You’re drowning in back-to-back meetings, and someone asks, “Hey, can you send me a list of everyone who attended last month’s project calls?” Cue the groan. Manually opening each event, copying names, and pasting into a spreadsheet is enough to drive anyone nuts.
If you use Google Calendar and want a faster, less painful way to pull attendee lists, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through how to extract and organize event attendee info using Bardeen, a browser automation tool that helps you skip the grunt work. No coding, no add-ons, no “enterprise solutions.” Just a practical shortcut.
Let’s dive in.
Why bother automating attendee extraction?
- Save time: Manually collecting attendees from multiple events is tedious and error-prone.
- Stay organized: Keeping clean lists lets you follow up, track attendance, or share info without the mess.
- Avoid mistakes: Copy/paste is where typos and forgotten names sneak in.
- Repeatable: Once set up, you can use the workflow again and again.
You don’t need to be a “power user” to want a better way. If you’ve got recurring team meetings, webinars, or just need to pull event data now and then, this is for you.
What you need (and what you don’t)
What you need: - A Google Calendar account (obviously) - Chrome browser (Bardeen is a Chrome extension) - A free Bardeen account
What you don’t need: - Coding skills - Google Workspace admin rights - Any paid tools (the basics are free)
A quick word of reality: Bardeen’s automation is powerful, but it’s not magic. It works best for regular meetings where you’re an organizer or attendee, and you have permission to see the guest list. If you’re trying to pull historical data from 500 events at once, or from calendars you don’t have access to, expect some limits.
Step 1: Install Bardeen
- Go to the Bardeen Chrome Web Store listing.
- Click Add to Chrome and follow the prompts.
- Once installed, click the Bardeen icon in your browser bar. You’ll need to sign up or log in.
Pro tip: Don’t worry about connecting Google Calendar yet. Bardeen will prompt you the first time you run a calendar automation.
Step 2: Decide what you want to extract
Before you build anything, get clear on what you actually need. Ask yourself: - Do you want attendees from one event, or a range of events? - Do you need email addresses or just names? - How do you want the info organized—spreadsheet, email, something else?
Honest take: Don’t overcomplicate this. Most people just want a list of emails and names in a spreadsheet or Google Sheet. Start there. You can get fancier later.
Step 3: Open Google Calendar and filter your events
- Head to Google Calendar.
- Use the search bar or filters to narrow down to the event(s) you care about.
- For recurring meetings, click on one instance and make sure you’re pulling the right date.
- For one-offs, just open the event.
Heads up: Bardeen works by “seeing” what’s on your screen. If your calendar is a cluttered mess, it’s worth filtering down so only relevant events are visible.
Step 4: Use a Bardeen playbook to extract attendees
Bardeen calls its automations “playbooks.” You can build your own, but honestly, there’s a perfectly good template for this.
- Click the Bardeen icon in Chrome to open the sidebar.
- Search for a playbook like “Extract Google Calendar event attendees to Google Sheets”.
- If you don’t see it, search for “Google Calendar attendees” or browse the Templates section.
- Click the playbook to open it.
You’ll be prompted to connect Google Calendar and Google Sheets. Grant the permissions—it’s secure, and you can revoke it anytime.
Customization: - You can usually pick which calendar and date range to use. - Choose your Google Sheet, or let Bardeen create a new one.
Pro tip: If you want to extract from only the currently selected event, look for a playbook that says “from current event.” For multiple events, pick one that lets you filter by date or keyword.
Step 5: Map the data fields
Most playbooks will let you choose which fields to pull: - Event title - Date & time - Attendee names - Attendee emails - RSVP status (yes/no/maybe)
You probably don’t need every field. Stick to what you’ll actually use—less clutter, fewer columns to clean up later.
Step 6: Run the playbook and check your output
- Hit Run and watch Bardeen do its thing.
- Open the Google Sheet it generates (or wherever you told it to put the data).
- Check: Are all the names/emails there? Is anything missing or weirdly formatted?
What works well: - For small-to-medium sets of events (say, under 50 at a time), Bardeen is fast and reliable. - The output is clean—no weird extra formatting.
What to watch out for: - If you’re not the organizer or don’t have access to guest lists, some attendee data might be hidden or incomplete. - For huge calendars, you might hit rate limits or have to split the job into chunks. - Recurring events sometimes pull every instance. Double-check your filters.
Step 7: Clean up and organize your attendee data
Even with automation, you’ll probably want to tidy things up: - Remove duplicate attendees (especially if they show up in multiple events). - Double-check for missing emails—sometimes “external” guests don’t have names. - Sort or filter by RSVP status if you only want “Yes” responses.
If you want to get fancy, you can use Google Sheets formulas to count unique attendees, flag no-shows, or prep for follow-ups.
Ignore the hype: You don’t need to automate every step. A little manual review at the end will save you headaches.
Optional: Automate it further (if you must)
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can: - Schedule the playbook to run automatically every week or month. - Chain actions together—like emailing the attendee list or posting it to Slack. - Set up filters so only certain events are included.
But don’t overdo it. If your needs are basic, keep your setup simple. The more moving parts, the more things can break.
Common gotchas and honest warnings
- Privacy: Don’t share attendee lists without permission. Not everyone loves having their email addresses circulated.
- Permissions: If you’re not on the event or not the organizer, info may be limited.
- Bardeen limits: Free accounts have run limits. If you’re automating a ton, check their pricing or split up your runs.
- Google quirks: Sometimes Google Calendar events have odd formatting or missing data. No tool can fix that entirely.
If something’s not working, double-check that you’re logged into the right accounts, have approved permissions, and that the event data is actually there.
Wrapping up: Keep it simple, iterate as you go
Pulling attendee lists from Google Calendar doesn’t have to be a time sink. With Bardeen, you can automate the boring parts and spend more time on, well, actual work. Start with the basics, see what you get, and tweak as needed. If you run into a snag, don’t be afraid to do a little manual cleanup. Simple beats perfect, every time.
Now go reclaim your time—and never copy-paste another attendee list again.