Thanks, Danni, for this tip of the week!
Last month, we rolled out a weekly CDW Tech Talk live webcast series in lieu of a monthly 2-3 day virtual conference. It is set up similar to a podcast subscription series with a consistent, predictable schedule. Each webcast is set up as an included session in Cvent. Registrants receive access information to the CDW Virtual Events Hub upon registration along with calendar reminders for the first 4 webcasts.
We send a weekly email prior to the webcast that highlights that week's episode, provide calendar reminders to upcoming webcasts and include an "In case you missed it" link that gives access to the previous episodes. And of course, it has a "Join the Webcast" button. We also have a separate nurture stream for our coworkers that provide customer conversation starters for that week's episode and calendar reminders to the next two webcasts. This week we added a webcast arc for our small businesses. Today, I built out their own communications stream. Using datatagging and the advanced filters in the Event Emails made this all possible.
The registrant base grows with each episode. We've cast a wider net, optimized the Flex event emails for targeted email streams and have spread out our production with targeted and diverse topics to serve our customer base and potential clients with this innovative approach to live virtual engagements.
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Loretta Peterson
Events Associate
CDW
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2021 11:08
From: Danielle Czark
Subject: Setting up umbrella events, even in a digital space
Hi, all! For today's edition of Tip of the Week, we were inspired by internal Cvent events that recently took place. First, we had our Global Companywide event held virtually for the first time. Then, we carried on the excitement through the Sales Kickoff meeting, and held our divisional meetings for the SVS and Event Cloud teams. Through this entire event, the Cventer only registered once, and then used the Attendee Hub to update their agenda for these various sessions and experiences.
Similarly, Cvent is hosting the final sessions of our Customer Success Group workshop series this week. Here, anyone interested in the 3 topics of Solution Evolution (Flex, New Reports, and Access Portals) could register for the entire event, and then select the unique sessions for each topic.
Although these were configured slightly differently between the Attendee Hub agenda experience and Flex event registration, the structure of the events was the same – umbrella events.
Umbrella events are what we consider a group of events with a single overarching registration process. Read on for some tips and features that can enhance your set-up if you do the same.
In Flex:
- Keep the title, capacity, and location generic, as these details will be used across all events.
- Use Sessions as each "event" – this allows you to set a date/time, include virtual session details for each, and use session emails as your "event-level" emails. This is key for things such as reminders, registration confirmation, and post-event feedback.
- Consider using Admission Items if you need to drill-down further. Perhaps you are setting up an internal company event, too, and you'd like to separate by departments. Create each department as an Admission Item, and then create the sessions as needed that a Sales or HR employee would attend. Within the Admission Item, be sure to limit the availability of optional sessions to ensure they are only seeing the sessions relevant to them.
In Attendee Hub:
- You will still set up the registration process through Flex, and can have a similar set-up as mentioned above.
- One of the key differences is how you'd like to manage the agenda. If you have more flexibility, or perhaps want to track registrations first and then offer a second phase of session selection, consider having the registrants add their sessions completely through the Attendee Website within the Attendee Hub experience.
- As mentioned, we used this way for our internal companywide events - it was a simple as registering for the event through Flex, logging into the Attendee Hub through the Attendee Website, browsing All Sessions, and clicking Add. Then, it will appear under My Sessions, and I can either join if its time, or Add to Calendar if I'd like a personal reminder.
- The Attendee Hub does recognize and enforce session rules you've set up in your Flex event. So, if you have a special VIP session for executives only, your regular employee will not be able to see that if they have their Individual Contributor registration type (as an example).
Questions for You:
- What type of events have you set up as umbrella events in the Cvent platform?
- Have you changed the structure of any to adapt to the digital environment?
Share your experiences, tips, and questions below! #CventTip
#Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents
#ManagingVirtualEvents
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Danni Czark
Senior Associate, Online Community Marketing
Cvent
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