Setting up profiles in your Event App for each of your speakers is a great way to introduce your attendees to them. There are many ways you can 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. ✔️
Contents
Before you get started...
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 so much more with your speaker profiles! 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.
Before you start creating speaker profiles in your Event App, talk to your speakers and ask them what they want to include in their profile. 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' (or 'Community' in a Community), click Features, then click Add Features.
In the modal that appears, 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 or company.
Edit settings
Before you start creating speaker profiles, edit the feature's settings to set the Feature Name, Icon, Ratings and Reviews settings, and View. Hover over the Speakers feature and click the Settings (⚙️) icon. In the modal that appears, edit the following:
Feature Name - The label as it appears in your Event App.
Icon - Select one of 300,000+ icons, or upload your own custom icon.
Visible To - Restrict the feature to only certain Groups.
Ratings & Reviews - Control if and how attendees rate and review speakers. Ratings & Reviews appear on the Metrics page and in the Metrics export for speakers.
View - Choose between Grid View and List View. By default, Grid View is selected. Keep reading to learn more about the differences between the two options.
⭐ Keep in mind, List View doesn't support the Chat function for speaker profiles.
Click Save Changes when you're done.
Add speaker profiles
In the navigation bar under ‘Event App’, click Features, then click the Speakers feature. This takes you to the Speakers page which has two tabs — 'Items' and 'Categories'. Let's talk about categories first.
Add Categories
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. If you plan to use categories, it's best to set them up before adding speaker profiles. Read our article about using Categories for more information.
Add profiles
From the Items tab, click New Item to add a new speaker profile.
⭐️ Keep in mind, you can also import speaker profiles in bulk. Read our Export and Import Feature Content article to learn how.
In the modal that appears, fill in 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 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, Professor, etc.
Label/Subtitle - An additional line of text that appears under the speaker name. You could enter their company name, profession, official rank/title, or simply add a little more information about them.
💡 Keep in mind, the Icon, Name, and Label/Subtitle appear in the Speakers widget. The Icon and Name also appear in the Agenda widget.
Location - Select a Map location where in-person attendees can find a speaker during the event.
Category - If applicable, select the Category the speaker belongs to. Categories let attendees filter speakers when searching.
Description - Say more about your speaker! There are some basic text formatting options, and you can insert hyperlinks and images — including animated GIFs. 🙌
Booth Size/Booth Cover - 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, you can click Upload Image, then drag and drop or click to select a JPEG or PNG file from your device.
Content Provider - 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. Linked content appears on the Web App, given the URL is embeddable. The Mobile App displays a button that lets users access the content. You can only select one Content Provider.
⭐️ Keep in mind, the Booth Size, Booth Cover, and Content Provider options only appear if your Custom List feature is set to Grid 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 a 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, you can uncheck the Open link in external browser box so that the calendar opens inside your Event App's web version instead of in a new tab. Mobile App users always open exernal URLs in their device's default browser. Read our article about using the Pass Data to URL option for more information.
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.
Attendee Engagement (Chat) - Toggle Chat on or off 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 enable Chat during those times. Make sure the speaker has an attendee profile in the Event App so they can respond to attendee chats!
⭐️ Keep in mind, Chat is only available for speaker profiles when the feature is in Grid View. Speakers must have an attendee profile to interact with chat.
Attachments - In the Attachments field, 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.
When you finish 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 that you can import multiple speakers at once to save time. 🕐
Manage speakers
After you've added categories and speakers, 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 examine how it all works in the Event App.
⚠️ Caution! We know it's important to look your best, and a professional-looking Event App should be free of any broken links or other errors. Make sure you review your Event App to avoid these.
Speakers in practice
Here's 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 version. 😍
When viewing a profile, attendees can easily browse all the information and resources you added to the profile.
Remember that you can also embed a list of Speakers in your website with widgets.
Want to experience the Speakers feature in action? Click the button below to request a demo!
Metrics
Once attendees have interacted with speakers, explore the Metrics tab to learn how they engaged. On the Metrics page, 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
Refer to our Metrics article for a complete overview of all the juicy data available. You can 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 check out how to set up the Agenda so attendees can rview a schedule of your speaker's sessions and know when to show up.
Questions? Chat Us or Email support@socio.events