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I have more than a few meetings where our members start have a session before the public sessions start. The problem comes when those not invited to the beginning session show up sometimes hours early. 

The ADD TO CALENDAR link can be configured to be the whole meetings, session, or both but that depends largely on the registrant being mindful and following instructions. To add to my difficulty, the session calendar links have different rules from the whole meeting links. example, the location portion of session has limited character count (an address doesn't fit cause its designed for a room name, etc)

I have tried adding instructions to adjust the start times in the description, again with limited success.
we've often go to manually sending Outlook calendar invites to principals but that's extra overhead and that only effects the speakers and not the masses.  

How do others address this situation using CVENT offerings? 
Do you depend on other calendaring software? 

So far using the SESSION calendar link is only half the battle cause 

#Events+
#Registration
#EventApp-Building/managing

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Sean Daniel
Manager
Telecom & Autotech Council
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Hi Sean,

Hope you are well!

I reviewed your query. 

Since the members have sessions that start before general public, I would suggest you to create separate registration types for members and general attendee and create separate sessions for each with different times and associate only those respective sessions to the registration type.

Now, once they have registered, I would advise you to only use Session calendar option within the calendar setting so that the invitees only get to download the calendar for their sessions which will display them the date and time of the session. If your session location name doesn't fit in the location option, then you can add the session location under 'registrant Information' setting within that session. And within the Add to calendar widget, enable the setting to display registrant information in the calendar body. 

To access registrant Information setting within the session please go to your event > Agenda > Session list > click on the session's name > Advanced Settings tab > edit > Add the session location under 'Registrant Information' > Save.

To access the Add to calendar settings, please go to your event > Registration > registration process > Open site designer > please go to the page where you have added the 'Add to calendar' widget. If not added, then you can go to any website page > click on build on the right > drag and drop the Add to calendar widget on the canvas > Click on the widget > on the right panel enable 'Display session registrant information in session calendars' and publish. Additionally, if your session description doesn't have much information, then you can display session location within session description as well.

Then, you can create session emails and associate the session within the email and in the email you can add the session add to calendar link so that the invitees will receive one email per session they are registered for with the link to add the session to their calendar.

You can also refer to the following articles for your reference :

How do I display the "Add session to Calendar" option? == LINK : : https://support.cvent.com/s/communityarticle/How-do-I-display-the-Add-session-to-Calendar-option

Using an Add to Calendar Link == LINK : : https://support.cvent.com/s/communityarticle/Inserting-an-Add-to-Calendar-Link-in-Your-Event?sfdcIFrameOrigin=null

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Have a great week ahead!

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Raashi Semwal Khati
Senior Quality Analyst
Cvent
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2023 15:30
From: Sean Daniel
Subject: Staggered start meeting vs. ADD TO CALENDAR links

I have more than a few meetings where our members start have a session before the public sessions start. The problem comes when those not invited to the beginning session show up sometimes hours early. 

The ADD TO CALENDAR link can be configured to be the whole meetings, session, or both but that depends largely on the registrant being mindful and following instructions. To add to my difficulty, the session calendar links have different rules from the whole meeting links. example, the location portion of session has limited character count (an address doesn't fit cause its designed for a room name, etc)

I have tried adding instructions to adjust the start times in the description, again with limited success.
we've often go to manually sending Outlook calendar invites to principals but that's extra overhead and that only effects the speakers and not the masses.  

How do others address this situation using CVENT offerings? 
Do you depend on other calendaring software? 

So far using the SESSION calendar link is only half the battle cause 

#Events+
#Registration
#EventApp

------------------------------
Sean Daniel
Manager
Telecom & Autotech Council
------------------------------

Hi Sean!

One work around I have found when needing a more customized Add to Calendar is to create the meeting in Outlook, save and link within a custom button on an email or on the website. 

1. Create the outlook meeting with your event information in it
2. Click File > Save As > Save to wherever is convenient on your computer (Make sure it is an icalendar file type)
3. In your Cvent event, Go to Planning > Documents > Upload Document
4. Upload the calendar file
5. Use the Cvent generated URL (Reference Link) to create a button on your email or website and label it Add to Calendar

When attendees click the link, it will automatically download the meeting and they can add it to their calendar. If you need to change any information on the calendar invite, you can just re-upload the file to the same document and your URL/Reference Link will stay the same, you won't need to update the actual button.

Hope this helps!

------------------------------
Ashley May
Sr. Attendee Manager, SMM
Ameriprise Financial, Inc.United States
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2023 15:30
From: Sean Daniel
Subject: Staggered start meeting vs. ADD TO CALENDAR links

I have more than a few meetings where our members start have a session before the public sessions start. The problem comes when those not invited to the beginning session show up sometimes hours early. 

The ADD TO CALENDAR link can be configured to be the whole meetings, session, or both but that depends largely on the registrant being mindful and following instructions. To add to my difficulty, the session calendar links have different rules from the whole meeting links. example, the location portion of session has limited character count (an address doesn't fit cause its designed for a room name, etc)

I have tried adding instructions to adjust the start times in the description, again with limited success.
we've often go to manually sending Outlook calendar invites to principals but that's extra overhead and that only effects the speakers and not the masses.  

How do others address this situation using CVENT offerings? 
Do you depend on other calendaring software? 

So far using the SESSION calendar link is only half the battle cause 

#Events+
#Registration
#EventApp-Building/managing

------------------------------
Sean Daniel
Manager
Telecom & Autotech Council
------------------------------

This is the method I use the most. I also take another step to create custom data tags for each of the different calendar invites so that it's easier on me to tell where I've made the change correctly.

------------------------------
Lauren Becker
Senior Event Technology Coordinator
Aflac
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2023 09:51
From: Ashley May
Subject: Staggered start meeting vs. ADD TO CALENDAR links

Hi Sean!

One work around I have found when needing a more customized Add to Calendar is to create the meeting in Outlook, save and link within a custom button on an email or on the website. 

1. Create the outlook meeting with your event information in it
2. Click File > Save As > Save to wherever is convenient on your computer (Make sure it is an icalendar file type)
3. In your Cvent event, Go to Planning > Documents > Upload Document
4. Upload the calendar file
5. Use the Cvent generated URL (Reference Link) to create a button on your email or website and label it Add to Calendar

When attendees click the link, it will automatically download the meeting and they can add it to their calendar. If you need to change any information on the calendar invite, you can just re-upload the file to the same document and your URL/Reference Link will stay the same, you won't need to update the actual button.

Hope this helps!

------------------------------
Ashley May
Sr. Attendee Manager, SMM
Ameriprise Financial, Inc.United States

Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2023 15:30
From: Sean Daniel
Subject: Staggered start meeting vs. ADD TO CALENDAR links

I have more than a few meetings where our members start have a session before the public sessions start. The problem comes when those not invited to the beginning session show up sometimes hours early. 

The ADD TO CALENDAR link can be configured to be the whole meetings, session, or both but that depends largely on the registrant being mindful and following instructions. To add to my difficulty, the session calendar links have different rules from the whole meeting links. example, the location portion of session has limited character count (an address doesn't fit cause its designed for a room name, etc)

I have tried adding instructions to adjust the start times in the description, again with limited success.
we've often go to manually sending Outlook calendar invites to principals but that's extra overhead and that only effects the speakers and not the masses.  

How do others address this situation using CVENT offerings? 
Do you depend on other calendaring software? 

So far using the SESSION calendar link is only half the battle cause 

#Events+
#Registration
#EventApp-Building/managing

------------------------------
Sean Daniel
Manager
Telecom & Autotech Council
------------------------------