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Add and Customize Sessions in the Agenda

Enter your session information and enable the other features available for your session

Written by Ariane Ramirez
Updated this week

Important Notes:

  • Ensure to add a stream provider to your main stage and regular sessions to ensure that attendees won't see an error that say "session configuration is missing."

  • Workshops and Networking sessions do not have stream provider options, it's already built in.

Build the Event Agenda

The Agenda section under event Content is where you create sessions, add your session information, and customize the session settings. You can add the session title, date and time, assign speakers and choose how the session will be broadcasted and more. By default you'll see your added sessions in a list view (table), but you can also use the calendar view to see the sessions scheduled by day, or create custom views with filters. You can also customize which columns you'll see in the table and custom filtered views.

View / Edit Columns

By default, you will always see the Session ID, Title, Session Type, Speakers and Schedule in the table. You can add more columns by clicking Edit Columns.

Add Smart Views

The Smart Views feature allows you to create dynamic filtered views of your sessions that you can share with other team members and non-team members via link.

Session Calendar View

In calendar view, event days will be shown in separate columns, and sessions will appear per day in the schedule time slot. You can choose to see a particular day instead of all event days, and you can also view sessions by location. You have some of these options available in table view, such as search, filter, edit, duplicate, and delete the session.

What's great about this view is that you can still see a list view by clicking the All Sessions option, and you can move sessions easily to other days and hour slots by dragging sessions. You will also get alerts if there are session conflicts, such as overlapping with main-stage sessions, speaker schedule, and locations.


The Session Edit Menu

The Session Edit menu lets you add your session information and adjust all the session settings. To edit a session, click a session or click the edit option on the 3-dot menu in table view. When in calendar view, hover on the session and select edit from the 3-dot menu. The Session Edit Menu will appear on the right side.

Table View

Calendar View

The Session Edit Menu has four sections:

  • Session Details

  • Broadcasting

  • Speakers

  • Registrants


Session Details

Basic Session Information

The first part of the session details tab asks for basic information about the session, such as session name, type, date & time.

  • Title - add a title to your session

  • Session Type - select what kind of session you'll be having.

  • Date and Time - select when the session will stream. You can also select to Clear the Date & Time if you don't have a definite schedule yet and the session is only in draft.

  • Short Description - add a brief session description. This text will be displayed in the agenda through a browser (not in the attendee app). It has a character limit of 150, and only text is allowed.

  • Full Details - add more information about the session. You can add text, images, videos (through video URL), and downloadable content (e.g., PDF and PPT files)

  • Location - add the session's location for in-person and hybrid events. You can also add a link to the location.

  • Capacity - determines how many attendees can enter the session. If left blank, an unlimited number of attendees can enter. Note: to ensure that only pre-registered attendees can join sessions when a capacity limit is set, you also need to enable the setting "Restrict Registrations to Session Capacity" in the settings menu.

Advanced Settings

At the bottom part of the Session Details tab, you can click to expand the Advanced Settings.

  • Allow Attendees Self Check-In- a session QR code will appear when enabled. Attendees can scan this to check into the in-person session for an in-person or hybrid event.

  • Session Waiting Media - An image or video can replace the default countdown timer shown before a session starts. Available for virtual and hybrid events.

  • Post-Session Survey - Send a survey to attendees when the session ends. Available for virtual and hybrid events.

Manage Session Interactivity

You can use these features to interact more with your attendees.

  • Allow Attendees to Chat - only admins and speakers can type in chat messages if this is turned off. Attendees will not be able to participate in chat for that particular session. Turning this off will not remove the chat area in the event hub.

  • Enable Polls - if this is turned off, the polls feature will be hidden from the session.

  • Enable Attendee List- turn this off to hide the attendee list in the session.

  • Enable Q&A - if this is turned off, the Q&A feature will be hidden from the session.

    • Send Questions in Private Only - if this is turned on, only speakers and admins will see the questions sent by attendees.

Session Visibility

This section allows you to restrict which attendees can see or watch this session.

  • Set session as private - if a session is set to private, only those pre-registered for this session will see the session in the agenda.

  • Ticket Types - allows you to choose which ticket types can join that session. The default is that all ticket types can join the session. Unselect the ticket type if you don't want that ticket type to be able to watch that session. Click here to learn more about ticket restrictions.

  • Hide this session in the virtual event hub agenda if the attendee is not allowed to join the session - if enabled, an attendee who's already logged in cannot see the session in the agenda if their ticket type does not have access to that session.

Post-Session Call to Action

The Post-Session Call to Action feature allows you to help attendees move more easily to the next session or encourage them to visit a specific lounge or exhibitor booth after the session they are currently watching ends.


Once the broadcast ends or it reaches the session end time, whichever comes first, a pop-up will appear where they can click a button to move them from the current session to a different session, lounge, or booth. This is not available for in-person events.

Advertising

This section allows you to select exhibitors and sponsors that can be added to the Session Carousel so that their carousel images will appear in the session for more exposure.

Other Session Options

  • Iframe - allows you to add closed captioning and language interpretations to a session through a 3rd party application such as Interprefy. This will appear below the session video.

  • Tags - You can add keywords related to your session's topics or interests. Attendees can filter sessions by tags.

  • Tracks - allows you to designate sessions specifically for different focuses at your event, like an umbrella of topics. Attendees can filter sessions by tracks.

  • Manage Document allows you to upload files up to 10MB and add links to access documents uploaded in the cloud that attendees can download or view.

  • View Activity - allows you to view logs of who started and stopped the broadcast on a live session.

  • Publish or Save as Draft - choose " Save as draft " if you don't want the session to show in the agenda yet and publish it when you're ready to display it. A Draft will automatically be hidden. You cannot save a session to draft if there are registered attendees to the session.


The Broadcasting Tab

The Broadcasting tab in the Session Edit Menu allows you to select the stream provider while setting up your session. Select the session's stream provider, as well as other streaming configurations. The Stream Provider determines how you want to broadcast your session. With Accelevents, you have several options:

Note: If the session is already in the past, the tab name changes from "Broadcasting" to the "Recording" tab, where you can access your recordings.

Stream Providers

The next fields in the Broadcasting tab that will appear will depend on the type of stream provider you selected above. Click the arrow to see the details.

Accelevents Studio

  • Stream Provider - if you select Accelevents Studio, the studio link will appear below.

  • Studio Link - this is the link to the studio where speakers will start the broadcast.

  • Record this Session - this option appears if you choose Accelevents Studio or RTMP as the stream provider. These sessions are automatically recorded, but if you disable this, the session will not be recorded.

  • Captioning - this option appears if you choose Accelevents Studio or RTMP as the stream provider. You cannot select both default live captioning and custom subtitles. If this is enabled, it will be captured in the recording.

Accelevents RTMP

  • Streaming Key - is the key you need to add to your encoder settings to integrate it with Accelevents.

  • RTMP URL - this is the URL you need to add to your encoder settings to integrate it with Accelevents.

  • Live Streaming Page URL - this is the direct link to your session

  • Preview - allows you to preview the live broadcast even before it starts

  • Record this session - this option appears if you choose Accelevents Studio or RTMP as the stream provider. These sessions are automatically recorded, but if you disable this, the session will not be recorded.

  • Captioning - this option appears if you choose Accelevents Studio or RTMP as the stream provider. You cannot select both default live captioning and custom subtitles. If this is enabled, it will be captured in the recording.

Other Streaming Options (Wistia, YouTube, Vimeo, Vidyard, Facebook Live, Zoom)

  • Stream Identifier - provide your stream provider's link or meeting ID to integrate it with Accelevents.

  • Meeting Passcode - enter the passcode for the Zoom session

  • Hide Controls - enable hiding the play/pause buttons on the video while the video is playing

Direct Upload

  • Upload Video - upload the file by clicking Browse to select the video file from your device.

  • Preview - this only appears if the video has been uploaded already

  • Start Broadcast - click to start the broadcast.

  • Automatically Start Video When Session Begins - if disabled, you must click the Start Broadcast below to start the broadcast.

  • Enable Video Captions - this only appears when the video has been uploaded. Allows you to upload caption files for the video when enabled.


Speakers and Registrants Tab

The speakers tab will show you all the assigned speakers to the session. The Registrants tab will show you all the attendees who registered for the session. Admins can also pre-register attendees for the session when the session is set to private.


Agenda Settings and Actions

Settings Button

The Settings Button at the top of the Agenda has two submenus for General Settings and Custom Properties.

General Settings

  • Allow attendees to join late - this setting would apply to all sessions. If you turn this off, you can set the latest time the attendee can join the session. (Not available for Starter and Scale Plans)

  • Allow attendees to bookmark sessions - this will show the bookmark option on the session.

  • Allow Attendees to register for sessions - this will show the "Save a Seat" button on the session. When this toggle is turned on, you'll have more options to customize the save a seat feature, including allowing attendees to join the session waitlist.

Custom Properties: Add Session Fields

These are fields you can add to the session if you have additional session information. The question and values in these fields will show the session setting and can be visible to attendees too, when they click on a session to see the session details. These fields can be used together with the Sessions and Speakers Approval Workflow.

  • Click Settings from the Agenda tab

  • Select the Custom Properties tab

  • Click +Create Property

  • Add the Property Label and select the Field Type

  • Click Create

  • By default, the fields are Enabled and Visible to Attendees. If it's enabled, then the field will show in the session settings. If it's visible to attendees, then it will show in the session details when they click on a session in the agenda. You can enable/disable these toggles depending on your preference.

Other Options for Properties

  • Edit Property - allows you to rename the property label (not available for default properties)

  • Duplicate - duplicates the property

  • Delete - deletes the property (not available for default properties)


Action Button

The actions button will allow you to import and export sessions.

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