Organizer guide: Event Approval Workflow

What is the Event Publish Approval Workflow?

The Event Publish Approval Workflow lets a parent organization require child venues to submit events for review before they can be published. Showpass supports parent/child venue relationships through Suborganizations, where one venue acts as a parent with oversight over one or more child venues. This is common in setups like university campuses managing faculty or student clubs, sports associations overseeing member clubs, or multi-location brands where a head office needs to review events before they go public. For more on how suborganizations work, see Organizer guide: Suborganizations.

When the workflow is active, child venue staff cannot publish an event directly. They submit a request form, and a designated reviewer at the parent organization approves or denies it. This gives parent organizations oversight over event details, pricing, and branding before events go live.

Setting up the workflow (parent organization)

Once Showpass has enabled the workflow feature on your account, a parent organization admin can create and configure the workflow from the Dashboard.

Step 1: Create a workflow

1. In the Dashboard menu, go to Manage → Workflows.
2. Click Create workflow.
3. Select Event Publish Approval as the workflow type.
4. Give the workflow a name (for example, Event Sanctioning Approval - 2026/2027).

Step 2: Build the request form

Open the Form tab on your workflow. This is the form child venues will complete when requesting to publish an event. Use the form builder to add pages, sections, and fields relevant to your review process — for example, event organizer contact information, event name and date, logistics details, or a waiver.

Step 3: Configure approvals and notifications

Open the Settings tab on your workflow.

• Required approvals: Add one or more approval slots. Each slot can optionally be labelled (for example, Safety Officer) and restricted to a specific reviewer role. Leave the role blank to allow any eligible reviewer to approve the slot.
• Notifications: Add external email addresses if people outside your staff list should be notified when a submission arrives.

Step 4: Activate the workflow

Activate the workflow from the form page header. The workflow must be set to active before child venues will see the publish request flow on their events. Only one active Event Publish Approval workflow can run per parent venue at a time.

How it works

For child venue organizers (submitting a request)

When the workflow is active on your parent account, a publish request form will appear directly on the event management page for all child venue events. To submit an event for review:

1. Create and configure your event as usual.
2. On the event manage page, click Publish Approval or Request to Publish in the sidebar.
3. Complete the request form. It saves automatically as you go.
4. Submit the form. Your event will be held for review and will not publish until a reviewer approves it.
5. You will receive an email notification once your event is approved or denied.

If your event is denied, you will receive a notification with the reviewer's reason. You can edit your request and resubmit. You can also withdraw a pending request at any time, make changes, and resubmit.

For parent organization reviewers (approving or denying)

Reviewers can access the submissions queue from the Dashboard:

1. Go to Manage → Workflows in the Dashboard menu.
2. Select the workflow, then open the Submissions tab.
3. Open a pending submission to review the completed form and event details.
4. Approve or deny the request. If denying, you must provide a reason. The submitting venue is notified of the outcome automatically.

Submission emails include a PDF copy of the completed form for your records.

Important: Approving a workflow submission does not automatically publish the event. Once the submission is approved, the child venue user still needs to return to the event and publish it manually.

Setting this up

The Event Publish Approval Workflow requires setup by the Showpass Client Success team before your account can access it. To get started, reach out to your Client Success Manager or submit a support request.

When you reach out, let us know:

• Which venue is the parent (the reviewer) and which venues are children (the submitters)
• Who at the parent organization should receive review notifications and have approval access
• Any specific fields you want included on the submission form

Notes

• Only one active Event Publish Approval Workflow can run per parent venue at a time.
• Notification emails are sent to parent venue owners and staff with reviewer permissions when a request is submitted.
• Outcome notifications (approved or denied) go to the child venue owners, admins, and unrestricted staff.
• The workflow applies to new events created after setup. If an existing child event is not showing the publish request form, open the event and save it once to trigger the workflow.
• Approving a submission does not publish the event automatically. The child venue user must return to the event and publish it after approval.

Need support? Our team is here to help. Submit a support request and we'll get you set up.