Introduction
The new Collaborative Seating feature in Events by Launchmetrics enhances existing collaboration capabilities, making it easier to work seamlessly with different departments during the seating assignment process. Each department now has full control over assigning seats to their invitees while ensuring a smooth, disruption-free experience. Additionally, this feature safeguards sensitive data, maintaining security and confidentiality throughout the process.
Example use case
A Global Events Manager is organizing a large international event. Each department participating in the event is given a specific number of seats and is responsible for arranging seating for their invitees. The Event Manager oversees the process, ensuring that all departments manage their seat assignments effectively and that the seating plan is optimized for a smooth and well-organized event.
Benefits of Collaborative seating
- Collaborate with other departments to manage event seating in a more transparent, efficient, and conflict-free manner
- Allocate seats to specific departments and/or categories (to ensure the right kind of invitees are seating where they are supposed to)
- Gain a clear, comprehensive view of seating chart allocations to make informed decisions and track seating progress effectively.
- Ensure sensitive data remains private
- Freeze seating assignments while building the chart or to avoid last minute changes
Event Owners
Users who have full access to the department where the event is being created
- Can invite other departments to collaborate on the seating process.
- Can block changes on the invitee seating at any time.
- Can Hide allocation between departments.
- Can Allocate seats to specific departments and/or categories.
Event Collaborators
Users who are part of a department that has been given access to collaborate on the event.
- Can add invitees from their contacts database.
- Can visualize RSVP status of any seated invitee.
- Can seat their invitees (on their allocated seats)
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Can send their invitees email communications
Global contacts
Can be seated anywhere regardless of the seat's allocation.
Global contacts refer to contacts that are accessible across the entire tenant, allowing any user with login credentials to access the same set of contacts. In contrast, department-based contacts are restricted to users who have visibility within that specific department, meaning only those individuals can view these contacts.
Managing Collaborative Seating
Once you have set up the event's collaboration, you will be able to start allocating seats to departments and/or categories inside the chart builder.
To allocate a seat, you will have to click on the three yellow dots and select the Allocate seat to… option:
Ways to allocate seats/sections/tables
To allocate a whole table or section you will have to click on the three gray dots and select the Allocate table/section to…
You can also create a new section or table with pre-allocated seats:
Import allocation from Excel
It's also possible to import allocation from an excel file in a few easy steps.
Step 1. Click on the Import Allocation From Excel option
Step 2. Upload the excel file with the allocations. Each seat must have at least one type of allocation (Department or Category) for the allocation to be valid.
Step 3. All allocations will be visible on the seating chart
Not using the allocation option on a seat
Seats/sections that haven't been allocated in collaborative events will be available for all departments and all categories.
Assigning colors to departments and categories
To maximize the benefits of the Collaborative Seating feature, assign different colors to departments and categories. This makes it easier to identify seating arrangements at a glance while also providing a clear overview of the seating process status.
Default colors & Event colors
The event owner can set event-specific colors in the chart builder, as shown below. Additionally, default colors for departments and categories can be configured, which will automatically apply to any newly created event. To set default colors, please contact your Success Manager.
To assign colors, simply open the events main options, click on Display settings, and start assigning colors to departments and/or categories.
Templates
Creating a template won’t keep your allocations or event color settings.
Seating collaboration options
In addition to what we've already showcased, the event owner has two powerful options they can activate during the event planning process. By opening the main options of the event and choosing the Collaboration options… setting you will be able to enable/disable both of these functionalities:
Hiding seating allocation between departments
When active, users will only be able to view seat allocations for their own department, preventing visibility into other departments allocated seats. This helps minimize potential internal conflicts.
Freezing seating assignments
When active, collaborators won’t be able to assign or edit seats in the Invitee Seating. This option is useful when creating the chart, or to avoid last minute changes.
Mobile
The collaborator limits introduced by this new feature do not apply to the mobile app, ensuring flexibility for any last-minute changes on the day of the event.
For more information on how to manage events collaboration, read this article.