The Essential Checklist to Get You Event Ready with D365 Customer Journeys

Written By Simon Carter | Published 24/07/2025

A step-by-step guide to making events run like clockwork using Dynamics 365.

Organising an event shouldn’t feel like herding cats, but if you’re not careful, it can quickly get that way. Whether you’re running a quick webinar, a day-long training, or a full-on conference, there are always a hundred moving parts and at least two things you’ll forget unless you’ve got a plan.

Event Ready with D365 Customer Journeys

With Dynamics 365 Customer Insights you’ve got the tools to bring some order to the chaos. But let’s be honest: just having good tech isn’t enough. What you need is a no-nonsense, practical checklist, one that reflects how the platform works in the real world.

And that’s why we’ve put together this checklist – so that you can pull off a seamless event from the first email to the post-event follow-up, without losing your mind (or your guests!).

Nail Down Your Event and What You Want Out of It

  • Be clear on your goals: Are you after new leads, deeper client relationships, training, or just showing off your brand?
  • Know your audience: Segment your contacts in D365. Are these existing clients, prospects, partners, or your own team?
  • Choose your format: In-person, virtual, hybrid? D365 handles all three and integrates directly with Teams for online events.
  • Map the essentials: Title, dates, venue (or Teams/Zoom link), and a short, sharp description.

Set Up the Event in D365

  • Create the Event record: Do this in the Events area. Add every detail: date, time, venue/link, organiser.
  • Add sessions/tracks: If it’s a multi-session gig, set them up here (timings, rooms/links, descriptions).
  • Get speakers in early: Register them and link them to sessions. Collect headshots and bios now to avoid the usual scramble later.

Build the Registration Experience

  • Registration forms: Use D365’s event registration builder, or Power Pages if you need more control.
  • Standard and custom fields: Only ask for what you really need (name, job title, dietary needs, etc). Is there something else you need to know for the event? T-shirt size, favourite movie, how they discovered the event? Then make use of custom fields. More than anything – make it easy to register.
  • Registration models: Free, paid, invite-only, or pre-approval, it’s all supported.
  • Session choice: Let people pick breakouts, 1:1 meetings, or workshops if that’s on the cards.
  • Automate confirmations: Set up instant email and calendar invites, no one wants to wonder if their spot’s secured.

Get Your Comms Lined Up

  • Branded emails: Think invitation, confirmation, reminders, “know before you go,” and follow-ups. Use D365’s email designer to keep it all on-brand.
  • Journeys automation: Build out a Real-Time Journey to automate who gets what, and when, personalise content based on segments, attendance, or engagement.
  • Reminders: Automate calendar links and last-minute updates.

Keep Tabs on Sign-ups and Engagement

  • Live dashboards: Track registrations, session popularity, and trends in D365, don’t wait until the last minute to realise you’re over/under booked.
  • Waitlists: If you’re at capacity, automate the waitlist process.
  • Check-in tools: Use the correct tooling for in-person events. As you’ll know, D365’s check-in experience isn’t great, so look at useful plug-ins and tools to improve the experience – for example Pi Digital have a bespoke solution to handle that.

On the Day: Make It Easy for Everyone

  • Last-minute comms: Fire out any final updates, venue changes, or links straight from D365.
  • Check-in & attendance: Track who shows up (and which sessions they attend), and capture any walk-ins.
  • Quick feedback: Use post-session forms or polls, capture reactions while it’s still fresh.

Post-Event: Follow Up and Learn

  • Thank you emails: Automate your follow-up. Share slides, recordings, or certificates as needed.
  • Analyse results: Use built-in dashboards for attendance, engagement, and next steps. Segment your audience for follow-up journeys, whether that’s sales outreach, feedback, or nurturing. Did you hit your goals?
  • Lead nurture: If you picked up new prospects, trigger nurture journeys straight from D365.

Compliance and Housekeeping

  • GDPR & consent: Make sure every form and comms touchpoint are GDPR-compliant, and log consents in D365.
  • Clean data: Deduplicate, update, and archive as needed. Good data now means easier events later.
  • Close and archive: Shut down the event record when you’re done and store what you need for future reference.

Final Thoughts

If you want your next event to run like clockwork, stop relying on memory or scattered spreadsheets. D365 Customer Journeys, used properly, takes care of the heavy lifting, so you can focus on delivering a genuinely great experience for your guests, and for your event team.

Print this out. Share it with your team. Next time someone says “Have we remembered X?”, you can tick it off and get on with the stuff that actually matters.

Contact us today to learn more about how the Check-In app can empower your business and we’ll help you explore their transformative potential and guide you every step of the way.

In his role as Technical Lead for Pi Digital Solutions, Simon Carter is proud to work with organisations take the next step with Microsoft 365. With a strong public sector background and a wealth of expertise in Microsoft's cloud stack, Simon is dedicated to helping businesses transform their digital workplace. Away from work, Simon enjoys various sports, as well as being an avid reader, and regular cinema goer. Get in touch with all your digital questions and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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