Linking records based on logic in (many) fields

[eclarkginsberg]

I have a base where I want to track how Contacts engage with Events (dozens of them). I have one single-select status field per Event on the Contact record and would ideally like to use those fields to programmatically link the two records.

For instance:
Contact James Doe has the status "Invited" in the field "Conference 2024" (which corresponds to the Event record Conference 2024). In that case, I want to automatically link Conference 2024 in the "Events invited to" linked records field on James Doe's record (appending it to any existing records there).

I know I could set this up for every single event individually with automations, but I would like to avoid doing this dozens of times for dozens of different events. I've also played around with the two record linking extensions I saw, but neither seems to do what I need.

Is there any good way to say "when field '[eventName]' on a Contact has value 'ABC', link the record to Event record [eventName]"?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Nyaruko]

Hi eclarkginsberg,

I'm not aware of a sustainable solution for this, but it is possible to accomplish this behavior without even using automations - only using linked record fields - which might cut down on the complexity somewhat. 

If you create a linked record field in the Events table (Contact -> Lookup Field: Name)
and
Create a linked record field in the Contacts table (Events -> Lookup Field: Name)

Then edit the Lookup field on the Events table (Name from Contacts), and toggle "Only include linked records from the Contacts table that meet certain conditions" and add something like these conditions that filter out unwanted records (not sure of your exact field values):

You could at least accomplish this without the added layer of automations. 

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Maybe try creating a formula field in "Contacts" that will output the name of the field if they're invited to it with the existing linked records

So if James Doe has "Event 2023" linked and has the status "Invited" in the field "Conference 2024", it'll output "Event 2023, Conference 2024".  You can then copy the value from this formula field and paste it into the linked field which should do what you need