What's New – May 2020

Hello everyone,

This month saw a lot of countries easing their pandemic-imposed lockdown rules. Communities everywhere are starting to open back up while maintaining strict restrictions on social interactions. And though it looks like virtual events are here to stay, event organizers are hoping to get back to live events by late Q3 or early Q4 of this year. A lot of them are also looking to hybrid events as a possible option for the future.

At Backstage, we've been working on making event management software that can help you on all fronts. In-person, virtual, or hybrid—whichever way you go, we plan to have your back.

Here's a quick update on everything that has happened at Backstage this last month.

Present online sessions with Backstage

In April, we said you could start hosting your online events with Backstage. From website designing and event registration to adding speakers and tracking sales, it was all possible from right here. The only time you had to move out of Backstage was to present your sessions remotely, but that's no longer the case.

You can now present virtual sessions right from within Backstage without the help of any third-party web-conferencing software. Broadcast live sessions and engage your audience with interactive tools like real-time chat, questions, and more. One other benefit of conducting sessions with Backstage is the detailed session analytics you'll be privy to. From how many attendees were present for each session to the average time they spend there, you can get all these details and so much more.

To make a session remote: Go to Manage > Sessions > Remote session

To present a remote session: Go to Conduct > Present sessions

Get detailed feedback for sessions

Learn how attendees are responding to each session and gauge their interest in your speakers with a completely customizable session feedback form. By understanding your audience's reaction to specific sessions, you can figure out what works for them and make future sessions more relatable and engaging.

By default, attendees will be asked to give a rating and some short feedback for both the session and the speaker. However, you can add more fields to the feedback form to evaluate specific aspects of the session like the presentation deck, how useful the content was, or how inspiring a session was. All feedback collected from attendees will be available in the Feedback tab of each session.

To get session feedback: Go to Manage > Sessions > Session settings > Get session feedback

To customize the session feedback form: Go to Manage > Sessions > Session settings > Edit session feedback form

OTHER UPDATES

Now, there is native support for three more languages: Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish. That's three more regions you can reach with your event microsite.
For members who've chosen Mercado Pago as their default payment gateway, you can now decide which payment methods are suitable for transactions. Current options include credit cards, debit cards, ATM, and tickets.
We've added one more theme to the Microsite Builder, taking the total count of available themes to 10. This latest theme, Zephyr, also comes in six colors, so you can choose one that's just right for your brand.
The Zoho Backstage ticketing system, with a 0% commission rate, is now available in Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay too. Members from the mentioned countries can sell tickets and process payments using the payment gateway, Mercado Pago.

That's it for this month's product updates. As always, we'd love to know what you think about these latest additions to Backstage. Also, if there's anything specific you need from us, do send us an email to support@zohobackstage.com. We'd love to help!

Happy organizing!