Product release notes announcing changes to the A2Z Event Portal are posted every Wednesday in The Loop, the Personify Client Community. Click the linked header to connect, collaborate, and learn with other community members and begin enhancing your product knowledge by leveraging an entire network of product users to share ideas, resources, and best practices to better achieve your strategic goals.
Oct 02 - Event Portal 24.39
Send Test Exhibitor Email
We’ve added the ability for admins to send test exhibitor communication emails. This allows the email to be reviewed before sending to exhibitors. From the Admin Panel navigate to Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Communication. Click ‘Send Test Email’, select the exhibitor to use for the test, enter in the recipient email to send the test to, and click ‘Send’.
Exhibitors: Hide Sync Option
We’ve hidden the Sync option from exhibitor users on their exhibitor hub and profile; this was available via the three-dot menu. This was causing confusion for exhibitors. The Sync option will still appear for admi
Sept 25 - Event Portal 24.38
Forms & Digital Listings: Table Layout
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where a { was displaying on the Generic and Org Table layouts.
Sept 18 - Event Portal 24.37
Forms: Download Files
Admins can now download all files from a Form Category. For example, when using a form to capture certificates of insurance, all the files added to the form submissions can be downloaded. To download, navigate to Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Forms Manager > Categories > Edit the category, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click ‘Queue Zip Creation’ for ‘Review Category File Downloads’. Once the status is complete click ‘Download Zip’.
The zip file name will be formatted as <sitename>_<categoryname>_category_<categoryid>.zip and the file names will be formatted as <org_name>_<review_item_id>_<field_id>_<existing_file_name>.<file_extension>.
User Details: Organizations
Admins can now see which organizations/exhibitors a user belongs to, including what their primary organization is set to and the ability to change their primary organization. To access this information, navigate to Admin Panel > Manage Members > Members Search > Search for the user and select them from the table then select the ‘Organizations’ tab.
Exhibitor Fields: Edit Only
Exhibitor fields can now be set as Edit Only meaning they will not display on the profile and will not display as filters on the exhibitor list. This will allow shows to collect information from exhibitors without displaying it publicly. The Edit Only option is available for Built-in Fields and Custom Fields. To access this option, navigate to Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Built-in Fields section or Custom Fields section.
Header Code
Admins can now add header code from the Admin Panel. This is available in the Admin Panel > Site Administration > System > Header Code.
Please Note: The Header Code should only be edited by administrators that are well versed in JavaScript/HTML. Editing this can result in severe damage to your site.
Sept 11 - Event Portal 24.36
Exhibitor Fields: Hide from Filter
Exhibitor fields can now be hidden from displaying as filters on the exhibitor list. In the Admin Panel > Organizations Manager under the Custom Fields section, there is a new option to “Hide from Filters”. Checking this will prevent the field from displaying as a filter on the exhibitor list on the frontend. This can be used to capture important information using exhibitor fields that is not relevant for searching.
Forms Manager: Nomenclature
Admins now have access to nomenclature for Forms Manager. Nomenclature allows you to modify the high-level terminology used for certain content on your Event Portal site.
Exhibitor List
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where using the quick filter for Favorites was not working on pre-filtered lists. The Favorites quick filter will no longer display if the list is pre-filtered.
Sept 04 - Event Portal 24.35
Listings & Forms: Draft
Admin users now have the ability to access and modify items in a draft state. A listing or form gets into a draft state when a form category is created that uses approvals, a user creates an item, and saves it as draft. This improvement will allow admins to better troubleshoot when items are left in a draft state.
Aug 28 - Event Portal 24.34
Digital Listings & Exhibitor Forms: Table Layout
We added the ability to favorite items for the table layouts: Org Table and Generic Table. If you’re using the table layout for press releases or show specials, for example, items can now be favorited using the star icon. As a reminder, the block is Reviews > List of Review Items and the block setting to choose the table layouts is ‘Module Layout’.
Digital Listings
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where long exhibitor names were being cut off on digital listings. This was occurring on the Reviews > List of Review Items block when using the Horizontal layout.
Non-IdP Sites
For non-IdP sites, users can no longer modify their username and email address from the Event Portal. This information will be pulled from Global Admin into Event Portal. This change was made to ensure and maintain good data for users and prevent discrepancies.
Aug 07 - Event Portal 24.31
Exhibitor Communication Email
We updated the communication email that can be sent out to exhibitors: when you click “Send Reminder Email” a confirmation message will display to confirm you want to send the email as it cannot be undone. This can be found in the Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Communication page.
Listings & Forms
All exhibitor contacts can now edit, delete, and add photos for digital listings and forms added by other contacts of their exhibitor profile. For example, if Ben adds a product for American Ballet Theatre, then Stephanie (who is also a contact of ABT) can edit, delete, and add/modify photos. This will provide more flexibility for exhibitor contacts to be able to manage all their digital listings and forms.
Exhibitor List
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where an exhibitor with a lot of booths was squishing the badges in the exhibitor list.
Navigation Editor
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where navigation links could not be edited or removed when the URL was extremely long.
July 31 - Event Portal 24.30
Contact Management: Add Existing Contact (IdP sites only)
For Contact Management, existing contacts can now be added to an exhibitor’s profile in the Event Portal. An existing contact could be a contact that belongs to a different company, a contact that does not belong to a company, or a contact that belongs to the company but does not have an allowed contact type.
Contacts can be added from the contacts list (Organizations > Organization Member List block) by clicking the Add button. Enter in email address, first name, last name and click Next. If a contact exists that matches the entered information their address and phone will be shown, if defined. Select the Contact Type(s) to assign and click Save. The contact will be associated in Event Portal and Global Admin.
Note: This add contact workflow is still used to add a brand-new contact as well.
If you want to enable contact management, reach out to your Project Manager.
July 24 - Event Portal 24.29
Custom Links to Public Site Update
The new block for custom links to the A2Z Public Site now supports additional page parameters. This means that the page location can be more specific, for example instead of “e_boothsales” it can be “e_boothsales.aspx?oecconfig=presales”. As a reminder the block is Organizations > Console Link and the block setting is “Public Site Page Name”.
Discuss with your Project Manager to ensure your Portal is set up accurately.
Special Characters in CSV Reports
We fixed an issue where special characters were displaying incorrectly in CSV reports.
Horizontal Layout: Digital Listings & Forms
Exhibitor booth numbers now display on the horizontal card layout of the digital listings/forms block. The booth number(s) are linked to the floorplan. The block is Reviews > List of Review Items.
July 17 - Event Portal 24.28
Exhibitors: Default Logo
Admins can define a default logo for exhibitors. The default logo will display when an exhibitor has not yet uploaded their own logo. Once an exhibitor uploads their own specific logo, the default logo will no longer display for their exhibitor profile. To define the default logo, navigate to Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Default Photos page and upload a default logo.
Exhibitor List: Sort Alphabetically
The exhibitor list can now be sorted alphabetically after searching or filtering. After searching or filtering the exhibitor list, the default sort will be ‘Relevance’, but this can be changed to ‘Alphabetical’ by clicking the sort and switching to alphabetical.
Tours
We fixed an issue where tour custom buttons in a custom row on page editor were not working.
We improved the user experience of setting up a tour with the Tours Manager in the Admin Panel.
We addressed several scenarios to prevent users from getting stuck in a tour.
Exhibitor List
We fixed an issue where filtering the exhibitor list by two fields at once did not display results.
Action not Logged
We fixed an issue where the action of a user joining an organization/exhibitor was not being logged.
July 10 - Event Portal 24.26
Users: Change Name & Email
For Event Portal sites using IdP, users can now update their name and email, and admins can update users’ names and emails. The changes will be reflected in IdP and Global Admin.
- My Account: Users can change their own first name, last name, and email address from their user menu > My Account
- Exhibitor Contact List: Organization owners and admins can change exhibitor contacts’ first name, last name, and email address by editing a contact from the Exhibitor Contact List (Organizations > Organization Member List block) – This is only available if your site has Contact Management enabled
- Member Details: Admins can change users’ first name, last name, and email address from the Admin Panel > Manage Members > Members Search > Member Details
Please note, you cannot change email and password at the same time. If the email is already being used in Event Portal, the user will see an error message. If the email exists in IdP but not in Event Portal, the email will update for the user.
Action for Exhibitor Profile Info Edits
Admins can now see who modified the exhibitor profile information, when they modified it, and what fields they updated. This action is now being captured in the Admin Panel > Manage Members > Members Search > Member Details > Activities tab. The Member Details > Activities section, tracks actions by that specific user. The format for the action is ‘[User] modified profile fields for [organization name]: [profile field(s)]’. See an example screenshot below.
Custom Links to Public Site
There is a new block for adding a custom button linked to the A2Z Public Site from Event Portal. The new block is Organizations > Console Link. This block will provide a way for exhibitors to quickly access specific pages on the Public Site, while logging them in automatically.
How to setup the block in page editor:
- Add the block Category: Organizations and Type: Console Link
- Important Note: This block can only be used on the exhibitor profile (Page ID 3001) and exhibitor hub pages (Page ID 3002). The page ID is listed in the URL when editing a specific page in page editor.
- Change the “Title” as needed. This will display as the header above the button.
- Set “Display Module Header” to ‘Hide Module Header’ to hide the “Title”. Set “Display Module Header” to ‘Show Module Header’ to display the “Title” on the front-end.
- Check “Full width button” to have the button span the full width of the column that the block is in.
- Enter “Button Text”. This is the text that will display on the button.
- Enter “Public Site Page Name”. This is the page the button should navigate to, for example ‘e_BoothSales’ or ‘sponsorshipgallery’ or ‘e_MyAccount’.
- Save the block and save the page.
June 20 - Event Portal 24.24
Digital Listings & Exhibitor Forms: Table Layout
There are new table layout options for the Reviews > List of Review Items block. As a reminder, this block is used to display digital listings, such as products, press releases, and show specials, as well as exhibitor submitted forms. In Page Editor, edit or add the block Reviews > List of Review Items and find the ‘Module Layout’ option.
- Horizontal: This layout displays an image, the title, and the exhibitor name. This layout is best for displaying imagery.
- Proposals Table: This layout displays the title, category, submitter, rating, and status. This is not relevant if you’re not using Call for Proposals.
-
Org Table: This layout displays the title, booth number(s), and exhibitor name. This layout is best for displaying items that have been added by exhibitors in a list view without imagery, such as press releases, show specials, or exhibitor forms.
- The ability to favorite from the table view is coming soon.
- Generic Table: This layout displays the title, category, and submitter. This is a generic table layout.
June 12 - Event Portal 24.23
Manage Contact Types
Admins can now manage company contact types from the Admin Panel. Navigate to Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Configuration: Contact Types.
Note: This will be set up by your Project Manager during the implementation of your site. Any admin is able to modify these setting post implementation.
- Allowed: Select which company contact types should be allowed into Event Portal from Global Admin. A contact must have at least one of these allowed contact types to be imported during sync. If Allowed is unchecked for all contact types, no contact type contacts will sync for companies.
- Required: Select which contact types should be required to be filled out by companies. Missing required contact types are displayed on the contact list and included in the organization’s reminder email. – Note: this is only relevant if your site has contact management enabled.
- Owner: Select which contact type should determine the organization owner, there can only be one owner.
- Default: Select which contact type newly added contacts should default as when added to an organization. – Note: this is only relevant if your site has contact management enabled.
Profiles
We improved the UI of exhibitor and user profiles. The exhibitor or user’s name is now displayed below the profile photos. This ensures readability as it is not dependent on the coloring of the cover photo.
Exhibitor Vanity URL
We updated the exhibitor vanity URL. The current vanity URLs should still work and correctly redirect to the new vanity URL. The new vanity URL format is /co/exhibitor-name, for example https://eventportal.smallworldlabs.com/co/home-depot.
Popovers
We have removed popovers from the Event Portal with a few exceptions. A popover is a UI element that displays additional content when you hover or focus your mouse on a specific part of the UI.
Popovers still exist for the following:
- Session schedule
- Session Calendar
- Meetings Calendar
- User Badge
- Username
June 05 - Event Portal 24.22
Exhibitor Tasks
The quantity of sponsorship items purchased by an exhibitor is now considered for tasks tied to forms. As a reminder, an exhibitor task can be linked to a form to be filled out and associated with specific sponsorship items. Then when an exhibitor purchases the sponsorship item, the task will appear in the task list on their exhibitor hub page to be completed.
As of this release, when an exhibitor purchases more than one sponsorship item (either multiple of the same sponsorship item or multiple sponsorship items) and the items are associated with a task, the task will display ‘number of forms submitted / out of number purchased’, for example 0/3. When a form is submitted, the number next to the task will reflect that, for example 1/3. The task will not be marked as complete until all forms have been submitted. If the task is complete and the exhibitor buys another sponsorship item, the task will update to incomplete, and the count will update.
Exhibitor List
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where pre-filtering the exhibitor list by product categories was displaying the incorrect results.
May 30 - Event Portal
Contact Management
- When adding or editing a contact and selecting the country Canada, the user is now presented with a dropdown list of Provinces.
- When adding or editing a contact, the user is now presented with more detailed error messaging when saving the form.
May 22 - Event Portal 24.20
Exhibitor Profile
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where on mobile devices the booth number was overlapping the schedule meeting button.
Contact Management
We improved the syncing of contact information changes from Global Admin to Event Portal. Manually syncing the exhibitor profile in the Event Portal will pull in any contact information changes from Global Admin.
May 15 - Event Portal 24.19
Exhibitor Profile
We removed the ability for exhibitors, aka org owners, to unpublish/publish their exhibitor profile pages. It is not an action that exhibitor contacts need to have access to.
Horizontal Card Layout
We updated the design of the horizontal card layout on the exhibitor list and digital content lists. The title/name of the exhibitor or digital content will now appear as a header on the card. This will provide more space in the UI for longer exhibitor and digital content names and be easier for attendees to read.
May 08 - Event Portal 24.18
Forms Manager: Field Descriptions
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where bullet points and number lists were not displaying correctly in field descriptions.
Exhibitor Sync
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where pending contacts were removed when exhibitor was synced.
April 17 - Event Portal 24.15
Exhibitor List: Video Icon
The icon on the exhibitor list indicating that an exhibitor has added videos to the Event Portal can now be chosen. To define the video icon, navigate to the Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Videos Manager and edit the video category that is being used for exhibitor videos. (Please Note: ‘Enable Organization Limits’ must be checked for the video category.) Select the icon you want to use from the ‘Video Badge’ field, for example ‘film’ and save the category.
If you do not want the video icon to display, do not select a ‘Video Badge’ on the video category page and no icon will be displayed on the exhibitor list.
Exhibitor Description
The exhibitor description field, What We Do, on their profile has been improved. New lines now display as such when viewing the description. The character counter turns red when the limit has been reached and the field will not allow any additional text to be typed in beyond the character limit. The character counter accurately reflects additions and deletions of characters in the field.
March 20 - Event Portal 24.11
Exhibitors: Sell Cover Photo
We added the ability to sell exhibitors access to upload a cover photo on their profile. As a reminder, the cover photo is the wide banner image on their profile page (personify image pictured below).
To sell access to the cover photo in the Event Portal, an upgrade level or add-on must be associated. Navigate to Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Add-Ons page. Under ‘Upload Cover Photo’ click Associate Add-On, select from the dropdown list, and click Add.
All exhibitors will have access to upload a cover photo if no add-on is associated.
Exhibitors: Updates to Sell Logo & Featured Photo
Logo and Featured Photo can now be sold separately. As a reminder, the logo is displayed in the circle on the exhibitor profile and on the exhibitor list (if using horizontal card layout). If a featured photo is uploaded it replaces the logo on the exhibitor list (if using horizontal card layout). Setup for this is located: Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Add-Ons page.
You can select the same upgrade level or add-on for logo, featured photo, and cover photo if you want to sell them all together.
March 13 - Event Portal 24.10
Switch Primary Exhibitor
For booth staff that belong to more than one company or more than one booth profile, they can now more easily switch which one is their primary.
For example, booth staff belong to Coca-Cola Vanilla and Coca-Cola Zero which have separate booths and profiles. Booth staff can only have one set as their primary at a time, so if their primary is set to Coca-Cola Zero any digital content they add will be associated with Zero and when navigating to the Exhibitor Hub they will see Coca-Coa Zero’s Hub page.
To switch their primary, click ‘Switch Organizations’ button on the top right of the Exhibitor Hub page. (‘Organizations’ verbiage can be changed in Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Localization Editor under IDs: organizations_organization and organizations_organization_plural.)
They will be presented with a list of profiles they can switch to; select ‘Switch Organization Hub’. This will change the user’s primary to, in this example, Coca-Cola Vanilla and navigate them to Coca-Cola Vanilla’s Exhibitor Hub page.
Also, notice we’ve added booth number(s) next to each profile to make it easier to tell them apart.
Cookies Message
Cookies consent message can now be enabled without the use of Google Analytics or Google Tags Manager. Navigate to Admin Panel > Site Administration > System > Cookie Settings and check “Enable the cookie message without the use of GA or GTM tracking codes”.
Contact Types
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where contact types that were not listed in Third Party Settings field “Allowed Contact Relationship Type Names” were displaying on the list of contacts.
March 06 - Event Portal 24.09
Custom Exhibitor Fields
For sites using IDP, custom exhibitor fields can be easily added in Event Portal and selections made from Event Portal will now push back into Global Admin.
To add a custom exhibitor field, navigate to Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Custom Fields > select the section in which you want to add the field: About, Contact, or Custom. Click the ‘Add Exhibitor Mapped Field’ button at the top; the dropdown displays all available fields from Global Admin that can be mapped. Select the field and click Add. This will add the field and all options (if applicable). Save the page.
Selections made by exhibitors on these mapped fields in Event Portal will push back into Global Admin.
Also, mapped dropdown fields now have a “Select” placeholder option so that exhibitors are not forced to pick an option.
February 28 - Event Portal 24.08
Session List: Default Sort
The default sort after searching or filtering the session list is now by Date so sessions will appear closest upcoming to farthest in the future.
Exhibitor Communication Email
The reminder email for exhibitors can now be scheduled to be sent daily or weekly. Navigate to the Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Organizations Manager > Communication page. Set ‘Reminder Frequency’ to Daily, Weekly, or leave as On Demand if you want to continue to control when they send and Save.
- Daily runs at 1:15 am CST & Weekly on Mondays at 2:00 am CST
February 21 - Event Portal 24.07
As of this release we are enforcing sender email address authentication to ensure deliverability. This update will require admins to set up sender authentication in order to use a different admin email. If you have changed your admin email in Admin Panel > Site Messages, you will need to set up sender authentication if you have not already. This may require IT assistance. If you do not authenticate, your site could have email deliverability issues.
The email domain can be authenticated in the Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Site Messages > Sender Authentication page. Enter the ‘Domain name you would like to use to send from’ and click Get Started. Then a list of CNAME records will display that need to be installed in the DNS provider to complete the verification process. After you have added these, return to the Sender Authentication page and click Verify. The system will alert you if there are any errors. If verification is successful, you can select the new domain from the @ dropdown under ‘Administrator Email’, enter in the username, and click ‘Change Administrator Email’.
February 12 - Important Email Authentication Update
Google and Yahoo are enforcing new rules for mass email senders. In February 2024, we must authenticate our emails to ensure deliverability for our clients. We are going to be enforcing email sender authentication for the admin email in Event Portal. This update will require admins to set up sender authentication in order to use a different email. If you have changed your admin email in Admin Panel > Site Messages, you will need to set up sender authentication if you have not already. This may require IT assistance. The email domain can be authenticated in Admin Panel > Site Building Tools > Site Messages > Sender Authentication. If you do not authenticate, your site could have email deliverability issues. Reach out to support with any questions.
January 31 - Event Portal 24.04
Exhibitor Progress Percentage
Issue Addressed
- We fixed an issue where the exhibitor profile progress percentage did not include selected Product Categories.
January 24 - Event Portal 24.03
Exhibitor Vanity URL
Issue Addressed
- Exhibitor profile vanity URLs that’s 45th character was a space was preventing the vanity URL from working, this has been fixed.
January 17 - Event Portal 24.02
Message Inbox
Sent messages now include the full list of users the message was sent to. Any additional users beyond six will be in a collapsed panel and can be viewed by clicking “View All Recipients”. This allows users to easily track to whom they have sent messages.
January 10 - Event Portal 24.01
Exhibitor Insights
The exhibitor insights CSV now includes any user profile fields that are set to “Display on Profile + Search?” in Profile Manager. The “Display on Profile + Search?” setting can be found in Profile Manager > Edit Profile Block > Field Settings tab under Field Editor. This allows clients to provide additional information on attendees to exhibitors via exhibitor insights.