Create sessions that your attendees will attend and engage with throughout the duration of your Virtual Event
Create your sessions for your Virtual Events. These sessions are the bread and butter of your event, as they will be what you attendees engage with virtually. Imagine a series of webinars located in one central location, these are your sessions. BigMarker users should follow the following steps to create sessions for their Virtual Events.
Creating Sessions
1. On your Virtual Event's Manage Event dashboard, click Sessions.
2. Click Add Session.
3. Give your session a name.
4. Select whether the session will be virtual, in person only or hybrid
- If in person or Hybrid is selected, use the dropdown menu to select the room
- If hybrid is selected, choose if the session will be streamed, recorded and use the dropdown menu to select the room. This will place tags on the companion app per session with these tags displayed as a visual for attendees.
5. Select whether the session will be live or on-demand
6. Select the agenda you would like the session to be attached to. (Learn more about your event’s Agenda here).
7. Set the date, time and duration of the session. Click Change to change the timezone the session is in.
8. Add a description about the session
9. Your Agenda will show all the sessions contained in your Virtual Event so attendees can choose which sessions they would like to attend. Below is an example of an Agenda with sessions.
Select whether you would like the session to be added to the agenda as a separate agenda item, a sub-agenda item or not on the agenda at all.
- If a sub-agenda item is selected, use the dropdown menu to select which agenda item to attach it to or leave blank to create its own separate sub-agenda item.
10. Click Save & Exit
You have a few optional choices for your sessions as well. You can create a session from an existing template, have registrants who register to your main Agenda be registered to the session, or elect to use the session as a test session for dry-runs of your virtual event.
For Hybrid or On-site sessions, you can choose to have the session display on both the mobile and browser event, or just on the browser event. This way, you can segment your Agendas to show the sessions happening on that specific device.
Once saved, the session will appear on your Sessions tab where you can manage additional components.
Managing a Session
1. On the session of choice, click Manage
2. On the Basics tab, edit any of the original settings created when creating your session
3. On the Graphics tab, you can include thumbnail images and app banner images for the session that will display on the Companion app. Click edit to upload the file for each image you’d like to display.
4. On the Settings tab, you can adjust the settings for each session. Each setting comes with more options to personalize the event. You will need to click Edit to adjust each.
- Auto Enter: Select whether you would like auto enter to be off, on for everyone or only for registrants
- Waiting Room: The waiting room is where attendees will wait before the event begins. This room can have audio or video and gives a preview of your event. Select whether you would like a waiting room for the session. If you would like a waiting room, select when attendees are able to enter it and if it should open automatically to the event.
- Emails: Setting on your emails for the session. If they are on, you can click Customize to be brought to the email backend to add in your customizations
- Exit URL: Customize the exit URL for your session
5. On the Presenters tab, you will be able to manage the presenters for the session. You can add presenters to the session, email them their personalized URL, copy the link for their personalized URL to manually send them or click Advanced Settings to add new presenters to the session.
6. On the Content tab, you will be able to preload your session’s materials, such as handouts, polls, presentations, videos, on-demand videos, and offers. Click the plus icon to add the material into its appropriate section. If you would like any of your content automated, refer to the Automation section below.
7. On the Emails tab, you will be able to turn on the emails needed for the session. As mentioned, you can click Customize under the Settings tab to add your customizations for each but you will need to turn them on under this tab. By default, they will all be disabled and you will need to toggle on the ones of choice.
8. On the Automation tab, manage the automated timeline for your session. Click the plus icon to add automation for the session.
Watch the attendee experience of joining a session in live action: