Hey Cvent Community! My name is Loretta Peterson and this week I am providing Tip of the Week #25. Be on the lookout for additional tips coming from fellow Cvent users in the coming weeks, as well. If you have an idea for a weekly tip or topic that you would like to learn or write about, you can reply to this post or send the Cvent Community team a message through Communitymanager@cvent.com.
Last week, Jo Anna Chapin, wrote about Using Event Templates. She highlighted the benefits of using a consistent framework for building out your events. Segueing off of that, this week is about creating a blueprint for your templates and events. CDW transitioned to Cvent as a Flex early adopter, and like many of you, had to rebuild our templates. We took the opportunity to improve and enhance them during our design process. It can be overwhelming starting in a new program and having to rebuild - where do you start?
We created a blueprint of our registration site by laying out our content (questions, instructions, etc), registration paths and the order of the questions in Excel. This is a good method to use for building the foundation for your more complex and hybrid events.
Benefits:
- Easy to share collaborative tool for team review
- Easy to make revisions for content and order
- Focus on content - removes distraction of site design
- Can be duplicated and used for future builds and event evolution updates
- Helps determine use of custom contact fields and application of data to your event management processes
- Can be used for API mapping
BLUEPRINT COLUMNS
Please find below a couple of simple examples for your reference.
- Questions/Instructions Content
- Flex Widget/ Question Widget
- Notes
- Registration Paths: We placed an "X" in the cell where a question was included in a path
Other Items
- Required Question
- API field mapping: If you are using API, you can use this grid to help map your data. Copy the tab and create an API mapping tab
Once your blueprint grid is finalized by your team, go into Flex and build! Your team can compare the site against the blueprint. If further changes are needed, you can easily update the content within the widget, or drag and drop a widget to change the order. Cvent Resource: Using the Site Designer
Master Template
If you are going to have more than one template and they have a similar design and content structure, create a Master Template to simplify your building process and ensure consistency. Build the most comprehensive template first as a master, then duplicate the succeeding templates as a hierarchy from most to least comprehensive. Delete what you don't need in the duplicated templates and update with the customizations.
Registration Path Build Hack
In a similar fashion, build out the most comprehensive registration path first, then duplicate that path by clicking Create Path found underneath the Registration Path name and choosing Duplicate from the drop down menu. You are ensured your paths will be consistent. And you don't have to rebuild a path that is similar to another. From there, you can easily add and duplicate, hide, or delete questions by using the menu at the top left hand corner of a question widget.
Hope these tips get you off to a good start. We hope you will share your tips as well!
- What would be one column to add to your own blueprint? How do you use that feature?
- What do you do to prep for your build?
Happy designing and building, everyone!
To learn more about using Flex from fellow Cvent customers, register for Cvent CONNECT Virtual to check out the on-demand session, FLEXible Features: Tips and Tricks from Real Cvent Customers.
#Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents------------------------------
Loretta Peterson
Events Associate
CDW
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