Enable the Outlook calendar integration to send event invitations
The Outlook Calendar integration helps event registrants block off their calendars to attend your events and provides direct access sign-in information from their calendars.
Once enabled, this integration will do the work for you. When a user registers for an event, they’ll automatically receive a calendar invite that holds the time on their calendar and includes event information and the direct event link. This integration uses Outlook as the invite sender, but recipients don't need to be using Outlook to receive the invite.
Note: You’ll need to set up or have an actual Outlook account (not just an email distribution account or alias) to send calendar invites from. We suggest something generic like [email protected].
How it works
Anyone who registers for the event is automatically added to the invitation.
Attendees who are added via the dashboard, bulk imported, or added by API will not receive the calendar invite.
If you view the invitation as the account owner, you will see all of the invitees, but individual invitees will not see anyone else. This means if the event is edited or deleted, those changes will be reflected for every registrant, just like a normal Outlook Calendar event.
If you edit the event in Gradual, the Outlook Calendar event will automatically be updated, but attendees will not be notified, so it's still necessary to notify attendees.
If you delete the event from the account that is the "owner" and tied to the integration, it will delete the event for all registrants, just like if you were deleting a regular Outlook calendar event and send a cancellation notice.
Setting up the integration
Follow the steps below to set up the integration:
Sign into your dashboard.
Select Integrations, scroll to Outlook Calendar, and select Setup.
Select ‘Connect to Outlook Calendar’, choose an account and enable all access, and select Continue.
The integration is set up and moving forward, anytime someone registers for an event they’ll receive a confirmation email and a calendar invite through Outlook.
Changing the account associated with the integration
Follow these steps to change the account associated with the integration:
Sign into your dashboard.
Select Integrations, scroll to Outlook Calendar and hover over the three-dot menu, and select 'Edit'.
Select ‘Edit’, choose an account and enable all access settings, and select 'Continue'.
The integration is set up on the new account. All previous invitations are still valid and remain on registrants' calendars, and moving forward, anytime someone registers for an event they’ll receive a confirmation email and a calendar invite through Outlook.
Recipients may need to still approve calendar invites from you as the sender, but this may aid in the receipt of them:
Ensure that the Outlook integration email address (that you loaded for this integration above) matches an email address that your community already interacts with already
Examples could include your marketing email address or the 'Sender Email' email address in your Gradual community dashboard.
To check or change your email sender email address in Gradual:
Navigate to your dashboard, to 'Settings', to 'System Settings', and your 'Sender Email' will be the first address at the top. To change that email address follow these steps.
Integration errors
Any integration errors will be logged and you can see them by clicking on Errors found below the toggle button for Outlook Calendar Integration or by hovering over the ... icon and clicking on Error Logs.
Limitations
Some limitations exist when it comes to the volume of invites that will be sent per event or per day to avoid impact on the connected account.
The calendar integration will only send up to 1,000 invitations per event and a maximum of 10,000 invitations per day
