Spotlight 26: Host interactive virtual sessions with Backstage OnAir

Spotlight 26: Host interactive virtual sessions with Backstage OnAir



According to a recent survey by Markletic, two of the biggest challenges organizers face when hosting online events are attendee engagement and interaction. Where in-person events bank on the impact of face-to-face communication to engage attendees, virtual events depend on technology to build that rapport. As such, the more engagement tools available in your event management software, the more captivating your virtual sessions will be.
 
Backstage OnAir comes with a robust set of interactive tools that can help maximize audience engagement at your virtual sessions. In this post, we'll be exploring how you can make the best use of these tools.

Run live polls


The average human being has an attention span of just eight seconds. Since virtual events come with more distractions than in-person ones, you have to double your effort to keep attendees engaged. This means you need to be in frequent contact with your attendees to bring their attention back to your session. An easy way to do this is through live polling.



When webcasting sessions with Backstage OnAir, you can set the polls in three formats—multiple choice, ratings, or text box (for open-ended questions). These polls can also be created beforehand and projected during the session. To set polls, go to the Sessions tab in the Manage dashboard. Poll results can be viewed at any time in the Session summary page.

Host virtual Q&A sessions


At every session, the last few minutes are always set aside for audience questions. As it's not possible to have mic runners to solicit attendee questions at virtual events, Backstage OnAir comes with a handy Q&A feature that allows attendees to submit their questions. Here, your attendees can ask questions at any time during the session, and they can ask as many questions as they want. They can also see the questions submitted by other attendees and upvote the ones that interest them. 



The presenter can view all the questions by clicking the Question mark icon in the bottom-left corner of the presenter window. They also have the option to display the question to attendees by projecting it when answering so everyone knows what they're talking about. The questions will also be on record in the Session summary page for future reference.
 

Chat with attendees in real time

 
The single, most-effective tool to network during remote sessions is through the real-time chat feature. Using group chat, attendees can interact with each other, share ideas, and add to the discussion. With real-time chat, they are no longer silent spectators but instead, involved participants.



When participating in a remote session, organizers, speakers, and attendees can start chatting by clicking the Chat option in the left pane. Attendees can also start a private chat to interact with speakers or panelists.
 

Leverage the virtual whiteboard

 
A virtual whiteboard can be an incredible help for presenters who wish to keep attendees focused, especially when explaining complex topics. With Backstage OnAir's virtual whiteboard, presenters can write, draw, insert shapes, and even create flowcharts.



When presenting sessions with Backstage OnAir, you can access the virtual whiteboard from the bottom panel in the presenter window. Click the Whiteboard option to go to the white canvas board, from where you can create your illustrations. Also, a point to note here is that attendees can only view the whiteboard if you share your screen, so make sure to do that.
 

Get session feedback 

 
Finally, once the session is complete, you can get feedback from the attendees to gauge their reactions. To enable session feedback, go to Session settings in the Sessions tab. If you'd like to get feedback on something specific regarding the session, customize the session feedback form to include questions regarding it.



By studying the responses in the form, you can measure audience engagement at the session and get a better picture of what worked at the session and what didn't. You can use this feedback to improve engagement at future events.
 
Learn more about running virtual sessions with Backstage OnAir and give your attendees a fully immersive experience, wherever they may be. Subscribe to our forum to be updated with the latest Backstage news. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can leave a comment below or write to us at support@zohobackstage.com.
 
Happy organizing!




    • Recent Topics

    • How do I associate pricebooks to a customer?

      I setup a few pricebooks, that worked fine. But now the only thing I can do with it, when I enter a quote or sales order, I can select which pricebook to use, but I have to do this product by product every time I add one. Is there a way to connect a pricebook

    • Introducing Dark Mode / Light Mode : A New Look For Your CRM

      Hello Users, We are excited to announce a highly anticipated feature - the launch of Day, Night and Auto Mode implementation in Zoho CRM's NextGen user interface! This feature is designed to provide a visually appealing and comfortable experience for

    • Subforms and automation

      If a user updates a field how do we create an automation etc. We have a field for returned parts and i want to get an email when that field is ticked. How please as Zoho tells me no automation on subforms. The Reason- Why having waited for ever for FSM

    • Pulling Specific Products from Sales Orders in Books to a CRM Record

      We currently process orders directly through our website (woocommerce) as well as through manual sales orders in zoho books. When an order comes through the website, all of the individual products from that order show up in the CRM record of that customer.

    • Functions - How to pass Dynamic Parameters / Arguments?

      I am trying to create a generic function that I can use to update a given field with the name of the user and a given field with a datetime. The purpose of this is to have a history of major actions within the CRM record itself so it is easier to query

    • Locking Certain Feilds

      Hello! I was wondering if there was a way to lock certain fields from being changed until another field had been filled in. For example, my origination has a chain of blueprints that have to be filled in for someone to properly convert from the "Leads"

    • How to void partially paid bill?

      Hello. I have following problem and can't figure out how to solve it. I created a bill from vendor for 180gbp for purchase of some items. It was partially paid (60gbp) and so far so good - 120gbp overdue and items were successfully added to inventory

    • Email Notification to WordPress Blog Subscribers

      You know when a new WordPress blog is published, your subscribers will be notified via email with a link to that blog? Jetpack does it but I'm hoping to get away from it or any other specialized WordPress plugin (like MailPoet), and instead, use a dedicated

    • CRM workflow to trigger Zoho Sign (One)

      Hi,  We have had integration in the past with SignNow in our standard CRM. A onboard would fill out name and address and in turn this would trigger a webhook out of Zoho CRM into Zapier and to SignNow. We've recently upgraded to Zoho One and cannot find anyway to automate the Sign process from CRM to Zoho Sign, is this possible?

    • Lookup field - Can I avoid using advanced search?

      I have a lookup field in my app that has surpassed 500,000 records, now basic search is disabled and I'm forced to use advanced search. That adds multiple steps to what used to be very simple. Before: Select field > Type last digits of product code and

    • Calendar View for Zoho Tickets

      Is there a way to view your tickets with due dates on a calendar view? I can not find a way to merge my Zoho Calendar and Tickets. This would be extremely helpful to my team.

    • Zoho Book - Banking Module - Cash Credit account

      I have a CC account with a bank. I initially added the account as a 'Bank Account' under the banking module in Zoho Books. However, this CC Bank Account is showing as an asset instead of a liability. I have added the account as a credit card account but

    • Zoho Sign Custom Domain

      Any plans for Custom Domain?

    • Multiple date selection

      Hello, we want create app for our company. We need create tasks for our employers. For example - 1 employer have task every Friday the whole year. Second have task every Monday for 6 months. For simple way create Multiple date selection in date form

    • Book project costs to tasks

      Hi all, New to zoho but far from new to this sort of platform. I've been scouring the web for a suitable platform for my growing business. I'm currently using Xero and WorkFlow Max but it lacks a key need. I signed up to zoho projects and books to test

    • SalesIQ-Desk integration update: Seamless helpdesk ticket editing in-chat!

      Did you know you can now edit your desk support tickets within SalesIQ? Happy to announce the latest update to the SalesIQ-Desk integration. Managing your customer support tickets within SalesIQ just got even smoother and better. No more toggling between

    • Been getting this error, every now and then "Get count limit exceeded, please try again after 3 mins"

      it is really annoying.

    • Route Optimizer

      Does Zoho Inventory offer route optimization for our in-house deliveries? It will save us time to manually route our daily orders. Thank you

    • Campaign API Error 2001

      I'm getting a 2001 Error stating "Error in subscription. Please try after some time." I've waited but it continues to persist. I"ve copied and pasted the exact request on the API website yet that doesn't work either.

    • How to list Expenses that have not been matched to a Bank Transaction

      In ZoHo books I use expenses to record invoices I receive. I know I should probably uses Bills for this but Bills was not available in the Free edition I initially used. When I upgraded I contunued to use Expenses. I'm trying to find a way of listing

    • How are you handing birthdays?

      I'm deciding on the best way to handle contact birthdays in my set-up. None of the options seem ideal, so I am interested in how others approach this. The aim is to have a usable ui to track birthday without knowing or requiring the year. I'm currently

    • Fiverr is better than Zoho Partners

      For anyone out there looking for help with Zoho Creator's confusing Deluge, I highly recommend hiring NON ZOHO PARTNERS on Fiverr. I've had much better experiences with those who are NOT certified by Zoho. Almost every single "certified" zoho partner

    • Marketing Automation pour maximiser le ROI : évaluer les performances et optimiser les campagnes

      Le Marketing Automation a transformé la manière dont les entreprises mènent leurs actions marketing, offrant une solution efficace pour simplifier les processus, améliorer la productivité et, surtout, maximiser le ROI. Dans un environnement commercial

    • Spotlight series #25 - Create presentation outlines using Zoho Show's Chrome extension

      Hello all, the feature in this month's spotlight is Zoho Show's Chrome extension. The first step to creating a good presentation is outlining your ideas—a crucial process that sets the foundation for everything that follows. But this often involves extensive

    • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

      title

    • Multi-line fields character limits

      Is there a way to set the character limit higher on multi-line fields so that we are not losing information pasted into the field? When the text is entered or pasted, there is no error to say that the text is too large. After saving and going back to view most of the text is gone.   Also, when viewing the resume, the text is not wrapped in the multi line fields and can t be read without scrolling across the page.

    • Workload Reports

      Under Reports > Workload Reports, would it be possible to get Kanban view sorted by Task Owner? Seems like it'd be an easier/ quicker view of how many tasks are assigned to each user and what status they're at. Also gives you more information about the

    • attributed automatically database section

      Hello everyone and happy holidays... here in zoho CRM, I created 3 bases: - Properties (House, apartment ...) - Transactions (Notaries, ...) - Real estate ads I want when the address is identical on these three bases, that in "Properties" the transactions

    • Custom Module I made shows the records I uploaded are there but they are not showing up.

      Here's a screenshot of the module - It shows there are around 2000 records but it says that there aren't any. The module is viewable by administrators and I am on an administrator account so I am not sure why the records aren't showing. Any help would

    • Webform & spam

      Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

    • Need Help with Journey in Zoho Marketing Automation

      Hello everyone, I’m new to Zoho Marketing Automation and am trying to build a journey that triggers based on the contract end date of customers. My goal is to send them an email with an ebook one day before their contract ends. To achieve this, I used

    • Announcing Trident desktop app for Zoho Mail & Zoho Workplace users

      Hello Community, I hope you are doing well and staying safe. As you know, our Mail & workplace teams have been constantly working on adding more value to our offerings to ensure you and your organization continue enjoying your Zoho experience. As part

    • Kudos to the Zoho Flow Team!

      Hi Zoho Flow Team, Way to go on the new design—it looks fantastic! We especially love the festive touch with the Christmas decorations. It's a delightful and thoughtful addition that brings a bit of holiday cheer to the experience. Keep up the amazing

    • Website not found when trying to unlock Zoho vault with fingerprint(authenticator) in windows 11

      Whenever I try to unlock the Zoho vault with fingerprint(authenticator) it shows the Website not found on the server. To replicate the issue follow the below steps: Download the zoho vault extension and login. And now open the zoho vault extension ->

    • Kaizen #170: FAQs on Notification APIs

      Hello all!! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! In this post, we will address the most frequently asked questions about Zoho CRM's Notification APIs from the Zoho CRM Developer Community Forum. Notification API This API allows you to subscribe

    • Extracting data from cells in zoho sheets for zoho books

      I am currently uploading my bank statment in excel format to zoho workdrive. I would like flow to extract certain data and send it to zoho books. Would scripting in zoho flow be able to help me with this? By this I mean should I attempt this in zoho flow

    • Multiple templates (Settings > Email templates)

      Hi Zoho, We would like to have more options to select a template when sending an email in Zohosign. Currently we can only add 1 template per option: Is this possible? Kind regards, Tristan

    • How to find the number that appears most often in a list (the Mode of a list)

      I have a list that contains a list of 5 string values. I want to find which value is repeated most often and place that value into a single line text field Example List1 = Learning,Learning,Shaping,Leading,Learning In List1 the value “Learning” appears

    • Sorting and previewing notes

      I use the method of sorting notes by edit date in both the desktop and android clients, newest notes on top. When I edit a note on Android and exit it to the notebook, it does not move to the very top. Only when I exit the notebook and enter it again,

    • Domain not usable

      We have not used this domain because the Chrome systems on our office devices are not compatible with your technology. I am sorry if no one has never advised you of this. Please cancel if it has not already been canceled. Ticket# 7526594 Please see

    • Next Page