Setting up profiles in your Event App for each of your speakers is a great way to introduce them to your attendees. There are many ways to customize and integrate a speaker profile, and we strongly encourage you to spend some time becoming familiar with each option. With a well-crafted profile, your speakers are more likely to have increased session attendance and attendee engagement. ✔️
Before you begin...
While you could create a profile with an image, name, occupation, and a little blurb for each speaker, there are plenty of opportunities to do much more with your speaker profiles! Think about questions like these:
Does your speaker have some favorite books or resources?
Do they want to share their presentation slides or a case study?
Are they open to receiving inquiries and scheduled meetings?
Do they want to share their website and contact information?
There's room for all of these in speaker profiles.
Build speaker profiles collaboratively
Webex Events lets you invite sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers to add information to their profiles in the Event App. Simply gather some basic information and a contact email from each speaker, create an Event App profile for each, and send collaboration invitations so they can fill in the rest of their profiles.
When you've gathered all the necessary information, start adding those speaker profiles!
Add the Speakers feature
In your Event's navigation bar under 'Event App', click Features, then click Add Features.
In the 'Add Features' modal, search for the feature, click Add, then close the modal.
💡 Keep in mind, you can add the Speakers feature multiple times and use different versions to list speakers by date, company, or whatever fits your needs.
Edit settings
Before you start adding speaker profiles, customize the feature's settings.
In your Event navigation bar under 'Event App' click Features, then click Speakers. On the Speakers page, click the Settings (⚙️) icon.
In the 'Speakers Settings' modal, edit the following:
Feature Name - The label that displays to attendees in your Event App.
Icon - Select one of over 300,000 icons, or upload your own custom feature icon.
Visible To - If you want only certain attendees to access the feature, restrict the feature to certain groups.
Ratings & Reviews - Control if and how attendees rate and review speakers. Ratings & Reviews appear on the Event App Metrics page and in the Metrics export for speakers.
View - Choose between 'Grid View' and 'List View'. By default, 'Grid View' is selected.
'Grid View' adds the Chat function, Booth Size options, the Booth Cover image, and the Content Provider field to speaker profiles. We'll cover speaker profile fields in the next section of this article.
Collaboration Contact Email - The email that speakers respond to if they have questions about filling out their collaboration form. Edit this field if you want questions to go to a different inbox than the one you set when you configured the Event App.
Click Save changes when you're done.
Add speaker profiles
Back on the Speakers page, either click the Add Item button to add a new speaker profile, or click the Categories tab to set up categories.
Add categories
If you plan to use categories, it's best to set them up before adding speaker profiles. Categories classify different types of speakers. Applying a category to a speaker adds the name of the category below the speaker's name in the Event App and lets attendees browse and filter speakers by category. Read our article about using categories for more information.
Add profiles
From the 'Items' tab, click Add Item. If you plan to send collaboration invitations, it's still a good idea to configure some of the speaker's information — especially fields they can't control, such as location, category, and booth size. Speakers can update information you enter when they access the collaboration form. Learn more in our article about using collaboration forms.
💡 Keep in mind, to save time when adding a lot of speakers, simply import them. Read our article about importing and exporting data to learn how.
In the 'Add Item' modal, enter the following information:
Icon - Click Upload Image to upload a picture of the speaker, or click Select Icon to choose one from our icon library.
Custom images must be JPEG or PNG and between 100px and 500px square.
Name (required) - The speaker's preferred name as it appears in your Event App. These may include distinctions such as Doctor or Professor.
Label/Subtitle - An additional line of text that appears under the speaker's name. You could enter their company name, profession, official rank or title, or simply add a little more information about them. For the best results, keep the Label/Subtitle under 125 characters.
💡 Keep in mind, the Icon, Name, and Label/Subtitle appear in the Speakers widget. The Icon and Name appear in the Agenda widget. To learn more about widgets, read our article about using widgets to embed Event App content. Some mobile devices might not display text beyond the first 98 characters.
Location - Select a location where in-person attendees can find a speaker during the event. Our article about adding locations to your Event has everything you need to know about locations.
Category - If applicable, select the category the speaker belongs to.
Description - Say more about your speaker! Format text size, style, and color, and add lists, hyperlinks, and images — including animated GIFs. 🙌
Booth Size/Booth Cover - If the Speakers feature is set to 'Grid View', choose from Small, Medium, or Large.
If you select Small, the speaker profile won't have a cover image.
If you select Medium or Large, click Upload Image, then drag and drop or click to select a JPEG or PNG file from your device.
Content Provider - If the Speakers feature is set to 'Grid View', upload a PDF file, use Video on Demand, or enter a URL for content hosted on a variety of popular sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, and Vidcast.
You can only select one Content Provider.
Linked content appears inside the web version if the URL is embeddable.
The Mobile App displays a button that lets users access the content.
💡 Keep in mind, the Booth Size, Booth Cover, and Content Provider fields aren't available if your Speakers feature is set to 'List View'.
Attendee Calls to Action - Enter a Point of Contact email address so attendees can click or tap a button to get in touch with the speaker. Entering a Meeting URL lets attendees click or tap a button to book a meeting with them.
If the speaker is using a site like Calendly, uncheck the 'Open link in external browser' box so that the calendar opens inside your Web App instead of in a new tab. Mobile App users always open external URLs in their device's default browser.
Check the 'Pass Data to URL' option if you want to automatically send attendee data from Webex Events to the meeting app. Read our article about using the Pass Data to URL option for more information.
💡 Keep in mind, though the Attendee Calls to Action fields have default labels for requesting follow-up and meeting with speakers, you can customize the button labels and use this functionality for anything you like!
Add Internal Links - Link the speaker to other features in your Event App, such as Agenda Sessions, Live Stream features, and more. Refer to our article about internal links for a full list of items that support them.
Add External Links - Enter multiple website URLs, phone numbers, or email addresses related to the speaker. Select the Link Type, enter a Link Name, and supply the number, email, or URL. Click Add New Item to insert another external link. If you enter a URL and uncheck 'Open link in external browser', test to make sure the site is embeddable. Click and drag the six-dot icon next to an item to reorder it.
Attendee Engagement (Chat) - Activate or deactivate Chat functionality for the speaker. Chat is a great way for attendees to engage with speakers. Work with your speaker to outline specific timeframes where they'll answer chats, and plan to activate chat during those times. Make sure the speaker has an attendee profile in the Event so they can respond to attendee chats!
💡 Keep in mind, chat is only available for speaker profiles when the feature is set to 'Grid View'.
Attachments - Upload presentations, abstracts, or any other documents you want to offer attendees. If you simply want to link to a document you uploaded elsewhere in your Event App, use an internal link instead.
💡 Keep in mind, you can't add attachments when importing data.
To upload a document, simply click Upload Attachment(s) and follow the instructions in the uploader. After you've uploaded files, click the Settings (⋯) icon next to an item to rename or delete it. Click and drag the six-dot icon next to an item to reorder it.
Collaboration - Check the box next to each field you want to let this collaborator edit, then select the options the collaborator can choose from where applicable. Finally, enter a collaborator email address and message, then choose if you want to send the collaboration email as soon as you save the profile. Read our guide to using collaboration forms for complete instructions and details.
When you're done adding information and attachments to the speaker profile, click Save changes. You've added a speaker profile to your Event App — great job! 🎊
Repeat the steps outlined above until you've added all your speakers. If you have a lot of speakers, remember to import multiple speakers at once to save time. 🕐
Manage speakers
After you've added categories and speaker profiles, you can take several actions to manage each:
Filter by categories (Items only)
Search
Drag and drop to reorder
Edit or Delete speakers
Multi-select and:
Export
Assign to Category (Items only)
Delete
We told you there's a lot you can do with speaker profiles! Now let's explore how it all works in the Event App.
⚠️ Caution! We know it's important to make a good impression, and a professional-looking Event App should be free of any broken links or other errors. Make sure you thoroughly test and review your Event App to avoid potential issues.
Speakers in practice
When attendees open the Speakers feature in the Event App, they can browse the list of speakers, which appears in either 'List View' or 'Grid View', depending on how you set it up. The images below show examples of the feature in both configurations.
The following image is a great example from an actual Event App. The organizer used the 'Grid View' Cover Image (Medium size) to show the speaker's picture, and they uploaded the speaker's company logo as the Icon. This looks awesome in the Mobile App and the Web App. 😍
💡 Keep in mind, although this layout displays great in the Event App, it won't work well for Event App widgets.
When opening a profile, attendees can easily browse all the information and resources in the profile.
Metrics
After attendees have interacted with speakers, explore the Event App Metrics page to review engagement data. The Speakers section of the Feature Comparison chart shows you the counts per speaker for each of the following:
Clicks
Chat
Favorited
Notes Taken
Requested Follow Up
Scheduled Meetings
Attachment Clicks
External Link Clicks
Internal Link Clicks
Avg. Rating
Edit the spreadsheet down to each speaker's metrics and then email them all that data goodness. 💾
That was a lot of reading, so congratulations on making it this far! You get some cake. 🍰
Now learn how to set up Agenda Sessions so attendees can review your event's schedule and know when to show up.
Questions? Chat with us or email support@socio.events.