Collaborator Guide: Event Creation & Management

The guide below walks you through the steps to create, edit and manage events from your event dashboard. 

Dashboard

The dashboard is the behind-the-scenes or back end of the community where you can create events, make edits, manage attendees, etc.  

The administrator of your community has configured your access and permissions, so if you think there is something you should be able to access or see that's not available, reach out to your administrator directly. 

The direct link to your dashboard is dashboard.gradual.com. 

Navigate to that link and sign in by entering your email address in the email field. This will prompt the system to send a magic link to your email inbox to log into the dashboard.


Follow the link in your inbox and you will be directed to the dashboard. Select the community you will be managing, and you're in!

Creating & Editing Events

The guide below walks through creating and editing events & the access and permissions for those in the Event Editor level (fewest permissions/most limited access) to the Event Admin level (most permissions/most expansive access).

The permissions and access build off of the level before, so Event Managers have all the permissions and access of an Event Editor, plus any listed below that level. An Event Admin has all permissions and access of an Event Editor, plus those of an Event Manager, plus any listed below that level. 

Event Editor

As an Event Editor, you can create, edit and manage many elements of an event.


Creating an event

Select the + Create an event button in the upper right and enter all necessary information:

  • Event type: Select from the four types of events available in Gradual: Livestream, In-Person, Meeting, 1:1 Match
    • Learn more about each type of event here
  • Title: Enter a title for the event
    • This will be visible to users on the front end
  • Timezone & Date: Select the timezone and date when the event is being hosted 
    • Users will see the date and time adjust to their local timezone on the front end

 

Editing an event

You can add and edit lots of information and elements to events for increased visibility and engagement. The below guide walks you through each menu item found on the left-hand side, within each event. 

Overview

This is the event dashboard page where you can see event registration, attendees online, and general data analytics. Most importantly, the direct event link can be found at the top of this page, to direct members to the event on the front end.

Publish or Unpublish the event

All events remain hidden (unpublished) until an admin or collaborator takes action to publish them.

As an Event Editor, you do not have access to change this setting and must reach out to your Event Manager, Event Admin or Community Manager to publish your event.

Event Link

The Event Link at the top of this page is the direct link to the event that can be shared with potential registrants, and attendees to sign in.


Event Setup

General Info

This is where you can change information about the event like Title, Timezone, and Date. For in-person events, you can list the physical address where the event is taking place. 

Note: If you do change the date of the event, ensure you make the change in the agenda.

Admit Attendees

Set what date and time 'doors open' or the event page goes live.

  • If 'When Event Begins' is selected, the event page will go live at the date and time entered in 'Date' above.

  • If 'At Specified Time' is selected, you will select the date and time that the event page will go live and attendees can access the live event. This is great if you want to allow folks to join a few minutes early. This will result in the 'Join' button being available at the time you specify so attendees can join, but doesn’t change the published start time or other information about the event.


Watch On Demand

This is enabled when the event has ended and allows you to enter a URL for users to watch a replay of the event. 

💡 Pro Tip: Follow these steps to publish post-event replays. 

Description

Provide a description of the event. You can customize the content block with different text types (headers, quotes, links, numbered lists, tables, etc.). You can also embed code or iframes, and insert graphics, tweets, and videos. 

Cover

Upload an image to stand as the graphic for the event. It's recommended as a JPG file that is no more than 5MB. 

Tags

Tags are used to group events, and power recommendations to the user. You can select from a previously added Tag, or enter a new Tag.

Keep tags short and sweet, and add as many as you'd like. They will populate as hashtags on the event detail page.  

Organized By

Select who's listed as organizing this event. The system will automatically list the community as the organizer but if you'd like to list an organizer other than the community, select the edit icon and select individual(s) from the list of members, or add organization(s) to promote partnerships, etc. 

Meeting Room (populates for Meeting type events)

Assign meeting hosts and panelists for your event. Meeting events must have at least one host assigned, and that host must be an attendee of the event.

Learn more about the capabilities of a host versus a panelist, and how to add and assign them here.

Agenda

Build out or edit your event agenda by adding sessions, speakers, and engagement opportunities. 

If you are building a 1:1 Match networking event, you will not need to build an agenda.

Note: At the top of the Agenda page you can toggle the visibility of the agenda 'on' if you want it to show on the front end to members, or 'off' if you want it hidden.

Often event organizers will toggle visibility 'off' until the agenda is finished, and ready to be published to members of the community.

Days and Tracks: Each event automatically creates a 1 day, 1 track event during your initial build. If you want to add days or tracks, use the Manage days and Manage tracks buttons. 

Manage Days

If you have a multi-day event, you can select Manage Days to add a day, or change the date of Day 1. You can also rename the Day to be anything you'd like.

Note:  If you do change the date of the event, ensure you make the change in the General Info tab and in the agenda.

Manage Tracks

If you have a multi-track event, you can select Manage Tracks to add a track, change the day assigned to tracks and rename the Track to be anything you'd like. 

Note: You will see Stage selection in Manage Tracks, which is addressed further down in this resource. 

Building the Agenda

1
Select the +Add to the agenda button, select the Day and Track, and enter a title for your session. 
Most events will be Day 1 and Track 1, but the drop-down menu is available if you are planning a multi-day event or summit that require different tracks and days. 

2
Choose the type, and format (if applicable), fill in the description, and enter the times. Select 'Submit' to save your work. 

To learn more about session types and formats visit this Resource. 

3
You can select your Speaker(s) within the Agenda items as well, or Add a + New Speaker if needed. For some events, you can add a Sponsor to the event, as well.

4
Select Submit at the base of the page to save your work.
Continue adding sessions until your agenda is complete!

Editing the Agenda

If you need to Edit or change a session, select the Edit button within the agenda item block.

You can edit all fields except Type. If you need to edit or change the type of session, you will need to delete the agenda item/session and create a new agenda item/session with the corrected type. 

If you need to Delete a session, select the Delete button within the agenda item block, and confirm your deletion by selecting Delete. 

Stages

The stages menu item is where you find all the information to conduct live streaming into your event.

Gradual does not have a native streaming service, so if you are live streaming into an event you will need to connect the event stage(s) to a streaming service to feed the video to the event attendees.

Editing Stages

All events will automatically configure one stage and title it 'Stage 1'. If you want to change the name of the stage, select Edit, enter a new title, and select Submit to save your work.

If you are hosting a multi-track event where you will be streaming video for two or more sessions at the same time, you will need to add stages to accommodate multiple stream feeds.

You add a stage by selecting the + Add A Stage button in the upper right. You will need to name each additional stage and the platform will automatically build a Stream Key and Stream RTMP URL for you.

Connecting to a streaming service

Gradual supports any streaming service or encoder that can output an RTMP stream.

When it's time to connect your streaming service to the stage(s) in Gradual, follow these steps, depending on the service you are utilizing:

Speakers

All the speakers for your event can be found here. You can add or remove speakers, and reposition how speakers populate when listed on the event detail page.

Note: Adding speakers within the event agenda will also add them to your speaker database at the community level.

Add speakers to the event:

1
Sign into your dashboard and select the Events tab from the main menu
2
Select the event you'd like to add the speaker to
3
Select Event Setup, then Speakers
4
Select +Add Speaker button in the upper right
5
Search for the speaker from the list and select Add, or select +New Speaker (And fill in the necessary information about the speaker and upload a headshot) and select Save and Add. Insert an element

Add speakers from within the event agenda:

1
Select Agenda and the agenda item you’d like to add the speaker to
2
Select +Add Speaker button in the upper right
3
Search for the speaker from the list and select Add, or select +New Speaker (And fill in the necessary information about the speaker and upload a headshot) and select Save and Add.
Note: Adding a speaker to an event or agenda item does not mean they’re registered for the event. Send them the link to register for the event to ensure they have access to the event.

Delete Speakers:

Remove speakers from the event by selecting the edit icon in the Action column and selecting 'Remove from Event'. Removing speakers will also remove them from any agenda items they've been assigned.

Note: Removing speakers from the event will not remove them from the community speaker database.

As an Event Editor you do not have access to remove Speakers from the community speaker database.

Reposition Speakers:

Repositioning speakers will reorder them on the event detail page on the front end. Reposition your speakers by dragging the three-line, hamburger icon in the Sort column to the order you'd like displayed.

Roundtables

Roundtables are simple, on-platform video calls that users can host, or join, to discuss topics and build new connections within your events. Roundtables can be hosted concurrently to other roundtables and agenda items, and allow users to pop in and out at their leisure without needing to register for each roundtable.

Learn more about how to build roundtables here.

Time Slots

Ensure your roundtable has at least one time slot added to ensure attendees can engage in the video call during the event.

Add a time slot by selecting the Roundtable from the list by clicking on its Title. At the base of the page, Select + New Time Slot and enter the scheduled start date and time, select OK and enter the scheduled end date and time, select OK. Enter the number of seats and decide if you want to add a host. You can select a host from the list of attendees.

Emails

As an Event Editor, you are not able to make changes to the automated platform emails.

Notifications

Within Gradual events you can launch push Notifications. Notifications are pop-up messages that appear at the top of all users' screens within the event.

As a collaborator, you must activate and push the notification in real-time, during the event but all types of notifications can be created before an event and then turned on and off one at a time, during the event.

Announcements are used to notify users of an update or call to action. You can add links to announcements that will activate a button on the pop-up that users can follow.

For example: Another stage is live or a session has begun. Here Is How To Link To Specific Livestream Stages.

Alerts are used if there’s something unexpected that needs to be shared right away. The alert is stylized in red to draw attention.

For example: A delay on start time or a presentation. 


Learn more about how to set up notifications and activate them during events here.

SEO Settings

Ensure that your event is optimized for online searching by adding keywords associated with the event, changing the image that is used when members share on social, and even updating the 160-character count description that's listed. The event description listed in Event Setup will automatically load in the SEO Settings description but you can change it to be a more descriptive one or two-line explanation and to draw in registrants. The Social Sharing Image will default to the cover image loaded in Event SetUp as well.

Attendees

All registrants and attendees to the event are listed in this tab. Details on their ticket type, total amount paid, and date and time of registrant are all listed here. Search by registrants' information and access their profile and ticket information by selecting their name, avatar or the eye icon.

You can also toggle the visibility of the attendee list on the front-end event detail page on this page, in the upper right-hand side.


As the Event Editor, you will not see the members' email addresses and cannot add or remove attendees from the event.

Recording

Hosts can record meetings and roundtables (NOT livestream or 1:1 events). All recordings are saved as mp4 files and are accessible from the Recordings tab. If there are multiple recordings for one event, they will list in chronological order and show the duration of the recording in the Time column. 

💡 Pro Tip: Publish Post-Event Replays of your meeting events to encourage engagement on topics and conversations even after the event has concluded. 

Channels

Channels are the chats associated with each stage. If an event has happened or is in process, you will see all chat messages come through in real-time. If the event has not happened yet, there will not be any chat messages, and you cannot draft messages from the dashboard.


During an event, moderate, delete and pin live messages that come in from attendees, by following these steps.

💡 Pro Tip: Draft a message that welcomes everyone to the event (and provides housekeeping items) and drop it in the chat as the first message folks see when they join. Then, pin the message in the dashboard in Channels to ensure everyone sees it.

Ticket Setup

Here you can make edits to the types of tickets provided, any promo codes or discounts offered, and create eye-catching and graphic virtual tickets for your event registrants to share and promote your event.

Promo Codes

You can create promo codes to apply discounts to paid tickets when event registrants are checking out. 

Learn more about how to create promo codes here.

Ticket Types

A "Free Ticket" at $0 cost is automatically set up for each event but you can edit the Ticket's name and cost, and add any number of types of tickets (with costs associated to them, or not) that your event registrants can choose from when registering. You can also limit the number of tickets available in each ticket type, and provide a description that will populate on the front end for users to get a better idea of what the ticket includes.

Here is an example of what users will see on the front end:

'Standard Ticket' and 'Full Table' are the ticket type Names and the descriptive text below them are the Descriptions added in the dashboard.

If you are setting up a ticket type that has a cost associated with it, a payment gateway will need to be set up by the Gradual team to collect payments. Reach out to your community admin, or our team to set that up.

Virtual Ticket

Virtual tickets are a great way to encourage attendees to market your event on social media and drive referrals through link shares. Once enabled, these tickets create a virtual ticket graphic and a personalized page for each registrant that encourages them to share their participation in the event and allows you as the event administrator to track referrals. 

Learn more about Virtual Tickets here.

Event Permissions

Here you can see all other event collaborator and their roles.

Event Manager

Event Managers have all access and permissions listed above under Event Editor plus the ability to publish or unpublish an event, and export event attendees' information.

Publish or Unpublish the event

Published:

Published events are visible, and searchable on the front end of the community.

Once you have built out the event and are ready for it to 'go live' for registrations and have the event populate on the front end of the community, you must Publish it.

You can publish an event in two ways:

  • From the Overview page: Select the Actions button in the upper right and select Publish
  • From the main menu in the event dashboard: Select the green Publish button in the bottom left (this button will appear on all pages within the event dashboard - not just on the Overview page)
Unpublished:

Unpublished events are hidden from members on the front end and the community home page or event page. Keep an event unpublished while it is in draft form, or if you want it hidden from community members, and unsearchable from the community homepage.


All events remain hidden and unpublished until an admin or collaborator takes action to publish them. If you need to unpublish an event, select the Actions button in the upper right, and select Unpublish.

💡 Pro Tip: Unpublished events are visible and accessible through the direct event link!
If you would like to invite certain members to register and attend an event, but don't want that event visible to all members, keep it unpublished and share the event link with only the people you'd like to register and attend!

Attendees

In addition to all the capabilities and access listed above, you are able to export all attendees of the event.

Learn more about how to export attendees here.


As the Manager, you will not see the members' email addresses in the dashboard or in the export reports, and cannot add or remove attendees from the event.

Event Admin

Event Admins have all access and permissions listed above under Event Editor AND Event Manager, plus the ability to export event attendees' information (including email addresses), add or remove event registrants, enable automated email reminders, and delete events entirely. 

Overview

Delete Event

If you would like to delete an event entirely, you have the ability to do that as an Event Admin.

From the Overview page, select the Actions button in the upper right and select Delete. Confirm this action by typing delete in the open field and selecting Delete.

Deleting the event will remove all instances of the event including registrations, calendar invites and analytics associated with the event. Any attendees registered for this event will be automatically unregistered.

If you'd like an event to be hidden from the front end, but not deleted entirely, you can simply unpublish it by selecting the Actions button in the upper right, and selecting Unpublish.


Event Setup

Emails

Gradual makes event communication easy by providing standard email templates sent out by the platform. While these templates are not editable, some can be turned on and off, and be customized with your community name, logo, and email sender name and address. 

As an Event Admin you are able to enable or disable four automated event emails: Registration confirmation email, 24 hour and 30 minute Reminder emails and the post-event survey email.


Learn more about what these emails look like and when they are delivered here.


Attendees

In addition to all the capabilities and access listed above, you have access to members' profiles (including email addresses), can make edits to profiles, export all attendees of the event and cancel registrations.


In the Attendees tab, you can access members' profiles and make edits to their sign up profile information (name, title, company, LinkedIn URL and headshot). Any additional profile information (onboarding and profile question answers) must be completed by the member.


Learn more about how to export attendees here.

Learn more about manually registering attendees here.

Learn more about canceling an attendee's registration here.


Now that you've built your event, learn more about how to successfully host and stream the event for your attendees here!

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