A big thank you to everybody who tuned in live for ‘GuideTalk: Using Guidebook Web Features to Support Virtual and Hybrid.’ We recently announced additional functionality on our web-based platform to provide audiences with additional ways to engage. During the session, the team introduced our new features - video and streaming, session discussions, and new security functionality.  If you were unable to attend the session live or would like to watch a replay, please find a replay of the GuideTalk here. As we introduced new features, we received a number of questions -  check out answers by topic. 

Video

What’s new: Guidebook now offers video, both recorded and streaming, for users on the web. Streaming is currently compatible with YouTube Live and Vimeo streaming, which integrates with many popular conferencing platforms.  Does the platform allow for pre-recorded videos to be shared? Yes, with Guidebook you can embed prerecorded videos within a session. To include a video, whether a live stream or a prerecorded video, you’ll take the video’s embed link and drop it into Guidebook.  The YouTube videos Patrick demoed are owned by various accounts on YouTube. You can link to any public YouTube videos whether they are on your own YouTube account, or someone else’s.  We are hosting a multi-camera production live on Vimeo, would this work with Guidebook? Vimeo is one of our supported video streaming platforms. We’d have to hear a bit more about your setup and needs, but it certainly sounds like we can stream the event.  When hosting live sessions, does the “Live” tag display while the event is taking place, or is that an indicator that it is an event that has a live feature? The “Live” tag automatically displays to indicate the session is a live stream. The tag is attached permanently and indicates the live stream.  Can you link to Teams or Zoom? Or do you have to upload videos to YouTube? The video tab currently supports YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch. With Zoom, you are able to create a link to stream your video on YouTube or Vimeo. There are links to these instructions in this support article.  You can also opt to include Teams and Zoom links directly in the session description. 

Discussion

What’s new: Session Discussions are now available on the web. Now, to join in the conversation on a computer, your audience will click on the session of choice to see the live discussion feed on the session page. Do attendees need to register or create a Guidebook account to participate in the discussion? Yes, members of your audience will need to create a Guidebook account and be logged in to post comments in a discussion.  Is there a monitoring feature for the discussions? Yes, in Builder, Guide administrators can actively monitor and manage comments as they come in. Need to remove an off-topic or inappropriate comment? Administrators can delete comments as well as prohibit individuals from commenting. 

Security

What’s new: Your web view now provides the same privacy as your mobile Guide. Private Guides require users to enter the same passphrase to access your content on the web. What security does Guidebook offer for events that sell tickets or want to restrict access? Your Guidebook web page offers the same privacy setting as your Guide. You can use passphrase or invite-only privacy settings on your Guide to restrict access to your content. Your attendees using the desktop version will then be required to use these same privacy settings as are required on mobile.  How would you create "private" or "invite-only" sessions, restricting certain attendees from viewing? We offer session attendance limits in Builder, which enable you to cap the number of attendees who can register for a session. Additionally, we offer audience management tools that enable you to create groups and utilize those groups to invite specific attendees to sessions. For more on audience management, view this support article. We are also actively working on restricting the content within a session which will hide content if the session is set to “require registration.”  Do flagged posts generate an alert that goes to a designated admin? Administrators will see flagged comments when in the discussion section of Builder. We recommend keeping an eye on this section during sessions. 

Registration and Tracking

Does Guidebook web allow for session registration?  Our members need to register for certain sessions. Yes, attendees can register for sessions as long as they are logged in with their Guidebook account. Guidebook offers three attendance options:

• Anyone can add to ‘My Schedule’:  This option does not restrict the number of users that add the session to their My Schedule.
• Nobody can add: This option prevents the schedule from being added to users My Schedule.
• Registration Required: This setting should be used when you only have a select number of seats or wish to verify who is in attendance.

How can we track attendance? Without a physical registration desk, we are trying to figure out how to best do this. Just as we noted above, when registration is required, audience members will register for a limited number of seats within a session. Their information will be tracked in your backend, Builder.  How do you sync attendees to our list of registered attendees? We have a few different ways to import your attendees into the Builder backend. Both through integration with certain platforms and template import. We’d love to chat about specific needs, we’re always here to help! Reach out to support@guidebook.com to discuss. 

Learning more about web

Can you share documentation to support these additions? Yes, please visit - Support site- to learn more about new video, discussion, and security additions.  What does Guidebook cost? We’d love to discuss your needs! Feel free to reach out to sales@guidebook.com for pricing inquiries.