Event Experience
Localist offers the option to select In-Person (default), Hybrid or Virtual as an event's Experience. While this setting changes how the content is presented, all experiences are fundamentally the same.
Creating a Hybrid or Virtual Event
In your Admin Dash, navigate to Events > Add Event. Get started by adding the event's name, description, dates and times per usual. When you arrive at the Location section of the form, you will see the Experience drop-down where you can select Hybrid or Virtual.
Selecting either Hybrid or Virtual will expose the following three fields. If you select Virtual the physical location fields will be hidden.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Dial-In Instructions | Paste the typical dial-in instructions from your service of choice. |
| Stream URL | Entering a URL will trigger a CTA to appear on your event's page that will send your community to the stream's external page. |
| Stream Embed Code | If your streaming service supports embedding videos to watch a stream directly on the event page in Localist, paste the code here. |
Once saved, your Hybrid event listings will display the physical location along with "Stream Available," while your Virtual events will display only "Virtual Event." Additionally, Admins will be able to refine by Experience in the Live and Pending event lists while end users can refine by Experience on any filtered page (any page with /calendar).
Bulk Adding Event Experiences
If you are starting with a fresh CSV, navigate to Events > Bulk Add Events > Download CSV Template in your Admin Dash. In the resulting CSV you will find columns for Experience, Stream URL, Dial-In Instructions and Stream Embed Code. If you are working in an existing CSV, you can manually add these columns as long as the column headers match exactly.
- Experience: enter Virtual or Hybrid (In-person is the default). If you enter stream information without designating Hybrid or Virtual, your event will default to In-Person and the stream details will effectively be ignored.
- Stream Embed Code: Your embed code must include proper field quoting. For example, "<a href=""http://localist.com"">EMBED CODE</a>". Note that 1) the entire embed code is within " " and 2) the embed URL is double quoted. The quotation marks cannot be smart quotes.
Private Hybrid & Virtual Events
If you prefer to share stream details with only those who will be attending, you can use Localist Register to do so. Here's how:
- When creating your event, change the Experience to Hybrid or Virtual.
- Using the Dial-In Instructions field, add messaging to tell your community that they will receive the meeting or stream information via email once they've registered.
- After entering the event details, toggle to the Tickets & Registration tab at the top of the event form.
- Select Create your first ticket
- Enter a Ticket Name
- Set the Ticket Type to Virtual
- Drop your virtual meeting URL in the Event URL field. You will then add the virtual meeting password in the Ticket Type Message field.
- Save the ticket
- Save Changes on the event
Here is the resulting Email:
Event Experience FAQ
How can I securely share Zoom/video chat details for Virtual events?
If you want to privately share Virtual event details with only those who will be attending, you can use Localist Register to do so. Not to mention, since Register requires someone to be logged in, this will reduce bots from finding exposed Zoom URL/passwords.