This feature is available for Enterprise and White Label Plans only
This feature can be used together with the Session Reviewer Approval Process. Please ensure to read and understand both processes.
The Session and Speaker Approval Process
The Session and Speaker Registration Approval feature allows you to review speaker applications and session proposals before they're added to your event. This guide will walk you through how to enable the application process and understand what happens when proposal are submitted and approved.
How Does It Work?
Once the session approval is enabled, a "Call for Sessions" section will appear on the event's landing page's About tab. When applicants click the button to submit a session, they will be asked to log in or create an account, then enter their personal information, session and speaker details.
You will receive the request in the admin console wherein you can review their proposal. When you approve their request, they will receive an email stating they have been approved and to wait for more instructions. The speaker(s) will also get the speaker invite email - we suggest to turn this off before approving and send it to them when you've adjusted the session to its correct schedule.
A regular session will be automatically created in draft mode and they will added as speakers to the session. The session schedule will be the first hour of the event. If they have indicated the duration in minutes in the request, the duration will be considered in the session creation.
Notes:
The session approval feature is also available in the advanced event website pages. Just add the widget to the page.
The session approval works with recurring events.
You can turn off the session approval feature anytime. If you enable it again, the requests will remain there.
Enable The Session Registration Approval Feature
Go to Registration > Approvals
Select the Session tab
Enable the toggle for Enable Session Submission Approval
After enabling it, you should see the Session Registration feature on the landing page's right side of the About tab.
Customize the Session Registration Section on Landing Page
Go to Event Design > Event Website > Edit Website
Scroll down to find the text boxes to enter the custom text
Click the Submit Session button to edit the text button
Notes:
Title has a 50 character limit
Description has a 150 character limit
Text button has a 50 character limit and the button color cannot be changed
Customize the Questions
In the Approval menu, go to the Session > Form tab to add and customize the questions to be asked depending on what information you need from them.
Session Questions
Session Questions
Create a Custom Field
In the Session Details tab, click +Add Field > Create Custom Field to add more session questions. Enable the include toggle to have the question show in the form. You can also make the questions required.
Field Mapping
The Field Mapping settings in the create a custom field menu allows you to link an existing session property to make the answer in the form appear in the session edit menu when approved.
In Event Content > Agenda > Properties, you can create custom properties or fields that would appear in the session in the admin console. The content of these custom properties will not appear anywhere in the landing page, virtual event hub or app, these are only for internal use.
You can link these custom properties to your form so that when you collect session details through the approval process, the answers from the request will automatically appear on the session once approved.
Select the field type
Add the form label
Click the search field to see the session properties with the same field type as selected above.
Select the existing property and save.
The Mapped to session property column will show which session property is linked to the form question.
Note: If you don't use the Field Mapping settings when you create a new form question, the answer to the question will only appear in the approval menu, it will not be carried over to the session when the session is created after approval.
Add Existing Properties
Instead of creating a new custom question, you can use the existing session property as a form question. Click + Add Field > Add Existing Property, and select the existing session property. This will automatically create a form question with the same label as the session property. This is similar to the Field Mapping setting, but it skips the field type selection and adding the label steps.
Form Logic for Session Questions
Use the Form Logic feature if you want to create conditional session questions that will hide or show the next question, or require them to answer a question based on the answer from the previous question. This is similar to conditional questions, but it covers more conditions beyond relying on answers based from dropdown choices.
Note: Before creating logic rules, add the questions first through the + Add Field button, so that when you start creating rules, the questions would appear in the dropdown options.
Create for Logic Rules
When creating a logic rules, there's always a trigger and an action. The trigger is the IF part of the settings, and the THEN part is the action.
In this example we want applicants to answer the question "How many years of experience does the speaker have in this industry?" if in the title of their session they included Customer Support.
IF Settings
In the IF settings, we choose the Session Topic / Name as the question, the condition or operator is "Contains", and the value is "Customer Support"
This means if the applicant included the exact phrase in their session title, it will trigger the action below.
WHEN Settings
For the action of the THEN settings, we chose Show Field as the action, and chose to show the question "How many years of experience does the speaker have in this industry?"
In summary, if the Session Topic / Name contains "Customer Support", then show the question How many years of experience does the speaker have in this industry?"
Speaker Questions
Speaker Questions
Create a Custom Field
In the Speaker Information tab, click +Add Field > Create Custom Field to add more speaker questions. All fields added here will appear in the form. To remove them from the form, you must delete the field. You can also make the fields required.
Field Mapping
The Field Mapping settings in the create a custom field menu allows you to link an existing speaker property to make the answer in the form appear in the speaker record in the admin console when approved.
In Event Content > Speakers > Properties, you can create custom properties or fields that would appear in the speaker record in the admin console. The content of these custom properties will not appear anywhere in the landing page, virtual event hub or app, these are only for internal use.
You can link these custom properties to your form so that when you collect speaker information through the approval process, the answers from the request will automatically appear on the speaker record once approved.
Select the field type
Add the form label
Click the search field to see the speaker properties with the same field type as selected above.
Select the existing property and save.
The Mapped to speaker property column will show which speaker property is linked to the form question.
Note: If you don't use the Field Mapping settings when you create a new form question, the answer to the question will only appear in the approval menu, it will not be carried over to the speaker record when the speaker is created after approval.
Add Existing Properties
Instead of creating a new custom question, you can use the existing speaker property as a form question. Click + Add Field > Add Existing Property, and select the existing speaker property. This will automatically create a form question with the same label as the speaker property. This is similar to the Field Mapping setting, but it skips the field type selection and adding the label steps.
Customize Emails
After submitting the proposal, they will get an email confirming that their submission request has been received. Whenever you change the status of their proposal to approved, denied or waitlisted, they will get another email to let them know about the change.
You can edit the subject and body of these emails, and disable the automatic sending if you don't want them to receive the emails in the Post Registration Emails section in Settings tab.
Introductory Page
You can add introductory page that applicants will see before they enter all the information. You can customize the banner image, title and description on that page. This will be the page the applicants see when they click the button from the landing. You can enable this feature under the Customization section in Settings.
Session & Speaker Approval Link
Aside from submitting the proposal through the landing page, there is a Session & Speaker Approval Link that you can share to potential speakers. If you have the Introductory Page enabled, that's the page that will open when this link is accessed. If it's turned off, the page that will open is the page where they can start entering their information.
Customize the Confirmation Page
The confirmation page applicants see after they submit can be customized in Registration > Order Confirmation > Confirmation Pages.
Submit a Proposal
When applicants click the button from the landing page or access the session and speaker approval link, they will see the introductory page (if enabled) and will be asked to log in or create an account. The next step is to enter the applicant's basic information, then enter the session and speaker information. They can save the proposal as a draft or submit it. When they submit, they will see the confirmation page.
Save Session Proposal Drafts in My Applications
Session proposers can save their proposals as drafts, allowing them to return later to review and make edits before final submission.
They can click Back to My Applications, or click their profile in the upper right and select My Applications. They can click Complete Submission to open the proposal and continue entering information in the proposal.
After submitting the proposal, they can go back to My Applications to view their submission and check the status.
Review Proposals
Go to the Submissions tab in the Session Approval feature in the admin console. Once a proposal is submitted it will appear in this tab. Click an item to see the details of the proposal.
Session Reviewers
If you have a lot of session proposals, you can assign people to review sessions to stay organized. Once reviewed, you can take a look at their ratings and comments to decide whether a proposal will be denied or approved.
Approve Proposals
The status of a new request will be Pending in the Submissions tab. Click the dropdown menu in the Status column to change the status to Pending to Review Complete, Preliminary Approval, Waitlisted, Denied, or Approved.
Notes:
Once you approve, you can no longer change the status.
We highly suggest turning off the speaker invite email before approving. Just send this email once you have adjusted the schedule and other details in the session that's automatically created after approval.
There are no emails sent when the status is changed to Review Complete or Preliminary Approval.
Approved Sessions & Speakers
When you approve a session, the requestor will be notified through email if you have the automatic emails turned on. The session is created automatically, speakers are added to the session, and the speaker invite email will automatically be sent if it's enabled.
The session that will be created is a regular session and is scheduled for the first hour of the event. If this is not the desired schedule, we suggest turning off the speaker invite email before approving requests. This way you can make the necessary session adjustments and send the invite at a later time when all the details are added.
Receive Request Notifications
Go to the Approval Settings tab and enable the toggle to Send email when an approval request comes in. The select admins in Manage Receivers will receive email notifications for every registration approval request. Not that this is notification for session request only, this does not include reviewer requests and review submissions.
Other Request Settings
Search - search for a request by session topic, description or speaker name
Filter - filter requests by status
Edit Column - select which columns to show in the list of requests
Download - download all requests which includes columns for their answers and the request status
Open Request - open the request to see the details
Send status email - resend the status email to the requestor
Download Request - download the individual request information
Delete - delete the request. You can no longer delete an approved request.
Session Approval Widget
If you're using the advanced website builder, you can add the Sessions Approval widget to the page.
You can also add it to your website by copying the embeddable widget code from Settings > Widgets
