Tips and Tricks 11: Rehearsing for the event day

Tips and Tricks 11: Rehearsing for the event day



Hello everyone,

Hosting a successful and memorable event takes effort, and most of the time you only get one shot at doing it right. Getting a picture of how things will play out can make you confident to achieve the objectives you planned for your event. Preparing your event team members—like your staff, session hosts and co-hosts, and speakers—by rehearsing every session can help everyone get on the same page and give you an opportunity to work out any kinks.

When you create a location-based or an online event in Zoho Backstage, apart from adding speakers to their respective sessions in the Agenda tab, you can also configure hosts and co-hosts in the Hosts tab from the Manage Dashboard. Before event day begins, you can prepare your event team by conducting a dry-run for sessions in Backstage with everyone involved. To do this, you can invite up to 20 test participants for an event to join session rehearsals. This makes your practice runs secure and only accessible to the people you choose.



To invite test participants to your event for session rehearsals, go to the Test participants tab under the Rehearsal tab in the Conduct Dashboard. Here you can click the Add participants link and enter the email addresses of people who you want to invite.

To start a rehearsal, go to the Rehearsal tab in the Conduct Dashboard and click the Rehearse sessions tab. This tab will look similar to the Present sessions tab and this action will display all the sessions in your event. Here, click a session in the timeline on the left. On the right, you will see session details displayed. Next, click the Rehearse session button to start the practice session. Apart from the invited test participants, anyone from the list of event organizers, hosts, co-hosts, and staff can also be a part of session rehearsals by clicking the Join Rehearsal button in the Rehearse sessions tab. When they join the rehearsal, they will be listed according to their role in the event.



Speakers who are added to a session will be sent an invitation email to join the rehearsal through the event microsite. They can click the Join Rehearsal button against a session on the Agenda page and join as speakers. Once the session begins, they can go through their material, refine content, plan transitions, time their sessions, and coordinate with the hosts or co-hosts about session flow. Speakers who are new to the event scene can also get used to talking on stage or an online platform and understand how to use in-session engagement tools like, chat, polls, or Q&A in order to be ready for the event day. Any equipment or integration used for audio or video streaming can also be put to the test at this time to get on top of any unanticipated technical issues. Speakers can also join rehearsals conducted for sessions that they're not added to but will be listed as an attendee in that rehearsal.



Test participants will also receive an email when they are invited to take part in session rehearsals for an event. This email will include a link to easily sign in to the event microsite. Once signed in, they can click the Join Rehearsal button for a particular session on the Agenda page in the event microsite and will be listed as attendees in that rehearsal. However, if you invite an event member such as an event organizer, staff, host, or co-hosts, as a test participant, they will not be listed as an attendee but will be listed according to their respective roles. If you would like to send reminders to all the test participants at the time of the rehearsal, click the Inform participants to join event link in the Test participants tab.

You can also conduct multiple rehearsals, however, sessions that are happening in the same hall or track can't be started parallelly. In addition, make sure that you invite a different set of test participants when you are planning on conducting rehearsals that run parallelly.

Just like with a live session, after the rehearsal is complete, you will find a session summary and detailed analytics in the Sessions tab. Click the View details button for any session to do this.

We hope this tip will be useful for you. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

You can also visit our help center or send us an email at support@zohobackstage.com if you have any questions.

Stay tuned for more useful tips to help you craft exceptional events with Zoho Backstage!

Happy organizing!


Found this helpful? Subscribe to the Backstage Community for more tips and tricks.

    • Recent Topics

    • Email Notifications not pushing through

      Hi, Notifications from CRM are not reaching my users as they trigger.  We have several workflow triggers set up that send emails to staff as well as the notifications users get when a task is created for them or a user is tagged in the notes.  For the past 6 days these haven't been coming through in real time, instead users are receiving 30-40 notifications in one push several hours later.  This is beginning to impact our daily usage of CRM and is having a negative effect on our productivity because

    • Ticket layout based on field or contact

      Hi! I want to support the following use-case: we are delivering custom IT solutions to different accounts we have, thus our ticket layouts, fields and languages (priority, status field values should be Hungarian) will be different. How should I setup

    • Add specific field value to URL

      Hi Everyone. I have the following code which is set to run from a subform when the user selects a value from a lookup field "Plant_Key" the URL opens a report but i want the report to be filtered on the matching field/value. so in the report there is

    • Syncing Bills in Zoho Books to Zoho CRM

      Is there any way to sync the Bills in Zoho Books in Zoho CRM

    • Desk DMARC forwarding failure for some senders

      I am not receiving important emails into Desk, because of DMARC errors. Here's what's happening: 1. email is sent from customer e.g. john@doe.com, to my email address, e.g info@acme.com 2. email is delivered successfully to info@acme.com (a shared inbox

    • SAML in Zoho One vs Zoho Accounts

      What is the difference between setting up SAML in Zoho Accounts: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/accounts/manage-your-organization/saml/articles/configure-saml-in-zoho-accounts ... vs SAML in Zoho One?: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/one/admin-guide/custom-authentication/setting-up-custom-authentication-with-popular-idps/articles/zohoone-customauthentication-azure

    • How do I change the order of fields in the new Task screen?

      I have gone into the Task module layout, and moving the fields around does not seem to move them in the Create Task screen. Screenshot below. I have a field (Description) that we want to use frequently, but it is inconveniently placed within the More

    • Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

      Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to

    • CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

      Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),

    • Deactivated Zoho One account can sign in

      I am concerned by the fact that deactivated users in Zoho One have the ability to sign in even after their account has been deactivated (not deleted). these inactive identities have no access to individual Zoho apps or data. based on my experience they

    • How can I reset the password for a user in Zoho Projects

      We need to reset the password for a user in Zoho Projects. I am the admin portal owner and there was nothing to be found to do this. very confusing.

    • No funcionan correctamente el calculo de las horas laborales para informe de tickets

      Hola, estoy intentando sacar estadísticas de tiempo de primera respuesta y resolución en horario laboral de mis tickets, pero el calculo de horas en horario laboral no funciona correctamente cree los horarios con los feriados : Ajusté los acuerdos de

    • How can I add a comment to an existing ticket via API?

      I need to add comments/notes to the history of an existing ticket using the API without overwriting the original ticket description. Thanks!

    • Notification to customers when I use a Zoho function

      Hi all, I tried searching the community but couldn't find anything about it. I noticed that the customer receives the notification of reopening the old ticket but does not receive the notification of opening a new ticket when I use the function: "separate

    • Internal Error When Accessing Team Inbox.

      All our users are seeing this error in teaminbox. Because its a critical tool kindly resolve this issue ASAP.

    • Marketer's Space: Proven tips to improve open rates – Part III

      Hello Marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space! This is the final post in the "open rate series". In the first and second parts, we discussed topics ranging from sender domains to pre-headers—but we're not done yet. A few more important

    • MCP no longer works with Claude

      Anyone else notice Zoho MCP no longer works with Claude? I'm unable to turn this on in the claude chat. When I try to toggle it on, it just does nothing at all. I've tried in incognito, new browsers, etc. - nothing seems to work.

    • Change Number Field to Decimal Field

      Hi, It would be nice to be able to change the field type without having to delete it and create a new one, messing up the database and history. Thanks Dan

    • Allow Text within a Formula

      Hi, I would like to be able to use this for others things like taking an existing Date Field and copying its value, so by entering getDay(Date)&"-"&getMonth(Date)&"-"&getYear(Date) it results in 01-02-2026. And then when the Date is changed so is this

    • Zoho Social - Feature Request - Reviewer Role

      Hi Social Team, I've come across this with a couple of clients, where they need a role which can review and comment on posts but who has no access to create content. This is a kind of reviewer role. They just need to be able to see what content is scheduled

    • Zoho Books/Inventory - Update Marketplace Sales Order via API

      Hi everyone, Does anyone know if there is a way to update Sales Orders created from a marketplace intigration (Shopify in this case) via API? I'm trying to cover a scenario where an order is changed on the Shopify end and the changes must be reflected

    • Zoho Inventory / Finance Suite - Add feature to prevent duplicate values in Item Unit field

      I've noticed that a client has 2 values the same in the Unit field on edit/create Items. This surprised me as why would you have 2 units with the same name. Please consider adding a feature which prevents this as it seems to serve no purpose.

    • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

      Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

    • Kaizen #224 - Quote-driven Deal Reconciliation Using Zoho CRM Functions and Automation

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another instalment in the Kaizen series. This post covers quote-driven deal reconciliation, emphasizing Functions and Automation to address practical sales challenges. Business Challenge Sales organizations often mark deals

    • Dependent / Dynamic DropDown in ZohoSheets

      Has anyone figured out a way to create a Dropdown, the values of which is dependent on Values entered in the other cell ?

    • Zoho Inventory - Composite Items - Assembly - Single Line Item Quantity of One

      Hi Zoho Inventory Team, Please consider relaxing the system rules which prevent an assembly items from consisting of a single line item and outputting a quantity of 1. A client I'm currently working with sells cosmetics and offers testers of their products

    • Directly Edit, Filter, and Sort Subforms on the Details Page

      Hello everyone, As you know, subforms allow you to associate multiple line items with a single record, greatly enhancing your data organization. For example, a sales order subform neatly lists all products, their quantities, amounts, and other relevant

    • BARCODE PICKLIST

      Hello! Does anyone know how the Picklist module works? I tried scanning the barcode using the UPC and EAN codes I added to the item, but it doesn’t work. Which barcode format does this module use for scanning?

    • Zoho Inventory - Allow Update of Marketplace Generated Sales Orders via API

      Hi Inventory Team, I was recently asked by a client to create an automation which updated a Zoho Inventory Sales Order if a Shopify Order was updated. I have created the script but I found that the request is blocked as the Sales Order was generated by

    • How do I create an update to the Cost Price from landed costs?

      Hi fellow Zoho Inventory battlers, I am new to Zoho inventory and was completely baffled to find that the cost price of products does not update when a new purchase order is received. The cost price is just made up numbers I start with when the product

    • Manage control over Microsoft Office 365 integrations with profile-based sync permissions

      Greetings all, Previously, all users in Zoho CRM had access to enable Microsoft integrations (Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks) in their accounts, regardless of their profile type. Users with administrator profiles can now manage profile-based permissions

    • Zoho OAuth Connector Deprecation and Its Impact on Zoho Desk

      Hello everyone, Zoho believes in continuously refining its integrations to uphold the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of this ongoing improvement, the Zoho OAuth default connector will be deprecated for all Zoho services

    • VoC in Zoho CRM is now data savvy: Explore response drilldown, summary components and participation in CRM criteria

      VoC has all the goods when it comes to customer intelligence—which is why we're constantly enhancing it. We recently added the following: A customer drilldown component that shows you the list of prospects and customers behind a chart's attribute Expanded

    • How do I bulk archive my projects in ZOHO projects

      Hi, I want to archive 50 Projects in one go. Can you please help me out , How can I do this? Thanks kapil

    • Error 0x800CCC0F Outlook

      Hello, i cannot send or receive email in outlook. can you please help. 'Sending' reported error (0x800CCC0F) : 'The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • Can I add Conditional merge tags on my Templates?

      Hi I was wondering if I can use Conditional Mail Merge tags inside my Email templates/Quotes etc within the CRM? In spanish and in our business we use gender and academic degree salutations , ie: Dr., Dra., Sr., Srta., so the beginning of an email / letter

    • Zoho vault instal on windows

      I am trying to use Zoho Vault Desktop for Windows, but I am unable to complete the sign-in process. Problem description After logging in to my Zoho account and clicking Accept on the authorization page, nothing happens. The application does not proceed

    • Zoho Browser??

      hai guys, this sounds awkward but can v get a ZOHO BROWSER same as zoho writer, etc. where i can browse websites @ home and continue browsing the same websites @ my office, as v have the option in Firefox, once i save and close the browser and again when i open it i will be getting the same sites. If u people r not clear with my explanation, plz let me know. Thanks, Sandeep  

    • Let’s Talk Recruit: LinkedIn Cheatsheet

      Welcome to the first edition of Let’s Talk Recruit for 2026. We are kicking off the year by revisiting one of the most asked about topics in Zoho Recruit. How our LinkedIn integrations actually work and how recruiters can get the most value from them.

    • Next Page