Collaborator Guide: Event Hosting

This guide walks you through the tips and tricks to successfully host events in Gradual as a collaborator.

As a reminder, here is the guide to creating, editing, and managing events in the dashboard.

Dashboard

The dashboard is the behind-the-scenes or back end of the community where you can edit events, manage attendees, etc., and will be referenced throughout this guide. Ensure you have access and are comfortable signing into the dashboard.

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!

Event Hosting Tips & Tricks

Event & Community Links

There are a few different links that you should be familiar with and are important to send to your members like the community homepage and direct event link(s).

You can also customize what is visible on the Event Detail Page from within the event dashboard; enable or disable the visibility of the event Agenda, and/or Attendees from within the respective dashboard tabs.

Learn more about these links and where to find them in your dashboard here.

Learn more about the user experience when signing in and registering for events here.

Attendees and Registrants

From within the event dashboard, you can monitor who's registered to attend your event, and details about their engagement when they're logged into the event. The Attendees tab will list out all registrants, and allow you to access each registrant's profile. After the event, you can export attendees and compare that list to those that registered but didn't log in, to see who missed out and would benefit from event replays.

Depending on your access level, you can also manually or bulk register attendees, cancel registrations and export attendee lists from the dashboard.

Learn more about how to export attendees here.

Learn more about manually registering attendees here.

Learn more about bulk registering attendees here.

Learn more about canceling an attendee's registration here.

Profile Completion

On the front end, attendees can see each other's profile information and message one another if they have a completed profile. Aspects of the event like chat, 1:1 matching, and messaging other members are fully dependent on members' completing their profiles. The platform will alert them through a variety of notifications but we suggest encouraging event attendees to sign into the community and complete their profile ahead of the event, so they are ready to engage and enjoy the programming day-of.

Disruptive Messaging or Chat

As an Event Admin or Chat Moderator, you can delete chat messages from members in the event dashboard's Channels tab (livestream events) or on the front end.

Learn more about how to pin, delete, and moderate messages here.

Disruptive Attendees

For any type of event, at any level, you can take action on an attendee to block them from entering any messages into the chat by changing their attendee type to Guest.

1. Sign into the dashboard and select the event from the event list.
2. Select Attendees from the main menu on the left hand side, and select the attendee you'd like to block from chat.
3. In the upper right of their profile, where it lists Attendee in purple, select Guest from the drop down.

This user will be able to see the chat, but will be blocked from entering any messages in the chat moving forward.

Automated Emails

There are a number of automated emails that Gradual can send automatically to confirm an attendee's registration, remind them about the event, and follow up with a link to survey them about the event.

Event Admins or your community administrator can enable or disable these automated emails in the dashboard, within each event.

Learn more about all the automated emails Gradual can send here.

Notifications & Alerts

Notifications are customizable pop-up messages that appear at the top of all users' screens during events. They are great ways to guide attendee behavior, feature and promote certain aspects of your event, and community engagement.

Notifications can be created ahead of the event in the dashboard, but will need to be fired off in real time during the event. Ensure you or someone on your team is lined up to send the notifications and alerts (if needed) 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.
• Alerts are used if there’s something unexpected that needs to be shared right away. The alert is stylized in red to draw attention.

Learn more about event notifications and how to build & send them here.

Assigning & Understanding Host Controls

Meeting rooms and Roundtables can have assigned hosts, panelists and staff members that have elevated controls and features. Ensure you understand these capabilities and assign the right people to host your meeting events.

Learn more about how to assign hosts, and what hosts can do within meeting events here.

Chat and Q&A Moderation

As an Event Admin or Chat Moderator, you can delete chat messages from members in the event dashboard's Channels tab (livestream events) or on the front end.

Learn more about how to pin, delete, and moderate messages here.

Learn more about how to moderate Q&A here.

For any type of event, at any level, you can take action on an attendee to block them from entering any messages into the chat by changing their attendee type to Guest.

1. Sign into the dashboard and select the event from the event list.
2. Select Attendees from the main menu on the left hand side, and select the attendee you'd like to block from chat.
3. In the upper right of their profile, where it lists Attendee in purple, select Guest from the drop down.

This user will be able to see the chat, but will be blocked from entering any messages in the chat moving forward.

Open doors early

Just like in-person events you can open the “doors” to the event before the start time. This allows attendees to join early and get the conversation started before you've officially kicked off programming. Setting up this feature allows members to be all set and ready to go for the event on time.

Learn more about how to adjust the start time here.

Change the date or time of the event

If you need to change the date or time of an event, there are a few places where you will need to make the adjustment to ensure the agenda is updated and all elements are scheduled for the new date and time. All of the changes are made in the Dashboard, within the Event, in Event Setup.

Be sure to follow this checklist to ensure all elements of the event reflect the new date and/or time.

Data and Analytics

In the dashboard, you can see some high-level data about how many registrations you have, how many attendees are logged into the event, or how many matches have taken place.

Learn more about event analytics here.

After your event has ended, you can export and track who attended from your dashboard, within the event's Attendee tab. Compare the list of attendees to those that registered to see who missed out and would benefit from event replays.

Learn more about exporting event attendees here.

After your livestream event has ended, you can also export a session report that shows who tuned in, to what session, and the duration of their attendance in each session.

Learn more about exporting session reports here.

Testing the event

Event administrators can access the live instance of the event before the event starts to test the environment. Here is how you access the event early for testing.

We highly recommend spending some time in the live event instance ahead of your event so you are comfortable with how it looks, how attendees navigate to the different parts of the event, and what they see. This exercise also allows you to test streaming, video and audio, and gives your speakers and support staff confidence before doors open.

Here is a guide and video on how to modify the URL and access the live instance of the event ahead of time to see the users' experience, and test the event.

Troubleshooting

Things happen and you or event attendees may experience issues when accessing or engaging in the event. It is best practice for you and attendees to use the most up-to-date browsers (Google Chrome or Safari are recommended), and a reliable internet connection during events to have the best experience. Because of this, we suggest checking your internet connectivity and reliability, and refreshing your browser as your first step in troubleshooting any issues.

Below are two instances where attendees may experience issues, but if you are unable to troubleshoot the issue at hand, reach out to your community administrator to connect you with the Gradual team.

Mobile-friendly

Currently, members can register for events on a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) and watch live streamed events, but cannot engage in interactive video calls like 1:1 match networking, meeting video calls, or roundtables.

Passwordless login

Members also sign in through a passwordless login system and sometimes the magic link email can get lost in spam folders, or take some time to deliver to the user's inbox. If they are not receiving the link to login, contact your community administrator to evaluate their member access and resend their link.

Event Replays

Once you've hosted your event, posting recordings and videos from the programming ensures the event lives on, and members continue to engage with the content. Include speakers' slides and written content in the community's blogs and resources, too.

Learn more about publishing post-event replays as content here.

Learn more about publishing blogs here.

Livestream Events

Attendee's experience

Livestream events are the most robust event type in Gradual and allow attendees to engage in a variety of ways, depending on the agenda set up and schedule. When the event is live, users will join and be directed to the event home page which includes a number of menu items for them to explore:

• A Live tab that streams a video feed when stages are live
• A Speakers tab to browse the speakers and panelists for the event
• An Agenda tab to explore the schedule and attend sessions
• A Match tab to engage in 1:1 match networking
• A People tab to see who's attending or logged into the event
• A Messages tab to see or send any messages with other attendees
• A Help tab to contact the community admin for assistance

Attendees can engage in a variety of experiences, depending on the agenda sessions, and can continuously network with other attendees in the Match tab, or through messaging during the event.

Learn more about session types and formats here to better understand the experience for your attendees.

Live streaming

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

We have seen success using Restream, VMix, OBS, Zoom, Riverside.fm, StreamYard, and various hardware encoders as streaming services, but any livestream encoder or software capable of sending an RTMP stream can be used. You must connect the streaming service to the Gradual event with the information provided in the Stage Settings tab within the event dashboard.

Learn more about successful live streaming in Gradual here.

Recording

Gradual does not record the live stream so be sure to plan to record your session in whatever service you are using to stream to Gradual if you want to share them as replays or video content pieces later.

Moderating Chat & Emoji reactions

Channels are the persistent chats within your events. You can monitor chat messages within the event dashboard in the Channels tab. You can pin important messages to the top of the chat feed, or delete messages that are not relevant or appropriate.

Learn more about how to manage event chat messages here, under Events Channels Management.

Emoji reactions can be sent by attendees in livestream events in reaction to the content. The platform automatically enables this feature but if you find they are distracting during the livestream, or are being misused, you can disable all emoji reactions from the dashboard, ahead of the event, or while it is live if you find they are becoming distracting or being misused. Attendees can also turn off emoji reactions themselves while in the event if they do not want to see them or send them.

Learn more about emoji reactions and settings here.

Orienting your attendees

It's important to orient event attendees to the community, event agenda, and the functions of Gradual during an event. Spend some time in the live event instance ahead of your event so you are comfortable with how it looks, how attendees navigate to the different parts of the event, and what they see. Here is how you access the event early for testing.

We've drafted a script for this very purpose here. Use portions of this script at kick-off when you're welcoming attendees to your event.

Sponsor Booths

Sponsors (if added) are always visible on the event detail page and their booths are accessible and 'live' throughout the event. Encourage members to visit the booths in the Sponsors tab through notifications, or in your scripting when live on air. Associate sponsors to 'Speaking Session' agenda items in the dashboard and throughout the live stream feed, a small pop-up will appear at the base of the attendee's screen notifying them of this sponsorship.

After the event has ended, all engagement in sponsor booths can be found in the dashboard Analytics tab within the booths: see booth visits and the number of views of featured content, links, etc. If lead capture was enabled on a feature, you can also access that data in the Leads Captured tab within the booth or empower your sponsor admins to export that data themselves.

Learn more about the analytics and reporting on sponsor booths at the base of this guide.

Learn more about how to guide a sponsor admin to access the data and leads from their booth here.

Meeting Events

Attendee's experience during the event

Meeting events function like a group video call, and allow users the ability to be on camera and audio throughout the call. When the event is live, users will join and be directed to the event home page that prompts them to configure their camera and microphone to join the call. Once that is set up, they will enter the group call, and depending on the hosts' settings, can engage in conversation, watch presentations, and ask questions. The live chat is accessible and visible by all and will remain persistent after the event is over, and accessible in the members' Messages tab in the community.

Host capabilities

There are a number of features that you can utilize and enable as the Host of a meeting room or roundtable. You can assign one, or multiple hosts to meetings and roundtables in the dashboard and make changes in real-time to who's assigned host if changes are needed to access and controls while within the call. 

We suggest you or another event administrator be assigned as the host to record the meeting, control audio & visual settings, and configure breakout rooms. Speakers or presenters can be added as Panelists to screen share and come off mute independently, no matter what controls the host has in place, but not have elevated controls like the Host.

Learn more about how to assign hosts and about all the controls and features available to hosts and panelists here.

1:1 Match Events

Attendee's experience during the event

When the event is live, users will join the event and be directed to the event home page that includes a Match tab to engage in the 1:1 matching, a People tab to see who's attending or logged into the event, a Messages tab to see or send any messages with other attendees, a History tab to list out their match history and a Help tab to contact the community admin for assistance.

Interested parties will opt into the matching experience by selecting 'Get Started', be put into a queue, and paired randomly with another attendee who’s opted into the experience. Members are paired for a 10-minute video call with another attendee and have the opportunity to approve or disapprove their suggested match without notifying the other party. Any chat messages between the two parties are persistent after the event is over, and accessible in the members' Messages tab in the community.

Learn more about the experience and instructions for attendees here.

As the host of this type of event, there is nothing you need to manage for it to work successfully. If you'd like to engage and match with attendees, you can follow the steps detailed in the attendee's experience guide linked above.

In-Person Events

Check-in attendees

For In-Person events, you are able to manage on-site check-in within the Gradual Dashboard. Here you can check in users, register new attendees on-site, and export lists of users who are checked in or are still due to check in.

Learn more about in-person check in here.