What are Private Sessions?
Private sessions are sessions that are only available to selected attendees. This feature allows event organizers to control who can access certain sessions and create a more personalized experience.
When a session is set as private, only selected attendees can see, register for, and join the session. Organizers can either allow attendees to register themselves or pre-register them.
Even if an attendee’s ticket type normally allows access to the session, they still won’t be able to join unless they are included in the approved attendee list for that private session. This applies to virtual, in-person, and hybrid events.
How Does It Work?
You will set the session as private and go to the Attendees tab in the session settings.
If the approved attendees are confirmed to attend this session, you can add them in the Registered sub tab to register them for the session. This guarantees them a seat to the session and will not be able to unregister themselves from the session.
If you want the approved attendees to see this private session and have them choose if they want to join or not, you can add them to the Visible sub tab. This does not register them to the session, but it makes the session visible to them in the agenda.
Private Sessions has 2 functions
Allow admins to register attendees for that session and not allow them to unregister themselves.
Allow admins to show the session to selected attendees only.
Who can see and join a private session?
Attendees who are added to the Register and Visible tabs.
Speakers for that session, even if they don't have a ticket
Admins
Superadmins (Accelevents)
Even if the toggle to "Hide this session from attendees who cannot register for this session" is not enabled, other attendees won't see this session.
Who can be added to a private session?
Any attendee whose ticket is eligible for the session
Who can see a private and hidden session?
No attendee can see this. A hidden session is hidden for everyone.
Admins can still see hidden sessions.
Can admins override the restriction to join?
No, if they want an attendee to join, they need to be added in the Registered or Visible tab.
Set Session as Private
Open the session settings
Turn on Set session as private
Turning this on makes this session hidden to everyone except for those mentioned here
Register Attendees to the Private Session
Registering attendees to a private session means they are confirmed to join and you're not allowing them to unregister themselves from the session.
Go to the Attendees tab in the session settings
Select the Registered tab
Type in the name of the attendee search for the attendee and select the attendee from the dropdown.
Or upload the attendees to the registered list via CSV
When attendees try to unregister for a private session, they will get an error message that they cannot unregister themselves.
Note: If you're solely doing this to register attendees with no intention of making the session private, turn off the private toggle after registering attendees. If it's no longer private, they can unregister themselves.
Have Attendees Register to a Private Session
If they are eligible to join the private session, but you want to give them the option to register for the session, you'll need to add them to the Visible tab so that they can see the private session even if they are not registered to it yet.
Go to the Attendees tab in the session settings
Select the Visible tab
Click + Add Existing Attendees
Choose + Add Manually and select the attendees from the pop-up
Or upload the attendees to the visible list via CSV
When they register for the session, they will remain in the Visible tab and will be added to the Registered tab. They can still choose to unregister themselves from the private session if they are in the Visible tab.