Platform version 4.28

Duplicate Email Management in Registration 👯

Ever have an attendee use the same email address to order multiple tickets? Figuring out who each ticket belongs to can get tricky! Now, Socio Registration restricts duplicate emails by default to make sure each attendee registers for your event with a unique email address. 🦄

We know that some situations call for allowing duplicate emails during registration. If you uncheck the setting and allow duplicate emails, registrants can order multiple tickets under one email, and you can update attendee emails later. This is helpful when a group is going to an event together, but the exact individuals attending aren't finalized — such as when a company orders several tickets for their employees.

Duplicate email management is now available in the Registration App, making this process even easier. Use the new Duplicate Emails filter on the Attendees page to tidy up those duplicate emails and ensure that attendees won’t run into any snags when they log in to your Event App. 

Check out our brand new article, Duplicate Emails in Registration, for more info!

Email Deliverability  ✅ 

Let’s take a peek behind the scenes for a moment. When you send emails about your amazing event to attendees via your Registration Event, we automatically run a deliverability check to make sure emails and domains are valid. 

If an email address or domain is invalid, the Registration Email export report tells you if and why an email wasn’t sent so you can take action if necessary. Check out our trusty Allowlist article and contact the attendee’s IT admin to clear the way for your emails. 🌞

That's all for today, folks! Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself. 

Mobile App/Branded App version 24.0.0
Platform version 4.26
Onsite App 1.1.3 

Planner Platform Email Verification

Don't delay — verify your Webex Events (formerly Socio) Platform account email address today! ⏳

Cisco values a secure user experience, and so does Webex Events (formerly Socio). As part of scaling to meet Cisco's security standards, we've launched email verification for all Planner Platform users to enhance security. May 12, everyone who isn't verified yet will be automatically logged out of the Platform and must log back in and verify their email to continue using the Platform. 

⭐️ Keep in mind, this only applies to planner accounts. Attendees don't have to verify their email addresses to access Events or Communities.

To prevent access interruptions, verify your Platform email before May 12.

SOC 2 Type II, SOC3, and ISO 27001 Compliance 🔐

When it comes to security, our goal is to earn your trust, and we believe the best way to show commitment to our customers' trust is through transparency. That's why we're excited to announce that Webex Events (formerly Socio) has received SOC 2 Type II and SOC3 reports, and we're officially ISO 27001 certified! 

The ISO 27001 certification is the foundation for most industry standards, and the SOC 2 Type II report is one of the best ways to provide that transparency and reveal a security story that we are proud to tell. 

Onsite Exports

You know what they say — data makes the world go round. 🌍 Quench your thirst for stats with Onsite's new Check In and Attendee Type export reports. 

▪ The Attendee/Check In Report reveals check-in trends and shows attendee check-in times, dates, print counts, badge-related custom questions, and more.

▪ The Attendee Type Report shows how many attendees there are per type and how many have checked in by number and percentage, grouped by Attendee Type.

Learn more about Onsite reports here.

Sign Up and Log In Customization + Webex Login

Both the Branded App and Web App now have a Webex Log In and Sign Up option for app users.

But wait, there's more! The Sign Up and Log In Options page on the Branded App also received a makeover. 💅 You can now further tailor the experience of signing up and logging in for Branded App users. Choose email address, social accounts, Single Sign-On (SSO), or a combination of these. Want to include some social options and not others? How about SSO and email? The world is your oyster. Plus, you can rearrange the order in which some options appear.

To learn more about the possibilities with Branded App sign-up and login customization, check out Customizing Sign Up and Log In Options.

Mobile App/Branded App Version: 23.0.0

Agenda/Calendar View Update

Your community calendar and event agenda just got a whole lot better! Two awesome new features are now available for both the Web App and Mobile App. 🎉

First, we've introduced Month and Year views. It's now very simple for community members or multi-week event attendees to browse the Agenda/Calendar and find upcoming or past sessions quickly. 

Selecting a month in the Year view takes you to the Month view. Selecting a day in the Month view takes you to the Day view, which is the same view you and your members and attendees are used to. 

When you edit the settings for the Agenda/Calendar feature, you can choose a Default View to suit your needs. 

The default Day view also got some love! Your attendees will now see the Happening Now carousel when there are sessions in progress. Users can scroll the carousel to the side to reveal additional sessions if there are lots happening at once.

⭐ Keep in mind, to take advantage of these new features in your Branded Mobile App, you'll need to update your app using this process.

For a complete look at using either the Agenda feature in Event Apps or the Calendar feature in Communities, check this out.

Custom Refund Policy

Sometimes life happens, and people can't make it to your event. Socio Registration gives you the power to issue refunds, and you could previously select from a list of 3 preset refund policies to present in the registration form. We've now added a 4th option that puts the stated policy in your hands! 

When editing your Refund Policy, select the Custom Refund Policy option from the drop-down, enter your own refund policy, and click Save Changes. It's that easy. 😀

For a complete look at how to set your Refund Policy, check this out.

Promo Code entry update

Don't discount the value of this update! 🥁🥁 🐍 Registrants no longer have to click the Enter Code link to reveal the Enter Code field. The field is now always visible at the top of the Tickets list in the registration form and in Ticket widgets.

To learn more about using Promo Codes in your registation, check this out.

Lead Retrieval Export

If you've ever wanted to see specific data on each lead captured by your Lead Retrieval exhibitors, you're in luck! 🍀

We've added the new Export Scan Data button to the Metrics page of your Lead Retrieval event. Click it, and you'll get an xlsx file with the following data goodies:

• Attendee Id 
• First Name 
• Last Name 
• Attendee Email 
• Title 
• Company 
• Scanned by Exhibitor Name 
• Exhibitor User Id 
• Scanned by User First Name 
• Scanned by User Last Name 
• Scanned by Title 
• Lead Quality 
• Lead Status 
• Scan Date 
• Scan Time 

This is great for when you want to summarize how Lead Retrieval performed for your stakeholders, and to prove value to future exhibitors who may want to use LR at your next event.

To learn all about setting up and using Lead Retrieval, check this out.

Croatian Language Support

Zdravo! We're pleased to announce that we now support Croatian in the Web App and Mobile Apps. For our full list of supported languages, check this out.

That's all for today, folks! Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself. 

Platform Knowledge Base Localization

We're proud to announce that the Socio Platform Knowledge Base at help.socio.events has now been translated into 26 languages! When you visit the help center, look for the language drop-down at the top of any page across from the Socio logo.

Please note that these translations were generated using Machine Translation.

Go see the full list of languages at help.socio.events! 

App Knowledge Base Retirement

As previously announced, we officially retired the attendee-facing App Knowledge Base today. We've also removed the App Guide feature from the Socio Platform. Anyone who clicks a link to the App KB will now be redirected to the socio.events website.

That's all for today! 

More Languages

• Bulgarian
• Catalan (Spain)
• Croatian
• English (UK)
• French (France)
• Indonesian
• Norwegian
• Spanish (Spain) 

App Guide and Attendee Knowledge Base Retirement

On February 23, 2022, we’re retiring the Attendee App Knowledge Base at help.ea.socio.events.

We launched the App Knowledge Base to help answer attendee questions. However, it receives very little traffic — <1% of total feature clicks on average. Turns out, our products are pretty intuitive for end users! Instead of maintaining articles that few are using, we’ve opted to double down on the content that you are using, and empower you to create custom guidance for your attendees.

We encourage you to check out our article about creating an awesome Attendee Walkthrough and use it as inspiration for creating your own guides, whether a video, FAQ, or PDF. Using the examples from other organizers, you can create awesome content tailored to your brand, event, and attendees.

We've taken measures to ensure that anyone who happens to find a link to the App KB will be redirected after February 23.

Term Change: Branded App Custom App

"What's in a name? That which we call a Branded App by any other name would smell just as sweet." - William Shakespeare (sort of)

When you create a Socio Event or Community, your attendees on mobile devices can access it via the Socio App at no additional cost. If you want your mobile experience tailored more to your brand, we offer the add-on Custom App, formerly referred to as the Branded App. 

These great options remain unchanged! We simply wanted to let you know that we've changed how we talk about this custom version of the Socio App from "Branded App" to "Custom App". You'll see this change reflected in the Socio Platform, the Socio Platform Knowledge Base, and future communications from our team.

To learn all about making your own Custom App, check this out.

That's all for today! Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself.

Email Draft Mode

Socio Registration comes with the ability to easily send emails to people who have registered for your event or community. Until now, there wasn't any way to save an email without sending it or scheduling it. Now, if you start an email and want to finish it later, you can! When creating an email, simply click the new Save as Draft button. ✉

With this change, we've introduced a couple small changes to the Emails page of your Registration event.

• Email statuses now include Draft, Scheduled, In Progress, and Sent.
• When you click the Settings (⚙️) icon next to a scheduled email, you can now select Cancel Scheduled Email. Canceling an email puts it in Draft mode.

For a complete look at using the Email feature in your Registration event, check this out!

Registration Dark Mode

🌑 Hey, who turned out the lights? You did! 

You asked for it, and now you've got it — dark mode in Registration. Turning it on is as simple as visiting the Appearance page of your Registration event settings, clicking the Enable Dark Mode toggle, and saving.

Once enabled, anyone using your Registration forms or widgets will experience the dark side.

Before you turn on Dark Mode for your registration, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Dark Mode can't be turned off by registrants, only you have that power. ⚡
• Be sure to select a Registration Theme Color that contrasts well with a dark background. 🌈

To learn all about setting up and using Socio Registration, check this out!

And More...

In addition to the above registration improvements, we've also made a couple small changes:

🧾 Registration receipts now show the purchaser's name.

🚫 When an attendee removes another attendee from their Connections, the person they removed can no longer send them messages. 

That's all for today, folks! Hop over to the Socio Platform and take a look at these new changes for yourself. 

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.