Every event you build in Express opens in Test Mode, and taking it live is a deliberate move you make in two separate clicks, not something that happens by accident. Test Mode is where you run the whole registration path yourself: read the form, read the confirmation email, and confirm everything works before anyone outside your team ever sees it.

Taking your event live

1. Start on your event's Overview. Look for the orange TEST badge next to the event name. It means the event is in Test Mode, so you can work on it freely without collecting a single real registration.
2. When you're ready to change that, click the settings icon in the top right of the header.
3. This opens your event's Setup screen. The Status control on the right is what actually takes an event live, and it gives you exactly two choices: Test Mode and Live. Draft and Ended are the other stages an event passes through, but you don't pick those yourself: Draft applies while you're still building the event, and Ended kicks in once the date has passed. Click the dropdown and choose Live.
4. Here's the part worth slowing down for. The dropdown now reads Live, but look at the badge next to the event name: it still says TEST. Choosing an option in that dropdown does nothing on its own. Your event stays exactly where it was until you click Save, so if you pick Live and walk away, nothing has changed yet. Click Save to actually turn the event live.
5. Saving takes you back to the Overview. The badge now reads LIVE in green, with a green bar across the top of the card.
6. While you're here, notice the two controls beside the settings icon. The pin keeps this event handy in your left rail, and the share icon copies the registration link you'll send to attendees. Now that your event is live, that link actually works.
7. Click Registrations.
8. Your attendee list should be empty. If you added test records while you were building the event, remove them here. Adding registrations is its own how-to, covered separately.

Setting an event to Live and setting its registration form to Live are two different actions on two different screens, and neither one tells you when it's out of sync with the other. Here's why that matters.

Your registration form has its own status

10. Open Form and look at the top right of Form Design. There's a second status control here, and it can say something completely different from your event's status: right now it reads TEST while your event says LIVE. The control on Setup governs your event; this one governs your form.
11. Your form's status has four options: Test, Live, Scheduled, and Closed. Scheduled and Closed control when the form itself opens and shuts, which the guide on your registration window covers in more detail. What matters here is that setting this one to Live does not take your event live, and the two can sit in different states with neither screen warning you. If you ever see live in one place and not the other, this is why. The two stay separate on purpose: your event can be genuinely live while something with registrations forces you to pause them for a moment. We hope that never comes up, but when it does, this is the control that lets you handle it without touching your event's status at all.
12. So remember, there are two controls. Your event's status lives on Setup, offers Test Mode and Live, and decides whether your event is genuinely open. Your form's status lives on the Form tab and governs the form rather than the event. Both need an explicit Save before the change takes effect.