Custom Event

This guide will walk you through how to author a custom event.

Do you feel that clinics and conferences don’t quite fit your needs for the event? Try using a custom event, which gives you more control with multiple sessions, locations and dates. 

Authoring a custom event

In the ‘Manage Events’ area of the ‘Events’ feature, select ‘+ Add New Event.’

From here, you’ll be asked to select your event type. Click on the ‘Create Custom’ button.

You will then be asked to give your event a title (don’t worry if you change your mind, this can be changed in the event editor later).

Done? Select ‘Add’.

You can save your event at any time by clicking the ‘Save Draft’ button in the editor. If you’re still busy authoring the event, remember to do this before exiting so you don’t lose all that hard work.

Time and location

The ‘Time and Location’ step of the editor is where you can add and edit sessions. Sessions are a period devoted to a particular activity and make up your schedule. They can be anything from panels to parties, or workshops and performances. 

Authoring sessions

Click on ‘Add a Session’ to get started.

This will trigger a pop-up box where you can input the name, date and time and duration of your session.

Using the buttons with the ‘+’ next to them, you can add a ‘Location’, ‘Capacity’, ‘Abstract’ and ‘Description’ for the session. Once you’ve added these, click ‘Update’.    

Location

Toggle between the ‘Physical Address’ and ‘Virtual Address’ tabs to input the details for different address types. 

Under ‘Physical Address’, you can input all details for your location, including a map for physical locations.

You can also choose from pre-set locations which is handy for if you’re using the same physical location often (these are authored in the ‘Events’ section of the Admin Panel).

If you choose to host your event using a ‘Virtual Address’, you will need to specify the virtual location type. 

Choose ‘Custom’ if you’re using an online video conferencing tool external to Thinqi (such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams) to host the event. 

You will need to input an ‘Online address’ (this is the meeting invite link). 

Add any notes you wish to include (for example, instructions on how to join the event) in the ‘Notes’ box and you’re good to go.

If you plan to host your event in a Thinqi Virtual Classroom, just click ‘Create a new Classroom’. You can also add any notes in the ‘Notes’ box. 

Capacity

You can set the minimum and maximum number of attendees for the session. If the event is full, you can choose to enable a waiting list so that if an attendee cancels and a place becomes available, someone else can take their place.

Abstract

Here, you can add a brief overview of what the session is about. Don’t go into too much detail here – it’s just a snippet. Use the ‘Description’ box to go into more detail if needed.

Description

This is where you can provide further details about the session. You’ve got a wide range of formatting tools to use here, as well the ability to add images and embed media. 

When you’re happy with your session, click the ‘Update’ button to save it 

Changed your mind and no longer want to create the session? Click ‘Cancel’ to return to the ‘Time and Location’ area.

Now you’ve created your first session, you’re well on your way to building your first custom event. You will now return to the ‘Time and Location’ area.

Location and capacity

As well as being able to set the location and capacity in each individual session, you can also set an overall location and capacity which will apply to all sessions by default (this is useful if the location and capacity is the same for all sessions). 

To do this, click on the ‘Update location’ and ‘Update capacity’ buttons. If you choose to set these details here, there’ll be no need to add them again when creating further sessions.

If a capacity is set, you have the choice on whether or not you’d like users to see the total number of remaining places for each session. Simply tick the box next to ‘Hide the number of places remaining’ if you would rather users not see this info.

Joining options for sessions

You have a range of join options for your sessions that can be selected in this area of the events editor. There are three different options to choose from, giving you the opportunity to completely customise this event.  

• ‘Attendees can choose to attend only one session’ - If you choose this option, attendees will only be able to join one session. This is useful if you’re running the exact same session multiple times over a specific period of time and people only need to attend one session. 
• ‘Attendees must attend at least one session’ - If you choose this option, attendees will be able to attend as many sessions as they’d like so long as there’s still capacity. This comes in handy if you’re running an event with different sessions and none of them are compulsory (for example, a virtual exhibition with guest speakers) as it allows attendees to attend anything that captures their interest.
  
• ‘Attendees must attend all sessions’ - If you choose this option, attendees are expected to attend every session. This option is useful for mandatory training events spread over several sessions where users will need to be informed that they need to attend every session. We’d advise that you use the same maximum and minimum capacity when using this option, so the same number of attendees will need to be able to join each session. 

Select your preferred option – don’t worry, you’ll be able to change this later if you decide you’d rather a different option instead.

Schedule

The schedule will show all sessions that you have created.

Adding more sessions

Want to add more sessions to your event? No problem. 

Click the ‘+ Add Session’ button to create a new one, following the same steps as above.

Once you’ve added all of this information, click ‘Add’.   

You will now see that the session has been added to the schedule. To help you stay organised, any sessions taking place on different dates will show in different tabs.

Moving all sessions

Sometimes, you may need to update the time of all sessions by the same amount of hours. This is useful if you’re duplicating an existing event and just need to edit the date before publishing it. 

To do this, start by clicking on ‘Move All Sessions’. 

This will open a pop-up box where you can make the sessions in your event earlier or later, and specify by how many hours. Click ‘Update’ when you’re done.       

Editing and deleting sessions

Once you have added a session (or several), you may edit or delete any of these by finding the appropriate option in the drop-down menu.

Now you’ve finished creating your sessions you can progress on to the next step, ‘Description’. 

Description

Here, you can add or edit a title, abstract, thumbnail image and description to display on the overview of your event.

The abstract is just a snippet of what the event is about. Use the description to add further detail. You also have a range of tools available to format the description and get it looking exactly as you want it. 

To update the thumbnail image, click the ‘Update image’ button and to trigger a pop-up window.

You can either upload an image from your device or select from an image that has been uploaded to the ‘Files’ area of your user profile (for more information, see the How to manage your profile help guide). 

To upload an image from your device, click on the icon shown below. Select the image you’d like to upload. 

To select an image from the ‘Files’ area of your user profile, select the magnifying glass icon.

Select the image you would like to use and then click the ‘Insert’ button You can also clear the selection by clicking the ‘Clear all’ button – useful for any last-minute changes.

You can crop your image by clicking with the mouse and selecting the part of the image you’d like to use.

If you want to delete the image completely and start over, click on the ‘x’

When you’re happy with your image, click ‘Done’.

Your thumbnail image will now be updated.

Now it’s time to decide on your registration settings. When you’re ready, click ‘Next Step’.

Registration

‘Registration’ is where you will specify how users may join the event. You’ve got a number of settings options here:

• ‘Join Requests’, - choosing this option will mean that users must request to join the event and an event admin will need to accept the request. This gives you full control over your attendees list. 
• ‘Open’ - choosing this option removes the ‘Join’ button, so attendees won’t need to request to join and will be added to the attendees list straight away. This option can also be used for public events (where people without a Thinqi account can also attend).
• ‘Payment’ - this option uses vouchers (configured in the Admin Panel) to book onto events. Line Managers can be allocated a certain amount of vouchers to book their staff onto events on their behalf. 
• ‘Managed’ - this option disables the ‘Join’ button completely. However, attendees can still be added manually – see the How to manage Events help guide for more details.

When you’ve chosen the appropriate settings, move onto the next step — ‘Classification and Tagging’.  

Classification and tagging

You can make your event easier to find by adding tags and updating your event’s classification, relevant to learners’ competencies. 

To update the event’s classification, click ‘Update Classification’. A pop-up box titled ‘Curriculum Mapping’ will open, where you may assign your event to one or more curricula or ILO. Just choose from the pre-set list of curricula and ILOs on the left-hand side, fill in the necessary information and hit ‘Save’. 

To add a tag, type your term in the ‘Add a new tag’ box and press the ‘+’ button, or simply hit ‘Enter’ on your keyboard. If you want to remove a tag you’ve added, find the tag in question and click the ‘X’ on that tag. 

You can also quick-add tags by finding a tag under ‘Recent tags’ and clicking the ‘+’ button to include it. 

Once you’re done, it’s time to move onto the final step of creating your event  – ‘Event Settings’. 

Event settings

Time to add the final details to your event. Here’s how you do it.

Discoverable and hidden events

You will be presented with several options for listing your event in the discovery area:

• List the event in the discovery area - This is ideal for events that only need to be listed once, or that have sessions that run clearly together.
• List all sessions separately in the discovery area - This is useful for sessions that contain the same content, but run at different times, dates or locations.
• Hide the event in the discovery area - The hidden event will not appear in the discovery area or search results, but users with access to the share link or content folder will be able to see it. This is useful for private events you don’t want to advertise.

Event code

This will allow you to add a memorable shorthand code to your event, completely customisable to suit your needs. 

Waiting list

The waiting list is useful for when the event, or any event session(s) they wish to attend, are at maximum capacity. 

The waiting list can later be reviewed and managed in the management area of the ‘Events’ app. 

To enable the waiting list, toggle the switch on.

What content can people see before joining an event?

You can upload files to an event, as well as create and publish articles. Toggle ‘View Files’ and ‘View Articles’ to determine what content people can see before joining your event.

Once you’re done, you’re ready to get the event out to the world. Hit the ‘Save and Publish’ in the bottom right-hand corner (this button can also be found in the top right-hand corner of the events editor).

Publishing your event

This will open a pop-up box where you can decide when to publish your event and set the privacy by selecting a content folder. Not sure how privacy settings work with content folders? The How to use the ‘Admin Panel’ help guide has all the info you 

To schedule your event to be published at a later date, click on ‘Want to publish this at a later date?’

Click the calendar icon to select a date and time and then click ‘Add’ when you’re done.

You’ll now see that your event is scheduled to go out on your chosen date and time. Don’t worry - it won’t be available to anyone until this date. 

Once you have chosen a privacy setting, hit the button labelled ‘Publish’ at the bottom of the pop-up box. 

And there you have it – you’ve successfully created and published your custom event.