---
title: "Your first managed event"
description: "Create a full organizer event, prepare managed checkout, and deliberately choose where buyers can access it."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.seatlayer.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Your first managed event

This is the direct-organizer route for **SeatLayer Managed Ticketing**. SeatLayer
can run the checkout, Order, ticket/QR/PDF delivery, email, refund, and
Door/check-in lifecycle through the organizer's connected gateway.

If you are adding seating to an existing marketplace or ticketing backend, use
the [Platform SDK quickstart](/start/quickstart/) instead. An API-created Event
is only an inventory occurrence and does not need a SeatLayer buyer page or
fulfilment.

> **Creating is not publishing**
>
> A new managed event starts in setup. Creating its chart and inventory does
> not automatically publish a Hosted Event Page, list it on an Organizer
> Website, or open sales.

## Create the managed event

1. **Open Events and choose New event**

   Start from a curated seated venue or a published floor plan. Every
   SeatLayer Event belongs to a chart; a chart can be reused for many event
   occurrences.

2. **Add the organizer-facing event details**

   Set the name, date and time, venue, timezone, description, poster, currency,
   and category prices needed for the buyer experience. These fields are part
   of Managed Ticketing readiness; the minimal Platform/API event does not
   require them all.

3. **Create the setup event**

   SeatLayer publishes or pins the selected chart snapshot and creates
   independent event inventory. The event remains in setup until the organizer
   deliberately completes commerce and publication choices.

4. **Choose the buyer route first**

   Open **Sell & share** and start with the destination you want:

- **My existing website** — choose an inline picker, event card, or Buy
   button and copy its installation code. You can generate and install this
   public code before payment setup is complete.
- **A SeatLayer-hosted page** — use the ready-made booking page, then
   optionally list the event on an Organizer Website for public discovery.
- **Private access** — share a scoped Channel link, or choose the
   authenticated website/app setup when access must depend on a login or
   membership check.

   A normal website embed is a public route. Do not use it for a private
   audience; a private website must use the authenticated setup.

   The inline picker loads the published floor plan, category colours, map,
   logo, and brand attached to this event. Use **Appearance and size** to
   override only buyer-control light/dark style, accent, button label, or
   picker height; those choices are written into the copied code. Wix custom
   HTML runs inside an iframe, so SeatLayer generates a card or button that
   opens the hosted booking page before a hold instead of starting checkout
   inside the frame.

5. **Complete checkout and buyer access**

   Choose **SeatLayer checkout**, connect an eligible test or live gateway,
   and assign it to this event. Complete prices and the managed readiness
   checks, then enable the access required by the selected route.

   Installing public embed code does not make the event public. Visitors can
   load it only after public buyer access is enabled, and they cannot purchase
   until payment setup is ready and sales are open.

   Development and staging snippets include their API and buyer origins so a
   test event cannot silently query production. The literal booking link in
   every snippet remains the failure and no-JavaScript route.

6. **Publish and open sales explicitly**

   Review the buyer page, payment mode, prices, event details, and availability.
   Publish the chosen surface and transition sales from setup only when the
   organizer is ready. Adding Organizer Website discovery remains a separate,
   optional choice.

> **An unlisted booking page is not secret**
>
> It stays out of the Organizer Website and search indexing, but anyone who
> receives or forwards the URL can open it. For VIP, sponsor, member, or partner
> inventory, allocate the seats to a Sales Channel and create an expiring,
> revocable private buyer link instead.

## What the organizer gets

- independent realtime inventory created from a reusable chart;
- SeatLayer-managed checkout through the assigned organizer gateway;
- SeatLayer Orders, tickets, QR codes, printable PDFs, and buyer email;
- refund and inventory-release workflows;
- Door/check-in and attendance tools; and
- a Hosted Event Page, managed embed, or optional Organizer Website.

## Test and live modes

Use test mode to verify the complete managed flow without consuming live
inventory credits or moving real money. The event mode, API credentials, and
connected gateway mode must agree. Create a separate live event when a test
event already has state that makes conversion unsafe.

## When to open the Designer

Start in the Designer when you need a custom venue, accessibility relationships,
seat/category overrides, multiple floors, detailed sections, or geometry that
does not match a curated template. Publish the chart, then create one or more
managed events from it.

## Next

- [Choose an integration](/start/choose-an-integration/) — confirm the product
  boundary and distribution surface.
- [Platform SDK quickstart](/start/quickstart/) — use this instead when your
  platform owns commerce and tickets.
- [Going-live checklist](/start/going-live/) — verify mode, payment, inventory,
  and recovery before real buyers arrive.

Source: https://docs.seatlayer.io/start/first-event/index.mdx