(Event) > Plan > Forms > (Form) > Appointments

An Appointment Preferences section for a form is only available if Appointment Matching is turned on for the event in Plan > Configure > Options. (And for it to be turned on for an event, it must first be enabled for the account.)

If you are using Appointment Matching to generate Pre-Scheduled Appointments for attendees, you need to collect their preferences – their selections of whom they want to have appointments with. You do this by adding an Appointment Preferences section to a form.

As described in Setting Up an Appointment Preferences Form, we recommend that this is not done in the actual registration form, but in a separate Appointment Preferences form, which:

a) is restricted to people who have already registered, and

b) only opens after event registration closes, so that all attendees will have completed their event registrations.

This is described in more detail below.

 

On the form itself, the registrant will be prompted to select who they would like appointments with.

The choices available will be determined and constrained by the settings configured in Engage > Appointments > Configure and Engage > Appointments > Pre-Scheduled/AME, including:

• The minimum and maximum number of preferences they can select

• The Attendee Types that their own Attendee Type is permitted to select as preferences

• Whether they can search for names/organizations

• Whether they can apply any filters

Appointment Preferences Form

As mentioned above, and described in Setting Up an Appointment Preferences Form, we recommend setting up a dedicated Appointment Preferences form. Recommendations in doing so include the following:

• The Appointments section should come after the Attendee Type section (as configured in the Page Layout area of the Plan > Forms > Setup page).

• In the Forms > Setup page, the Open date should be after event registration closes (on the separate event registration form). This is to ensure that all attendees will have completed their event registrations before anyone selects their appointment preferences.

• In the Forms > Setup page,any sections not directly related to Preferences (for example, Payments) are not required, and can therefore be removed.

• In the Forms > Registrant Details page, it is not necessarily essential to have registrants confirm their profile details again; so theoretically you could skip that confirmation by not selecting any fields to be displayed.
  But since First Name and Last Name are both required fields for the Appointment Matching Engine, recommended Best Practice is to include them as both "Required" and "Read Only".
  (That way the registrant can (and must) enter a value if either is blank, but can't change them if they do have values.)

• In the Forms > Entry page, the Form Entry Permissions should be set to "Restrict to registrations in this event", with Username and Password collection set to "Required".
  (Thus people will need to have registered first, and been given their login.)

• In the Forms > Confirm page, the only confirmation section you need to include is Appointment Preferences. (That is, you hide the others by clearing their header names.)

Section Header

A Section Header can be set on most of the pages that determine the appearance of the registration form. The header is typically used to display additional instructions or event information related to the particular section being configured. The text and HTML elements entered into the section header appear above the section elements themselves.

If the fields in the Section Header area of the screen are left blank, the header will be set to inactive for that section.

In each of these first three text fields, you can enter plain text, with or without HTML tags, or click HTML EDITOR to open a pop-up window in which you can edit the content using the HTML/Web Content Editor described in Using the HTML Editor.

• Text Above Header – Will appear above the header bar, at the top of the section. Usually instructions.

• Header Text – Will appear in the header bar (in a contrasting color). Example: "Appointment Preferences".

• Text Below Header – Will appear directly below the header, and can include any information you want to add.

• Provide instructions for appointment preferences minimums/maximums –
  If this check box is selected, as it is by default, then the Appointment Preferences page will include the following instructions, where X and Y are the limits to the numbers of preferences that you set in Appointments > Configure:

"Your event coordinator requires that you select at least X and no more than Y people or organizations from the following list(s) that you would like to meet with during this event:"

• Show Attendees who selected me as an appointment preference –
  If this check box is selected, then a check box with the same label will appear on the form. If the attendee selects that check box, then the only attendees listed for them to select from as preferences will be those who have selected them as one of their own preferences.
  
  When you run the Appointment Matching Engine, it is more likely to create appointments where the preferences are mutual, i.e. where both attendees have selected the other as a preference.

• Do not show attendee types
  If this check box is selected, the list of attendees from which an attendee can select preferences is a single list, instead of being by attendee type.

Select Fields for "More"

The fields selected here are the ones displayed in a pop-up window of more information about an attendee, when an attendee clicks the More icon after a name on their list of potential preferences.

(Note: The icon is not shown on the form if no fields are selected here.)

The fields available for inclusion are listed in the Available Fields box on the left. They include Profile fields and Profile Custom Questions.

To include a field:

• Click it in the Available Fields box. (An add icon  is shown when you mouse over a field.)

• This moves the field automatically to the end of the Fields To Display box on the right.

• It also adds it to the Select Attendee Types Eligible for "More" section at the end of the page, where you can customize how it will be named, and restrict the attendee types for whom it will be shown.

To determine the order in which the fields will be displayed:

• Drag fields up or down in the Fields To Display box.

To remove a field from the Fields to Display box:

• Click the Delete icon  that is shown after the field name when you move your mouse over it.

• This moves the field back to the Available Fields box.

• It also removes it from the Preference Fields to Show section at the end of the page.

Select Attendee Types Eligible for "More"

The fields to be shown in the pop-up More window are listed here dynamically as you add them to the Fields To Display box, as described above. They are displayed in the order you set when dragging them up or down in that box.

• Row – Displays the number of the field, as set when you order the fields in Fields To Display.

• Data Field – Displays the name of the field. For example, "FirstName".

• Text to Display – Type the label to be displayed on-screen. For example, "First Name".

• Attendee Types – Click  to select the attendee types for whom the selected field will be displayed when  is clicked. This feature enables you to have different fields shown for buyers and for exhibitors at a trade show, for example.
  Tip: leaving the list of attendee types blank is the same as selecting all attendee types.

Save and Preview

As when setting up any other form section, be sure to click Save to save your changes. Click Preview to open the form in a separate browser window.

How the Registrant Uses the Form

Here's how the registrant will be able to select their preferences on the form.

The names of attendees will be listed on the left, with three icons next to each one:

•  – Add that person to the list of My Preferences on the right, where they can drag and drop names to establish priorities. (The person's name remains in the list, outlined in green.)

•  – Display More information about that person – the "Preference Fields to Show for 'More'" selected above.

•  – Add that person to the Exclusion List on the right - the attendees with whom they do not want appointments. This is only available if that option is selected above. (The person's name remains in the list, outlined in red.)

The registrant can limit the names displayed using the following elements.

1. Attendee Type

If the registrant is of an attendee type which is only able to select preferences for one attendee type (as determined in Appointments > Configure), only attendees of that type are displayed.

But if they are able to select preferences for more than one attendee type, then collapsible lists of the registrants of each of those types are displayed.

3. Searching

If you have enabled searching (by selecting that check box in Appointments > Pre-Scheduled/AME), the registrant can select the field to search on (First Name, Last Name, Title, Organization, City, Country), type the text to match, and click .

4. Filtering

If you have enabled filtering (by selecting that check box and appropriate custom question(s) in Appointments > Pre-Scheduled/AME), the attendee can choose to apply filters by selecting the answer(s) to one or more custom questions. Only the records matching that filter will be displayed.

5. Mutual Preferences

The attendee can choose to Show Attendees who selected me as an appointment preference, by selecting the check box with that label.(That option is only available if you have enabled it when setting up the form.)

If they do, then the only attendees listed will be those who have selected this attendee as their own preference.

When you run the Appointment Matching Engine, it is more likely to create appointments where the preferences are mutual, i.e. where both attendees have selected the other as a preference.

 

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