Events, Conferences, and Training

“Events” are all kinds of organized get-togethers we manage. This could be training classes, conferences, user group meetings, webinars, and more. Events could be online or in-person and may be free or paid.

List of Events

All types of events managed in Olympus can be seen in the “Events and Training” interface, which can be opened directly from the main application menu. The main menu shows additional information about the events:

The numbers in the bubble text indicate how many open follow-up items there are for all events (136 across all users in this example) and how many open follow-up items there are for the current user (5 in this example).

Clicking that menu item opens the “Events Pane” user interface:

By default, all future events as well as past events (up to a total of 1000 events) are displayed, but the list can be filtered further:

The individual filter options correlate to the various flags that can be set in individual events (see below).

The list of events displays the following fields:

• Code: Shows the (unique) event code as well as additional information:
  • A flag icon indicates that the event has signups flagged for follow-up.
  • A color palette indicates that some required header artwork associated with the event (see below) is missing. (Note that there also is the Has Header Files? column that provides more information about this.)
  • The background color of the rendered event code shows the accent color defined (and if there is none, that is an indicator that no accent color is defined and probably no artwork either).
• Title: Event title
• Location (City): Location of the event. (WHen the event is online, a cloud icon is displayed).
• Region: Overall region the event is in (such as “Texas” or “Austria”). This is useful to introduce a regional grouping of events, or to advertise an event to a larger region than just a city, but smaller than a state or country. For online events, a globe icon is displayed.
• Country: Country the event is held in. For online events, a globe icon is displayed.
• Event Date: The start date of the event.
• Duration: The length of the event (in days). Anything shorter than a day is still considered to have a duration of “1 day”.
• Price: The price we charge for the event (“advertised price”).
• Accept Signups: Indicates whether the event already accepts signups on the web site.
• Signups: Displays the number of people who are signed up for the event.
• VIP Signups: Indicates how many signups (total number and percentage) are flagged as “VIP”. VIPs are people who are important to us, usually for sales and marketing purposes.
• Attended: Shows the number of people who attended the event (total number and percentage of signups). This is mainly useful for in-person events where we have a better handle on how many people actually attended. (Although we also try to get that number for online events).
• Follow-Up: Indicates how many signups are flagged to be followed up with. For a hypothetical examples of a display of 1/35/46 (26%), the different numbers are:
  • 1: Open follow-ups assigned to me (current user)
  • 35: Open follow-ups (all users)
  • 46: Total signups flagged as requiring a follow-up (regardless of status).
  • 26%: Percentage of signups flagged as follow-ups (it is our goal to achieve some sort of follow-up action with as many attendees as possible).
• Food: This column indicates the catering we make available at the event (only applicable for in-person events). The following is a list of what the icons mean:
  • : Any food being served.
  • : A full meal is served.
  • : Drinks served.
  • : Snacks are being served.
• YouTube: Indicates whether a link to a YouTube recording of the event is available.
• Private: Is the event pricate (by private invite only and thus not visible on the web site). A shield icon indicates that the event is private. Note that a private event is different from a public event that requires an invite (such as a lot of the State of AI events). Those events are public on the web site, but need to be approved after someone requests an invite. Private events on the other hand, are not visible on the web site, unless someone is specifically provided with the signup link.
• Webinar: Is the event a webinar?
• Announced: Is the event announced, and thus visible on the web site? Note: Rows in dimmed color are flagged as not yet announced.
• Signups with Location: Tells us how many of the signups we have location information for (both absolute numbers and percentage). (Note: Users in the Administrator role can trigger a location update algorithm from the admin menu, which tries to create location information for people that didn't have that information when they signed up. This is especially useful for older leads. However, it is only possible to generate location information for some of those customers, depending on the data we have available.)
• Has Header Files: Indicates whether all the required header artwork files are present and attached to the event. Possible values are Yes, No, and Some missing!.
• Branding/Sponsoring: This column indicates what combination of brands are behind this event. (This also drives which web sites the event shows up on).

Note: When moving the mouse over individual icons in the list, as well as some other columns such as the follow-up counts, a tooltip will show an explanation and often more detail:

One more noteworthy feature in this UI is the View Event Online button in the toolbar. This button opens the event in the web browser and sidplays it, regardless of whether the event is announced or not. It is therefore a good way to quickly navigate to the event on our web site.

Events in the Names Interface

A secondary way of seeing events is though the name/people/organization UI, which provides a tab showing all the events a person has attended. From there, it is possible to drill into the event details (see below).

It is also possible to sign the person up for an upcoming event.

Editing an Event

The event edit form features a number of tabs that each provide access to a large number of features. The following is a description of each tab:

Main info

This tab page provides the main information and setup for what an event is and what the specifics are.

It includes the following fields:

• Event Name: Title of the event (displayed on the web page).
• Abstract: A short description of the event (displayed on the web page). Plain text only. No formatting of any kind (markdown or HTML) is allowed in this field.
• Event Code: The unique code that is used to identify the event. Used as part of the URL on the web site. (Note: uniqueness is not enforced by the system, but the user should verify that the code is unique, which can be done by opening the event on the web site (Show Event Online button in the toolbar) to see if it opens correctly. Codes can theoretically be reused as long as there aren't multiple events with the same code in the future, but this is not recommended).
• Country: The country the event is held in. (UNITED STATES can be used for online events).
• City: The city a live event is held in (ignored for online events).
• Region: The overall region a live event is held in. This is a free-form field. Often, it is a state (such as Texas) but it could be something different (such as North-East US or DACH for an event that targetd Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).
• Event Start: Date and time an event starts.
• Event End: Date and time an event ends.
• Event Duration: Duration of the event in days. (Mostly a legacy field, but still useful in some scenarios).
• Signup Mode: Defines the overall mode this events operates under:
  • Standard: The event is advertised on the web site. People can click the Signup button, move through the signup process, and get their signup confirmation immediately.
  • Request Invite (auto-approve): This event is advertised as an invite-only event, but the system will auto-approve the signup immediately.
  • Request Invite (manual approval): This event is advertised as an invite-only event. When people sign up, the signup goes into a queue and we manually approve or reject signups. (This is currently not really used).
• Maximum Off-Site: Defines the maximum number of attendees who can sign up for online attendance. After that, the event appears as “sold out” on the web page. (0 means this field is ignored).
• Maximum On-Site: Defines the maximum number of attendees who can sign up for in-person attendance. After that, the event appears as “sold out” on the web page. (0 means this field is ignored).
• Options:
  • This event is announced: When this flag is checked, the event is shown on the web page.
  • Signups are allowed: When this flag is set, a Signup button appears on the web page and people can sign up for the event. Note that it is possible to have an event that is announced but signups are not yet allows (although that is unusual… a typical scenario would be an event that is still lacking details, such as when we do not have a final location yet, or something similar).
  • Available as a live event: Indicates that the event can be attended in-person at the event location.
  • Available via online meeting: Indicates that the event can be attended online (such as through MS Teams, YouTube,...)
  • Can be presented at a customer location: Indicates that the event can also be presented at an individual customer location if the customer requests that and we arrange for a separate date for such a new event.
  • Post-event mentoring is available: Indicates that customers can request (purchase) individual mentoring after the event (typical for training classes).
  • Available customized/personalized: Indicates that customers can request a personalized version of this event.
  • Social Post Enabled: If this flag is set, social media sharing options show up on the web site.
  • Ask for LinkedIn Handle: If this flag is set, the web site will ask the user for an optional LinkedIn handle/URL as part of the signup process.
  • Ask where they heard about the event: If this flag is set, the web site will ask the user where they heard about the event.
    • If this option is checked, a Pick Where-Heard Options button appears that can be used to define the list of options the user can pick from. Provide more detail here!
  • Ask for Networking Opt-In: If this option is checked, the web site will ask the user to opt-in for on-site networking support. This can mean different things for different events, such as printing a LinkedIn barcode on the badge to other attendees can network with people.
  • Private Event: If this flag is set, the event will not appear in the list of events on the web site (even if it is flagged as announced). However, it is possible to share the event URL and point people directly at the event.
• Significance: Defines whether this is a Major event (such as Microsoft BUILD, DevIntersection, or another major conference), a Minor event (such as a local conference), or a Local event (such as a user group meeting or meet-up).
• Language: Main language of the event (usually English). Can be used for advertisement and to know which audience to target.
• Culture: The target culture of the event (usually United States). Can be used for advertisement and to know which audience to target.
• Language 2: Secondary language for a multi-lingual event.
• Culture 2: Secondary culture for a multi-cultural event.
• Accent Color: Color uses as the header color on the web site (should go with the header artwork… see below).
• Required Signup Fields: This section allows to fine-tune the system's signup logic for the fields the user has to provide during signup. Note: If this causes a known user to provide information we didn't have before, it will be added to the name-record in addition to being used for the signup.
• Address is required: The user must provide a physical address to sign up for this event.
• Company name is required: The user must provide a company name as part of the signup process.
• Phone number is required: Must provide a phone number to sign up.
• Title is required: Must provide a professional title to sign up.
• Ask for Speical Assistance Options: If checked, the web site will ask the user for special assistance needs (such as wheel-chair requirements).
• Catering/Food:
  • Any Food Served: Indicates that some food will be served, without specifying more detail. (Usually when we are undecided).
  • Full Meal Served: Indicates that a full meal will be served, such as lunch or dinner.
  • Alcoholic Drinks Served: Indicates that there will be adult beverages. Typically at an evening reception, or similar event.
  • Snacks Served: Indicates that small snacks will be served during breaks. Could be in addition to a full meal (if that option is checked… see above), or, just snaks (often at a user group, or similar event).
  • Ask for Dietary Needs: Allows specifying whether the web site should ask for any kind of dietary options. (Only makes sense when food is served). Note that if we ask people for dietary restrictions, our caterer must be able to conform with those choices. Therefore, these should be chosen carefully. If this option is checked, the following options become available:
  • Allow Diabetic Option: If anyone checks this, we need to make sure we have food suitable to diabetics.
  • Allow Gluten-Free Option: Same for people who can't, or do not want to eat gluten. This is usually relatively easy to accomodate.
  • Allow Halal Option: Not easy to do, therefore, we should only offer this when it makes sense.
  • Allow Kosher Option: Similar to halal.
  • Allow Low-Fat Option: Hard to accomodate. Only offer if absolutely needed.
  • Allow Low-Sodium Option: Similar to low-fat.
  • Allow Vegan Option: Common, and usually easy to accomodate. We usually offer this.
  • Allow Vegetarian Option: If we offer vegan, then that is automatically also suitable for vegetarians.
  • Ask for Food Allergies: Hard to accomodate. Only offer if absolutely needed. If anyone picks this, we must handle this on a case-by-case basis.
• Price fields for paid events (ignore for free events):
  • Price: Event price, such as 999.00
  • Currency: Currency for the price.
  • Tax Rate: Tax rate for the price, if applicable. Usually 0.00 for US events.
  • Additional Tax Rate: Special secondary tax rate for paid events. Rarely applicable.
  • Early Bird Discount: The discount applied for people who sign up prior to the early-bird cut-off date. Such as $200.00 if we want to make the event $200 cheaper for people who sign up early. (In the above example, the total would then be $799)
  • Early-Bird Cut-Off Date: People signing up prior to this date qualify for the early bird discount.
  • Payment Options:
    • Credit Card: This is our standard option that should be used for almost all events
    • Direct Debit: We are not currently using this, although this is useful for some of our European events.
    • Bill-Me: We are also not really using this anymore, except for special cases that are manually billed.
  • Billed By: Indicates which company is billing for the event. This is almost always EPS USA, although in exceptional cases it could be EPS Austria. All other options are there for legacy reasons only and should not be used anymore.
• Download Options:
  • Download Mode: Defines who can download associated file downloads.
    • Free for all: Anyone can download file attachments for this event without restriction.
    • Signed-In Only: Anyone can download file attachments for this event, but the user must be logged into the web site, so we know who downloads what.
    • Attendees only: Only people who are signed up for the event get to download file attachments.
  • Slides are ready: When this box is ticked, slides can be downloaded by users (assuming all slides have been uploaded and are ready, which is a separate task that must be performed manually).
  • Samples are ready: When this box is ticked, samples can be downloaded (if applicable) by users (assuming all samples have been uploaded and are ready, which is a separate task that must be performed manually).
• Organizer: This set of flags indicates who is listed as being involved in organizing the event (used for branding and advertisement). An event can be flagged with multiple organizers.
  • This is an EPS event: Event is organized by EPS Software Corp. (USA) and promoted as such.
  • CODE Training: Promoted as a CODE Training event and promoted as part of the CODE Training list of events.
  • State of .NET: Promoted as a State of .NET event.
  • State of AI: Promoted as a State of AI event.
  • CODE Presents: Promoted as a CODE Presents event.
  • D2SIG: We are not currently using the D2 (Developers & Designers) brand. Supported only for legacy scenarios.
• Sponsored by: Similar to organizers, but indicates less involvement in organization. This is especially useful for events that aren't our own, but we are still involved in.
  • CODE Consulting: Consulting division branding is used, even though the consulting division never organizes events.
  • CODE Magazine: Same for CODE Magazine.
  • EPS staff is presenting: Promoted as an event EPS staff or presenting at.

Info 2

Description

Presenters

Sessions

Signups

Emails

Confirmation Email

Agenda

Venue

Branding

Signup Text

Partner

Tasks

Attachments

Event Artwork

Cloning an Event