NOTE: EventsAir Version 16 is here and if you've already updated, your screen won't look exactly like this video. In the newer version:
The event selection screen (opening screen) is cleaner, and Global Tools are under the Menu button.
The Navigation menu (in an event) is on the left-hand side.
Some tools have now been grouped (e.g. Attendee Action Buttons in the Attendees Panel are now all under the "Actions" button, top right).
After a changeover period, all our videos will be updated.
A big thank you to the folks at BTP Conference Centre for allowing us to come in and film the webinar intro. If you're in Australia, check them out!
We'd also like to thank Event Tech Live Las Vegas 2023 and the team at the EventsAir booth for showing us around (via live stream) in this month's US webinar.
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Q&A
These questions have been collated from the 3 regional webinars. Some questions were asked by more than one person, so you may not see the exact same wording you used in your question. Also we can only answer in general terms, so bear in mind your specific situation may need a different solution.
Lead management
How can I allow other people (not just the main contact for the exhibition stand) to manage leads? What if the main contact isn’t attending?
There are different ways to do this, but you should consider the pros and cons (for example, how it’ll appear in the Attendee App.) Also, are you talking about scanning leads or downloading them as an export? The Exhibition Portal is where an exhibitor retrieves leads from (as exports). The person with the stand on their record can do that (not people with complimentary registrations). So the best thing is to identify in advance who that person would be or change them on the day. The below may also help.
To assign multiple people to one stand and give them access to scan leads, you can add them as “co-exhibitors” (even though this is designed for people from a separate company, so attendees will see multiple listings). Make the contact record with the exhibition stand a group contact (they HAVE to be the group contact) and designate co-exhibitors as group members (instead of adding the stand to their individual records as a co-exhibitor). Then in the Attendee App > Details, enable the checkbox “Allow Exhibitor Group members to access leads and meetings”.
Alternatively, add extra contacts as additional email addresses on the main contact’s record, and they’ll receive the login email details. However, this means they’re all using the main contact’s login and could potentially overwrite or change information. So test beforehand and make sure you understand the process.
Another option (for example if the main contact suddenly needs to leave and you want someone else to take over), is to have them log in to the Exhibitor Portal and update the main contact details to assign someone else to that role.
Please reach out to Support for more information if needed.
Can there be lead management without any questions?
When the exhibitor scans an attendee’s code, if there are no questions, it’ll just have a submit button. In that case, the exhibitor will probably want to ask the attendee before pressing 'submit', just to ensure they’re happy to be contacted.
Portal Design
If you have multiple forms - interactive sites (more than 3) for exhibitors to fill out, how do you show them on the Exhibitor Portal?
You have 2 main forms for adding new registrations – complimentary registrations (tickets); and the second site would be the paid tickets. You can also have other forms in the portal where the main contact can log in and add extra forms – up to 3. Those aren’t used for adding extra registrations; they’re more for extra info for the main company – accommodation bookings, extra marketing questions, payment sites. We didn’t cover this much in the webinar but we’ll ensure it’s on the help site materials.
On the exhibition portal, if people choose “space only” or “standard” and select the wrong kind it won’t invoice – is there a way to stop this?
You can get rid of either space only or standard (with a bit of HTML code that we can supply to you). Reach out to the support team for more information – they’ll also give you that advice about the limitations of any code supplied. Then in your set up you just put a price against one of them if you’re only using one.
Under sponsorship packages, the cost is displayed with brackets and no spaces (for example, 50 000 is shown as 50000). Can we change this and add a currency symbol? (Same question for sponsorship and exhibition portals)
There is some coding to stop those brackets, so you can reach out to Support for that. However just be aware that any code supplied by Support comes with some important provisos around its use. In particular, we can’t give ongoing support or further modifications within the normal support services. Support can give you more information about this.
Resources for Exhibitors
Have you got a standard video to help exhibitors with the app and lead management?
No, although we do have information you can send to exhibitors. You’re also welcome to book in some extra training or reach out so support, and keep an eye out for upcoming materials.
It's also better in some ways if you create your own resources with your own branding, using our materials as a guide or reference point, because ours are quite generic and you can better tailor yours to the features you want your exhibitors to use.
Sponsorship
If sponsors are also exhibitors, do you use both the exhibitor and sponsorship portals? Are you going to merge these?
Some options here are: you could perhaps use the Exhibitions module for both Sponsors and Exhibitors, manually add Sponsor records, use Packages, use URLs rather than files, or some other method. The Dev and Product teams are working on a whole range of things and we can’t really advise on any specifics. However, it depends a lot on your own set up and may want to talk to Support / Success team to workshop it a bit more to meet your needs.
If you have both sponsorship and exhibition items for one contact, how do you split the charges?
You can set up different invoice groups for sponsorship and exhibition. So if for example you go into the Set Up - Exhibition module, click Preferences, then Advanced, you’ll see there’s an option called Invoice Group. You can decide to make exhibition items Group A, sponsorship items Group B, and so on. That way you’ll get split invoices on their record, rather than having them bundled in together.
Websites
Can you link a company website to an exhibitor’s profile (in the Attendee App)?
If we’re talking about the Exhibition main contact, when you set up the interactive site, you can include a website contact field that will pull into Meeting Hub and other areas. Also, you can add URLs into ‘documents’ as a link, and this can include not just websites but also things like digitally-published brochures, so that’s a really great feature too – visitors to the stand can view or download these.
Contact record
Does the non-attending main contact's name appear in the Attendee App as an exhibitor?
No, but if you want them to appear in that app, then they need to be added as one of the complimentary (or paid) registrations, because that’s how the Attendee App knows who’s going to be there.
If an exhibitor main contact also has complimentary registration, they have 2 profiles – can we merge them?
So if it’s an extra complimentary registration that’s been added and you have two records (e.g. John Smith with a booth attached, and another record for John Smith with a registration type), you can merge records together (with the Duplicate Finder) but that might remove one of the complimentary tickets from the portal.
But having two records for the same person can cause headaches, especially when they have the same email address. So it’s better to merge them, setting the record with the exhibition stand as the main when merging. The extra complimentary registration will be added on to the record when the two are merged, but you can just delete that afterwards so it returns to the complimentary registrations’ inventory on the portal. You may want to also reach out to support for more assistance.
When an exhibitor completes a registration in the exhibition portal does it create an attendee record?
Yes, it’ll create a new record with a registration type of either complimentary or paid, depending on which category was used. (Those complimentary and paid registrations attached to each booth are there so an exhibitor can log in and add additional staff attending on the day.)
Can you 'move' an expo booking from one contact to another (with logo/profile, etc)?
You can do a ‘replace attendee’ on a record and it moves all data from one record to another, under tools on the Attendee Panel.
Floor Plan
Can you upload a floor plan design and overlay the booths into the correct positions?
Yes - just insert the image into the floor plan builder, resize it appropriately, then add your stands/booths in (to make it interactive on your portal). Your designer may make a ‘pretty’ floor plan with colored booths but you’ll want yours to have colors indicating the booth status (e.g. whether or not it’s been booked or is available), and that should be interactive – the colors should change when the status changes in the portal. So you could ask your designer to make the template plan with just outlines for the booths/stands.
Also ask them to have a scale ruler on the plan so you can accurately resize the image to fit the grid (so 1 meter on the plan = 1 meter on the grid). It may help if you can show them the floor plan grid beforehand.
Is there a way to hide exhibitor names on the floor plan?
Yes, there are various options you can set in the Exhibition App set up (Floor Plan – Content).
Can you offer some Floor Plan design tips (sizing, font – so that stand names don’t auto resize – fit to page, add branding to exhibitor list, import a plan, icons for coffee/exit etc, text, borders, branding?)
We’ll come back to you specifically, but also you can find answers on this on the help site – search for “Floor Plan”.
Bulk invoice
Can you do a bulk invoice to all exhibitors as you would for other items on attendee records?
Yes, you could change all ‘reserved’ to ‘confirmed’, using a Bulk Change, then issue invoices (filtering for exhibition items).
Checklist
On the checklist, can you add deadlines on the backend for exhibitors to upload their information (logo, company description, etc.)?
The ‘checklist’ you create in Set Up - Preferences is like the one for presenters – it’s a way for you to keep notes with dates that you can check off within the attendee record. This isn’t the same as the list of items shown to exhibitors when they book a stand on the portal (which is auto-generated based on what items you’ve enabled in the portal). You could possibly create a reminder email based on filtering by those items to give them a list of deadlines
Log In
If you have forgotten your password, there is no option to reset your password?
As a workaround, you can create a site, and have that as a “forgot password” link. Then on that interactive site, you just have a sign-in page and you can re-set your password there. We have some instructional text that can walk you through that. Talk to Support for more information. We’ve got some limitations around supplying code so they’ll give you that information too.
When creating an account, exhibitors still get the ‘create account’ instructions at the 2nd step - can this be changed?
Yes, all the text is just an example. You can add images, tailor the text. For example, on the landing page you can have something like the below (you do this in the portal builder, under Landing Page, Content, HTML):
Welcome to the [Name of event] Exhibition Portal!
FIRST TIME HERE: Please select 'Create New Booking' button to create a new account
EXISTING ACCOUNT: View or modify your booking by signing in under "Existing Booking"
A list of available stands is below. You can also select View Interactive Floor Plan to see bookings in real time.
Then on the New Booking page, under Content, HTML editor, you can change the text to something like:
Once you have created an account, you can book a stand.Click 'View Interactive Floor Plan' to open the exhibition floor plan in a separate tab on your browser. To book your stand, choose your stand type from the Type drop-down menu.