Create a fly-in and set up its name, location, chambers, dates, and meeting hours so you're ready to add offices, attendees, and meetings.
✈️ What Is a Fly-In?
With Fly-Ins, you can organize an in-person advocacy day — a trip to Washington, D.C. or your state capitol where your advocates meet directly with lawmakers. Fly-ins bring your whole event together in one place through options like:
- Picking the specific legislator offices you'll visit
- Importing attendees from RSVPs or a CSV, and matching them to offices automatically based on their address
- Scheduling meetings with times, rooms, and staff contacts
- Emailing each attendee a personalized itinerary of their meetings
- Recording meeting outcomes, commitments, and follow-ups in a post-event report
✅ Let's Set Up Your Fly-In
Make sure you are logged in to your AdvocacyAI account. On the navigation bar, locate the “Events” section and click on the Fly-Ins tab. Click the "Create Fly-In" button on the top right to begin.
Use the fields in each step below to set up your event details.
#1 Name Your Fly-In
Give your fly-in a name and a description.
- Fly-In Name: Decide the name of your event as your team and attendees will see it — for example, 2026 Washington Fly-In.
- Description: Share your goals, the issue you're advocating on, and anything attendees should know. This appears on your fly-in's Overview page.
#2 Choose Where Your Meetings Happen
Choose which capitol you're visiting and which chambers you'll meet with.
- Level: Choose Federal for meetings with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., or State for meetings with state legislators at a state capitol.
- State: If you chose State as your level, select which state capitol you'll be visiting.
- Chambers: Select which chamber(s) you'll meet with — you'll pick the specific offices next. Federal fly-ins offer U.S. Senate and U.S. House; state fly-ins offer State Senate and State House. Pick at least one!
Selecting both chambers gives you the most flexibility. The chambers you pick here determine which offices you can add later, and they also power automatic attendee-to-office matching.
#3 Set Your Dates
Meetings can only be scheduled within the dates you set here.
- Start Date: The first day of your fly-in.
- End Date: The last day of your fly-in. Leave this blank for a single-day event.
#4 Set Your Daily Meeting Hours
This is the daily window meetings can be logged within — not the start time of the event itself. The defaults are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
- Start Time: The earliest a meeting can be logged each day.
- End Time: The latest a meeting can run each day.
#5 Create It!
Click the "Create Fly-In" button and you'll land on your new fly-in's Overview dashboard. You'll see a read-only summary of your setup (Location, Dates, and your Description) so you can confirm everything at a glance.
➡️ What’s Next?
Your Overview dashboard walks you through the rest of the process:
- Add Offices: Pick the representatives you will meet and attendees are matched automatically.
- Add Talking Points: Give attendees the key message to raise in their meetings.
- Import Attendees: Import from RSVPs or upload a CSV (first name, last name, email, state).
- Open Registration: Optionally generate a hosted registration page and embeddable widget. Sign-ups become attendees automatically. Registration stays closed until you publish the page.
- Log Meetings: Set times and rooms for each office, then share itineraries.
- Create District Page: A customizable page of your key points, which advocates can pull up in meetings or leave behind.
Keep an eye on the Needs Attention section! It details anything incomplete before your event, like attendees without an office, meetings missing a date or time, or attendees who haven't been emailed their itinerary. Click any item to jump straight to the right tab.
👋 Need More Help?
Reach out to us at help@advocacyai.com and we'll get you back on track!