STEP 2 -- Inviting and Registering Participants

Invitation/Registration Options

Uploading Invitees

Invitation/Login Links

Conference ID ( in person session )

Alias IDs ( edge case )

Congratulations on your work in developing the guide—but you have a second key task before you execute your session which is to invite/register your participants for the session. You do not have to have participants invited/registered for the session while you are developing the agenda, however these tend to be parallel activities so that you/your team is handling the participant invitation process while you/your team is also building the session agenda. Generally we are 2-4 weeks out from the actual session when we are handling both tasks. In some respects, participant invitation and confirmation (getting to the right audience and planned number of participants) is harder than guide development as there are far more external variables. Both tasks are essential for a successful session.

Invitation/Registration Options

Converge has added a number of options in the last 18 months to create more flexibility in the invitation and registration process. They are all useful and can be relevant for a specific usage scenario. Keep in mind that when you create your session as a session leader, you (and you alone) are placed in the Session Roster. Now the question is how to add others into that roster so they are activated for the session ahead.

Once you have created your session, if you edit your session you will see three different settings area—this is essentially the architecture of Converge:

1. Session Settings: This is where you have spent your time thus far; it shows the settings you have selected for the session you have developed. If you need to change a setting or adjust the time start/end/access designations, you will see all of that in the session settings area.
2. Registration Settings: This is where we will be spending most of this step as we can invite, confirm (register) and track participants. Once a participant or observer has been registered in this process, their ID is automatically moved to the session roster and they now will have access to the session;
3. Roster Settings: This is a really important area as it shows the groups that you have created for your session (when you create a session, your first group is automatically created and shows the date/time for the session. You can add additional groups that will use the same agenda and those will be shown in the roster setting along with invitation and login links that are generated and can be used in emails and chats to invite participants to a session. Scrolling down further and clicking on show session roster and you will see the IDs that have been created for your company as session leaders, group leaders, your administrator and any named participants that might be members of your organization that can access the Converge system via a login ID rather that a link ID. You might have as few as 3-5 that are in your available roster on the left side of the roster area, yet you might end up with 100 participants that will be in the actual session roster on the right side.

As a session leader it is important that you understand the design of Converge and these three Settings areas. You will likely need to access all three during your guide development and session execution. Remember, the session roster rules as your confirmed participants and observers must be placed into the session roster either by you or by the Converge system.

Here are the options on how you can invite and add participants into the session roster:

• Named Ids: You can have a series of named IDs that you have created (typically your Converge Administrator will create these) and are in your available roster. Let’s say you have 10 people on your project team and you are using Converge internal for a series of checkpoint sessions. You can move those IDs from your available roster to your actual session roster for the session you are developing and they will be able to access the session via their named ID (login ID and password);
• Upload Names/Emails: You can be provided with a list of names and emails that will be part of a session and upload those names/emails into Converge and the registration settings area. Converge has a template with the correct format and the upload is very easy. It is a bulk upload so it could be 10 or 210—the process is very fast and efficient. Once uploaded you can then see the list of participants in your registration settings area and you can associate them for a specific group (session 1) or make them eligible to select from a series of session (session 1, session 2 or session 3, for example. When you upload, these are still potential participants, they have not yet been invited or registered for the session. Converge has two primary ways of interacting with these uploaded potential participants:

• Invite the uploaded list with an invitation email that is sent by Converge email and allows the potential participant to confirm their availability for the session and then receive a secure/private access link that can then be downloaded to their calendars.
• You/your team can register some or all of the potential participants by taking action to confirm their registration. Similarly, the participant will now receive a confirming email with their access link and can download that link to their personal calendar.

In the two above cases, when the potential participant is registered their registration information (name and access ID) are moved into the live session roster and they will have access to the session. These were the primary ways of inviting and registering participants until 2023 when Converge introduced invitation and login links to improved the process.

• Invitation Link: You can use an invitation link and send an email invitation from your company or your client organization that includes the link in their email. The link can refer to all groups within an agenda if you are planning on multiple sessions or refer to a specific group if the invited people are intended to be in one specific group session. Receiving the email, the potential participant clicks on the link and can confirm their availability for the session, upon which they will receive their email from Converge and can download their access link to their calendar. Converge automatically adds them to the active roster and they are set for the session;
• Login Link: You can use a login link can be added to a Zoom or Teams chat when you are using both Zoom/Teams and Converge. This is a typical workshop format where you start on Zoom/Teams, use their audio/video, and then when you are ready for the Converge portion you paste the link into chat. The workshop participant then clicks on the login link, adds their name/email, and then are placed into the live Converge session. Simultaneously they are placed in the Converge live roster and receive the Converge email with their access link for reference. The key here is that Converge participants do not need to be invited or registered ahead of time, and they are only dealing with one platform calendar invitation (Zoom/Teams).

These two approaches, the invitation and login link options, are now the primary way that most of our licensees are handling the invitation/registration process.

• Alias Ids (edge case): You can create alias IDs which are named IDs that are created by the administrator for your company but do not refer to a specific person, they are login IDs that can be assigned to someone. For example, at our Advanced Strategy Center we have a series of alias IDs that are always in our available roster as asca01 through asca100. We use them in two edge cases: 1) When a recruiter will not allow us access to recruited participant emails for security concerns, so we provide them a list of alias IDs they can assign to the recruited participants to sign on for the session; 2) In a large in-person session when you may not be sure of all the people that will be showing up, you can have a login sheet of alias IDs with the names of planned attendees as some open IDs for unplanned attendees. They login with the alias IDs and the session is typically run in anonymous mode so you are essential bypassing email and link routes and doing a bit of ‘old school’ for this option. In this case you will have moved the alias IDs from the available roster to the active roster manually before you start the login process.

Conference ID (CID)

A new capability to support in person sessions is the Conference ID or CID.  It avoids needing to register people in advance of the session.  Simply ask people to go to app.startconverge.com/conference and then they can enter the CID that you provide.  It is a 3 or 4digit code that is generated when you create your session (see group).  It essentially then works like a login link, they enter their name/email, join the session and you are set to go.  The CID is shown to the far right of the group below:

What’s the right approach for your session? It always depends. Start with the invitation link or login link process as the first option; if you have a firm list of names/emails then your team can manage an invitation/registration via Converge email. Alias IDs are a real fallback and really only apply in the two edge-case situations that we outlined. When in doubt, reach out and we can review with you and provide a recommendation.

Let’s look now at how you handle the options within Converge:

Uploading a List of Names/Emails

In this case you have a list of names and emails and have put them into the Converge email template so the excel file is ready for uploading.

• Click on edit session and scroll down to the registration settings section. You will see the default Sender Email (the default email is support@startconverge.com, if you have customized the email and worked with your IT group on the DNS settings, it could be yourcompanyname@startconverge,com so it comes from a more familiar email ID. NOTE: if it is the first time you are conducting the session for a non-consumer audience (i.e., internal members a target client organization), make sure you test that the email will go directly to an invitee in-basket without going to spam or be quarantined. If it does go to spam or quarantine in your test, then ask the client IT team to whitelist the URL of the sending email organization;
• Now, add a registration contact email that is a known email for the participants, for example it might be a project person at your client. That email ID is referenced in invitation and registration emails (for further information please contact…) and also will be the recipient of any reply emails that are directed at the Sender Email ID noted above. NOTE: You will use this email ID regardless of whether you are uploading name/email information or using the link invitation process;
• If you are inviting potential participants, then you can add an invitation message to the participants that references the project and planned session. An example of these settings is shown below:

• Then, you will see your options to upload invitees (bulk upload by excel), add invitee (adding an induvial participant or observer with upload sheet), export (allows you export you full set of invitees or registrants to excel for review) and send invites (which is the action you take after you have uploaded your invitees and added your invitation message.

• Once you are uploaded you will see the invitees listed and then can take individual or bulk actions to register the invitees, reinvite or resend confirmations if needed. Note that this list can be filtered by group, status (Registered, Email sent, Declined, Removed, Not Sent). This is a terrific registration dashboard and you may find that your Converge Administrator or a specific project person on your team takes the lead on the use of the dashboard. The dashboard is real-time and is updated as actions occur.

• NOTE: For all registered participants they will also receive a reminder of their session including a copy of their access link on the morning of the actual session. Converge sends the emails at 6:00am Eastern Time.

Inviting Via Invitation Link or Login Link

Another, and generally preferred option, is to use the invitation links or login links that are generated when you create you session. You provide these links to your session sponsor or client to use in their direct invitation emails:

• Add your registration contact email as you did in the above process and then scroll down to the roster settings area where you session group/groups are shown, you will see three options: show invite links, show login links and show session roster. Generally you are only using the two link options as shown below:

• For Invite Links—Session Level click on the checkbox and it will (in the example) show a link for the session itself which will reference all three groups in the session so an invitee can select among the three. This link is simply pasted into the invitation email.
• For Invite Links—Group Level click on the checkbox and it will (in the example) show a link for the session and for each of the three groups. You might be inviting audience 1 to the Group 1 session and audience 2 to the Group 2 session and so on. This way your invitation link is tied to that specific group.
• For Login Links: This is the option when you are using Zoom/Teams and want to drop in the link during the Zoom/Teams session. A separate link is provided for each group, just use the link for the group session you are conducting. An example is shown below:

• NOTES: A copy widget to the left of the link lets you copy the link so you can drop it right into the Zoom/Teams chat. Also note that there is an option in the invitation link and login link option to require email upload. This is a security option if you wanted to restrict participation to a list of emails you have uploaded. We don’t use it very often, but it is a good option in a few cases where you must prove to the client that only certain people can have access.

Using Alias Ids (edge case)

In the event that you do need to use the alias ID option, it is really pretty easy:

• Make sure you have created you set of static alias IDs, once created by your Converge administrator they will be in your available roster;
• Move the alias IDs from the available roster to the active roster. You can access these two operational rosters by clicking on show session roster immediately below the two link options below the groups
• Once you have moved (marked via checkbox and click on add to roster) make sure you click on UPDATE option under the available roster list. An example of the process is shown below:

Final Comments—Inviting and Registering Your Participants: At Converge we have been creating more flexibility for the invitation/Registration process and applying administrative automation as a principle while paying high attention to security and privacy issues. We have some asynch sessions where we have invited 1000+ participants and some sessions that have had 10-12 separate groups using the same base session agenda. A few recommendations:

1. Take the time to consider the invitation/registration options at the start of the engagement process—at the same time you are beginning guide development process;
2. Make sure your client and/or session sponsor agrees with your decision on the approach;
3. The invitation/registration options use the Session Title and the session/group dates that you establish, make sure they are accurate.

You may find it helpful to designate one team member to the role of handling the invite/registration process as there are always changes and requests about who has been invited, confirmed, etc. When it is go-time for executing, you want all of the participants to sign on easily. ALSO: Make sure you have added/uploaded your session observers in addition to your participants.