emails, or WhatsApp groups
• Add it to your bio link
• Embed a buy button on your own website if you have one

That's it. You're on sale.

What you can set up later

You don't need to get everything perfect before publishing. Common things to add or refine after going live:

• A cover image or banner
• A longer event description with line-up, schedule, or FAQs
• Additional ticket types (e.g. adding a VIP tier once GA sells out)
• A discount or promo code for early supporters

Ticket HQ saves your changes immediately, so updates appear on your event page in real time.

Managing the day

When the event rolls around, you'll have an up-to-date attendee list and a check-in tool you can run from your phone. No printed lists, no spreadsheets.

If you're running the door solo, the check-in view is designed to be fast, scan a QR code or search by name, mark as arrived, move on.

That's the full picture. Most organisers are on sale within 10 minutes of signing up, the bottleneck is usually writing the event description, not navigating the platform.