How to avoid access to the Virtual Lobby prior to the event date

By default, a participant who has registered to an event will automatically receive a Confirmation email containing a Magic link to access the Virtual Lobby directly. If this situation is not ideal, there are ways to avoid it.

For more information about magic links, refer to our Magic link article.

This article contains information on how to mask access to the Virtual Lobby during the event set up stages, and how to hide Virtual Lobby contents after it is made accessible.

Before adding the participants to the event

This section will suggest methods to prevent attendees from accessing the Virtual Lobby during the event setup stages.

Redirecting to another page after registering

If your event has a registration form, the attendees will be able to access the Virtual Lobby after completing the registration by clicking on the Go to event! button. To prevent this, you can redirect the attendees to other pages.

To do this, go to Event > details > Content page. Click on the drop-down and you will be able to select from the options the page you would like your attendees to be re-directed to. You can modify the Content page so that attendees are taken to one of the pages in the Attendee Center, a Custom tab, or Website when clicking on the Go to event! button.

GIF showing the Content drop-down box in Event details.

Registration without access

You can completely disable the Go to event! button that appears after a registrant completes their registration. By enabling the Registration without access tool in the Settings > Tools > Registration section, registrants will only see a Thank you for your submission! message

Thank you for your submission message

Alternatively, you can remove the Go to event! button from the post-registration screen by following the instructions in our Most frequently requested CSS codes article.

Virtual Lobby restriction

You can use the Virtual Lobby restriction tool in the Event > Virtual Lobby > Access policy page to restrict your attendees from joining an event before the event's start date. This way, when attendees are accessing the Virtual Lobby, they will be redirected to the My Account page.

For more detailed information, refer to the Virtual Lobby Settings article.

Verifying the automatic emails

Before adding attendees to your event or opening the enrollment period, it is advisable to verify and customize the contents of Confirmation emails and other automatic emails.

Using the Email editor, you can remove the Virtual Lobby Dynamic content from the Confirmation email and other automatic emails so that attendees will not receive the Magic link.

Also ensure that Calendar invites email attachment is also disabled, as it contains the link to the Virtual Lobby.
Disabling the automatic emails

You can disable the Confirmation email and other automatic emails from the Automatic emails section in the Email creator (Marketing > Communication > Email creator). Here, you can disable and re-enable automatic emails by using the Status toggle.

When the Confirmation email is disabled, attendees who register for your event will not receive an automatic confirmation email, even if you re- enable the Confirmation email. At a later date, you can manually resend Confirmation emails to attendees.

Disabling the confirmation email
Automatic emails related to payment cannot be disabled when the Tickets tool is activated. However, if you disable the Tickets tool, the payment-related automatic emails will no longer appear on the list of Automatic emails.

Using CSS

If you are selling Tickets at your event, attendees will be able to access My Tickets tab to manage their tickets. It is possible to hide the Open lobby button on top of the page, which leads to the Virtual Lobby, by using custom CSS. To do so, follow the instructions in our Most frequently requested CSS codes article.

After adding participants to the event

This section will suggest you methods to prevent attendees from having full access to the Virtual Lobby after Magic links have been sent out.

Making Tabs & Rooms invisible

You can configure the following items to be invisible:

  • Tabs in the Virtual Lobby

By making Tabs invisible, attendees will be unable to navigate through the Virtual Lobby.

For more information on how to make tabs invisible, refer to our Tabs article.
  • Activity rooms

By making Activity rooms invisible, attendees will be unable to view and access Activities in the Virtual Lobby.

For more information on Activity settings, refer to our Agenda management article.
  • Sponsors and Exhibitor rooms

By disabling Sponsors and Exhibitor rooms, attendees will be unable to view and access Sponsors and Exhibitor rooms in the Virtual Lobby.

For more information, refer to our Virtual Lobby Tools article.
  • Networking

By disabling the Networking panel, attendees will be unable to view other online attendees.

For more information, refer to our Virtual Lobby Tools article.
  • Group Rooms

By making the Group Rooms invisible, attendees will be unable to view and use the Group Rooms.

For more information, refer to our Virtual Lobby Tools article.

After making the above items invisible, you can upload a Welcome card to notify attendees about the event period.


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