If we have the create meeting functionality turned on, we'll need to create some rules around that. In this article, we'll walk you through the options we have for setting up rules in the site.
First, log in and enter the admin portal of your website, then open Schedules>Rules. You'll arrive at a page that looks like this:
Meeting Grid - meeting requests are available between these Start and Finish times. As you can see from the image above, the default Start and Finish times are 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, respectively. You can change this range to whatever is most appropriate for your event.
Slot duration - field determines the length of each scheduled meeting as they appear on a user's schedule.
Spacing - the break between meetings. If you have 15 minute meetings, with a 5 minute break between each meeting, then this field would be set to 5.
Resize To - if you are allowing attendees to create their own meetings, this setting will allow them to make the meeting longer or shorter by whatever increment of time that you choose; if this value is set to 10 minutes, users will be able to lengthen or shorten their meetings by increments of 10, if set to 0, then they cannot make the meeting longer or shorter.
Drag to - This setting will allow 1:1 meeting participants to drag their meeting to a different time in whatever increments specified in this field. If Drag to is set to 5 minutes, when someone selects a meeting time, they would then be able to drag the meeting to be 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc., later or earlier. If set to 0, then they cannot move the meeting earlier or later.
Duration - Do not use this option when using advanced meetings. This forces meetings to be a specific length and conflicts with slot duration.
Available Times - if you are using the scheduler, these are the actual time slots that will be available for the meetings. Multiple Available Times can be used to create lunch breaks/coffee breaks/etc.
Example - You have 4 meetings in the morning, then a lunch, then 4 meetings in the afternoon. All meetings are 1 hour long
- Setup two Available Times to accomplish this
- First Available Time - would be 8am - 12pm on X date
- Second Available Time - would be 1pm - 5pm on X date
- The duration under the meeting grid would be 1 hour (or 55 minutes with a 5 minute break)
- This leaves an hour gap from noon to 1 between available times for your attendees to go to lunch. This gap also means our scheduler will NOT schedule meetings at this time
Blocked Times - This should not be used when using our Advanced Meetings package. Our Scheduler does not understand this option, only Available Times. Blocked times allows for specific times to be ignored when making 1:1 meetings.
- Example - A keynote could be blocked out. If you try to make a meeting at that time you can get a message saying “Please join us at the Keynote instead!”
Concurrent meetings - check yes if you want users to have more than one confirmed/pending meeting at the same time. Check no if not. It's helpful to check yes if you have a sponsor company with multiple contacts that can each take separate meetings at the same time.
Note: Concurrent meeting rules only apply to the admin and scheduler functions. Users/Companies using the front facing meeting portal will only be able to book one meeting per time slot.
Meeting Duplicates - If you have multiple attendees from the same company at your event, clicking yes will prevent the scheduler from making a meeting with the same sponsor.
Ex: Two attendees are at an event from Zerista. Both choose that they would like to meet with hypothetical Company 1. If this option is set to yes, the scheduler will make a meeting with only one of the two attendees from Zerista.
Meeting Past - Allow meetings past if you are looking to test the scheduler or document meetings that happened during your event that were not on the scheduler.
Meeting Limits - This is the overall default of how many meetings your Attendees and Sponsors should have. These can be changed on an individual basis (see schedules - schedules page), but this setting is to set everyone at a baseline.
- Even if you have different limits based on Attendee/Sponsor, you must fill this in to what MOST of those Attendee/Sponsors limits are then head to schedules - schedule to individualize the number for certain sponsors or attendees.
Recommendation Confirmation - When an attendee or Sponsor is making selections of who they would like to meet with, this is the minimum number of recommendations they must make before hitting confirm.
Meeting Expiration - attendees may not always respond to meetings right away. While the meeting is pending (neither accepted or declined), that time slot is not available on the attendees' schedule. You can set a specific time to auto-expire meeting requests. For example, if I send a meeting request to an attendee in the app and they do not respond within 24 hours, we can choose to "expire" that meeting, freeing up time on my calendar.
Setting up scenarios in the Meeting Confirmation section would ensure that when attendees request meetings with one another, the "participant" would be auto-confirmed and would not have the option to accept or decline. For example, if you set the organizer as "exhibitor" and the participant as "member", any meeting an exhibitor requests with a member will be auto-confirmed.
Participants - used when allowing users to schedule their own meetings. You can add company names or attendee names to this list to ensure that nobody sends them a meeting request.
Meeting Locations - used to determine if/when locations should appear for meetings. We have the ability to hide locations all together, require a meeting location, or assign a meeting location once a meeting is confirmed by a participant. If you choose to assign locations upon confirmation users will receive an additional email highlighting the location addition to the meeting request.
Location Setting - used to set specific restrictions on locations or attendees and companies. For example, if you have a meeting room that's only open during lunch, you can switch this on, and set specific time restrictions on a the lunch meeting room. Before setting location rules, be sure to speak to your project manager so they can make you aware of the benefits and risks of doing this.