Applicable packages
checkApplicable to all Symposium packages
This article is for event organizers. If you are an event participant, please see our Resources for Participants section.

Once you've created your event and customized your event info, it's time to configure your access settings. Under Event Setup > Access Settings, you will find all of the tools necessary to control the viewership and visibility of your event. 


In this article, we will walk through the different features in your access settings and review their purpose and function.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Viewership control (toggle)


Events are set to private viewing by default, meaning content will only be accessible to pre-authorized individuals (per the Sign Up Verification settings you've determined). If you keep your event set to private, attendees will have to sign up for an account on Symposium with an authorized email and then, once logged in to their new Symposium account, register for the event in order to access any event content and participate. 


Alternatively, you can activate the toggle to make your event public. This will open up viewership of the event content to anyone, but users will still have to sign up for a Symposium account and register for the event in order to leave comments under presentations and access live sessions if you choose to keep those private.


Participants can sign up for an account on Symposium at any time. If your event is public, they won’t be able to register for the event until after it is launched. If the event is private, they can register before or after launch. Organizers typically instruct all their participants (presenters and other viewers) to sign up and register after the event is launched.

Live Sessions Viewership Control (toggle)


By default, even for public events, viewers must be registered for your event in order to access live sessions. This is a precautionary measure to protect your live sessions from unauthorized viewers who may share inappropriate content (i.e. 'Zoombomb'). You can activate the Live Sessions Viewership Control toggle if you would like to enable viewers to access your live sessions without registering for your event. 


This option is only available for public events; if you are hosting a private event, all participants must sign up with Symposium and register for the event to access any and all event content.


NOTE: Only Symposium Meetings, Webinars, Live Streams, and third can be made public using this toggle; Tables cannot be accessed by unregistered viewers.

Sign Up Verification


In addition to Public/Private setting controls, access to your event is further dictated by email authorization. If your event is Private, you will need to authorize specific email domains or individual emails for participants to access any event content and engage. If your event is Public, participants will be able to view your event Welcome Page and Presentations (and Live Sessions if you choose to make those public), but will have to have sign up and register using an email matching a pre-authorized email address/domain in order to comment under presentations and access private live sessions.


You can authorize participants either by entire email domain or by individual email addresses. If you would like to grant access to an entire institution or organization and all of its affiliates, then you can enter a domain in the first Sign Up Verification field. For individuals who are either outside of one of these institutions, or any other individual to whom you would like to grant access, you can enter their individual email address into the Sign Up Verification - Individual Emails field. For longer access lists, you can add multiple comma-separated domains or individual emails into their respective fields, all at once.


NOTE: Duplicate emails added to the Sign Up Verification fields are automatically ignored.


This means that if anyone comes to access your event using an email from one of these domains or an included specific individual email, they will be able to register for your public event, access private Live Sessions and Tables and comment under presentations. If the event is private, their email will need to be pre-authorized in order to view the event at all. 


If you would like to allow anyone using any email to sign up and participate in your event, you may activate the “Allow all domains” toggle. Please note that opening your event up to all domains poses a slight risk since anyone on the internet will be able to sign up using any email address and subsequently comment on presentations and attend live sessions. (To date, we have had no reported instances of inappropriate activity on Symposium.) If you activate this toggle, you do not need to enter in any email domains or individual emails in the sign up verification fields.

You can change these access settings to revoke or expand access, open or close the event to the public, or change Live Session viewing settings at any point, including after your event has already launched. 

NOTE: All participants are required to sign up for an account on Symposium and register for an event in order to access Tables and comment under Presentations, regardless of whether your event is Public or Private. Live Sessions that you've created can be public or private depending on the setting you've selected.

Event Registration

The steps to register for an event are as follows:

  • New users must create an account on Symposium at https://symposium.foragerone.com/signup using a pre-authorized email for your event.
    • A verification link will be generated upon completing sign up, which will be sent to the email associated with the new account. Users must open the verification email from Symposium and click the link to verify their account.
  • They then need to log into their Symposium account at https://symposium.foragerone.com/login
  • After logging in, participants will be prompted to register for the event when they navigate to the event from our Discover Events page or via the distributed event access link, if the event is Private. If the event is Public, they will be prompted to register for the event when they go to leave a comment under a presentation or attempt to access a private Live Session. 


When a logged-in, pre-authorized user accesses a private event, they will be able to register for the event in two clicks (unless you have customized up a Registration window and/or form).

For private events, the Register button will appear on the event thumbnail in Symposium's Discover Events page.

If a participant is trying to access a private event from an email that is not pre-authorized, they will receive the following message telling them to reach out to the event organizer to gain access to the event. 

If an attendee tries to register for an event when they are not signed in to their Symposium account, or from a Symposium account that is not an authorized email, they will receive a message telling them that they need to have an account with an email that ends with one of the pre-authorized domains, or another pre-authorized email.


The event organizer can then authorize the user seeking access to the event by one of three ways:

  1. Authorize the individual email address in question by entering it into the Sign Up Verification - Individual Emails field,
  2. Authorize the entire domain associated with the email address in question, to enable access for the user and all of their peers, or 
  3. Switch the “Allow all domains” toggle to on, which will eliminate the need to pre-authorize any email addresses and open access to anyone who creates an account on Symposium.


In the case of public events, participants can register only once the event has been launched. The user will be prompted to register for the event when they try to leave a comment under a presentation, or access a private Live Session. 

Attendees will be prompted to register for an event when they try to leave a comment under a presentation. They will first need to sign up for an account on Symposium.

Attendees will be prompted to register for an event when they try to view a live session. They will first need to sign up for an account on Symposium.

Digital Repository and Archiving


NOTE: The archive feature is included in the Plus and Enterprise Subscriptions only.


With the Plus and Enterprise Subscriptions, organizers may use Symposium as a digital repository of their events and content. After an event ends, if you would like to prevent new users from accessing the event, but would like to keep the contents available on Symposium for you as the organizer or registered presenters/participants to be able to access down the road, you may archive the event through activating the Archive Event toggle. In this way, organizers maintain a digital record of their events, while presenters can continue to link and show their work. Archived events are removed from Symposium's Discover Events page and closed to new registrants, but remain accessible to you as the organizer (with an ongoing subscription) and any existing registrants. If you choose not to archive your event, your event will simply remain up and available to new and existing registrants. You may archive or unarchive an event at any time. 


If your event is private and you'd like presenters to be able to share just their presentation (without granting access to any other presentations/content within the event), we can generate 'unlisted links' for each presentation upon request. We'll automatically send out links to each of the presenters so that they may share their work with others in this way. Please submit a request at [email protected] if you'd like us to generate and send out unlisted links.