Announcing Backstage OnAir, our in-house virtual events solution

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 and feasible they can be. Considering all of this, it's likely organizations will continue hosting online events in the future if only for the sheer convenience of it.
 
At Backstage, we started work on our own virtual events solution back in March. Since then, we've steadily added on to our existing features so you can leverage virtual events as soon as possible. However, our ultimate goal has always been to build a virtual events solution that is just as intuitive and seamless as Backstage is for live events. Today, after a little more than four months, we're ready to introduce Backstage OnAir, our virtual events extension.



From webcasting sessions and engaging with attendees in real-time to getting detailed post-session analytics, Backstage OnAir's features will help you host virtual events that are just as good as in-person ones. The best part—you can host both your online and live events from a single platform. Convenient, right?
 
Here's a quick rundown of how the many features of Backstage OnAir—combined with tools Backstage already possesses—can benefit you before, during, and even after your online event.
 

Before the event 

Creating an online event on Backstage is pretty similar to creating a live event. Begin with the usual stuff—create your online event just as you would an in-person one or convert one of your existing events from in-person to virtual.
 
Then add event details like the agenda and speakers, onboard your team, and set up event registration. The next step is designing your event microsite. Here, you can use Backstage's 10 themes and various custom pages and sections to build an event microsite that's spot-on with your brand.
 

 
Other things you can do at this stage include promoting your event with promotional codes, affiliates, and social sharing, as well as sending emails to attendees and prospects to keep them updated with the latest event news.
 

During the event 

The difference between virtual and in-person events is mostly seen on the event day—from attendee check-in to session presentation, everything has to be done through online means, and this can lead to a lot of challenges. At Backstage, we've made all the options flexible so you have more choice and control over how things proceed.

Attendee check-in


 
Checking in to an online event is the attendee's responsibility in Backstage. On the event day, a banner will run on the event microsite to inform attendees about the status of the event—whether it has begun or not and if sessions are running. It will also prompt them to check in to the event. Once they've checked in, they can participate in the sessions, network with other attendees, and contribute to discussions. 

Session presentation


The next step is presenting your sessions remotely. We've got three options for broadcasting your sessions, and you can use any of them—Backstage OnAir, Zoho Meeting, and other third-party web-conferencing software.


 
The actual session experience depends largely on the tool you're using and the features it has to offer. We, of course, recommend Backstage OnAir for this. It comes with options like webcasting live sessions, detailed session analytics, and virtual engagement tools (polls, chat, whiteboard, and questions) to interact with attendees in real-time and make them feel like they're a part of the event. Currently, you can webcast your session to a maximum of 200 attendees though in the future, we will be increasing this number to accommodate more attendees. In addition, after each session ends, attendees can join the next session automatically. 
 

Networking


Most event organizers find networking to be a real challenge with virtual events. At Backstage, we've got a pretty handy feature to help you with this—discussion channels. You can create both public and private channels to help attendees network with others who share the same interests or even continue their discussions with speakers after the session is over.


 
You can also announce impromptu discussions or meets so everyone knows what's happening and they don't miss out on the opportunity to interact with others.
 

After the event

 

 
Once your event is over, you can post behind-the-scenes photos in the event gallery and give your attendees a peek into what really went on backstage. You can also ask your attendees to post photos. The gallery is a good place to bond with them over photos and memories. This is especially important with virtual events as a lot of things here happen over text and voice. Pictures can help make the experience more authentic, real, and personal.


 
The other important thing to do after the event is study the analytics so you know what went right and what went wrong. Backstage already offers two equally important types of analytics—sales analytics and session analytics—and the great thing about the OnAir extension is that your virtual event can still leverage all the Backstage features you normally use for in-person events. While the former tells you how interested people were in your event, the latter tells you how satisfying the experience was. You can also make use of our PageSense integration to step this up a little and get detailed website analytics.
 
Also, members subscribed to our Enterprise and Ultimate plans can use Backstage OnAir free of charge to present remote sessions and host virtual events until September 30, 2020.
 
Power your virtual events with Backstage OnAir and give your attendees an experience they won't forget any time soon! Let us know what you think in the comments below. For product-related questions or suggestions, write to us at support@zohobackstage.com.

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

    • Creator List not showing

      I've edited a list in creator, but when I open it in the live version the list is completely different. Anyone know why this is happening? Edit Version: Live Version:

    • Please design a better spam filter

      Hi Team, While I love Zoho Mail for all the awesome features you have designed - this is the one you need to do a lot of work on - Spam Filter. Your spam categorization seems to be very inefficient - any email containing brand images or a tracking pixel

    • Host not reachable when sending

      For few partner that I send regular emails now got error and they don't receive emails Temporary failure fam-xxx.hr/185.xx.xx.xxx Host not reachable. Have more than 20 mails in https://mailadmin.zoho.eu/cpanel/home.do#mailSettings/retryEmail please

    • IP flagged as abusive

      I'm getting the error that 136.143.188.15 is listed as abusive. I've checked with mxtoolbox.com and it is indeed in the list

    • App passwords stop working

      Some of my app passwords appear to stop working after awhile. Seems to happen every 6 months or so. Just had to change one again for the second time in a year. Is this a bug or a feature? Or perhaps changes are being made on the back end on occasion that

    • Duplicate entries for contacts birthdays

      Good morning I have recently started to use my Zoho calendar and noticed that there are multiple birthday events showing for some of my contacts. I have checked my contacts and there were duplicates for some contacts which I have now rectified but the

    • Problem: New Email Consistently Failing to Sync/Display in Inbox

      Recently, I have noticed that my Zoho Email inbox does not indicate I've received a new email, until I go to *another* folder and then return to the inbox. Only then will new emails be displayed. This has happened 100% of the time, during the past few

    • Zoho IMAP Access to mail doesn't sync messages

      As stated in the topic - I have company account email address setup, and it has ( as in the picutre ) ActiveSync and Imap access enabled. However the messages does not show up while logged in in Zoho Mail however when I log in in thunderbird everything

    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

    • Temps working custom view in Zoho Recruit

      How do you create a custom view of temps working for this week.  I have tried multiple combinations of job status, start date, end date etc but I am unable to find the correct combinations to show the temps I have working this week?? Any suggestions on how I can do this. 

    • Client Scripts similar to CRM?

      Hi, Is there any plans for Client Scripts to become a feature of Recruit? Feel this will be a great benefit to a number of users. Would be great for example in cases where a Client has banned / blacklisted a Candidate - so that if that candidate is associated

    • Announcing Zoho Sheet desktop app for macOS and Windows (Beta)

      Hello Sheet users, We know you’ve been waiting for this one. It has always been the top priority on our roadmap to provide a single native desktop app for macOS and Windows that works both online and offline. Today, we are excited to announce that the

    • Automated entries past the current month in a calendar report

      Hi all, I have an automation problem. I have a form which on successfull entry adds either 5 or 10 more of these entries with a slight change so our customers can see it throug a calendar report on the webiste. The entry put in manually shows up perfectly

    • Billing Status Update

      Hello Latha, I’m working on a new automation (deluge) to fulfill one of our requirements. In this automation, there is a step to update the Work Order billing status from “Not Yet Invoiced” to “Non-Billable.” I tried to find the API information relevant

    • What's New in Zoho POS - April 2026

      Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS’s monthly update, where we share our latest feature updates, enhancements, events, and more. Let’s take a look at how April went. Access and manage other web applications in Zoho POS with Web Tabs You can now access

    • Many Zoho POS Issues

      Can not apply credits from a customers account as a form of payment. It shows that you can but there is a bug that does not execute the action. Reported many times. Can not view Sessions from Zoho POS WebView, throws a JQUERY error Workflows and actions

    • HOW I CAN GET BETA VERSION FOT TESTING

      HI. ZOHO I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR BETA SOFTWARE TO EXPERIENCE NEW FEATURES.

    • Multiple EAN code for product

      option to add multiple EAN code for product???

    • Issue adding/changing mobile number for OTP

      Hi Zoho Community, I’m trying to add or change my mobile number, but I keep getting this error: “We’re unable to send OTP to this mobile number. Please contact support-as@eu.zohocorp.com” Because of this, I can’t verify my number or continue the setup.

    • Zoho Payroll Canada does not work

      We submitted payroll within the required timelines. The money was withdrawn from our account and our employees have not been paid. Impossible to get a hold of someone at Zoho. I can’t believe the company operates like this. What a bloody disgrace. Shame

    • Enhance Appointment Buffers in Zoho Bookings

      There was previously a long-standing feature request related to enhancing the way appointment buffers work in Zoho Bookings, but it looks like the original post has been deleted. I am therefore adding a new request that Zoho Bookings adjust how appointment

    • Functionality based URL to find records due today or in the next week

      I need to construct a URL to filter a view to records where the evaluation is due soon (i.e. in the next 7 days). To me, that includes today, but Zoho has a different opinion. Zoho defines 39 as NEXT_7_DAYS but this gives unexpected results. https://creatorapp.zoho.eu/...#Report:My_Evaluations?Evaluation_due_by_op=39

    • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

      My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these

    • Event Time Zone in meeting invites are confusing users

      When sending calendar invites to internal and external users, the first section "Event Time Zone" is confusing people and they are automatically declining events. Can this section please be removed??? It already shows the correct time zone next to the

    • Forwarding without verification

      Hi, I use Tripit to keep track of all my business travel. I've recently moved over to Zoho and wanted to set up a forwarding rule to send various travel confirmation emails automatically to plans@tripit.com Obviously this is an email address I don't control,

    • Filter by user in Pivot Chart

      I have a Pivot chart where the data should be filtered by user. The user enters the system and should see only the data that correspond to it. Can anyone help me?

    • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

      Availability Update: 29 September 2025: It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition exclusively for IN DC users. 2 March 2026: Available to users in all DCs except US and EU DC. 24

    • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

      Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

    • Internal mails on our company domain (managed by Zoho) do not get delivered

      Hi last week Thursday and Friday a colleague had sent me two emails which did not show up at all in my inbox, spam or anywhere else. What this a problem with Zoho mail in general or did this affect just us? From the forum is reads like many problems had

    • #2 The Tax Talk Nobody Wants to Have

      "We are also able to manage our GST invoices without worrying about compliance issues. With Zoho Invoice, we are happy, our tax consultant is happy, and so are our customers," rejoices Shivprateek Habib, Partner, Flutterboots Services LLP. That's usually

    • Bulk upload images and specifications to products

      Hi, Many users have asked this over the years and I am also asking the same. Is there any way in which we can bulk upload product (variant) images and product specifications. The current way to upload/select image for every variant is too cumbersome.

    • Workflows fail silently in Zoho CRM and there is no native way to know

      Workflow automation is honestly one of the biggest reasons my clients choose Zoho. But there is one problem I keep running into across almost every implementation. When a workflow fails, nobody finds out. Email alerts hit daily limits and just stop. Custom

    • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

      We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

    • Is there a way to update bounce domain after verification process has started

      Hi Zeptomail Team, I've created a domain and we did not update the bounce domain to our custom record... the validation has already started and I am now unable to update the bounce domain. Is there any way to get this updated on the backend without deleting

    • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

      We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will

    • How to Customize the Member Portal Login Page?

      Hi everyone, I am currently using the default member portal login page for Zoho Commerce, but I feel it looks quite plain and doesn’t align well with my brand's style. I would like to make it more visually appealing, possibly by: Adding custom colors

    • Picklist values out-of-date in Campaigns

      Hi I use a CRM (Global) picklist set of values for my field "Connection Strength" (see screenshot 1). . I use Campaigns to follow-up and change the Connection Strength value depending on their stage. The picklist values that appear in the dropdown for

    • Refering cell from other sheet

      Hi, If we want to refer any cell in the same sheet its very easy, like suppose if I want to refer cell A2  in P7 I just need to type =A2 in P7, similarly how can I refer a cell present in different sheet ( I mean refer cell A2 from Sheet1 into Sheet2) Thanks

    • How to keep track of bags, cans, drums of inventory?

      We buy and sell products that are packaged in bags 🛍️, cans🥫, drums🛢️, etc. with batch numbers. When we get a shipment of one of the products, how do we track we received (say) 10 cans each of 5L of a product and maybe we received 10 cans of another

    • Global/Overall Reports & Dashboards in Zoho Sprints

      Hi, Do we have an option to refer Global Level Reports & Dashboards in Zoho Sprints? We could see that we have Project specific Reports & Dashboards inside every Project. However, for a management level we want Reports & Dashboards visibility at a Global

    • Next Page