Conference Website Setup

This is a quick guide on the steps required to setup a conference in your ME CRM solution. Once the training site at help.memberevolution.com is populated with conference training material, this link will be discontinued as it is a very high level overview of what is required.

Creating a Conference

Please follow this step by step if you are creating a conference from scratch.

Step 1: Create the Venue

You can create a Venue by going to Conference, Create Conference Content. Look for Create Conference Venue and fill in the fields you require. You can skip this process if you have not yet secured a venue but wish to display your Conference on your website now to generate interest.

Step 2: Create the Venue Rooms

You can create Venue Rooms by going to Conference, Create Conference Content. Simply click on Create Venue Room, relate it to the Venue you have created and give the room a name. The room name is what will display on your website. If you do not have a Venue yet, please skip this step.

Step 3: Create the Conference

You may choose to create the Conference before the Venue and Venue rooms have been created. Look for Create Conference under Create Conference Content and fill in all the required fields and additional information you want to display on your website. The Conference content type will be the overview page of your Conference.

Step 4: Setup the Conference Days and Sessions

This is only available after you have created a Conference. To do this, go to the Conference you have created and click on the tab ‘Conference Settings’. You can now add in the days that your conference runs on and also the Sessions within each of the days.

Step 5: Create the Streams

You can create streams and set which events belong to which streams. To do this, go to Create Conference Content and create a Conference Stream. These streams will then appear in event settings when you create a Conference event or Conference social event.

Step 6: Create Conference Events

There are two types of events, Conference Events and Conference Social Events. Both are fundamentally nearly identical, the main difference being that Social Events can be purchased outside of a Conference Ticket. Create these and then choose which Day and Session these belong to. This is also the time to add in additional fields you may wish to collect information for. The best place to add these is to the registration event which everyone must attend. It is the same way you add additional fields to a normal event so please visit the help site if you have forgotten how to create these fields.

Step 7: Create Conference Tickets

You are now up to setting up the Tickets that can be purchased for a Conference. To do this, go to Conference Create Content and create a ‘Conference Ticket’. Similar to streams you can also group your tickets by taxonomy. To do this, go to Website, Manage Content, Administer Taxonomy and add terms to Conference Ticket Grouping. You can create as many different ticket types as you and and select which events come as part of the Conference Ticket to give your users variety when choosing what to attend.

Additional Conference Setup

There are additional conference content types that can be setup which can add additional value to your members wishing to find out more information about the conference.

Hotels

If you are not managing hotels, you can simply create a content page and link your users to the hotel website for more information. Alternative, you can create Hotels and Hotel Rooms to display hotels that are nearby and available for the conference at a special price by contacting these hotels.

Step 1: Create the Hotel/s

You can create more than one hotel, the more you create the more hotels will appear in a map that shows all nearby hotels within the area. To do this, go to Create Conference Content and ‘Create Conference Hotel’. Fill in the required fields and save.

Step 2: Create the Hotel Room/s

To get the hotel to appear on the map, you must have at least one hotel room for each of the hotels you create. Go to Create Conference Content and ‘Create Conference Hotel Room’. You will have to link it to the conference it is related to and the hotel it is related to. This is where you can provide more information about the rooms available at the hotel and to inform them to contact the hotel to secure a booking today.

Speakers

To create speakers, first view a list of Speaker Applications by going to Manage Conference Content. From this list, choose the ones you have shortlisted and create a Speaker Bio for that person and fill out the rest of the required data. After this, create Presentation Abstracts and relate them to the speaker bios. Once they are created you can go back to each event and add the abstracts to them.

Transfers

This is currently being reworked to better fit into the Conference Management System. More information on these will be provided over time as they are released. You can create any of these content types but they will not appear anywhere on your website until you link them via your Menu.