How to connect ConfTool to external resources for a virtual conference

We have decided to use ConfTool as a platform for the organization of a virtual conference.
How do we let participants know for each session or presentation where to find the online resources, live streams, chat rooms or virtual meetings?

(A German version of this article is available.)

Please note that ConfTool GmbH does not provide live streams or video conferencing tools. However, you can still use the agenda of ConfTool Pro to provide media resources like presentation slides including an oral presentation (for instance PPT files with audio track) and short videos (for instance MP4 files) by using the final upload function, which allows authors to upload up to 3 files. The file type can be defined by the organizers and the maximum file size is about 200MB.

If you want to add a link to external resources like live streams, chat rooms or virtual meetings in your agenda, you have two options:

• You can add a link to an external resource to each session in the agenda. Please go to:
  Overview => Scheduling => Create, Configure and Delete Sessions => Edit Session
  You can use the field "External Resource" for this purpose (see image 1).
• You can add a link to an external resource to each presentation in the agenda. Please first go to:
  Overview => Settings => Main Settings for Abstract and Paper Submission
  ... and activate the expert settings on the bottom of the page.
  For the option "Add Field for "External Resource?" choose one of the three settings (see image 2) to activate the feature.
  Please note that one of the options allows authors to enter the external resource to their video or presentation themselves. This field can then also be enabled for the final upload form.
  
  Then go to the submissions and edit them:
  Overview => Submissions & Reviews => List of Submissions => Contribution Details => Edit Contribution Details
  In the field "External Resource" add the URL to the external resource (see image 3).

With the option "Access to External Resource" define for each session who can have access to the external resource in the agenda:
Overview => Scheduling => Create, Configure and Delete Sessions => Edit Session
The setting refers to both the external resource of the session itself and to each presentation that is assigned to this session (see image 1).


Hints:

• Please take a look at some of the available live streaming and web conferencing tools here:
  Running a virtual conference / a conference online
• If you want to facilitate communication between users on presentations or sessions, please have a look at the discussion function. You can find the corresponding information on this page: How to use discussion boards for sessions and / or presentations.
• In case you want to let participants contact each other one-on-one, please make sure to read the manual on how to allow personal discussions between participants of the conference .
• If you would like to find out how many participants will take part in a session, then take a look at the "My Agenda" function in ConfTool.
  It allows users to create their own personal session program and also gives organizers an overview of which sessions are most in demand.
• You could also simply use event/item groups and events/items to let users choose during participant registration which sessions they would like to attend. You can find more information here: Estimating the number of attendees.
• If you don’t want to show specific session times in the conference agenda, you can define an alternative time display for each session period. Please take a look here for more information: Alternative time display for sessions periods.
• Furthermore, you can let users choose whether they want to have their local time zone to be shown on the agenda. Related information is available on this page: Show information about the conference time zone in the agenda and enable a personal time zone.
• You can let the ConfTool system automatically convert URLs to well-known external resources like Zoom, Skype or YouTube into neat buttons: Display links to external resources in agenda as buttons.

If you have decided to create an online agenda with a mobile app, e.g. Conference4Me, you can activate an additional field for each submission. Its contents, e.g. URLs to live streams or virtual conference sessions, will then be exported to and displayed in the mobile app.

You can add a link to an external resource to each presentation in the mobile app. Please first go to:
Overview => Settings => Main Settings for Abstract and Paper Submission
... and activate the expert settings on the bottom of the page.
For the option "Add Field "External Resource for App"?" choose "Yes" (see image 1) to activate the feature.

Then go to the sessions and edit them:
Overview => Scheduling => Create, Configure and Delete Sessions
In the field "External Resource for App" add the URL to the external resource (see image 2).