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

    • Custom field doesn't fill when converting sales order to invoice

      Hi, When I convert a Sales Order to an Invoice one of the custom fields on a product line names "Subsidie" does not seem to fill in automatically. I manually have to select the product again by clicking on the product name in the order line en re-select

    • TeamInbox down?

      Hi everyone, we are getting message "Sorry, this action cannot be performed due to an internal error. Please try again later. We are on the Canadian data centers. Can someone please confirm if the service is down? Thank you! F

    • Purchase Requisition in Zoho Books

      I want to understand if Zoho Books is having the following workflow: PR ( Purchase Requisition ) >> PO ( Purchase order) >>  GRN/SRN ( Goods/Services receipt note) >> Bill

    • Confirmation prompt before a custom button action is triggered

      Have you ever created a custom button and just hoped that you/your users are prompted first to confirm the action? Well, Zoho knows this concept. For example, in blueprint, whenever we want to advance to the next state by clicking the transition, it is

    • Marketer's Space: Streamline marketing and sales by integrating ZMA's Planner with Zoho CRM

      In a competitive market, clear goal-setting and seamless campaign execution are crucial for marketing and sales alignment. When integrated with Zoho CRM, Zoho Marketing Automation's Planner enables marketers to create, manage, and measure campaigns effectively

    • Custom emails for Portals not working

      I changed the standard templates to custom email templates for all three options, but the invitation is still sending the original email layouts. Anyone know why this would be happening? I changed them 2 days ago.

    • Switching scheduled webinars from Live to On-demand

      Now that On-Demand webinars has been added as an option for webinar presenting, is there a way I can edit already scheduled webinars from Live to on-Demand? These scheduled webinars already have people registered. Thanks

    • Zoho CRM v2.1 deprecation or sunset plans ?

      Hi Team Wanted to know if there is any plan to deprecate v2.1 CRM apis https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v2.1/ and if yes by when

    • Forex Bank Refund Entry

      Hello, please advise how to enter refunds from our bank forex department. The refund was because we were on preferential rates but at the time of USD purchase were not given the preferential rate, therefore the bank calculated the excess that we paid

    • Auto-Populating Custom Field

      This is to request a feature enhancement for our invoicing system. We're currently creating invoices with a single item per invoice and have a custom field called "Related Vehicle." We would like the "Related Vehicle" field to be automatically populated

    • How can i Customize Delivery Note?

      I need to customize delivery note like change the tittle for language purposes and also include only the balance due

    • Delivery note template

      We have some reasonable templates for sales docs but the delivery note one is very limited. It would be nice if we could have the same options as the sales form templates or even create our own by cloning an existing sales template, modifying (ie: removing

    • INTERCOMPANIES INVOICING

      Dears , I paid expenses on behalf of our sister company from my cash account , then month End i issued an invoice to the sister company , my question is how to put the expenses GL in the invoices

    • Zoho CRM Theme Color?

      I've read multiple articles stating it's possible to change Zoho CRM theme colour (top menu bar) from personal settings menu, however, my zoho has no options for this at all and I've looked everywhere........has this feature been removed? I'm currently

    • How can i force the user to select a project when creating an invoice ?

      Hello I tried all the ways that i know , but no way is able to stop creating an invoice without project.

    • Sales

      1/ How can I make a discount on invoice exmple : invoice 5,100 le , custmar pay 5000 and I need to make this 100 le as a discount , how can i make it ?! 2/ Is thare any report can make me match my company’s balance with the customer’s balance?

    • Include Project Hours when Creating Estimates from Projects

      Hi Currently, in Books, you can create estimates from Projects by inserting tasks that pull both the task and the hourly charge rate. But it doesn't pull the budgeted hours for the task, so you manually have to remember the number of hours for a given

    • acc

      Regularly sending statements to customers is an imperative part of many business processes as it helps foster strong customer relationships and provides timely guidance on pay//

    • South African Payment Gateways

      Since the "Demise" of Wave many South African users have moved over to Zoho and yet for years users have been requesting Integration with a South African Payment Gateway to no avail. Payfast was the most commonly requested gateway as it supports recurring

    • CRM Implementation

      I need to implement Zoho CRM. Is there a useful user manual available to guide me through the implementation?

    • Zoho Social integration with Zoho Flow

      Is there any plans for Zoho Social integration with Zoho Flow?

    • Marketing 2.0 has been a catastrophe

      Anyone else having significant issues with their link between their CRM and Marketing automation since moving to version 2.0? We had an easy flow for triggering leads in the CRM to journeys in Marketing Automation but now nothing seems to work properly.

    • Cannot average "Duration (Time)" from Pick List History Tracking in Reports

      Okay, let's say I have a custom module. In this custom module I have a pick-list named "Status" with "New", "In-Progress", "Completed" values. I also have turned ON pick-list history tracking and chose "Time" to track the duration in (instead of "Calendar

    • Customer Statement Template

      Hi. how can i add order number "customer LPO number" in the customer statement. regards

    • Authorize.Net Update: Disable Transaction IP Velocity Filter to Avoid Payment Failures

      Update: The Authorize.Net integration was updated on November 20, 2024. To prevent recurring transaction failures, we recommend disabling the Transaction IP Velocity Filter at the earliest. We’re updating the Authorize.Net integration in Zoho Books on

    • Need to send a single email to up to 20 recipients

      I want to send a single email to ~16 or 20 recipients. It appears that I cannot do this in Zoho email as it gets flagged as unusual activity. I need to be able to communicate with this group on a regular basis. What am I missing that Zoho doesn't allow

    • 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

    • Unable to Schedule One-to-One Emails in Zoho CRM

      Hi everyone, I’m using the Zoho CRM Professional Edition and facing an issue with scheduling one-to-one emails directly from CRM. While I can send immediate emails without any problem, I don’t see an option to schedule these emails for a later time. I’ve

    • Canvas Detail View Related List Sorting

      Hello, I am having an issue finding a way to sort a related list within a canvas detail view. I have sorted the related list on the page layout associated with the canvas view, but that does not transfer to the canvas view. What am I missing?

    • Repeatable Fields/Sections in Zoho CRM

      Hi Zoho Team, We have a module in CRM named "Clients". We would like to know whether it is possible to have a feature enables us to have repeatable sections in our clients' profiles? For example, if we customized a section in the clients' profiles named

    • Zoho Analytics: Requests for view access

      Hello, We have a user that might request access to a certain view, report etc. However this request for access is being sent to different admins within the workspace, is is possible to set who the "approver" is of these requests? If not what are the rules

    • Boolean Fields in Mail Merge Displaying as Checkmarks

      I'm really liking the new mail merge functionality. It's replaced the Zoho Sign extension for us. One problem I've seen is that boolean operators (i.e. Checkbox fields) in CRM merge as "True" or "False". This looks a little ugly in my final document — is there a way I can get those to display as checkboxes?

    • Formula in Sub Form

      Hello - I have created a sub-form and the data is going to be insurance policy information. However some of the policy amounts are based on a percentage of a main coverage. For example, Debris removal coverage is 5% of the main dwelling policy. Is there

    • Email alias already exist

      Hello, I'm getting an error message the email alias already exist when attempting to add 2 email addresses. The emails are associated with an account I deleted. I started a new account and need to add them back to get 1 email at each. I have an open ticket

    • Migrate emails from a shared mail box to a private mail box

      How is possible migrate a shared mail box if the migration tool require a password, and the shared mail dosent have ?

    • Support poor service

      I just wanted Zoho support to give me some more concrete answers. I’m facing SMTP error issues, and they told me that the South American IP was experiencing problems, but they didn’t provide an estimate for when it would be resolved. Now my company is

    • Zoho say my domain seems to be already associated with another account

      I created a zoho account for try my domain mail configuration. When I want to add my domain in this page https://mailadmin.zoho.com/hosting?plan=free then this shows an error that is "This domain is already associated with this account a*****n@f*****."

    • Incorrect Device Time

      Hi On my windows laptop I can't sign into Zoho mail due to "incorrect device time". I'm in Toronto, Canada. How can this be resolved?

    • Get user images by API

      Hi For our internal management software, I want to retrieve user photos via REST API: curl --location --request GET 'https://profile.zoho.com/file?fs=thumb&ID=<zoid>' \ --header 'Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token>' The token has `profile.userphoto.ALL`,

    • Depois de 1 ano não consigo receber e-mail

      Consigo enviar e-mails mas não estou recebendo nenhum e-mail isso aconteceu pontualmente após eu completar 1 ano de uso. Me ajudem por favor

    • Next Page