Event Details (or "Add Event")

Event Details (or "Add Event")

Use the Event Details page to enter the basic information about an event.

Handy hint: Click Preview on the toolbar at the bottom to preview the event's Primary Form without having to go to Plan > Forms.

Event Name — The name of the event

• Appears on registration forms, websites, and confirmation material.
• Maximum length 255 characters.

Event Code — A unique abbreviation of the event title

• Maximum length: 25 characters.
• Letters, numbers, and dashes only; no spaces or other special characters.
• If you do not specify a unique Event Code, Certain generates one for you automatically.
• The Event Code is used as the directory name to store static files for each event (images, PDF documents, etc.)

> Caution: Only an Administrator can modify the Event Code once it has been saved. > And even then, only when the event Status is 'Planning', 'Testing', or 'Live'. (If you need to edit it in any other circumstances, please contact Certain Support, since only a System Master user can do so.)

Choosing a Unique Event Code

Should be as brief as possible.

> Note: Must be unique in your account.

For example, if you have a one-time event called "Global Summit", then an Event Code of global, globalsummit, or gsummit would be good choices.

If the event is an annual one, then 2021gsum or gsumfall2021 would work well.

If the event is a road show with several different dates and locations, then gsum050521newyork and gsum110721chicago would identify the specific dates and locations of the events.

> Note: You can always search for an event by its title, date, and/or location. > But a good choice of event code can ease finding a specific event.

Start Date and End Date — The starting and ending dates and times for this event

• Note: When you select the Start Date for a new event, using the calendar picker, the End Date defaults to the same date, to ease editing.
• Note: If you edit either of these dates, and a registration form has its Open or Close Dates set as relative to the event dates, then the form date(s) will update automatically.

See Plan > Forms > Setup.

• Note: For a digital event, the start date should match that of the webinar – see Event Webinar, below)

Time Zone — (Required) Enter the time zone in which the event takes place

Default: Pacific Time (U.S. & Canada).

> Note: The Time Zone is used in:

• The Add to Calendar feature in registration forms (see Plan > Forms > Agenda > Agenda Display Options and Plan > Forms > Sessions > Session Display Options)
• Scheduled emails (see Promote > Communication > Email Templates)

It does not affect the administration side of Certain. That administration side always uses U.S. Pacific Time for fields such as Reg Date Created, e-commerce transaction times, report run times, history records, etc.

> However: Time Zone is available as a Dynamic Data Field (DDF) for use in Email Templates, Confirmation Emails, Custom HTML, Websites, and Web Integration Links.

Account — Default value is the current account

If your account has sub-accounts, you can in which to create the event.

Status — (Required) Select a Status to indicate the current state of the event

Typically, the status is one of these three:

Testing

• The planner is testing to ensure that event setup and forms are operating as expected.
• New registrations are added as "Test" registrations.

Live

• The event is currently accepting real registration data.

> Warning: When you save an event after changing its status to " Live", you also need to take your forms out of test mode.

> You're therefore prompted to select the forms you also want to set to " Live". > ( Default selection: All of them.)

Three notes about this:

1. Your forms are not available for registration until you've sent out or advertised the form URLs.

2. If you're processing payments, ensure that:

• All your payment methods are set and all your forms are set to process online under Forms>Payments.
• The Single Transaction Limit defined under Event Setup > Financials is set with the maximum amount you expect to charge for a single registration. (Reg fee plus all other charges).

3. Your forms are not available for registration until you've sent out or advertised the form URLs.

> Caution: Once you change an event's status to Live you cannot change it back to Testing.

On-Site

• The event is physically in progress.
• Typically, live registration ends when the status is changed from Live to On-Site.

Additional event statuses are available for use before the event. These statuses are available for Meeting Requests (and therefore before registration starts): Incomplete , Requested, Approved, Denied, Planning .

Additional event statuses are available for use after the event takes place: Post-Event, Closed, Cancelled.

Postponed

• The event has been postponed.

> Note: When you save an event after changing its status to "Postponed", you are prompted to select the forms you also want to set to a status of "Closed". (Default selection: All of them.)

> Note: If forms are closed and the event status is "Postponed", an attendee attempting to will see the entry page message configured at Forms > Setup > Advanced.

Access Token — You can generate an access token to restrict access to all forms and websites in the event

• Anyone going to the form or website would have to enter the token before proceeding.
• A form's or website's URL is the same whether it's Live or Test.
• Requiring an access token prevents unauthorized access to any ‘leaked’ links before they are Live.
• Clear the access token to remove this restriction.

Tags — If any Tags have been set up for the account (and assigned to the "Event" object) by your Administrator, you can or more here

> Note: The field is not shown if no such tags have been set up.

> Technical Note: All tags are exposed via Certain's API 2.0. > The APIs associated with the objects will return the associated tags if you include an includeList=tags attribute.

Notes — A place for you to enter planner notes about the event

Note that if the event is used as a template, these Notes are displayed in the template description on the Event Templates page.

External Event ID — An identifier from an external database that uniquely defines the event for that system

• Must be unique for all events within one account.
• Maximum length: 255 characters.
• Use this field if your event has its own event ID on the planner side, separate from the Event Code.
• These IDs are your internal company reference (i.e., external to the Certain platform).

> Warning: Do not change this value unless you fully understand how the Certain platform integrates with your external system.

Registration Capacity — The maximum number of registrations that can be accepted for the event (regardless of attendee type)

• Blank = unlimited capacity.
• (Zero = no registrations can be added.)

For digital events (see Event Webinar below), the Registration Capacity cannot exceed the capacity of the webinar.

> Note: If your event will include Automatic Event Waitlisting, then setting a Registration Capacity here is a prerequisite.

> Caution: If you don't configure Automatic Event Waitlisting, and the number of registrations reaches the figure entered here, then an attendee trying to will be unable to do so, and will see the warning message that you can configure in Form > Setup > Advanced.

A registration is included in the calculation if it is Complete and has a registration status classified as "Accepted".

> Note: The Registration Capacity limit is applied in registration forms, but not if the planner adds a registration on the admin side of Certain.

> Caution: This limit can be exceeded if an incomplete registration (created before the limit was reached) is edited after the limit is reached.

See Plan > Configure > Alerts.

Event Owner — The Certain user who "owns" the event

Select a user from the list.

The list to select from is of all Administrator, Event Builder and Registration Support users in:

• the current account
• the parent account, if the current account is a sub-account
• further parent accounts going up the tree, if there are multiple layers

(The list does not include users from any sub-accounts of the current account.)

Custom Event Data

If no Custom Event Questions have been defined in the account, this section is not displayed.

This section shows any custom questions set up at the account level by the account Administrator (on the Custom Event Data page: Account Settings > Management > Event Data). These custom questions are displayed in all events associated with that account.

If a Custom Event Question is marked as when this page is submitted.

Event Webinar

Displayed only if Digital Events is enabled for the event in Plan > Configure > Options.

For digital events, where you are using a third-party platform such as Zoom or ON24 to host a webinar for the entire event, here you can either:

• Create the webinar on that platform (only if Zoom or ON24) (by clicking Create webinar/meeting)
• Connect to the webinar on that platform (by clicking Connect webinar/meeting)

> Note: You can only link one webinar to an event, and vice versa.

> Best Practice: Do not link the event to a webinar if you will be linking sessions to webinars. (See Conference Session Setup.)

Webinar Option 1: Create Webinar

This option is only available for Zoom and ON24.

> Note: Before you can create a webinar from here, as explained in Digital Events Overview: 1. An administrator must have set up a Connection to that platform in Certain Signal. 2. That connection enables data flow between the two systems as your attendees register.

Click Create webinar/meeting and complete the details:

• Select a webinar/meeting Service configured for your account — probably one of:
• Zoom Webinar
• Zoom Meeting
• ON24 Webinar
• Select a Connection (as set up in Certain Signal).
• Select a Presentation Type – live audio & video or on-demand. (The options available will depend on the Service selected.)
• Select Host(s)
• Click Next
• The webinar will be created on your chosen platform

Webinar Option 2: Connect to Webinar

> Note: Two things must be done before you can enter details here, as explained in Digital Events Overview. 1. You first create the webinar on the webinar platform you are using (probably Zoom or ON24). 2. You will need the ID from that webinar. 3. An administrator must have set up a Connection to that platform in Certain Signal. 4. That connection enables data flow between the two systems as your attendees register.

Click Connect Online Session to open a pop-up window in which you enter the webinar details.

• Integration Type – ( Required) Select the integration being used for this event. The options available will depend on what's enabled for your account – probably only one.
• Zoom Webinar
• Zoom Meeting
• ON24 Webinar
• Integration Connection – ( Required) Select the Connection set up in Signal for the selected Integration Type.
• There's probably only one.
• See your administrator if none are available.
• Meeting/Webinar Id – ( Required) Enter the ID from your webinar platform. In Zoom, for example, that's the 'Webinar Id' when you set the webinar up there
• Note: You can only use a given Meeting/Webinar Id once in an account; you can't use the same one for more than one event (or session).
• Note: The Event Name should be the same as the name of the webinar.
• Note: The Event Start Date and Time should be the same as those of the webinar.

Click Connect Online Session in that pop-up window.

The details of that meeting are displayed from the webinar platform.

> Warning: You cannot change the webinar link after you've confirmed it.

If details are correct, click Confirm Meeting.

> Note: If the webinar schedule is changed on the webinar platform, be sure to correct the details in the event as well.

> Note: If the webina r is later cancelled on the webinar platform, be sure to cance l the event and registrations in Certain.

Delete Webinar

Click to remove the association with the webinar. Possible only if there are no registrations in the event.

Location

The Location is the place where the event occurs. For instance, a conference center, a convention hall, or a hotel where attendees are also lodged. If an event is digital only, the venue could be the webinar provider.

• Location – Select the primary venue for the event, and click Set as Primary Location

• Add New – If the location venue does not appear in the drop-down list, click Add New to add a new Supplier in the Supplier Detail Information pop-up window.

• Edit This Location – Edit the details of the location in the Supplier Detail Information pop-up window.

Available only once a primary location has been set.

> Caution: Changes will affect any other event using the same location.

The location is available as two Dynamic Data Fields (DDFs) when you are writing emails, setting up forms, and configuring websites, for example: Location, and Location Map. (The Location Map DDF shows a thumbnail image of a Google map, which when clicked opens a pop-up Google map of the event location.)

Role Assignments

Background

Roles are a Certain feature designed for team-based event management/production.

An administrator sets up roles, and makes users available to them, in Account Settings > Management > Roles.

If no roles exist in the account, or no users are made available to any that do, then this section is not displayed on the Event Setup page.

List

Roles currently assigned to this event are listed, with their Role name and the Users assigned.

To add a new one, click Assign Role. (See below.)

To delete a role (that is, to not use it in the event), click the icon at the end of the row.

To " unassign " a user from a role, click x next to their name in the Users column for that role.

To remove all the assigned users from a role, click the Remove All Users icon.

Assign Role

Click Assign Role to add roles to this event, and assign users to those roles.

See help for the Assign Roles modal window.

Select the role(s) to add to the event, editing the list of assigned users if necessary, and click Save in that window.

> Important: Each role automatically has all its "available" users assigned to it for the event.

Those roles are now displayed under Role Assignments on this Event Setup page.

You can click the Users field to edit that list for a particular role.

> Note: If a role is marked as "Required " (on Account Settings > Management > Roles ), you must select a user for it here.

Contact

Select the event registration contact: the person providing registration support for the event.

The contacts you can select from are those set up at the account level on the > Contacts page.

Click Set Contact to assign the contact to the event.

> Warning: If you click Edit this Contact, any changes you make will affect all the events using that contact. (That's because it's the same as going to > Contacts and editing the contact there at the account level.)

You can click Add New to open the Contact Detail information page to add a new contact.

Where Contact Information appears:

1. Emails sent to registrants will have the contact's email address as the From and Reply To addresses, so that registrants will respond to the contact if they have queries. > NOTE: When you send email to registrants, the From and Reply To fields saved on the email template take precedence over those of the registration contact on this page and the Account Settings. 2. The contact information can be used in data-driven fields (DDFs) on the event website, registration form, and in the body of email confirmations or templates. (The latter is helpful when setting up a template event to be used for a series of similar events that have different contacts.) 3. Each page of the registration form has a link to a registration assistance form that displays the contact information, enabling registrants to send email directly to the registration contact (including event details by default).

Travel & Accommodation Currency Label

Currency

The label selected here is used as a label for amounts on Flights in the Travel module and Accommodation Blocks in the Accommodation module.

For example, if you select " € - Euro ", then the € symbol precedes those fields where appropriate on screens and reports.