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Creative ways to use custom website pages

  • 1.  Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Posted 09-08-2021 10:48

    Hello everyone! Another Tip of the Week is coming your way. One of the many benefits of Flex registration is how simple it is to configure and design a fantastic-looking website. With the enhanced usability, this can often bring new ideas to you as the event planner on what you'd like to display or promote. With that, we'd like to cover some helpful suggestions of how to use custom pages within your event website.

    • Event FAQs
      • A classic page, but always helpful, is event FAQs. With the changing times and changing event formats, FAQs are especially important to keep your attendees in the know on the latest with your event and to save you time by preventing additional emails or phone calls with these common questions.
      • Depending on your preferred styling formats, you can simply use a text widget to write out the questions and answers, or if you'd like more customization, you can use the code widget.
      • We'd recommend adding a line at the top or bottom of the page stating "Page last updated on X date" if it includes any important health & safety information. This ensures your attendees are reading the most recent information and if something has been updated recently, they'd know to check out the new details.
    • Health & Safety Protocol
      • On the topic of health & safety, dedicating an entire page to your protocol is another suggestion for those hosting in-person events.
      • This can include information on how your organization will keep attendees safe onsite, how the venue will be supporting them, the local/state/government mandates at the present time, or even contact tracing information. This is where you should work with your experts or legal advisors for guidance, but know that with a custom webpage you can keep everyone as informed and prepared as possible.
    • Virtual Access FAQs
      • Hosting an event using Attendee Hub or another virtual platform? Chances are, your attendees may have some questions on how to access the event while virtual. Because you aren't onsite with a dedicated help desk, it is important to share all the information and steps to log in in an efficient way. So, use a custom web page to include even more FAQs, maybe screenshots on how to access certain experiences, a user-guide PDF or video, and staff contact information if they may still need assistance.
      • We have learned that it is better to be over-prepared here, so even if you think your audience is tech-savvy, be sure to have some resources available to them.
      • If you checked out last week's edition of Tip of the Week, you recall how you can create/add your Registration Types, and even mark them as "virtual." If you have unique types for your virtual audience, such as General Attendee – Virtual, consider using the setting on the web page "Limit page visibility by registration type." This will allow you to only show this page for your virtual audience, and you can customize other pages for your in-person audience.
      • Need some guidance on what troubleshooting information to include? Check out this attendee troubleshooting guide.
    • Venue Location and/or Travel Information
      • Hosting an in-person event? This is a great opportunity to include information on the venue or the hotel room block, suggested travel methods, fun and safe activities or sites in the area, and more.
      • Again, when creating a custom page it is a place for you to be creative and show what you're looking for. Here, you could include photos using the Image Slideshow widget, videos, a map using the Location Map widget, weather forecasts, and more.
    • Sponsors
      • A sponsors page is another classic, but always important, page to have. Whether your event is in-person, hybrid, or fully virtual, you likely have some sort of sponsor and exhibitor presence.
      • Another page where you can use your creativity and the ease of design in Flex. Perhaps you set up sections based on sponsor tier, or you show all sponsors through the Image Slideshow widget. You could also use the Code widget if you're looking to have a bit more advanced design.
      • Consider including information about when their booths (virtual or in-person) are open or which sessions they are sponsoring. This is not only a way for you as the planner to showcase your wonderful sponsors and allow them to get the most out of their package, but gives your attendees a chance to discover who is sponsoring and who they may want to have a conversation with during the event or learn more about.

    Questions for You:

    • What unique pages have you created for your event websites?
    • What is your favorite design trick when creating custom web pages?

    As always, let us know below! #CventTip


    #Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents
    #PromotingYourEvent

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    Danni Czark
    Senior Associate, Online Community Marketing
    Cvent
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  • 2.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Community MVP
    Posted 09-14-2021 11:19
    I always have a Printing and Shipping page.

    Presenters often show up onsite wanting to print 30 copies of their full color presentation and/or handouts, and the event office can't accommodate that. So I point them to the onsite hotel business/printing office (sometimes they have an in-house FedEx), and give them instructions on how to ship pre-printed materials to the event site.

    For virtual events, I have an Exhibitor Help page that shows them a video of the Exhibitor Portal - tasks, adding staff, completing their profile and adding content. Instead of sending them to YouTube, I embed the video using Cvent's video widget and that way they go to the reg website to watch the video - and they have to register their booth staff, anyhow! I put the link in the Exhibitor Portal in TASKS under "get help with your Exhibitor Booth" and make it a required task.

    I also include an Event App help page. This used to be CrowdCompass info: showing our branded app container, links to the Google Play and Apple App store, and some screenshots for logging in and what you can do with the app.

    ------------------------------
    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
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  • 3.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Community MVP
    Posted 09-14-2021 16:24
    Great suggestion! We have an FAQ page on all our events.

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    Lori Wildman
    Senior Marketing Manager
    DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Posted 09-15-2021 08:54
    A large majority of our events consist of multiple concurrent sessions grouped by specific panel/research areas. We have created custom pages that include each of the panel-specific zoomgov links for each of the meetings. We have also created custom pages in a variety of different styles that include poster listings detailing each poster name/topic, presenter, and other relevant details, along with links to the PDF and/or video file, links to the appropriate slack channel, and/or links to google products (forms, google drive, etc). For one of our very first virtual meetings last year I used custom pages to create a poster 'gallery' that included embedded videos of all poster presentations grouped by research area. It worked out pretty well!

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    Melissa Williford
    Technology Services Project Manager
    ORAU
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  • 5.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Posted 09-15-2021 09:05
    All very good suggestions! We've created pages in the past for information on awards sessions with forms to allow attendees to nominate individuals for particular awards and/or vote for their picks.

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    Bouran Qaddumi
    SR MANAGER, NATIONAL FIELD TRAINING
    Cajun Operating Company d/b/a Church's Chicken
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  • 6.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Posted 09-15-2021 10:37
    We always use a "How to Download & Use the Mobile App" page for events that we use CrowdCompass for. We incorporate the download links for the app store and google play store so that attendees can access the app right from that webpage. We also have an FAQ page that we have found to be very helpful and resourceful.

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    Chelsea Benge Ostoich
    Events Software Specialist
    cbenge@leadingre.com
    LeadingRE
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  • 7.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    User Group Member
    Posted 09-15-2021 16:05
    Hi,
    Great suggestions. We have an FAQs page and Health and Safety. We are looking forward to start using Code Widgets that we learned more about at Connect this year.

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    ~
    Jo Anna Chapin
    Meetings & Events Registration Lead
    Accenture
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  • 8.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    User Group Member
    Posted 09-16-2021 07:07
    • What unique pages have you created for your event websites?
    • Quick link page that has information at their fintertips so attendees dont have to search for information.


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    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Specialist
    Federal Reserve System
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  • 9.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    Posted 09-20-2021 11:59
    We created a page for the local area including restaurants (with links to their menus), area activities and events, etc.

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    Laura Bejosano
    Marketing Specialist
    Software Solutions Integrated
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  • 10.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    User Group Member
    Posted 11-30-2021 12:35
    What unique pages have you created for your event websites?
    We use customized event pages for each of our events. For the events that we have in-person, we have a small section of fun things to do in the city where the event is being held.

    What is your favorite design trick when creating custom web pages?
    Make sure you know the dimensions of what Cvent suggests the graphics should be sized so it fits perfectly the first time.

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    Candice Ramer
    Research Associate
    Balanced Scorecard Institute
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  • 11.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    User Group Member
    Posted 11-30-2021 15:45
    Great ideas! We create COVID protocol pages now!

    Do wish there was an easy way to create collapsible FAQ to make the page look less bulky :(

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    Rachel
    NJ
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  • 12.  RE: Creative ways to use custom website pages

    User Group Member
    Posted 12-01-2021 08:06
    Hi Rachel, 

    You can make an Accordion with your FAQs using the code widget. Its relatively simple if you search for the code online. Found this one that might help. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-an-accordion-menu-using-html-css-and-javascript/

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    Hayley Contegiacomo
    Chief Technology Officer
    Huddle Agency
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