Make an event public or community-only

Visibility lets organizers balance outreach with community context. A public event can introduce an activity to people beyond the existing community, while a community-only event creates a space intended for signed-in members.

Event visibility determines who can open the event. It does not by itself determine who can participate. Participation is configured separately as RSVP, Offer tickets, or External registration link.

Make a new event public and allow guest participation

To let people participate without first joining or signing in to the community, create a public event with tickets:

1. Open the event-creation form from any available entry point.
2. Enter the event title, dates, times, format, and other essential details.
3. Under the participation options, select Offer tickets.
4. Edit the provided free ticket type or add the ticket types you need. Each guest needs an available ticket type, whether it is free or paid.
5. Save the event.
6. In the event detail view, open the publishing control and explicitly select Public. Do not rely on visibility and participation being the same setting.
7. Optionally enable Share in feed when publishing to announce the event to the community.

Change the visibility of an existing event

1. Open My events.
2. Select an event that you create or organize.
3. Use the publishing control in the event-management bar.
4. Select Public, Community Only, or Draft.
5. If you select Public and want logged-out guests to participate through coapp, select Edit, confirm that the participation method is Offer tickets, and make sure at least one ticket type is active and available.

The Edit action opens Update Event Details for core settings such as the participation method. The publishing control changes visibility separately.

What Public means

Set an event to Public when people should be able to open its public URL without signing in to coapp. A logged-out guest can see:

• The event title, date, and physical location
• The event description and its text, image, video, podcast, audio, or code sections
• Tags and organizers
• The displayed attendee count
• Sharing and calendar actions
• Available tickets or an external-registration action, when configured

Public does not mean that every part of the event becomes visible. The following remain restricted:

Event element	Visibility
Online link for an online or hybrid event	Attendees and organizers only. Other visitors see that the link is available to attendees.
Event-specific updates	Attendees, the creator, organizers, and admins only.
Full attendee access	Requires sign-in; the public view can show an attendee count.
Personal tickets, ticket codes, and invoices	The ticket holder only. Organizers and admins use the separate participant-management view.
Editing and participant-management controls	The creator, organizers, and admins with management access.

How guests can participate

A guest can only become a participant in coapp without first joining or signing in to the community when the public event offers tickets. The event creator must select Offer tickets and configure at least one available ticket type.

The ticket can be free or paid. In both cases, the guest uses ticket checkout rather than RSVP:

1. The guest opens the public event and selects Tickets.
2. They choose an available ticket type and quantity.
3. They provide their contact details and accept the required privacy information and terms.
4. They confirm their email address with the one-time code sent by coapp.
5. For a paid ticket, they complete payment on the payment page.

After successful checkout, the ticket purchase records the guest's participation. The attendee-only online link and event updates then become available to them according to the normal attendee rules.

If no active ticket is available—for example because tickets were not created, are archived or sold out, or the event has ended—a logged-out guest cannot participate through coapp.

What happens with other participation methods

Participation method	What a logged-out guest can do at a public event
RSVP	View the public event. Selecting Attend requires sign-in; the guest cannot RSVP anonymously.
Offer tickets	Obtain a free or paid ticket through guest checkout and thereby participate without first being a community member.
External registration link	Open the external registration service. Registration happens outside coapp and does not itself add the guest as a coapp attendee.

Public, Community Only, and Draft compared

Status	Who can open the event?
Public	Anyone with access to the public URL, including logged-out guests. Participation still follows the rules above.
Community Only	Signed-in members of the community. There is no logged-out guest ticket checkout.
Draft	Hidden from regular visitors and members while people with event-management access continue working on it.

Use Preview as Member to check the member-facing content, but remember that the preview deliberately hides the attendee-only online link.