Grid View for Speakers and Custom List features

We're pleased to announce that we've added the Grid View option to the Speakers and Custom List features' settings. Grid View introduces the Booth Size, Booth Cover, Content Provider, and Chat options to profiles you add to these features, and we can't wait to see what you'll do with them!

Anyone who's used our Sponsors or Exhibitors features before knows what's possible with Grid View's additional features. For those that haven't, here's a brief explanation:

• Grid View - An alternate layout to List View where each item in the feature can have its own Cover image and Content Provider.
• Booth Size - This setting determines the Booth Cover image size for a feature item. Change the size to highlight headline speakers or important items.
• Booth Cover - This is an image you can add to each item that attendees see when they visit the feature. Upload pictures of your speakers or provide images that help inform attendees of what the item contains.
• Content Provider - Link to a website, upload a PDF, or select from a list of video providers, including the new Socio Video on Demand. 
• Chat - Add a Chat tab to the sidebar of the Web App or a Chat button in the Socio mobile app. 

Here's an example of how the Speakers feature might look in the Web App with the new Grid View options in place! 

When you create a new Custom List feature, the default view is still List View. For the Speakers feature, the default is now Grid View, and new items default to the Small Booth Size.

For a complete look at how to set up and use the Speakers feature, check this out. For Custom List, click here.

Onsite Badge Custom Questions

When you're designing a badge in Socio Onsite, all Custom questions you've added to your linked Socio Registration event's checkout forms now appear as User Info fields that you can add to the badge. This could be useful for indicating an attendee's selected meal plan, adding their LinkedIn handle to their badge, or indicating which group(s) they belong to, among many, many others. Let your imagination run wild!

In the badge designer, simply go to the User Info tab, and scroll down to find your Custom Questions. When you add a question, a placeholder appears in the Badge Preview. The placeholder is replaced with the actual question answer when the badge is printed. 

For a complete look at creating badges in Socio Onsite, check this out!

Lead Retrieval Purchase Form UTM Parameters

We just released our new Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms so your exhibitors can purchase licenses themselves, and we're already improving them with the addition of UTM parameter support!

Now you can append the Purchase Form Link with your UTM parameters (using the ad provider's URL builder) before you send it out to exhibitors. After exhibitors have purchased licenses, head over to the Exhibitors tab of your Lead Retrieval event to export the UTM data. 

For a complete look at exporting UTM data for Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms, check this out.

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself. 

Video Center

If you've ever wished it was easier to embed a video in your Socio event or been frustrated by juggling multiple software platforms to produce, host, and share pre-recorded video, you're going to like Socio's Video Center! 😃

With the new Video Center, you can import an unlimited number of video files up to 8GB with no length restrictions! These video files can be used in the Agenda, Live Stream, and Sponsors features as Simulive and Video on Demand content. 

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Simulive is a mashup of the words "simulated" and "live". Simply put, it means pre-recorded video presented at a specific time as if it were live content. Attendees must start watching at the right time to see the whole video.

Video on Demand is pre-recorded video that's available at any time, and viewers can access it at their leisure.  

Simulive and Socio

When you make a new Agenda session or Live Stream feature, you can now select Socio Simulive as a live stream provider if you have a Socio Streaming credit. You can then select a video file you uploaded to the Video Center and set a Stream Time. Just like with Socio Streaming, the Join Live Stream button appears in the Agenda 15 minutes before the Stream Time. When the time comes, the video will start playing as if it were live! 

Video on Demand and Socio

When a live stream ends, you may want to make the recording available for attendees to watch if they missed the session or simply want a refresher. You can now select Socio Video on Demand as a recording provider in Agenda sessions or as a Live Stream provider in the Live Stream feature.

Video on Demand is now an option for Sponsor content, too! When the Sponsors feature is set to Grid View, you can choose a Content Provider and then paste in a link to sponsor content. Or, you can select Socio Video on Demand to show a video you've uploaded to the Video Center.

We're really excited about how Video Center will simplify the recorded content experience for you! Check this out for a complete look at these new changes.

Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms

Socio's powerful, intuitive Lead Retrieval app has been a tremendous hit with exhibitors and organizers alike for quite a while. Inviting exhibitors to Lead Retrieval has always involved pre-purchasing a number of licenses that can then be used to create exhibitor profiles and invite admins to the Lead Retrieval app. Without knowing exactly how many exhibitors would be interested in purchasing Lead Retrieval, you might end up buying more licenses than you need. 

That's all changed now with the introduction of Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms! Now you can set the price for licenses, connect your Stripe account, and then send a link to the form out to exhibitors so they can purchase the licenses themselves. Simply sit back and watch the exhibitors come in. You get a small cut from each Lead Retrieval license purchased. 💸

It's not all or nothing with Purchase Forms — you can still add and invite exhibitors like before and use the form, too.

Want to learn more? Read all about Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms here!

Registration Promo Email Export

When you use Socio Registration's Promo Emails, we show Delivered, Sent, Opened, and Link Click counts on the Emails page. Until now, there was never a way to export this data.

With this change, you can click the Settings (⚙️) icon next to an email and then click Export to download a spreadsheet with the above information and some new goodies! 😍

The export file contains three sheets: Email Metrics, Recipient Metrics, and Appendix. The Appendix contains information to help you understand the information in the other two sheets. 

The Email Metrics sheet shows counts for:

• Delivered
• Sent
• Opened
• Link Clicks
• Unsubscribed
• Blocked

The Recipient Metrics sheet shows recipient-specific counts for:

• Delivery Status
• Opened
• Link Clicks
• Failure Message

For complete details about Promo Emails and email export files, check this out.

New Supported Providers: Webex and Vidcast 

When you select a Live Stream Provider in an Agenda session or Live Stream feature, Webex and Vidcast now appear as selectable options. Selecting either lets you paste in a meeting link or video URL which will open externally when attendees click the Join Live Stream button.  

You can now also select Vidcast as a Recording Provider for your Agenda Session or Live Stream recordings, or as a Content Provider for your Sponsors and Exhibitors. We're looking forward to integrating even more closely with Webex and Vidcast in the future! 🎉

For a complete look at the Agenda, Live Stream, or Sponsors and Exhibitors features, check out the links below:

• Agenda feature guide
• Live Stream feature guide
• Sponsors and Exhibitors feature guide

That was a lot of reading! Have a cookie. 🍪 

Now, hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself. 

If you thought we'd rest on our laurels for a bit after releasing the new Socio Onsite product last week, then you don't know us very well yet. 😉 We're pleased to announce several improvements to the Socio Platform and some quality of life improvements for attendees, too! Let's take a look. 👀 

UTM Parameters

If you purchase online ads to drive your Socio Registration sales, this update is for you! Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters – sometimes called URL parameters – can help you understand the effectiveness of your ads. 

In your Socio Registration event under Promote, you'll see the Marketing option. When you click this option, a modal launches where you can enable UTM parameters. Enabling these lets Socio track users through the registration process and capture the UTM data you configured with your ad provider. 

For a complete look at how to use UTM parameters in your Socio Registration event, check this out.

Event Code Improvements

When you set up your Socio Event App, one of the first things you do is select a Privacy Setting that determines the security level of your event. Previously, the minimum number of characters you could enter was 3. We've now increased this to 4 to improve security. 

With the new minimum character requirement, we've also added new behavior when attendees enter an Event Code to access an event. To prevent brute force entry into your event, attendees must now wait 5 minutes to try again after 5 failed Event Code entries. 

After 5 minutes is over, each subsequent incorrect try increases the timeout by 5 minutes. To learn more about Privacy Settings, check this out. After 6 incorrect tries, the wait is 10 minutes. After 7, the wait is 15 minutes, and so on.

Interactive Attendee Names/Images on Mobile

We're always looking for ways to increase Attendee engagement and make it easier to connect. In the Mobile App, attendees can now tap on another attendee's name or profile image within an Agenda session or Live Stream chat to open their profile. If the attendee isn't yet a connection, the user can send a connection request. 🤝 

Draggable Picture-in-Picture

When attendees are watching a live stream on the Web App and click away to a different feature, the live stream continues to play in a smaller frame at the bottom right corner of the screen. Previously, this Picture-in-Picture (PiP) display was static and couldn't be moved by the user. 

Now, attendees can click and drag the PiP frame anywhere they like! For more on live streaming with Socio, check this out.

We're happy to keep rolling out new features and updates. As always, keep the feedback coming, and we'll keep listening! 👂

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself.

Socio's induction into the Webex brand was a big moment for us in 2021, and big changes are on the horizon. Our vision and mission, however, remain the same as ever: to build an end-to-end event management solution that delights organizers and attendees with powerful yet simple tools, unparalleled customer support, and incredible customization. 

Socio Onsite is the newest addition to the Socio product lineup, giving you a fully-customizable attendee check-in and on-demand badge printing solution that's truly all-inclusive. From the Onsite App experience to custom badge design to hardware rental and badge stock supply, Socio has everything you need to start your attendees off with a 'wow' experience.

Now let's take a closer look.

Planning and putting on an event has countless considerations and pressures, each one as important as the next. Every little detail matters, and time is precious. We want to empower you to invest as little time as possible while building a world-class check-in and badge printing experience. We did our homework, and we think we nailed it.

Create your Socio Onsite event in mere minutes, and link it to Socio Registration so attendee data flows seamlessly. Customize the Socio Onsite iPad app your way with graphics, button labels, icons, and more. Your event's branding won't skip a beat.

Badge design is also simple and intuitive, yet incredibly robust. Use Onsite's drag-and-drop badge design interface to make a basic one-size-fits-all badge for every attendee, or apply visibility rules to tailor badges or even individual elements on badges to specific people using Attendee Types and Socio Registration data. Customization can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be.

What about the hardware? We've got you covered there, too! Never worry about identifying and sourcing from multiple vendors again. Socio's rental kits include everything you need to do check-in and badge printing, including printers, iPads and stands, routers, and badge stock. 

Ready to learn more about Socio Onsite? Reach out to us for a live demo, or check out our other articles here!

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself.

Wait, two What's New articles in a single week?! What can we say? We ❤️ improving, and we're not afraid to show it. We're pumped to share two amazing enhancements to your streaming and attendee engagement experiences - Socio Streaming Brands, and Custom Tab. We've also added an Analytics Tracking Alert and Dark Mode for the Web App, plus a couple bonus updates. Have a look.

Socio Streaming Brands

Live streams are a fantastic way to engage remote attendees and enrich their experience while adding value for your sponsors, speakers, and organization by weaving in custom branding assets like Overlays, Logos, and Video Clips.

What if you have a lot of custom content, and not all of it is useful for every stream though? You shouldn't have to spend precious seconds during a live stream feverishly hunting through your own content to find what's useful for a given sponsor or session. That's why we've partnered with Restream to bring you Brand folders!

When you visit the Socio Streaming studio, you'll see the new Brand button. Click the button to add a new Brand or switch between up to 5 existing ones. Captions and everything on the Graphics tab — Theme, Primary Color, Logos, etc. — are unique to each brand. Just like before, all assets in one studio are shared with every other studio in your event.

There are tons of applications for switching between sets of branding assets, so let your imagination run wild!

For a complete look at using the Socio Streaming studio and Brands, check this out.

Custom Tab

Socio's own Chat, Q&A, and Polling features have been a mainstay for attendee engagement in Agenda sessions and Live Stream features for a while now. That family just got bigger with an awesome new sibling - the Custom Tab!

Now, when you edit an Agenda session or Live Stream feature, you'll see a new toggle under the Attendee Engagement section. Toggle Custom Tab on, name it, and enter a URL for an embeddable, mobile responsive site that appears as another engagement tab for your live stream!

Websites like Sli.do work well, but there are many more possibilities. Simply remember that the custom tab content has to be responsive - able to resize itself automatically - to fit inside the engagement panel on the Web App and to be usable on mobile devices. Websites' privacy settings may also prevent embedding. Simply remember to test any site you use before showing it to attendees. 👍 

We're excited to see all the ways you'll dream up to engage your attendees with this new feature, so if you think of an awesome use case, let us know! 

Analytics Tracking Alert

Informing your attendees about data privacy and honoring their preferences are more important than ever. Show your security-conscious attendees you value their privacy choices, and equip them with knowledge about your security and data practices. 

When attendees join your Socio Event or Community, we track their actions so you have the insight you need to improve your events, show sponsorship ROI, award Continuing Education credits, and understand how people interacted with your content. Some attendees can't be tracked for metrics because they're using an ad blocker or private browser session.

We've added a new option to the Web App Settings page. When someone logs into your Web App, and the Socio Platform detects that they can't be tracked, they'll see a pop-up.

If the pop-up is set to "Warning", they can close the message and go about using the event. If it's set to "Prevent Access", the message will keep appearing until the Socio Platform detects that they can be tracked. The Show Me How button leads to this article that helps them allow Socio through their ad blocker.

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This new setting is set to No Warning by default for all active and upcoming events and communities, but you can customize the message to suit your situation.

For details on controlling this new feature in your event, check this out!

Metrics

Along with this release, there's a new Tracked Users sheet in the Metrics export. Check out our Metrics article for more information on interpreting and exporting data.

Web App Dark Mode

When you visit the Web App page of your Event App, you'll notice a new toggle for Dark Mode. When the toggle is turned on, all attendees who join your event via a web browser will see the event in Dark Mode. 

⭐ Keep in mind, attendees can't turn dark mode on or off themselves — only you can do that. Dark Mode isn't available for Branded Apps or the Socio App.

Make sure to hop into your Web App as an attendee and test things out for yourself to make sure your branding and color choices all jive well.

And more...

• We've added support for 3 new languages - Danish, Slovak, and Romanian.
• All live streams through Socio Streaming by Restream and the Socio RTMP player now stream at 1080p by default on web and mobile. 
• Socio now passes attendee language selections to Slido when a Slido link is opened externally and the Pass data to URL box is checked! In a Custom Tab, Slido will update with the selected language.

That was a lot of reading. Have some pie. 🥧 

As always, keep the feedback coming, and we'll keep working to make Socio the best in the biz.

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself. 

We're absolutely pleased as punch to bring you two amazing quality of life upgrades for Registration and the Socio Platform at large! 🍷 There's also a small update to Attendance Management.

Registration Form Questions

No one likes entering the same information over and over, so we've improved how we handle custom Questions in Socio Registration! 

Previously, when creating a Checkout Form, any Question you wanted to add to multiple different forms had to be created from scratch in each form. You could copy Questions by cloning the entire form and then removing any unneeded Questions, but that's a lot of work. 😓 

Now, the Checkout Forms tab has two different sub-tabs: Forms and Questions. This should seem familiar since it's similar to how you configure Categories and Tracks in the Event App.

Click the Questions tab to create all the Questions you'll need in your entire registration and assign each one to Forms you've already made. 

Need to make a new Form after you've made all your Questions? When you create new Checkout Forms, you can easily search for and select the Questions you need for that form! 🙌

For a complete look at creating Checkout Forms and Questions, check this out.

Notification Center

Ever been pinned down by a file upload? 📌 It's the 21st century, and no one should have to twiddle their thumbs while they wait for an import or export to finish. 

Previously, when you imported or exported a file in Socio Registration, Event Apps, or Lead Retrieval, a progress window would appear until the process was complete. For larger files, this could take a while, and closing the window would stop the file from processing. 

The new Socio Platform Notification Center is here to set you free and get you back to work! Now, when you import or export a file, the process takes place in the background, and the Notification Center keeps you up to date on progress even if you switch to working on another event or Socio Product. 

When a file is done processing, a notification appears in the top right corner of the screen, letting you know it's done. If you were exporting a file, the link to the download is included in the notification. If you were importing, click the Click here to view link in the notification to go to the feature or product the file was imported to.

If you missed a notification, don't worry! The new bell icon in the top right corner of any screen in the Socio Platform shows a red dot if there are any notifications you haven't acknowledged yet. Click the bell icon to see all notifications for the past 30 days. Each notification shows the file name, date of the import/export, and the name of the event where the file was processed. 

Attendance Management change

When you create an Agenda session, one of the options available to you is Attendance Management which lets you control who can add a session to their personal agenda. We've made a small update that moves the Session Participants panel into a separate modal outside the Edit Session modal. 

Now, when you're editing a session, you'll still select the Status, enter the Maximum Attendance limit, and edit the Denial message. To add attendees to the Session Participants list or view which attendees have added a session to their personal agenda, simply click the Settings (⚙️) icon next to the session, and click Session Participants. 

For complete instructions on using Attendance Management, check this out. 

That was a lot of reading. Have a cookie. 🍪 Stay tuned for more updates in the near future, and keep the feedback coming!

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself. 

Go Live again

Aaaand we're back. That's right. With this new update, you can click Go Live in the Socio Streaming studio, run your awesome session, click End Stream, and then Go Live again later! 

Previously, you could only click Go Live once per studio. That meant that if you had two different sessions separated by an hour or more, your only options were to have two separate streams or leave the stream running with a "we'll be back" message.

Here are a few important things to consider with this update:

• There's no limit to the number of times a studio can Go Live again! 🎉
• Only Live Stream features and Agenda sessions created on or after September 9, 2021 have the ability to Go Live again. If you want the option to Go Live multiple times, then you can delete your old Live Stream feature or Agenda session, then add a new one. 👍 
• Refer to our guidelines on choosing between a single Live Stream feature and Agenda sessions for best practices on streaming multiple sessions.

• Recordings for each Live Stream will be available after each time you click End Stream. However, if you click Go Live again, the Download recordings button will disappear until you click End Stream again.

  

• Each individual recording is available for 30 days. That means that videos will "fall off" one at a time as the 30 day mark is reached. Make sure you download right away!
• This update also makes testing your stream a whole lot simpler. 

Studio name change

With this release, we've also ensured that your Socio Streaming Studio always reflects the right name so guest speakers don't get confused. Previously, if you changed the name of the associated Live Stream feature or Agenda session, the studio would retain the old name. That's all fixed now. 👍 

⭐ Keep in mind, if you have the studio open when you change the name, you must close the studio, and then click Launch Studio again for the name change to be reflected.

We're excited to keep working with Restream to make your Socio Streaming experience more robust! 

Clickable checkout form hyperlinks

Small, but mighty, this update lets you add clickable hyperlinks to your Socio Registration checkout form Questions. Anytime you add a new Question to a checkout form, you can add a Label Title and Description. If you put a URL into either of these fields, attendees can now click on the link and it will open in a new tab! This is great for supplemental agreements, venue information, or anything else you can think of.

The Socio Platform will automatically detect and format any text beginning with the following as a URL: 

• https:// 
• https://www 
• http://  
• http://www  
• www. 

That's all for today, folks. Keep the feedback coming, and we'll keep improving! 🎁

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself. 

Category improvements

Most features in the Socio Platform that show a list of individual items - Speakers, Sponsors, Documents, etc. - let you apply one category to each item. Attendees can see which items are related and filter the items in the feature by category. In short, categories have been very basic — until now! 💥

We're pleased to announce these awesome improvements to categories:

• Multiple Categories - An item can now be assigned to multiple categories. This lets attendees filter lots of items with more precision to find exactly what they're looking for. 🕵️‍♀️
• Category Colors - Categories can now be assigned a color for easier visual distinction between categories. 🌈 
• Visible To - You can now apply groups to categories to restrict visibility to only attendees in those groups. 🔒 

Attendees will now see categories listed very similarly to tracks. 

On mobile, if the categories don't fit on the screen, users can scroll to the side to see the rest.

Take a look at our guide to using categories to learn more about these improvements!

Show participants list 

Under Agenda settings, you can uncheck the Show participants list box to prevent Attendees from seeing who else has added an Agenda session to their personal agenda. 

Unchecking the box now also removes the participant count from each session.

For more on the Agenda feature, check this out.

Your Events with [Connection Name]

Web App attendees can now see which other events they'll be attending with people they've connected with. When viewing a connection's profile, the Your Events with [Connection Name] section that was previously only visible on the mobile app now appears. 

Connection search in messages

Attendees can now search their connections when creating a new private message or adding someone to an existing one. This makes it much easier and faster to start conversations after connecting! 🗣️ 

As always, we're thrilled to keep improving the Socio Platform for YOU! Keep the feedback coming - we're listening. 👂 

Load New Posts button

When attendees are browsing the Wall, and someone makes a new post, they'll now see the Load New Posts button. Previously, the Wall would automatically refresh, taking the attendee back to the top of the wall.

Faster load times

Last, but not least, we've made some improvements to how quickly pages load on the Web App and Mobile App. This is especially impactful for events with high attendee counts. 🏃 

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself. 

We've received a lot of feedback lately about the limitations on sharing pre-recorded videos in Socio Streaming. We've been working hard with our streaming partner, Restream, and we're very pleased to announce that both the number and size of Video Clips you can upload to the studio have increased! ⏫

Previously, uploads to the Video Clips feature were limited to 10 videos of no more than 150 MB each. 

The NEW limit is 200 videos of no more than 2 GB or 1 hour in length each. 😮 🌈 

⭐️ Keep in mind, video clips MUST be MP4 format, 16:9 ratio, and no less than 720p. Processing/upload time will vary depending on internet connection. Uploads could take up to 2x the video duration (example: a 1 hour video may take up to 2 hours to upload and process).

We ❤️ feedback, so keep it coming, and keep challenging Socio to be better and better!

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself. 

Partial Refunds/Cancellations

You asked, and we answered! When multiple people registered for an event or community on a single order using Socio Registration, there wasn't any way to refund a single ticket - until now. 🥳 

When you click the Settings (⚙️) icon next to an order on the Orders page and click either Cancel Order or Refund, a new modal appears.

You can select one or multiple tickets to refund or cancel. When you complete the action, the order's status will reflect the change, and email notifications will be sent out as usual. 

With this change, there are now two new statuses: X/Y Complete and Refunded/Canceled.

If only some of the tickets were either canceled or refunded, the Status shows X/Y Complete. If one or more tickets were refunded, and the rest were canceled, the status shows Refunded/Canceled. 

It's that simple! Go check out the Manage Orders article for a complete look at the refund/cancellation process.

Metrics: Filter by Groups

Another highly requested feature is the ability to see metrics for only people assigned to specific Groups. Now you can! Simply click the new Filter by Groups option and select the Group(s) you want to see, then click Apply Filters. 

To return to seeing metrics for everyone in the event or community, simply click Clear All, and then Apply Filters. 

⭐ Keep in mind, the Filter by Groups function only affects metrics as viewed on the Metrics page. Data exports will always include all attendees in the event.

Take a look at the article about the Metrics page for a complete overview of all the data goodies it has to offer. 📈 

Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look for yourself.