Networking Hubs allow you to create a virtual networking space on your website. This space is perfect for exhibitors, office hours, or general networking.
Check out Breakout Rooms instead if you want to connect an interactive component to a traditional webinar.
Creating a Networking Hub
To create a new Networking Hub from your Sequel Admin Dashboard:
Click 'New Hub' on the Events tab.
Enter the name of your Networking Hub.
Create and name as many circles as you want. You can also add circle seats (minimum 2; maximum 100).
Add optional Circle Owners and logos to each Circle.
Reorder your circles in the order you'd like them to appear for your Attendees.
Click 'Save Networking Hub'.
Configuring General Settings
Once you create and save a new Networking Hub, you will see a number of options that you can configure in the General Settings section below when editing:
Hub Pagination: This will give you the option to have all the Circles within your Networking Hub on one single page and will require you and your attendees to scroll through or create pages of Circles.
Chat Interface: This will give you the option to hide the Circle chat from each Circle. Keep in mind that the Event chat and Private Chat are still accessible to your attendees.
Random User Mingle: This will allow you to disable the option to mingle with a random attendee for your attendees and presenters. Those at your event will still have the option to mingle random Circle within your Networking Hub
Create New Circle: This option will allow you to remove the '+Create New Circle' button from your Networking Hub. By disabling this feature, attendees will not be able to create an ad-hoc Circle when networking.
Show Participants Name: Though uncommon, there may be times within a Networking Hub that you may not want participants to interact with one another or share their identity - think of the use case of business office hours or product demos! Here is the breakdown of each available option:
Everyone - this option will share the name and photo of each participant within the Networking Hub. Once a Networking Hub is created, this option will be selected by default.
Hosts & Circle Owners - only Hosts & Circle Owners can see the user information and identity of all participants. Participant information will be anonymous to other participants.
All Anonymous - all participant information and identities within a Networking Hub will be anonymous regardless of their role.
Add Duration: When Random User Mingle is enabled, you can add a maximum duration on the length of ad-hoc user mingle Circle discussions. Once the limit is reached, the users will be pushed back into the Networking Hub.
Clear all current chat: If you are using your Networking Hub for a recurring use case or want to do a quick clean slate - you can clear all Chats by selecting this option! Just note — this is a hard delete. You cannot recover the chat history once you clear the chat.
Registration & Embedding
If you are using the Networking Hub as a stand-alone component i.e. not linked to a Virtual Stage, you will want to configure the access settings and grab the embed URL to complete your set-up!
Once a Networking Hub is created, you will have access to the Registration tab. If you are familiar with a Virtual Stage, the registration configuration will look familiar!
Select Sequel.io Registration or No Registration — depending on how you intend for your users to enter the hub.
Be sure to add a Host in the Participants tab! The Host has the ability to clear and delete chats straight from the Networking Hub itself (as opposed to the dashboard).
Note: if your Networking Hub is linked to a Virtual Stage, no need to configure Registration settings as your audience will seamlessly transition!
Selecting the Embed tab will provide you with the embed URL needed to place your Networking Hub on your website. Keep in mind that a stand-alone Networking Hub does not have a start date and time, so once embedded, it is accessible to your audience as long as they can access the link it is embedded on. You cannot open and close a Networking Hub.
If you intend to use a stand-alone Networking Hub for things such as office hours, you will need to gate access to the hub via your website as opposed to the product!
Once you have created your Networking Hub, you are ready to embed it directly onto your site! Check out these articles for embedding in your website builder of choice.
To link an existing Networking Hub to your Virtual Stage, follow these instructions.
Participants
Once you have had users in and out of your Networking Hub, you will start seeing your Participants tab built with user names and emails! If you have registration enabled for your Networking Hub, you will be able to distinguish those who were there live and those who have registered but did not attend. A CSV of your participants will be available for you to download within this tab.
If you are using your Networking Hub for recurring office hours or webinars, the participants will be aggregated of all users that have engaged with the hub, and will not be segmented by when a user attended and after which webinar (if linked).
Replays
By default, Circles are not recorded. We want all users to feel comfortable enabling their camera and microphone and engaging in an open and honest conversation! Though, you may want to record some or all of these Circle conversations. A Circle Owner can turn on and off recording at any time in a specific Circle, and if a recording is made, you can access it via the Replays tab and your Media Hub.