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Booking Centre

The Booking Centre is UCD's own event management platform, available in InfoHub.  

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About the Booking Centre

Booking Centre is UCD's event management platform, available under the Systems tab in InfoHub.  

It allows UCD staff members to set up online bookings for events and allows attendees to manage their bookings.  It can be used both for internal UCD-only events for staff and/or students (which are free), or for events that are open to external attendees, like conferences. Events set up in the Booking Centre can be configured to accept payments to a UCD cost centre. This page details how to create and configure events for event organisers. 

Accessing the Booking Centre

The Booking Centre is available for UCD staff only as event organisers. 

Once your event is fully set up, you as event organiser will receive a publish URL and iframe so you can share a booking link with your attendees and/or embed it on a  website. See (opens in a new window)How can I advertise my Booking Centre event?

If you are a UCD staff member and wish to access the UCD Booking Centre:

Step Action Image
 1 Log in to InfoHub with your UCD Connect details.  
 2 On the top right, click Systems Screenshot of Infohub systems
3 Scroll down to see Booking Centreas one of the icons on the Systems page: Screenshot of Booking Centre menu on infohub

If you are a UCD staff member and do not see the Booking Centre as an option in InfoHub, you will need to be granted access, based on business need.

Please read the information below and then log a call via the (opens in a new window)Get Help connector on the UCD IT Support Hub if you wish to discuss or require access to set up an event using the Booking Centre.  

Getting started: understanding the Booking Centre event structure

This explains how you should structure your events and is important
for event organisers to understand.

The UCD Booking Centre is organised in four levels:

  1. Activity Area
  2. Category/Subject within that Activity Area 
  3. Course/Event within that Category/Subject
  4. Offering of that course or event 
     

Please see below for details of each level.

The activity area is a container for all your events. For example, if you ran an annual conference, the conference would be the activity area.  If you do not already have an activity area in place, the EAG Support team in UCD IT Services will set it up on request - see below for information on how to request a new activity area.

An activity area is created for two types of event: 

  • TRAINING  (Internal training) These are internal (free) UCD-only events and offerings. Note: these update attendees’ HR records.
  • CONF (Conference) Ticketed events where online payments are required.  To organise this type of event you should contact accounts.queries@ucd.ie for a ‘FIN’ code, in advance of requesting your Booking Centre setup.  This links all income to the correct Cost Centre. 

Both types of activity areas are managed by event organisers via the Booking Centre.

  • Each Activity area will have a separate booking page.
  • Please note, that a new activity area is generally created for a set of events from a School/unit - we would not create an activity area for one event only.
  • It is certainly possible for a School to have both a Conference and a Training area, depending on the requirements.  We suggest you title these areas so they can be clearly differentiated. 

Requesting a new Activity Area

If you do not have an existing activity area available in the Booking Centre or need another, EAG can create one for you, on request. This cannot be changed retrospectively so please ensure to request the right format.

You can find more details on requesting a new Activity area in the steps below.

Each Activity Area will have at least one Category/Subject, or more if required.  These provide structure for all the events and offerings within the Activity Area.   For example, categories such as 'Main Session' and 'Breakouts' would be the category/subject for a conference.

In the Booking Centre, you next create a course or event and then have individual offerings of that course or event.   Courses/events would be 'Breakout theme 1', 'Breakout theme 2', in our conference example.

Questions, discount codes and email templates can be linked to one event and are then exclusively linked to all offerings within that event.  EAG Support in UCD IT Services will set up any questions, discount codes and email templates required. See the (opens in a new window)UCD IT Support Hub for further details. 

Attendees book a place on an Offering.  In our example, the offerings would be occurrences of a particular session such as Mon Breakout 1, Tues Breakout 1.

A number of fields are mandatory when creating an Offering. This controls when the offering is available, how many people can book a place and how much they pay (if it is a ‘ticketed’ event).  Automated response emails to confirm a booking can be set up by EAG Support, who can also:

  • Create hyperlinks to the event offering from a website (Publish tags and iframes),
  • Create and edit the questions for use in offerings
  • Add images (for UCD internal free events only).  

All other steps required to successfully create events and offerings are undertaken by the owners of the Activity Area.    

Booking Centre: step by step

Events must be created in a certain sequence. Please review the summary below.

  • Step 1: Determine if you need a Training or Conference setup

    Determine the type of activity area you need.  The activity area is a container for all your events. It can be configured either for internal Training, or for Conferences - events that are open to external users (and may be paid). What is the difference?

  • Step 2: Select your Activity Area

    As event organiser, you should check what is already available to you in the Booking Centre. You can either use an existing activity area, where appropriate, or request a new activity area if this is required for a new series of events. Access the Booking Centre (UCD Connect login required)

  • Step 3. Create your Event(s)

    Once you have the activity area, you may proceed to create your event details, booking pages and configure any categories you wish to organise them in. EAG will also provide a publish tag for the activity area so you can advertise your events.View instructions in the IT Support Hub

  • Step 4: create the Offerings within your event(s)

    Once you have configured the event settings, you may proceed to create your offerings for individual dates and times. View instructions in the IT Support Hub

  • Step 5: Manage your bookings

    You may edit your events, review bookings, send emails and mark attendance for your events using the Booking Centre. Find instructions in the IT Support Hub. Access the help articles

Step 1: Determine if you need a Training or Conference type event

Your first task as event organiser is to determine the type of activity area you need: Training or Conference. 

We have included details below of the differences between TRAINING and CONF activity areas.

Training Events

Features TRAINING events
Payments For free internal events only - no payments can be taken
Internal/External Attendees Bookable only by UCD participants (staff and/or students)
Discounted tickets n/a: free events only
Booking process bookable via InfoHub or SISWeb
and
have a URL and embed code for organisers to advertise their events
Cancellations Can be cancelled by participants (if the event organiser enables cancellations) via InfoHub or SISWeb
Waitlist May have a Waitlist for full events (if the event organiser enables a waitlist)
Images Event organisers may insert a custom image to display in the Learning and Development menu.
Booking management Have a Booking Management menu in InfoHub where organisers can review, amend, cancel bookings and send emails to participants

Conference Events

Features CONF events
Payments Can be free, or fee-paying, or a mixture. Event organisers must liaise with UCD Finance in advance (accounts.queries@ucd.ie) to ensure payments are set up to the correct cost centre.
Please note, you need to provide a valid FINcode for EAG to set up Booking Centre for paid events.
Internal/External Attendees Bookable by people external to UCD, as well as UCD users.
Discounted tickets Can offer discounted tickets (if the event organiser enables discounted tickets).
Booking process Have a URL and embed code for organisers to advertise their events
Cancellations Attendees may not cancel their bookings but the event organiser may cancel bookings from the Booking Management menu in the Booking Centre
Waitlist Waitlisting is not possible
Images n/a: uses a checkout process and not available in InfoHub
Booking management Have a Booking Management menu in InfoHub where organisers can review, amend, cancel bookings and send emails to participants

Step 2: select your Activity Area

As event organiser, you should first check what is available to you in the Booking Centre. You can either use an existing Activity Area, where appropriate. or request a new activity area if this is required for a new series of events. 

Access an existing Activity Area

To access your activity area in the UCD Booking Centre as an event organiser: 

  1. Open InfoHub and navigate to the Systems tab.
  2. Then select Booking Centre from the menu. 
  3. Go to Course and Event Setup and the activity areas available to you can be selected from the dropdown menu. 

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Need to request a new Activity Area 


If you do not have an existing activity area available in the Booking Centre or need another, EAG can create one for you, on request.

  1. Please review the list of features above to decide which type of activity area you need for your events. 
  2. Then, complete the form under Infohub Tasks under Booking Centre: 'Creation of Activity Area'  to request a new activity area.   
  3. EAG will review your request and confirm the new activity area via email. 

Remember:  The activity area is a container for all your events. It can be configured either for internal-only training, or for events that are open to external to UCD and may require payment, like a conference.  This setup cannot be changed retrospectively, so please ensure to request the right format.

We have included details above of the differences between TRAINING and CONF activity areas.

Please check if your School or unit has an existing suitable activity area, before requesting a new one. 

Step 3: Create your Categories and Events.

You need to create at least one Category/Subject per Activity Area, and you may create more if required.  These provide structure for all the events and offerings within the Activity Area.   You next create a course or event within the relevant category. In this, you configure your event booking options, plus set up any questions, discount codes and email templates. These are then linked to all offerings within that event.  

If you require any custom questions, discount codes or email templates, please contact UCD IT Services via the IT Support Hub.  

Step 4: Create your Offering(s)

Once your event details are configured, you may then proceed to create your offerings. 

Attendees book a place on an Offering, as configured by the event organiser.    A number of fields are mandatory when creating an Offering. This controls when the offering is available, how many people can book a place and how much they pay (if it is a ‘ticketed’ event). Attendees receive an automatic conformation email once they book a place. 

If you require a custom response email to confirm bookings, please contact EAG Support. They can also, on request:

  • Create hyperlinks to the event offering from a website (Publish tags and iframes). Once created, you can access the publish tag link from the Course and Event setup.
  • Create and edit the questions for use in offerings
  • Add images (for UCD internal free events only).  

Step 5. Manage Bookings

You may edit events, manage bookings and more using the Booking Centre as your event organisation platform. For more information and instructions on how to configure your events, please see:

Booking Centre FAQ

Only UCD employees may get access to the Booking Centre on the administrative side, and access is granted via InfoHub. 
However non-UCD attendees can book places and attend events created in the Booking Centre.

If the attendee has an existing Visitor account, they should use their V number instead of their email to log in.
Please ensure they log in using the 'Don't have a UCD Connect account’ option (see screenshot).

Screenshot of Booking Centre login with the Don't have a UCD Connect account option highlighted

If issues persist, please contact EAG Support via the (opens in a new window)IT Support Hub with details of the issue and a screenshot of the error if possible. 

Attendees can cancel their bookings via InfoHub for internal training events, but they cannot self-cancel conference events.

The UCD staff event organiser may cancel any attendee’s booking via the Booking Management menu. See: (opens in a new window)How to amend or cancel a booking on the Booking Centre. 

Training events
If the event is listed in the InfoHub menu for internal training, UCD internal users may cancel their attendance (if the event organiser has specified this as an option) by logging into My Confirmed Bookings on InfoHub.

Conference events
External users cannot self-cancel and any cancellations must be completed by the event organiser via Booking Management. If a payment has been made and the attendee requests a refund, please contact UCD Finance (accounts.queries(opens in a new window)@ucd.ie) for advice as the Booking Centre does not support refunds. 

Conference (CONF)-type events need a valid FIN code and bookings cannot be completed without this.

If your FIN code has expired, you will see an error message under Course and Event Setup and you should contact UCD Finance ((opens in a new window)accounts.queries@ucd.ie) to extend or replace the FIN code.

If the FIN code is extended: 

  • Once the FIN code is extended, your participants can proceed to book.

If the FIN code is replaced:

  • If you need to replace the FIN code, please request a new code from UCD Finance. Then,  send the new FIN code details to EAG via the IT Support Hub and we will add it to your Booking Centre setup. 

You can view an attendance summary for your events in the Booking Management section of the Booking Centre. 

If you click the relevant number (Attend/Cancel/Total) you can view the full list of attendees by status for any event.  This list also includes information such as the attendees' unit and job title. You may also export the attendance information via Excel (see Excel icon at the bottom of the list) if you wish to collate information from various events.

 Please note: the event organiser needs to manually update the attendance status to Attended/Cancelled as relevant. 

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Need further instructions? The full Booking Centre User Guide is available to download.
Booking Centre User Guide
Support Hub Homepage

Further Support

The UCD IT Support Hub is where you can log a call with our UCD IT Helpdesk team, find an answer in our Knowledge Base of articles, or request an additional service or access.

UCD IT Services

Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Contact us via the UCD IT Support Hub: www.ucd.ie/ithelp