Virtual Summit events consist of tracks and sessions to allow for each customized part of your summit or conference to be easily accessible and engaging.
With Sequel's Summit Events, event runners can hold multi-track engagements on their website (or other owned domain) with ease of building and a stellar attendee experience. Of course, with all the engagement data going back to your CRM.
First, the easiest path for setup is to have an outline of Run of Show or something similar to work with.
This will help you determine:
Track and session times and transition types
Audience experience in moving to next session (manual or auto-direct)
Graphical assets you might need
Surveys and other engagements per session
Automations per session
Simulive or Live session type
Note: Virtual Summits are a paid add-on for Business and Enterprise plan customers. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager to see the power of Summits in action and prep for your next big success!
Creating and Configuring Summits
To create a Virtual Summit,
Navigate to Events area from left navigation > "Virtual Summits" area
Select "+ New Summit" purple button
Name your summit and this will open up a zoomable editor ready to build.
From here, navigate first to "Summit Settings" in order to configure options for themes, email settings, registration questions, etc. This includes choosing the type of redirect you'd like between sessions for your audience.
Choosing redirect type: Automatic and Manual via CTA.
The below shows options for automatic redirect. Selecting "Manual" will show a pop-up where the attendee has to click the button in order to move to the next session. The Manual pop-up will display based on start/end times set.
If adding participants manually, this action can only be done under Summit Settings, under Participants tab.
👉 There are a lot of options to play with in Summit event settings. Please go through them in order to ensure all looks to be the way you'd like. If you're new to Sequel in general, check out this guide for building out events.
Once your Summit settings are how you want them, it's time to build out the tracks and sessions. Exiting out of Summit settings will return you to the builder interface with options to add sessions and customize session-specific settings.
Options to zoom in/out and build from full screen are available as well.
Adding Tracks and Sessions
In Sequel, "Tracks" are collections of sessions that follow a theme. These are sometimes referred to as "breakout sessions" from the main keynote, for an example.
Sessions can be built outside of tracks as well. The redirecting options between sessions won't be affected by track or session status.
Before we dive into how to setup tracks and sessions, a few items to keep in mind:
First "event" for Summit has to be a Session which then breaks out into separate tracks. However, you can bring everyone back together after separated tracks by using a session after the tracks type (like the example above with two tracks).
All created sessions start out as "Private" visibility by default. Please ensure to turn them to "Public" status to allow access to the event and a smooth registration experience for your community.
Edits to session settings cannot be made once the Summit date/time has passed.
To add and customize Summit Sessions,
Start by clicking on the "+" sign within the builder to choose 1st session.
Name session and save to dive into settings. Click "Settings" to open up the side panel for main session options. You'll also be able to get to all session settings from here.
Choosing whether the session is Live or Simulive type of event.
Setting duration, speakers, etc.
If you need to edit your time/date, please start at the latest session and work upwards. This is because a Virtual Summit session cannot be in the past.
CRM settings and mappings.
Changing session visibility from private to public or vice versa.
To add and customize Summit Tracks,
Start by clicking on the "+" sign within the builder to create your first track.
Name your Track and you'll see it as a "container" for track sessions to go into.
Click on the Track container to fill in the description. This description shows up when prompted to choose between tracks at the end of your first session.
You can have a maximum of three tracks per Virtual Summit.
Once the session inside the track is created, click "Settings" to open up the side panel for main session options. You'll also be able to get to all session settings from here.
Choosing whether the session is Live or Simulive type of event.
Event description.
Setting duration, speakers, etc.
Changing session visibility from private to public or vice versa.
Note: Only tracks can be parallel to each other. As such, clicking on the Plus sign next to a track will only allow options for another track. Sequel will automatically set the same date/time for each track for you but this can always be customized!
How do attendees choose their track preference?
Virtual Summits prompt your attendees to choose which track they'd like to follow with a pop-up, customized based on your brand color settings within Sequel.
Below is an example of the pop-up to choose between two tracks. Any track description will also show below the title if filled out.
Clicking on "Join Now" takes the attendee to the first session in that track.
Bringing Audience Together after Tracks
To route audience from any track back into a common session, click on icon to add a session after the Track container. Example below.
Now that the Virtual Summit is build out to match your program and sessions are turned Public as applicable, it's time to see the audience experience in action! This is an important part of testing event flow and tweaking for optimal experience.
Test Setup via Simulation
Virtual Summit allow admins to simulate the experience of an attendee. This is where you can see the prompts and transitions in actions.
To access simulation link,
Navigate to "Summit Settings" > "Participants" tab.
Under the three dot options next to any attendee, select "Copy Simulation Link"
Paste into another tab and click "Simulate" button.
Here's a full visual of testing in action!
With settings in place and flow tested, it's time to embed the Virtual Summit on your site!
New to Sequel? Our quickstart embedding guide will fill in any gaps and you can always feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager for help or use our AI helper chat to get quick answers!