What's New—April 2022

What's New—April 2022

Hello Backstage users,

This month our existing features have undergone a few updates and enhancements. We hope you can see the difference in how much better and more cohesive the overall Backstage experience is.

So here we go with a quick rundown of all that happened in April.

1-on-1 meetings for all event participants

Earlier we released the option for any event participant to initiate 1-on-1 chats with others in the Virtual Space. This time, we're providing you the option to go beyond just text. You can now schedule 1-on-1 meetings with anyone inside the Virtual Space in your event, allowing you to connect with audio and video.

To allow all event participants access to this option, enable the 1-on-1 meeting toggle by clicking the Preferences link in the Virtual tab under the Manage Dashboard. This will display the My meetings tab for everyone in the Virtual Space so that they can plan and schedule these meetings.

When you want to schedule a meeting, click the My meetings tab. In the resulting panel, the Availability for meetings toggle under the Settings tab will be enabled by default for you. This option controls whether the time slots you've configured for your availability are visible or not to other event participants. You can also access this from your Privacy preferences option under your User Avatar.

In the same panel, under the Meetings tab, set up the time during which you will be available to meet with people. Once you've set up your availability, anyone from the Virtual Space can schedule a meeting with you by selecting your name from the Event participants tab. The 1-on-1 chat option can also be easily accessed during meetings. Booked meetings can always be canceled by either of the two participants as long as it hasn't begun already. To enter a meeting, both participants can click the Join meeting button in the My meetings tab.
 
To access and set up 1-on-1 meetings: Go to Virtual Space > My Meetings
 

OTHER UPDATES

  • Expo management—which was previously only available for online events—can now be done for hybrid events as well.
  • You can now modify the size of the media element in the Hero section in the event microsite.
  • Change the way ticket classes are displayed in the event microsite by using the arrangement and alignment options in the Design tab of the Microsite Builder.
  • You can now remove the location of an event after you've configured it in the Event Details tab.
  • You can set up preferences for the Virtual Space under the Virtual tab in the Manage Dashboard. Options for access to the participants list and other engagement options can be managed here.
  • Setting up the dark or light ambience, which could be done in the Virtual tab under the Manage Dashboard, can now also be managed inside the Virtual Space.
  • Exhibitors can now update the background for their virtual booth from the Booth background tab in the event microsite.
  • Discussions at networking tables can be recorded. This option is now available for early access. Please contact our support team if you would like to try it out.

That's it for this month's product updates. We'd love to know what you think in the comments below. Visit our help center to get more information on the latest features or write to us at support@zohobackstage.com if you have any product-related queries.

Happy organizing!