Contacts (in general): A contact is any person with a record in the system. They can be an attendee, booth personnel, a speaker, a company contact or a contact not assigned any of these categories. Contacts have a unique combination of first name, last name and email address, and are assigned a unique Ecode.
Contact Types: Contact Types are used to define the role of a particular contact for a particular company. Some Contact Types are default in the system, such as Invoice Contact, Primary Contact, General Contact. The system can use Types to designate who should receive a particular mailing. (For instance, the user can choose to send an invoice to Invoice Contacts or Primary Contacts.) More Types can be added if needed. The list of Contact Types is global across all events.
Company Contacts: A contact can be associated with none, one or many Companies. For each company they can be one or several Contact Types. For example, John Smith can be Invoice Contact for “ABC Company”, and also both Primary and Invoice Contact for “Smith, Inc.”
The company name listed in the Contact Info record is only a text field, not a company in the system. Similarly, the contact name and address listed within Company Info record are not a real contact record in the system, but a part of the Company record.
For a Contact to be associated with a Company, both need to exist in the system, such that the Company can be found by using Company Search, and the Contact can be found by using Contact Search. One can create the association from either Company or Contact menu. When a Contact is associated with a Company, Contact Type must be selected.
Booth Contacts: Retired contact role/type.