A process with an event-based gateway (click to enlarge)
If you want to model the reactions to different events in a BPMN process, the event-based gateway is very useful. At a normal exclusive splitting gateway, a sequence flow is selected based on data. It is therefore called data-based gateway. For example, a procurement request may be routed to a manager for approval if the total amount exceeds a certain limit. At an event-based gateway, on the other hand, a sequence flow is selected based on the occurence of an event.