Conduct hybrid events with Zoho Backstage

Conduct hybrid events with Zoho Backstage

Hello everyone,

The current approach for hosting events is to go hybrid, combining the physical and virtual, since online events are here to stay and physical events will never go out of style. Hosting a hybrid event is a good option when you want to seamlessly connect your online and offline audiences.



To help with this, we're introducing hybrid events in Zoho Backstage, which will have the features needed to conduct your event at the location while also providing options for online attendees to participate.

Create your hybrid event


Provide a shared experience for attendees from wherever they are by setting the event type as Hybrid when you create it. Pick a location for where your event will happen physically and choose a webcasting service through which you'll stream to your online attendees. You can then continue setting up your event as you normally would. Also, add hosts to your tracks or halls so that sessions can be started by them on the event day. When you are done with creating your event, publish it to take your microsite live.

Event check-in


On event day, checking in attendees can be done at the event location or online. At the event location, you can check in attendees through Zoho Backstage's web app or the mobile app for event organizers (Android or iOS). For attendees who are online, they can check in to the event by themselves from the Home page in the microsite or from their attendee app (Android or iOS).

Stream your event to attendees everywhere


Speakers can deliver their sessions from the event location. For physical attendees, these sessions can be projected onto a screen. Hosts can use the Theatre mode option in the session window to hide other controls for physical attendees and put the focus on the speaker's camera feed. When necessary, materials from the host or speaker's local system can also be presented using the Share screen option.

For remote audiences, the entire session can be streamed online.

Speakers can also deliver sessions remotely instead of at the event location, which can then be viewed by attendees from wherever they are.

Session participation for onsite and online audiences


If attendees at the event location want to interact with the speaker during the session, they can use an audio device such as a microphone, which is connected to the session host's system so that online audiences can also listen to what is being said at the event's location. Online audiences can use the Request to speak option in their session window to share their thoughts with the speaker. Once the request is approved both the onsite and online audiences can see and hear the person. A host or a co-host can approve these requests to speak from Backstage by accessing the Attendees tab in the session window.

All tasks relating to the session can be handled by the host or co-host from this session window, including managing polls from the Polls tab and answering and projecting questions from the Questions tab.

Present sessions with flexibility


Speakers who are talking from a remote location can also use options to customize their camera feed with tools like OBS software. Such tools provide them with more scope to better their session delivery. Features like this will help engage audiences further by showing related content such as a PPT or a video inside the speaker's camera feed itself, making the session experience feel more authentic and less distracting.

Soon, we'll also provide options for you to set up exclusive or open ticket types. You'll be able to create open tickets that will enable attendees to choose between attending the event at the location or remotely. On the other hand, you could create tickets that will restrict attendees to joining the event only at the location or only through the event microsite online.

Combine in-person and virtual experiences with hybrid events in Zoho Backstage. Let us know what you think in the comments below. You can also write to us at support@zohobackstage.com for any product-related questions.

Happy organizing!

    • Sticky Posts

    • Important notice: Changes in sender domains

      Hello Backstage users, This is a heads-up about a major change with sender domains in Zoho Backstage. In response to Google's new guidelines for email senders, Backstage won't be able to send emails with the sender domain "gmail.com" or "googlemail.com".

    • Announcing Backstage OnAir, our in-house virtual events solution

      These past months have seen a huge rise in the number of virtual events with some of the biggest events of the year going online. Though there's little possibility for virtual events to completely replace in-person ones, COVID-19 has shown how flexible

    • Introducing the mobile app for event organizers

      It doesn't matter if you're planning your first trade show or an annual executive retreat—organizing an event requires your undivided attention. This is especially true on event day, when things can quickly get out of hand. So how can you stay on top of everything happening at your event? Introducing the Zoho Backstage for Event Organizers mobile app, for Android and iOS—designed to improve and simplify your event management. Getting things started on time, checking in attendees on event day, following

    • Announcing Zoho Backstage: Your complete event management software

      With just a few months till the event, you're still racking your brain. Did you advertise to the right audience? Is your event website design appealing? How will you keep attendees engaged and interested during sessions? It doesn't matter if you're organizing

      • Recent Topics

      • UI Improvement - Ability to Collapse Flow

        The UI for Flow is generally pretty good. However, when multiple decision trees are used, the layout can get pretty convoluted and hard-to-follow (see one of my Flows below): In these cases, even the auto-arrange fails to make this something that a normal

      • Windows agent 2025_M02 release notes

        Agent Version: 111.0.3.300 Release date: 24 February, 2025 Various Major enhancements to improve overall performance and optimize the user experience. Squashed a few bugs to improve overall product quality.

      • Windows agent 2025_M01 release notes

        Agent Version: 111.0.3.299 Release date: 05 February, 2025 Major Enhancement: Live Monitor feature compatibility released. Major Enhancement: Updated Scaling for multi technician cases with Android and Web based viewers. Various other bug fixes and performance

      • how to record deferred revenue?

        Dear Zoho Team, We issue invoices relating to 12-month web hosting service. When we issue the invoice, we should record the entire amount of the invoice as DEFERRED REVENUE (ie. $10 x 12 mths = $120, balance sheet item). After the particular month of the hosting service, $10 of revenue has been earned and deferred revenue amount will be $110. We must keep adjusting the balance sheet and income statement over the course of the service until the company has fulfilled its obligation of services and

      • Narrative 13: Importing your data

        Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 13: Importing your data When importing data into an application, it is crucial to prevent data loss or duplication. These types of errors can hinder the development of a clean and

      • Blueprint Not Triggering When Lead Status Is Updated by Workflow (IndiaMART Integration)

        I have set up a blueprint that triggers when a lead’s status is “New Lead.” Our CRM is integrated with IndiaMART, and when leads are created from IndiaMART, their Lead Status is initially set to None. To handle this, I created a workflow that automatically

      • Update Subform in specific field(Status) without affecting other fields in Zoho CRM using Deluge?

        Scenario: PRODUCT Module(change name Plot) in any product status change From Available to Booked then on PROJECT Custom Module have Subform So, Subform name is Property Details now in that Subform 1 field is STATUS that update according to  product status

      • YouTube Live #2: Agreement Intelligence with Zoho Sign's eSign AI assistant

        Hi there, We're back again with our YouTube live series and this time, we'll take you through our holistic agreement intelligence powered signature workflows. Struggling to draft an agreement? Need help double-checking clauses and going through complicated

      • Can I Build a POS using ZOHO creator and integrate it with ZOHO Books?

        Hello,  I have a Zoho Books account and I was wondering if I can have a POS system that integrates with it. Primarily with Inventory, Customers and Payment and ofcourse Create invoices and credit notes.   So, would Zoho creator provide me with this solution?  Thank you, 

      • An important update for Zoho Cliq desktop users

        The latest version of the Zoho Cliq desktop app (v1.8.0) will no longer be supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina and earlier versions. This is because the framework we use (Electron) no longer supports some older macOS versions. If you’re using macOS 10.15

      • Zoho Projects - Visual improvement to parent and sub-task relationship

        Hi Projects Team, My feature request is to improve sub-task visibility. Please see screenshot below. I really think parent child relationships could be visually improved. Even if the first letter of the parent task was inline with other same level tasks

      • New Toolbar in Zoho Sheet

        We have revamped our toolbar design in this new version of Zoho Sheet. Below are some screenshots to help you get accustomed to this new interface. Click on the picture below to view the animated image in its original size. Scroll down this post to learn about the changes. Highlight of Changes: The previous format tab is now split into 2 tabs - Home and Format. The Home tab contains the commonly used functions and the Format tab holds formatting related options. Under the Home tab towards the far

      • Zoho inbuilt Telephony made a lot of issues!

        Hi there, I am a user that I am working with zoho inbuilt telephony around 1 month. Non of my colleagues are happy with this app! most of the time customer cannot hear my customer service team, customers say our voice is breaking. whenever Telephony support

      • Sending workflow notifications using popular chat services

        Hello everyone, We have introduced instant and scheduled notifications on some of the most popular chat platforms to facilitate easy collaboration, quick action, and wider reach. Workflow notifications can be sent to the following chat platforms: Zoho

      • Webhook not firing.

        I created a webhook using the Web UI, it looks very nice and the testing worked without an issue, but when i save/ update a ticket, the webhook is not firing. Here are the details of the web-hook i get from using the API "modifiedTime": "2019-10-22T09:23:37.380Z",

      • Adding Images to a Quote in Zoho CRM

        We are currently preparing to use Quotes in Zoho CRM and we are building out our Quote templates.  We came across an issue of not being to add Images of the products to the Quote - specifically in the body of the Quote templates.   This is a problem,

      • Applications built with Zoho Creator

        Hi, I’m really interested in seeing how others have built their application using Zoho Creator, especially those designed for external users (clients, vendors, or the public). If you’ve developed something along those lines and don’t mind sharing, I’d

      • Is it posssible to add Asap Widget on Wordpress?

        I have tried to add the ASAP widget so users could iniciate chats and see the KB information but nothings seems to work. I have tried to add the script using a php snippet that adds the to the footers and also tried one for the header in the functio

      • Require ticket resolution

        Hi Zoho team, Is there a way to require resolution even if an agent did not use a blueprint? for example, our blueprint has a "resolve" transition but what if agent revoked blueprint and manually set the status of ticket to closed? Is there a way where

      • Tables from ZohoSheets remove images when updated from source

        I have a few tables from a ZohoSheet in a ZohoWriter document that will remove the images in the cells when I refresh from the source. The source still has the images in the table when I go to refresh. After updating from the source, as you can see the

      • API Pagination Error: 'from' Parameter Limit

        Hello, I am encountering an error while paging through the Zoho Desk API results: Status code: 422 - {"errorCode":"UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY","message":"The value passed for field 'from' exceeds the range of '0-4999'."} Is 5000 the maximum number of records

      • How to go to the next open ticket in the queue when agents closes ticket

        Zoho Desk When agent closes a ticket - eg when they choose 'Send and Close" - where is the setting that automatically redirects them to the next open ticket in the queue?

      • External download link limit

        Can You please help us to understand this For Zoho WorkDrive external users, the download limit is a maximum of 5 GB total download size and a maximum of 50 first-level files and folders What is the meaning of first level? We are using these files in

      • CRM verify details pop-up

        Was there a UI change recently that involves the Verify Details pop-up when changing the Stage of a Deal to certain things? I can't for the life of me find a workflow or function, blueprint, validation rule, layout rule ect that would randomly make it

      • Custom templates for calendar report

        What about being able to design custom templates for the calendar report, as well as for other types of reports? I think more users are waiting for this.

      • Print a price list or price book

        Hi Community. Am I right in concluding that Zoho has no functionality to print a price list from either Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory or Zoho Books? I won't get stuck on the fact that Zoho doesn't sync price books between Zoho CRM and Books/Inventory (more

      • Disable payment thank-you emails

        Hello, can someone please tell me how to disable sending of the "Payment Thank-You" emails? 

      • Maximum tags possible in Contacts Records

        I read in some documentation that Zoho allows a total of 200 tags across all records. Is this correct? So is it not possible to have one tag per record for 500 records?

      • Any way to "Pay with Check" or "Refund with Check" for Credit Notes?

        When we have a Bill in Zoho Books, we can select the "Pay with Check" option which then allows us to print/cut the check directly out of Zoho Books. When we created a Credit Note and want to refund the customer, is there any way to Refund with Check,

      • CRM Mobile reports

        When our engineers finish a job they like to email the customer a job report. This is best done todate as an email template but we can find no way to include an image field from that module. Is there any other options?

      • When Zoho Tables Beta will be open to EU data center

        Hello all, We in EU are looking at you all using and testing and are getting jealous :) When we will be able to get into the beta also? We don't mind testing and playing with beta software. Thank you!

      • Start Form on a different page (i.e., hide form pages)?

        I have a Zoho form that uses the `Field Alias - Prefill URL` feature. My goal is to have a pre-filled field that directs the user to a specific starting page in the form. For example: The URL will have a field alias that will auto-populate a field with

      • How can we disable "My Requests"?

        We are not using this functionality in our system at all and our users get confused.

      • PayPal payment received recording problem

        Hi, A little while back one of our customers used the PayPal payment option to pay an invoice For some reason though the payment is showing up twice within the Payments section of the invoice! Instead of setting the invoice value to ZERO, it now shows a negative value Anyone else face this problem? I've checked PayPal and there is only 1 payment in reality... A bug? Actonia ps: for anyone from Zoho Customer Service or tech team,  its Invoice 785 in our account

      • string(87) "{"code":"INVALID_TOKEN","details":{},"message":"invalid oauth token","status":"error"} " grtting this error

        Using access token i am trying to add sales orders through api but it is throwing errors like the above i have mentioned. Please help me for that

      • How to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?

        We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occur

      • Kanban View for Projects.

        At our organization, we describe active projects with various statuses like "In Proofing" or "Printing" or "Mailing". In the Projects view, one can set these project statuses by selecting from the appropriate drop-down. While this works, it's difficult to view and comprehend the progress of all of your projects relative to each other in a table. Creating a Kanban view for projects where I can move them from one status to another allows me to see where each project is in the order of our workflow.

      • How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses

        I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?

      • Add RECURRING option when adding email to calendar events

        When you add an email to a calendar event, there is no option to make that new calendar event into a recurring event.  It is counterproductive to make an event from your email to then have to go to your calendar, find the event, and make it recurring. 

      • LINE Auto Message Connect to Zoho

        When I integrated LINE into the CRM, I was prompted to disable “Chat,” “Auto Response,” and “Greeting Messages,” and to enable the webhook. However, since I have already set up some auto-reply features in LINE, including Rich Messages and greeting automation,

      • Next Page