Event Schedules

A schedule defines the communications plan around your event and it’s set up under the Schedule tab.

There are three groups of actions:

1. General Emails
   These emails or notifications get sent at any time during the event. A good example is sending an invite email when a contact is set to Invited. It allows you to automatically invite clients at any time after the event has been launched.
2. Emails Before Each Session
   These emails are triggered based on the date of each session. So you could automate the first invitation email going a month before, the second 2 weeks before and a third a week before each session. These invites would only get sent to contacts that are set to Invited, so those that registered or declined are ignored. We could also send a reminder email the day before to Registered contacts.
3. Emails After Each Session
   These emails get triggered after each session. So “Thanks for Attending” or “Sorry you couldn’t make it” emails are good examples. You can automate post-event CE/CPD certificates too.

Template Schedules

At the top of the panel you’ll see Template Schedule. We’ve created three templates based on our best practices:

1. Basic – the most, umm, basic option with no automated invitation emails before each session.
2. Balanced – our recommended template with three invitations, a reminder and solid post-event emails.
3. Advanced – like Balanced but with the CE/CPD included.

All three schedules use email and form templates from our library. These templates are linked to the Brand Manager so they have your logos, fonts, color palettes and more. The templates also pull in your event info and deal with sessions with no agenda, speakers, etc. We’ve put in loads of work so you don’t have to 😃

Enable Schedules

The schedule needs to be activated so that our emails send out. There’s a master toggle that allows you to enable or disable all the schedule items at once.

Any time enabling or disabling a schedule item would impact emails being sent to your invitees, a confirmation modal appears, giving you a chance to review before making changes.

Below, there are also individual toggles for each email or notification in the schedule.

The current schedule status is always visible in the status chip at the top left of the page, so you can quickly see whether communications are active.

Custom Schedules

We won’t restrict you to using our own templates of course – you can use your own emails and forms or make your own schedule.

Once you start changing the schedule, the Template Schedule changes to Custom. You can pick your own emails – we’ll get to that in a minute – and if you want to save it for future events, just click the star and name the schedule. Then when you create your next event, you’ll see the schedule saved for you. You can pick any saved schedules here too by clicking the down arrow.

Ok so let’s walk through changing a schedule. Click on the scheduled item you’d like to change.

In this example we’ll change the schedule to trigger two months before the event, and we’ll pick a custom email. So this is saying…

For contacts that are Invited, send this custom email 2 months before the session start time.

The schedule will make a copy of the selected email, just in case you want to tweak it further without affecting your master. You could select specific sessions too.

Under Action, you’ll see Send Email and Send Notification. An email is sent like a campaign with tracking which is what you’ll need to integrate with a registration form. Notifications are for internal use where you want to get an alert. We use these, keeping an eye on venue capacity ahead of the form closing.

FAQ

How can I create an email schedule within an event?

To create an email schedule for say a “Sorry you couldn’t make it” or “Thanks for Attending”, follow these steps:

1. Go into the Event Builder. Go to Events > Events and select the event for which you want to create the post-event email schedule. Click Edit Event.
2. Add Schedule. Go into the Schedule tab.
3. Expand a schedule stage. You’ll see “General Emails”, “Emails Before Each Session” and “Emails After Each Session”. General emails are sent at any time during the event – such as when a contact is changed to the Invited status. Expand the relevant stage and hit the plus icon.
4. Create the trigger. Choose a Contact Status (post-event would usually be the Attended status). Pick a session or leave as “All Sessions” and choose a delay – such as a day after attending.
5. Pick an email. Choose “Send Email” in the Action dropdown and finally pick an email. You can either select a pre-created email or take  on from you own or the StoneShot template library. Click Save when done.

You can create email schedules to cover multiple invites, confirmations, reminders and post-event emails. You can also automate CPD/CE certificates here too.

Can I add a seed list to my event schedules?

Not yet, but support for adding seed lists to event schedules is coming soon.

Can I schedule an event email to be sent at a specific date and time?

Yes, you can for the schedules within the Emails Before Each Session and Emails After Each Session.

To do this:

1. 1. Click on the Schedule.
   2. Select Set Specific Date.
   3. Set the date/time of send and Save.

Can more than one person be notified when a venue reaches it's capacity?

Yes, but you’ll need to create two separate notification emails. A single notification email cannot be sent to two different recipients. Instead, create a separate notification email for each recipient.

How does the platform know who to send the “Thank You for Attending” or “Sorry You Couldn’t Attend” emails to?

Post-event emails are sent based on each contact’s status for the event. You can create separate event schedules for attendees and no-shows, allowing you to send a “Thank You for Attending” email to those who attended and a “Sorry You Couldn’t Attend” email to those who were unable to make it.

By default, contacts will remain in the Registered status, so you will need to update their status once the event has taken place. This can be done by:

• Manually updating one or more contacts in the event’s Contacts Table (see Updating a Contact’s Event Status for more information).
• Uploading a list of attendees or no-shows and bulk assigning them to the appropriate status.

This works for both online and in-person events. As long as you have a list of attendees, you can import or update their statuses before the automated emails are due to send. For example, if your follow-up emails are scheduled to send 24 hours after the event, you have that time to upload the attendee information and ensure the correct contacts receive the appropriate email.

What does the Contact Status "Anyone" mean?

Selecting Anyone includes contacts with all event statuses. This means the communication will be sent to everyone associated with the event, including contacts with statuses such as Invited, Registered, Registered and paid, Telephone Registrations, Confirmed, Interested but unable to attend, Attended, Cancelled, Declined, and No Show.

If you only want to send to a specific group of contacts, select the appropriate Contact Status instead of Anyone.

If I edit a Custom Schedule, will it overwrite the existing version?

No. Editing a Custom Schedule does not overwrite the existing version. If you want to keep your changes, you’ll need to save them as a new Custom Schedule.

Is there a way to resend an event email to non-opens automatically?

No, currently this is not possible – you would need to create a new dynamic list to identify the non-opens and manually send the campaign to this list in the Content > Emails section of the platform.

How can I clone an Event Schedule?

There isn’t currently a dedicated clone option for Event Schedule actions. To create a copy, click the + icon in the bottom-right corner of the relevant section (General Emails, Emails Before Each Session, or Emails After Each Session). Configure the new schedule action as required and, in the Send Email setting, select the same email as the action you want to replicate.

Why haven't I received the confirmation email?

If you haven’t received the confirmation email, check the following:

• Make sure the relevant Event Schedule has been activated. If it was inactive when you registered, you may need to activate the schedule, remove yourself from the event, and then register again.
• Check that your contact profile contains all the information required by the email. Missing data used by merge fields will prevent the email from being sent.
• Review the schedule trigger settings. For example, the schedule may be configured to send only to contacts who were Invited and then Registered, rather than to anyone who registers.

How do I edit Event Schedules?

Click on the Schedule details.

Can we update an event email up to the point of send?

Yes. You can make changes to an event email right up until it is sent.

To update the email, click the Edit (pencil) icon next to the email name above the email preview. Once you have finished making your changes, click Publish Changes to ensure the latest version is used for the scheduled send.

Why can't I enable all of my event schedules?

Each schedule must meet its configured timing criteria before it can be activated.

For example, if a schedule is configured to send an invitation email 2 months before the event, but the event is taking place in less than 1 month, the schedule cannot be enabled because the send date has already passed.

Review the settings for each schedule and ensure that the timing of the action is valid relative to the event or session date. If a schedule still cannot be enabled, please contact the Support Team for assistance.

How can I delete an event schedule?

Click the three dots to the right of the schedule and select Delete. Please note that if you delete the schedule the email will also be deleted. If you’d like to keep a copy of the email you can either simply leave the schedule deactivated or Clone the email into the Content > Emails section first.