Group Event Scheduling: How to Let Many People Book the Same Time Slot for Classes, Workshops and Webinars

A yoga class, a pottery workshop, a weekly onboarding call for new customers, open office hours for students: each is one session that many people attend. An ordinary one-on-one booking link handles these badly, because the first person to book takes the whole hour. A sign-up sheet is no better, since it cannot stop at capacity, send reminders or create the video link. This guide explains the event type built for shared sessions, how it differs from collective and round-robin events, which settings suit common classes and workshops, and how to set one up, run it, handle cancellations, size it and fill it. It also covers what a scheduling tool will not do for you, such as waitlists and webinar streaming.

Quick answer: Use a group event: one booking link where everyone who picks the same start time joins one shared session, until the capacity you set is reached and that time stops being offered. Give it a single location (a Zoom, Google Meet or Teams link, or a street address), fixed start times, reminders to every attendee, and per-seat payment at booking if it is paid. Collective and round-robin events are for one invitee, not many.

Key takeaways

• A group event is the event type for one session that many people attend. Collective and round-robin events look similar but book one invitee with several hosts.
• Set capacity from your tightest constraint: seats or equipment, your video platform's participant limit, how much speaking time each person needs, or how many facilitators you have.
• Give every session exactly one location and a fixed start time. If you want one class per evening, make the availability window exactly as long as the class.
• Each attendee should get their own confirmation, reminders and cancel or reschedule links, so one cancellation frees one seat without disturbing anyone else.
• For paid workshops, collect payment per seat when people book, and put the refund policy in every email.
• A scheduling tool is not a webinar platform. For a one-to-many broadcast to hundreds of view-only attendees, use webinar software.

What is a group event?

A group event is a bookable event type that lets several invitees book the same time slot and attend one shared session, up to a capacity you choose. Capacity is the maximum number of bookings one session accepts. A session is a single occurrence of the event at one start time, for example "Tuesday 6:00 PM".

The difference from an ordinary booking link is what happens after the first booking. On a one-on-one event the slot disappears as soon as someone takes it. On a group event the slot stays open, the next person who picks it joins the same session, and the slot is withdrawn only when it fills. That one behavior is what turns a booking page into a class timetable.

PepoSmart is an AI scheduling and meeting-intelligence platform, and group is one of its six event types. On a PepoSmart group event:

• Several invitees can book the same slot, up to the capacity you set. The capacity field is optional; leave it blank and the session has no upper limit.
• Every session has exactly one location, so everyone meets in the same place and nobody picks a different room or video app.
• The first booking creates the calendar event and, for online sessions, the Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams meeting. Each later attendee is added to that same calendar event and receives the same join link.
• Each invitee gets their own confirmation and reminder emails, with their own reschedule and cancel links.
• Once a session reaches capacity, that time is no longer offered on the booking page.

Group vs collective vs round-robin: which event type do you need?

Most "the scheduling link isn't working" problems with classes come from picking the wrong event type. The quickest test is to count the people on each side of the meeting: how many hosts, and how many invitees per session.

• A one-on-one event is one host meeting one invitee.
• A group event is one or more hosts meeting many invitees in the same session.
• A round-robin event is a pool of hosts where each booking is assigned to one available teammate, so the load is shared.
• A collective event is several hosts who must all attend, meeting one invitee; a time is offered only when every host is free.
• A choose-a-professional event shows the invitee a roster of hosts and lets them pick who they meet.
• A one-off meeting offers hand-picked times for a single booking, after which the link is used up.

Collective and group are the pair people confuse. Both can have several hosts who all attend. The difference is the invitee side: a collective event books one invitee into a meeting with the whole panel, while a group event books many invitees into one session. A panel interview is collective, which the interview scheduling guide covers in detail; a candidate open house is group. If your team instead wants to spread one-to-one demos across reps, read the round-robin scheduling guide, and if clients should pick their own practitioner, see the guide to letting clients choose their professional. The team events page shows how hosts and permissions work across all of them.

What can you run as a group event?

Anything where one host or a small team delivers the same session to several people at once. The table gives starting settings for common cases. Treat them as defaults to adjust, not rules: your room, audience and price will move them.

A few patterns sit behind those numbers. Sessions where participants must talk, such as coaching circles and office hours, stay small. Sessions where they mostly listen, such as info sessions and product training, can be larger, up to the limits of your video platform. In-person sessions are capped by the room long before demand becomes the issue. Schools and tutoring programs will find more on office hours and study sessions on the education solution page, and coaches running cohorts alongside one-to-one clients should read the guide to scheduling software for coaches and consultants.

How do you set up a group event, step by step?

The steps below follow the order of the PepoSmart event settings, but the same decisions apply in any scheduling tool.

1. Create the event and set its capacity

Choose Create, then Group. PepoSmart creates the event and opens its settings page at Event details. Give it a title people will recognize in their calendar ("Beginner Wheel Throwing, 2 hours" beats "Workshop"), a description that says who it is for and what to bring, and the duration. Then fill in Max invitees per time slot. Leave it blank only if the session genuinely has no limit.

Decide whether the event should be listed on your public booking page or kept private, so that only people with the link can book. Private links suit invite-only cohorts and member-only classes.

One detail matters for fixed seats. Capacity counts bookings, and an invitee can add up to ten guests to their booking. If ten mats means ten people, switch off Allow invitees to add guests in the invitee form settings so that each person books their own place.

2. Choose the one location

A PepoSmart group event has exactly one location, because the session is shared. Pick one of:

• Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Connect the integration first. The first booking for a session creates the meeting, and everyone who books that session afterwards receives the same link. Google Meet links are created on a Google Calendar event, so connect Google Calendar as well.
• In person. Enter the venue name and address, which appear on the booking page and in the emails.

If you run a hybrid class where some people attend in the room and some online, create two group events, one per location, rather than one event with two choices.

3. Decide when sessions happen

Group sessions come from the availability schedule you assign to the event, and one rule surprises people: start times are generated in steps of the event's duration across your available window. A 60-minute class with Tuesday hours of 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM offers three separate sessions, at 9, 10 and 11, and people who pick different times end up in different sessions. For one class per day, make the window exactly as long as the class, for example Tuesday 6:00 to 7:00 PM for a 60-minute class.

It usually helps to give classes their own named schedule, so the hours and booking rules for your workshops never change the times offered on your one-on-one events. For sessions on specific dates rather than every week, such as a workshop series on three Saturdays, turn off the weekly hours on that schedule and add a date override for each session date. A date override is a one-day exception to your weekly hours: it can open specific hours on that date or block the whole day. The availability rules page lists the other controls, including buffers, which are useful for room setup and cleanup between in-person sessions.

Holidays and time off are set once per user in PepoSmart and apply to every schedule, and you can choose a country so its national public holidays block bookings automatically. Connect every calendar you use so personal commitments block class times too; the guide to preventing double-booking across multiple calendars explains the conflict settings.

4. Set the booking rules

Three availability settings control when people can sign up:

• Minimum notice stops last-minute bookings. PepoSmart enforces at least 30 minutes and lets you raise it to 120 minutes.
• Minimum lead time in days closes sign-ups earlier, which matters when you need to buy materials or print name badges. With a 2-day lead time, Thursday is the last day anyone can book a Saturday workshop.
• Booking window sets how far ahead people can book. The default is 60 days; for a weekly class, two to four weeks keeps the timetable manageable.

5. Ask only the intake questions you will use

PepoSmart supports single-line, multi-line, radio, checkbox, dropdown and phone-number questions, each optional or required. Good group-session questions are ones that change how you prepare:

• Experience level (radio: new, some experience, experienced).
• Dietary or accessibility needs (multi-line, optional).
• A required checkbox: "I understand this online session is recorded and the notes are shared with attendees."
• A phone number for in-person sessions, so you can reach people on the day.

Three questions is plenty. Every extra field is another reason to abandon the booking.

6. Write the confirmation and switch on reminders

Each attendee receives their own confirmation and calendar invitation, with the time shown in their local time zone and the join link or address. Add your joining instructions to the event description and the confirmation email (a template is below), along with a one-line cancellation policy.

Reminders are set per event. Switch them on in the event's email settings and add one or more timings in hours before the session; 24 hours and 1 hour suit most online sessions, and in-person classes often add an earlier same-day reminder for travel. Every attendee gets the reminders for their own booking. The reminder emails page shows the options, and the no-show playbook explains why two reminders beat five. As host, you get a notification for each new attendee showing how many have booked, for example "7 of 10 spots filled".

7. Charge per attendee if the session is paid

On the Professional plan and above, connect your own Stripe or PayPal account and set a price on the event. Each invitee pays when they book, and the money settles to your account; PepoSmart never holds it. Payment is per booking, so a guest added to someone's booking is not charged separately. If every attendee must pay, turn off guests as described in step 1. Refunds are issued from your Stripe or PayPal dashboard; cancelling a booking in PepoSmart does not refund it automatically. The payments at booking page and the guide to collecting payments when clients book cover deposits and pricing.

8. Add co-hosts if you teach in pairs

Use Share with team to add co-hosts from your team (team seats are on paid plans). On a group event every host attends the session, so a new session is offered only when every host is free, and every host needs the meeting app that the location uses.

9. Test it before you share it

Ten minutes of testing catches nearly every setup mistake:

1. Open the booking link in a private browser window and book a session with one email address.
2. Book the same session again with a second email address.
3. Check your calendar: there should be one event for the session, with both attendees and one join link.
4. Check both inboxes for confirmations with the right time and location.
5. Temporarily set capacity to 2 and confirm the session no longer appears on the booking page.
6. Cancel one test booking, confirm the session reappears and the other booking is untouched, then cancel the second and set the real capacity.

How do you run a group session well?

Scheduling gets people into the room. The session itself is where repeat bookings are won or lost.

Send joining instructions people will actually read

Most "I couldn't get in" problems are information problems. Put this in the event description and the confirmation.

Joining instructions template

[Session name] is on [day, date] at [time]; your calendar invite shows it in your local time. [Online:] Join with the link in your calendar invite a few minutes early to test your audio. [In person:] We are at [venue], [address]. [Where to park or which door to use.] Bring [items]. The session runs [duration] and starts on time. Can't make it? Use the reschedule link in this email to move to another date, or cancel so someone else can take your place.

Use a simple agenda

A shared session needs more structure than a one-to-one call, because no single attendee can steer it. For a 60-minute workshop:

The guide to meeting agendas that work has more templates.

Record only with consent

Recording a group is different from recording a one-to-one call, because the attendees are often strangers to each other. United States federal law permits recording when one party to the conversation consents (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)), but some states require every party's consent, and other countries have their own rules. The safe pattern for groups is to say it three times: in the booking page description, in a required intake checkbox, and out loud at the start. Offer a camera-off option for anyone uncomfortable. The guide to whether it is legal to record a meeting goes deeper, and none of this is legal advice.

Let the AI notetaker handle notes for online sessions

For sessions on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, you can turn on AI meeting notes for the event. The notetaker joins as a visible participant once per session, not once per attendee, so a session with twenty people uses one recording. Afterwards you get the recording, a speaker-labeled transcript, a summary with a timestamped view, and action items with an owner and priority, which makes it easy to send a recap to attendees and to people who missed it. If someone removes the notetaker by mistake, it can be re-invited with Rejoin notetaker, and the parts are stitched into one transcript.

Every plan includes 2 AI recordings for the lifetime of the account; paid plans can add more with recording credit packs. The notetaker cannot record in-person workshops or phone calls. See AI meeting notes for the details.

How should you handle cancellations and reschedules?

In a group session, one person's change of plan must not disturb anyone else. That is why each attendee should hold their own booking rather than sharing one.

• An attendee cancels. Their seat is freed and the session continues for everyone else. If the session was full, it reappears on the booking page so someone else can take the place.
• An attendee reschedules. They pick a new time from your current availability, which shows only sessions with space, and their original booking is cancelled automatically.
• You remove one attendee. Cancel that person's booking from your Meetings list; they receive a cancellation email and the others are unaffected.
• You cancel the whole session. Cancel each booking in that session so every attendee gets a cancellation email, then send one personal note offering the next date. Do it as early as you can.

For paid sessions, decide your refund policy before the first booking and state it in the confirmation and reminder. Refunds are not automatic when a booking is cancelled; issue them from your payment provider. Stripe's refund documentation says customers see a refund as a credit approximately 5 to 10 business days later, depending on their bank, so set that expectation when you refund.

Session cancelled template

Subject: [Session name] on [date] is cancelled

Hi [first name], I'm sorry, but I have to cancel [session name] on [date]. [One-sentence reason.] [If paid:] I have refunded your payment of [amount] in full; it can take several business days to appear on your statement. The next session is on [date], and you can book it here: [link]. Thank you for understanding.

Cancellation policy line for confirmations

Can't make it? Cancel or reschedule with the link below at least [24 hours] before the start so someone else can take your seat. [Paid sessions:] Cancellations made at least [24 hours] ahead are refunded in full; later cancellations can move to another date.

How many people should you allow in each session?

Capacity is the smallest of four numbers. Work out each one and use the lowest.

1. Physical limit. Seats, mats, wheels, kitchen stations, kits, or the room's legal occupancy.
2. Platform limit. Video platforms cap participants by plan. Google lists 100 participants for personal accounts and Business Starter, 150 for Business Standard, 500 for Business Plus and 1,000 for Enterprise Plus (Google Meet requirements). Microsoft lists up to 300 people in a Teams meeting on Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium and Teams Essentials, and up to 1,000 on plans such as Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 (Teams limits and specifications). Zoom's meeting capacity also depends on your plan and add-ons, so check your account.
3. Airtime limit. If every participant should speak, divide the time. A 60-minute session with 10 people, after your own 20 minutes of teaching and 5 of housekeeping, leaves each person about three and a half minutes. For discussion-heavy formats, that arithmetic sets the cap.
4. Facilitator limit. Hands-on sessions need someone to walk the room. Decide how many attendees one facilitator can genuinely help, and multiply by the number of facilitators.

Then adjust for three things. Guests: if invitees can add guests, a full session can hold more people than your capacity number, so switch guests off when seats are fixed. No-shows: free sessions usually lose some sign-ups, but the rate varies widely by audience, so look at your own attendance across a few sessions before setting capacity above the room size, and never overbook paid in-person seats. Demand: if sessions fill days ahead, add a second session time rather than raising capacity past what works.

Worked example: a pottery studio. Ten wheels, one instructor, a 2-hour beginner class on Saturday mornings. Capacity 10, guests off, availability Saturday 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM so there is exactly one session, a 30-minute buffer after for cleaning, a 2-day lead time so clay can be prepared, the studio address as the location, and a per-seat price collected through Stripe.

Worked example: a software onboarding cohort. A customer success team runs a weekly 45-minute session for new accounts on Google Meet with Business Standard, which has a 150-participant limit. Capacity 40 so there is time for questions, Tuesday 4:00 to 4:45 PM, 1-hour notice, free, and AI notes on so the recap and recording can go to everyone who booked.

How do you schedule recurring group sessions?

A recurring group session is simply a group event with weekly hours. Set the class's day and time on its schedule and it is bookable every week, as far ahead as your booking window allows. To skip a week, add an unavailable date override for that date; public holidays and your time off are already blocked if you have set them.

Each booking reserves one session, not a series. For a weekly drop-in class that is exactly right. For a fixed course, such as six Tuesday evenings, ask people to book every date in one sitting when they sign up; each date then has its own confirmation, reminders and calendar entry, and each can be rescheduled independently. A booking window of six to eight weeks makes all six dates visible at once.

How do you fill a group session?

A good session with an empty room is still an empty room. Use every channel you already have.

• Share the link everywhere it fits: your email signature, social bio, course platform, and the end of every session ("book the next one here").
• Make the booking page do the selling. PepoSmart booking pages have an Edit look page builder with themes, palettes and widgets beside the booking card: a short video of the class, testimonials, an FAQ, a map for in-person venues, and documents such as a syllabus or kit list.
• Embed it on your website. A booking calendar on your class page saves people a click away to another site. See website embeds and the guide to embedding a booking calendar on your website.
• Use the event's QR code on posters, flyers, slides and reception desks, so people can book from their phone.
• Email people who already know you. On the Professional plan and above, email broadcasts send to mailing lists, which are built from your booking contacts and can be filtered by event and meeting date, so you can invite everyone who attended the beginner class to the intermediate one. Broadcasts go through your own SMTP provider and carry an automatic unsubscribe link.

Mind consent. A booking records that someone attended; it is not, on its own, permission to send them marketing. In the United States, the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide requires accurate sender details, a valid postal address and opt-outs honored within 10 business days for commercial email, while messages whose primary purpose is transactional, such as sending attendees the materials for a session they booked, are largely exempt. Other countries set stricter opt-in rules, so check where your audience lives.

Invitation template

Subject: New [session name] dates for [month]

Hi [first name], thanks for coming to [previous session]. The next step up is [session name]: [one sentence on what they'll be able to do afterwards]. It runs [duration] on [dates], with [capacity] places per session. Book a seat here: [link]. If none of the dates suit you, reply and tell me which day would.

Is PepoSmart a good alternative to Calendly group events?

It depends on what you need around the session. For reference, Calendly's help center says its group event types are available on all paid plans, take an invitee limit from 2 to 9,999 per slot, can optionally display remaining spots to invitees in real time, and support only one host (Calendly group event overview). Vendors change features, so check the current page.

PepoSmart's group events differ in four ways worth weighing:

• Co-hosts. A group event can have several hosts who all attend, which suits paired teaching.
• Notes from the session. For online sessions, the AI notetaker joins once per session and produces a transcript, summary and action items you can turn into a recap for attendees.
• Payment and email in one place. On the Professional plan and above, each attendee can pay through your own Stripe or PayPal account at booking, and broadcasts can invite past attendees to the next session.
• No remaining-spots counter. PepoSmart does not show invitees how many places are left; a full session simply stops being offered. If visible scarcity matters to your marketing, that is a real gap.

The Calendly alternative page compares the products more broadly, and the pricing page has current plans.

What PepoSmart does not do for group events

Being clear about the gaps saves you from discovering them on the day a class sells out.

• No built-in waitlist. When a session is full it disappears from the booking page, and no queue promotes the next person automatically. Workaround: add a "Join the waitlist" link to the event description or a Links widget on the booking page, pointing to a simple form. When someone cancels, the seat reappears on the booking page straight away, so email the waitlist and let the first person to book take it. Or open a second session at another time.
• No SMS. PepoSmart sends email confirmations, email reminders and calendar invites, not text messages. On the Professional plan and above, a booking.created webhook or a Zapier or Make automation can pass each booking to an SMS provider.
• Not a webinar platform. PepoSmart creates an ordinary Zoom, Google Meet or Teams meeting for each session, where attendees can unmute and appear on camera. It does not provide webinar features such as view-only attendees, live streaming, polls, moderated Q&A or a webinar registration page. Zoom itself describes meetings as designed for collaborative, two-way conversations and webinars as structured for one-to-many broadcasting (Zoom Webinars). For a large broadcast, run it on a webinar product and use PepoSmart for the interactive sessions around it, such as a follow-up Q&A or one-to-one calls.
• No minimum attendance. A session goes ahead with one booking unless you cancel it. If a class needs at least four people, check bookings at your cut-off and cancel under-filled sessions yourself.
• One location per event. Hybrid classes need two events, as described in step 2.
• One booking, one session. No single booking reserves a whole multi-week series; attendees book each date.
• Recording is online only. The notetaker cannot record in-person sessions.

The product facts page lists the platform-wide limitations.

"A seat just opened" template for your waitlist

Subject: A place opened in [session name] on [date]

Hi [first name], a seat has just opened in [session name] on [date] at [time]. It goes to whoever books first: [link]. If it's gone by the time you click, I'll let you know about the next date.

Summary

A group event is the right tool whenever one session serves many people: classes, workshops, info sessions, office hours and onboarding cohorts. Set capacity from your tightest constraint, give each session one location and a fixed start time, send every attendee their own confirmation and reminders, and collect payment per seat if the session is paid. Plan for the gaps as well, with a simple waitlist form, an SMS automation if your audience needs texts, and a webinar platform for true broadcasts. To set one up, create a free PepoSmart account, and check the pricing page for which plans include payments and email broadcasts.