Networking guide for event organizers

This article aims to teach you, the event organizer, to set up networking options that enable interactions between attendees within the Virtual Lobby. These include:

How do I enable the Networking feature?

To enable this option, go to Event > Settings > Tools and scroll down to the Live section. Click on Edit, and tick (to enable) or untick (to disable) Networking.

Activating Networking in the Virtual Lobby

If you activate Networking, a list of the attendees who are present at your event will be displayed on the main page of the Virtual Lobby and they will be able to send each other video requests.

Networking
By disabling Networking, the People and Chat tabs will still be displayed inside each room in the Virtual Lobby, but Networking and Group rooms will disappear from the Virtual Lobby's main page.

Meetings

After following these steps your attendees will be able to have instant meetings or schedule a meeting for later.

Meetings

Your attendees will be able to see the Schedule Meeting option only if you enable the Meetings feature for the Virtual Lobby. To do so, go to Settings > Tools > scroll down to the Registration section > press Edit and tick the Meetings checkbox. Press End to save changes.

The way the networking options will be displayed on the Virtual Lobby main page will depend on your settings. If you'd rather have the Networking and Group Rooms sections collapsing on the top bar instead of appearing on the bottom on the right-hand side of the screen, click here to learn more about this option.
To check how your attendees will use the Meetings feature, click here.

Group rooms

Creating group rooms in the platform

If you would like to create a networking space for your attendees to join, you can create a group room.

To do so, click Event > Virtual Lobby > Group rooms > + Add group room.

A window will pop up asking you to type the discussion topic and also to select the date and time (start/end) as well as the level of privacy for the room.

On this page, you will also be able to see all group rooms that have been created and information such as the room link, start and end date/time, the date when the room was created and its privacy.

Creating group rooms on the platform

All group rooms that have been created will be visible:

  • In the group rooms section of the Virtual Lobby where an open or closed padlock on the room will indicate if this is a public or private room.
  • In the group rooms tab in the Virtual Lobby where you will find group rooms displayed with a table layout. To learn how to customize tabs in the Virtual Lobby, click here.

You will be able to have up to 17 people on camera in a group room. To learn more about this limit, click here.

When a group room is created in the Virtual Lobby, it will disappear as soon as all people inside the room leave. On the other hand, if you create a group room in the platform (backend), it will be permanently displayed in the Virtual Lobby, even if the room is empty.
If you wish to rename the Networking or Group Room sections, this can be done via Headings.

Creating group rooms in the Virtual Lobby

To create a group room in the Virtual Lobby, follow these steps.

Switching from public to private

After creating a public group room, you can still make it private even if you are already inside the room by pressing the Room Privacy button, as shown in the image below:

room privacy button inside the group room
The Room Privacy button will only be displayed for you, either from the platform or from the Virtual Lobby.

A pop-up message will appear asking to confirm the action:

pop up message

Once again, when confirming the action, only you who created the group room will see the change at the Left Group Rooms menu:

group room menu list

For the other people in the room, the group room that became private will not be displayed on the list of Group Rooms same as shown above, it will simply 'disappear' from the list.

Speed Networking

Using the speed networking, your participants will be able to engage in 1x1 meetings randomly assigned.

Click here to learn how to enable the Speed Networking feature on the Virtual Lobby, inside activities and on the app.

Networking via the mobile app

To learn more about networking via the mobile app, click here.

Tabs

If you wish to have tabs for Networking, Group Rooms, Meetings, and Speed Networking in the Virtual Lobby, go to Settings > Tabs and click on Virtual Lobby. Then, make sure the tabs Virtual Lobby - Networking, Virtual Lobby - Group Rooms, Virtual Lobby - Meetings, and Virtual Lobby - Speed Networking are set to Visible.

To edit an existing tab, you will need to click the Edit button in the top right corner. Next, click on the existing tab you wish to edit and a window will open to the right. Here, you have the option to edit the name of the tab in each language and its icon. You can also change the order of the tabs.

Networking options
Check this article to learn more about networking tabs in the Virtual Lobby.

How will the attendees' visibility affect their networking options in the Virtual Lobby?

Participants can opt to be available and visible in your event's networking list or not.

Click here to learn more about it.


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