One of the benefits of an Event App is attendees have easy access to information about the amazing speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors involved with your event. While you can gather and enter this information manually, it's time-consuming and likely involves back-and-forth with each person — that's where collaboration forms come in!
Webex Events collaboration forms let you invite speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors to independently manage aspects of their Event App feature profiles, like name, image icon, description, attachments, and more. After they submit the form, changes are automatically reflected in the Event App, saving you precious time and energy! ✨
Keep reading to find out how to configure and manage collaboration forms and learn about the collaborator experience.
💡 Keep in mind, this article refers to speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors as "collaborators".
Add a collaborator point of contact email
By default, the contact email for collaborators is the email you entered when creating your Event. You can change this email in a feature's Settings if you want collaborator questions to go to a different email address. As an example, here's how to add a contact email to the Speakers feature.
In your Event navigation bar under ‘Event App’, click Features.
Click Speakers.
On the Speakers page, click the Settings (⚙️) icon.
In the modal that appears, enter an email in the Collaborator Contact Email field.
Click Save Changes.
Set up collaboration forms
Collaboration form setup is the same process for sponsor, exhibitor, and speaker profiles. Set up collaboration forms individually, or use the a feature import template to set up collaboration forms in bulk.
Configure an individual collaboration form
To configure a form for an individual speaker, sponsor, or exhibitor profile:
On the feature page, add or edit a speaker, sponsor, or exhibitor. To learn how, refer to the following guides for each feature:
In the modal that appears, enter information as needed and refer to the feature guides linked above.
Don't select an option from the 'Content provider' drop-down if you want collaborators to add their own media.
You can't include the following fields in the collaboration form, so you'll need to enter them yourself:
Location
Category
Booth size
Internal links
Attendee engagement
When you're ready, click the Collaboration section to expand it. This reveals options to include in the collaboration form and collaboration invitation settings.
Select the options that you want your collaborator to edit or add information to:
Image - The icon that appears on the collaborator's feature profile in the Event App, like a sponsor or exhibitor logo, or speaker's portrait. Refer to our Image Dimensions Quick Reference article for dimension and file type requirements.
Name - The official name of the speaker, sponsor, or exhibitor that displays in the Event App.
Label/Subtitle - A brief statement that appears under the collaborator's name on their feature profile. This is a great place for sponsors and exhibitors to add their organization's tagline, industry, or region. Speakers can add their title and company.
Description - This is an opportunity to tell the attendee more about the collaborator. Sponsors and exhibitors can add more details about their organization. Speakers can add their bio, what they specialize in, and why they're speaking at the event. There are some basic text formatting tools, along with options to insert hyperlinks, images, and even animated GIFs. 🙌
Booth cover - This option appears when you select a medium or large booth size. Refer to our Image Dimensions Quick Reference article for dimension and file type requirements.
Attachments - This option lets collaborators attach a file to the collaboration form, like session materials, brochures, one-pagers, and more.
Content provider - If you want this collaborator to add media to their profile, such as a promo video or an informational sheet, check this box, then select options for the collaborator to choose from.
Attendee calls to action - Check this box and select the options from the drop-down to let this collaborator add custom button text and links for the following:
Request Follow-up - Collaborators can add their email address here so attendees can email them.
Schedule Meeting - Collaborators can add a link to a calendar tool for attendees to schedule a meeting.
External links - Check this box and select phone, email, and/or website from the drop-down. Collaborators can add as many external links as they like. To learn more, read our article about External links.
Now that you've checked boxes next to items you want the collaborator to manage, it's time to add the collaborator's email and craft an email message.
Collaborator email - Enter the email address that the invitation should be sent to.
Email message - This is the message that the collaborator will receive at the email address you entered in the 'Collaborator email' field. It has some pre-filled text, and we encourage you to personalize it as needed. Here are some suggestions:
Consider adding a deadline to submit the collaboration form.
Address the collaborator by name for an extra personal touch. 😄
Tell them what you want them to do with the form. For example, if you've already filled out the information and simply want their approval, or you need them to provide some missing pieces of their profile, this is a great place to explain that!
Add required image dimensions if you want collaborators to upload their own profile icon or booth cover. Refer to our Image Dimensions Quick Reference article for dimension and file type requirements.
Send email to this collaborator - When checked, an email with a link to the collaboration form is automatically sent to the collaborator email after you click 'Save changes'.
Collaborator link - The unique link to the collaborator's form. This link populates after clicking 'Save changes'.
If needed, click the 'Regenerate' button to deactivate the current link and generate a new unique link. Be careful to share the most up-to-date link with the collaborator.
When you're done, click Save changes. You can come back and edit your selections at any time.
Set up multiple collaboration forms
You can use a feature import template to set up multiple collaboration forms at once. The following section is a high-level overview of this process. For complete instructions on using import templates, read our Import and Export Data in Webex Events article.
Download the feature's import template to create new profiles, or export existing feature profiles if you've already set them up.
Open the import template and read the 'Instructions' sheet for guidance on properly adding information and selecting collaboration form options.
After you're done configuring collaboration form options, import the template.
When you're ready to send collaboration form invitations, email collaborators one-by-one or in bulk from the feature page. The Manage collaborators section in this article has more details.
The collaborator experience
The email
If you entered a collaborator email and checked the 'Send email to this collaborator' box, after you click 'Save changes’, an automatic email is sent to the collaborator inviting them to use the collaboration form. The body of the email contains the text you entered in the 'Email message' field. Collaborators simply click the Update information button to open the collaboration form — no login required!
Collaborators can also reply to the email if they have any follow-up questions. This reply goes to the email address you set in the feature’s settings.
The collaboration form
After clicking the 'Update information' button in the email, the collaboration form opens in a new browser tab. Only the options you selected appear on this page as editable fields, including any information you've already added to their profile. For example, if you added text to the Description and then checked the Description box in the Collaboration section, the collaborator can review and edit what you've entered. If you didn't add anything, the collaborator can add information from scratch.
When the collaborator is done adding information, they click Submit, and changes are automatically reflected in their feature profile. They can return to the collaboration form later to make updates using the link in the email or the collaborator link you provide them until you revoke collaboration.
Tracking and receiving submissions
As you activate collaboration forms and start inviting speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors to collaborate on their profiles, new statuses appear in the 'Collab email' and 'Collab form' columns on the feature page.
Collab email - This column shows whether the collaboration invitation was emailed to the collaborator.
No Email - If you configured a collaboration form and didn’t add a collaborator email, the status is ‘No Email’.
Not Sent - If you set up the collaboration form and didn't check the 'Send email to this collaborator' box, the status is 'Not Sent'.
Sent - After you email the collaborator, the status changes to 'Sent'.
Collab form - This column shows the collaboration form's status.
Created - You've configured the collaboration form.
Submitted - The collaborator filled out the collaboration form and submitted changes to their profile.
Revoked - The collaboration form is no longer active for that collaborator.
Manage collaboration
Once you configure a collaboration form for a sponsor, speaker, or exhibitor profile, new collaboration management options become available on the feature page.
To manage collaborators in bulk, first click the All Items filter and select a status under 'Collab email status' or 'Collab form status'. This is useful, for example, if you used the import tool and are ready to send a collaboration invitation to everyone in 'Not Sent' status, or if you want to revoke collaboration for several collaborators.
Check the boxes next to the collaborators you want to manage, or check the box next to the 'Name' label to select all profiles. Click the three-dot (⋯) icon next to the search bar and select an option from the drop-down.
To manage an individual collaborator, click the Settings (⋯) icon next to the collaborator and select an option from the drop-down.
Email collaborator - This option is available when all selected profiles have a collaborator email. Select it to send a collaboration invitation email if you haven't yet, or to send a deadline reminder or a request for more information.
Revoke collaboration - This option is available when no selected profiles have a status of 'Revoked'. Selecting this option deactivates collaboration forms for selected profiles and changes the status to 'Revoked'.
Reactivate collaboration - This option is available when all selected profiles have a status of 'Revoked.' Selecting this option reactivates collaboration forms for selected profiles.
Now you know how to collaborate with speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors on their Event App profiles! Once their profiles are rich with information, consider embedding Event App content in your external website with widgets.
Questions? Chat with us or email support@socio.events