HKPC Streamlines Complex Event Management with Custom HubSpot Solution

Overview

Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) required a sophisticated event management system to manage their Summer TechEd Festival, which involved multiple concurrent workshops, complex participant restrictions, and time slot management.

HKPC Academy, under HKPC, partnered with Oxygen Strategic Partners to build a custom HubSpot-based solution featuring automated registration logic, conflict prevention, and integrated check-in capabilities.

Project Plan

Client Location
Hong Kong

Services Provided
Custom Development, Web Page Development, HubSpot Custom Object Setup, Workflow Automation, QR Code Integration, Email Template Design

Related Sector
FutureSkills, Education & Technology

Languages Supported
English, Traditional Chinese

When HKPC Academy approached Oxygen, they were planning their highly anticipated event of the Year, "Summer TechEd Fest 2025" - a complex two-day event featuring over 80 concurrent workshops with sophisticated registration requirements.

Their previous platform, operated on a quota-based pricing model that created budget unpredictability. When events exceeded attendance thresholds, even by small margins, HKPC Academy had to pay for additional quotas, resulting in unexpected expenses.

TechEd Fest also required complex registration logic that previous platform was unable to handle. For example, some workshops were individual-only, while others allowed students to bring one to two family members. The platform lacked this flexibility, forcing HKPC Academy staff to manually screen and sort registrations for each event type.

Since the attendees were primarily minors, the participant data HKPC Academy could collect was limited for privacy compliance, and this restricted dataset didn't align with their standard event structure in HubSpot.

Beyond the TechEd Fest, HKPC manages 20-30 events monthly and needed a scalable event management solution moving forward.

Complex Registration Logic

Creating a system handling multiple workshop selections, time conflict prevention, and different rules for individual vs group registrations. The previous platform had no mechanism to prevent double-bookings or enforce workshop-specific attendance rules, forcing staff to manually screen registrations and reactively manage scheduling conflicts.

Registration Complexity:

Participants under 18 required adult guardian registration with varying rules: some workshops mandated guardian participation, others were adult-only
Maximum 6 participants per registration with a 2-workshop limit per participant
No automated prevention of overlapping time slot bookings.

Scalable Architecture

Designed to support both sophisticated festival requirements and HKPC’s broader portfolio of monthly events, the solution integrates seamlessly with HKPC’s existing HubSpot CRM to provide a unified view of participant engagement across all events, eliminating disconnected platforms and manual data entry.

The setup is repeatable and reusable, allowing the same structure to be quickly applied to future events with similar requirements, reducing setup time while maintaining consistency across event workflows and reporting.

Cost-Predictable Solution

Moving away from quota-based pricing models to eliminate surprise expenses for successful events. The quota system meant popular events triggered unexpected charges, making it difficult for HKPC Academy to budget accurately.

The Solution

Oxygen designed and implemented a custom event management system within HubSpot, eliminating HKPC Academy's dependency on third-party platforms and their unpredictable costs. The solution leveraged HubSpot's custom object capabilities, automated workflows, and custom-coded registration forms to create a scalable system that could handle complex registration logic while integrating seamlessly with HKPC's existing CRM infrastructure.

HKPC's existing HubSpot environment already contained a standard events structure, but it wasn't designed to handle the complexity of TechEd Fest's multi-workshop format.

Oxygen extended this architecture by creating two new custom objects: Workshops and Workshop Participants.

The Workshops object associates to the main Event in a one-to-many relationship, allowing a single event like TechEd Fest to contain dozens of individual workshop sessions.

The Workshop Participants object then associates to Workshops in a one-to-many relationship and to Event Members in a one-to-many relationship, creating a flexible structure where one Event Member can manage all associated participants.

Due to a lack of uniquely identifiable data (participants could be minors), the Workshop Participants object uses a combination of Full Name, Event Member email, and Workshop Code as a unique identifier. This structure allows multiple Workshop Participants to be associated with a single Event Member, enabling them to share the same QR code when checking in.

Below: Workshops Participants and Workshops object connect to Events, Event Members, and Contacts within HubSpot.

Oxygen built a completely custom-coded registration form with serverless functions to handle complex validation logic.

The form checks for overlapping workshop entries on the frontend as participants make their selections. On submission, the system follows a specific sequence:

Creates an Event Member and Contact record
Retrieves existing workshop enrollments with matching identifiers and checks for capacity and time conflicts
Returns an error if conflicts exist, or creates Workshop Participant records if validation passes

This automated validation prevents invalid registrations from being created, eliminating the manual screening process that HKPC Academy staff previously had to perform.

Below: Registration form displaying real-time conflict detection, preventing overlapping workshop enrollments.

HKPC P2

To streamline on-site operations, a custom check-in module has been integrated into a HubSpot landing page.

The module allows event staff to select the relevant Workshop object they are managing. When a QR code from an Event Member is scanned, a serverless function retrieves all Workshop Participants associated with that specific workshop. Staff can then select and check in the appropriate participants, triggering a second serverless function that updates each participant’s check-in status in HubSpot. A manual search option is also available.

The page also supports on-site registration for last-minute attendees, allowing staff to quickly register new participants directly from the check-in interface.

Once participants are checked in or registered, the page displays a real-time check-in count, enabling staff to monitor attendance and understand how many participants have arrived on-site.

Reduced ‘Surprise’ Expenditure

No per-quota charges vs USD$10-11 per attendee on their old platform

Simpler Check-In

1 QR code per family vs 4-5 separate codes previously

100% conflict prevention

Automated validation vs manual screening and reactive conflict management

Reduction in event setup time

2 days vs 3 days

Eliminated Budget Unpredictability

Perhaps the most significant impact for HKPC Academy was the shift away from third party platform with quota-based pricing model, which removed financial risk when events exceeded attendance projections. With HubSpot, HKPC Academy can scale events without per-attendee platform costs, enabling confident event promotion and accurate budget forecasting across their 60-80 monthly events.

Streamlined Operations and Participant Experience

The unified QR code system simplified check-in operations, allowing families to use a single code for their entire group instead of juggling 4-5 separate codes. Built-in validation logic also eliminated scheduling conflicts at the point of registration, preventing double-bookings and removing the manual screening burden for the team.