Session Setup in Your Agenda Data

Each main or parent session has a specific session type associated. For example, you may have session with the title Poster Session A which is of type Poster or a session titled Session 2B, Nuclear and Telomere Biology of session type Oral. 

The main sessions in the sample screenshot above are the parent sessions. Within each session, there are individual oral or poster presentations. 

Once you open a parent session, you see all the different presentations within the parent session session detail view. These are indicated by the black Presentation bar. You can globally change that term in the Conference App Builder > App Settings.

These presentations are sub-sessions (or child sessions) to the parent session. So the Poster Session A has sub-sessions of the same type Poster all with their own titles and associated poster presenters. 

With the EventPilot Conference App Builder, you can invite all speakers of a specific session type to upload specific content. For example, all speakers associated to session type Poster (parent and sub-session) could be invited to submit a virtual poster (PDF with audio explanation). Once speakers add their  content, on your next data import and publish, that content is added in the data set and displays as media items within the sub-session. So when you select a poster presentation on the right and scroll down, you can see the media item - in this case a virtual poster PgmNr 106A: Ento... which is associated to the presentation with the same title PgmNr 106A: Ento... which is a sub-session to the parent session called Poster Session A.

The virtual poster automatically adopts the same title as its presentation session it is attached to. 

Ensure that your data is set up in this manner so that poster presenters submit posters to their own individual poster. 

This also enables to set up a list of uploaded posters or papers. 

Preparation

1. Check your speaker table and ensure that speakers are not duplicated. For each speaker, there can only be a single entry and each speaker must have their unique email address. You cannot reuse an email for more than one speaker. Only one invite can be sent per email address. 
2. Ensure that all speakers associated to sessions where you want to collect uploads have a Private Email mapped in the data source import. The private email address is required for the speakers to receive the invitation.
   1. CAB > Speakers > check your import source > Field Map
      Note: The speaker's private email address is not displayed in the platform. If you wish to display the speaker's email address, please populate in the Email field for the speaker.
3. Speakers log in the same way attendees log in. If your system is set up using simple authentication using the attendee list, all your speakers must be included in the attendee list. If your system uses and integration with your registration system, your speakers must be registered. The email address in the attendee list or registration system does not have to match the private email address in the Speaker tab. 
4. Prepare your speakers:
   1. what you expect for them to submit (e.g. if you want them to create a 5min video, let them know in advance) and if there are any limitations (e.g. an mp4 video file max 25MB, or a PDF max 5MB)
   2. content submission dates
   3. when you are displaying their content in the platform
5. Ask your speakers to add alerts@ativsoftware.com in their address book so that the invitation is not sent to the  spam folder. The email they receive will be sent from is: ATIV Software <alerts@ativsoftware.com>
   with a subject line: Invitation to Add Content to <your event>
   
   
   

Content Upload Setup

1. In the CAB, access Add-Ons > Speaker Portal
2. In the Uploads tab, press the blue + button to add a new upload type
3. Select what you want your speakers to submit
   1. Website Link - basic URL to a web page for example the speakers LinkedIn URL
   2. PDF file - standard PDF file for example of a Poster or a PowerPoint Presentation
   3. Virtual Poster / Presentation - a PDF with the option to record an audio narration
   4. Video - an .mp4 video file that could be recorded by the speaker using any screen recording tools like Zoom, Loom.com, Screencastify, Quicktime, etc. This upload type is available for on demand viewing for attendees. 
   5. Simulive - an .mp4 video file that could be recorded by the speaker using any screen recording tools like Zoom. The simulive upload type is synced with your session program. Learn more how simulive works.
4. Add a label for example "Primary Poster" and if appropriate set the file size / duration for audio recordings
5. Add a very short description or instructions only speakers can see - max 120 characters. E.g. Record the video using Zoom on your computer. 
6. Set limits. These limits can be changed later even after you have invited your attendees. Simply use the edit pencil icon to adjust. 
   1. File size 
      1. PDF: we recommend 5-10MB for ePoster PDFs, 10MB for presentation PDFs. 
      2. Video: 1min videos should be under 30MB, 3min videos under 50MB, 30min generic PowerPoint presentation videos recorded with Zoom should be under 100MB.
   2. Audio Length for Virtual Posters: 3 minutes recommended
   3. Max Video Length for Simulive matches the presentation time for that speaker. 
7. Choose when you want the content to be accessible by attendees in the platform e.g. on each data publish as content becomes available, embargoed until the start date of your event (link appears but will display information when the content becomes available) etc.
   This option does not apply to simulive as the videos are timed to the individual presentation start time in the program.
8. Select Next and filter the upload requests by one or more session types. All speakers associated to that session type (parent and presentation level sessions) will be notified to submit content.
   
9. Click Done
10. Use the filter icon to change the upload request to specific session types
11. Toggle if the item is considered required - this will trigger the system to send a reminder email at the specified reminder time in the Invite tab
12. Add more upload types as needed.
13. Turn Enable Portal Access to ON (you can turn this toggle OFF when you don't want your presenters to continue submitting content)

Speaker Invitations

1. Important: Before sending invitations, ask your speakers to add the email address alerts@ativsoftware.com to their address book to ensure they receive the email and it doesn't end in spam.
2. Switch to the Invite tab
3. Set the date and time you wish for the initial invitation emails to be sent to your speakers. We recommend no more than one week as most presenters continue working on their content until the conference; this is the default.
4. Set the date and time you'd like the system to send a reminder email for items toggled as Required. The system uses a default of two days before the conference.
5. Set the due date for submissions. This due date will be included in the emails sent to the speakers. The default due date is one day before the conference. 
   1. All three dates/times must be in the future.
   2. The start of the conference is as defined in the CAB — so, if your conference officially starts on the 9th but you have a workshop in the CAB on the 8th, the dates will be calculated assuming that the conference starts on the 8th. The default initial invitation day would be the 1st, the reminder would default to the 6th, and the due date would default to the 7th.
6. When ready, toggle the Send Email Invites to ON
   

Sample Email 

The email will automatically contain your event branded banner. In the sample below, the event branding uses EventPilot and the event is called "Demo"

When your speakers click on the Portal Login button, they will land on a login page. The login is the same as for all attendees who are logging into the planner or the native app. 

After the speakers log in, they are presented with a list of their sessions for which you requested them to upload content. Speakers click the PLUS button to add content. 

They do not see content other speakers uploaded for their presentation UNLESS the content is a simulive video. In case of simulive, only one single video can be uploaded per presentation by any of the speakers in the presentation. All speakers associated to that presentation can see the simulive video uploaded and which speaker in the presentation had uploaded it. Learn more about simulive.

For all other upload types, speakers can only view and delete their own uploads. 

If you have speakers repeat their presentation at a different time, they would need to upload their content also for their second presentation. 

Once speakers uploaded their content, they can preview it and/or delete it and upload new as long as the Speaker Portal enabled is toggled ON in the uploads tab.

The CAB > Add Ons > Speaker Portal > Invites allows you to resend individual speaker invites and to quickly view the status for a particular speaker. Note: You must look up using the speaker's email address as it appears in the data in the CAB > Agenda > Speakers.

Review Reports

Use the Reports tab to download CSV (Excel) files with details about the uploads by speaker. 

Recommended invitation and reminder deadlines

Publishing Speaker Submitted Content to the Platform

While Simulive videos are automatically matched with their sessions, all other speaker submitted content must be imported like your other data sources. When speakers upload content, the system is merely collecting the files at this point. Speakers can upload or edit content as long as keep the speaker portal enabled (CAB > Add Ons > Speaker Portal > Enable Portal Access > toggled ON). 

You can import the latest data from Home > Import All Sources to review this in the CAB. 

When you publish a data update, the sources will be automatically imported, too. 

The uploaded content becomes available on your next data publish. 

Note: Unless you request an API integration with your own Vimeo Premium account, all video files uploaded into the CAB are access restricted. You can continue hosting your content via the EventPilot platform for a small monthly fee. If you wish to host and archive all files, please contact your project manager to set up an integration with your Vimeo Premium account. Setup fees may apply. 

Attendee Access

Only logged in attendees have access to the speaker uploaded content. 

Try out attendee access following these steps.