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ohyay Event Guide

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ohyay Event Guide

So you’ve checked out our beginner guide and have learned how to create and customize an ohyay workspace. Now, you’re ready to run your very own ohyay event with buttons that you’ll push to make things happen.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up and produce a panel event for ~30 users. Specifically, you’ll recreate our basic event template and learn how to:

  • Configure your Workspace Settings
  • Create a run of show
  • Import rooms
  • Create a "door" to your event
  • Create buttons to show and hide your "door"
  • Create a button to bring your guests to a room
  • Assign speakers to slots
  • Create an audience slot
  • Create a Q&A slot
  • Create buttons to start and stop a recording
  • Create a breakout button
  • Run your event from start to finish

Intro

If you’ve produced events in person, you’ll find that producing events on ohyay is very similar. The flow of the event — what guests see when they arrive, how they interact with each other, and how they navigate into rooms — is equally important.

What’s different about ohyay is that you, as the director of the event, have a lot more power and visibility. You can see where your guests are at all times and move them with a push of a button.

Let’s dive in so you can experience it for yourself!

Create a run of show

Let’s imagine you’re an events producer running a panel event with four VIP speakers, one moderator, and 30 guests. You’ve landed on the following run of show:

  • Guests arrive
  • Guests navigate to panel room
  • Q&A
  • Breakouts
  • Event ends

Now that you have your run of show, it’s time to start setting up your event space.

Create a workspace

First things first, you’ll want to create a blank workspace by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to our website.
  2. Cick on the plus sign to create a new workspace.
  3. Click Join Now.

Configure your Workspace Settings

Once you’re in your blank workspace, click on Workspace > Settings. Here, you’ll want to do a few things to set up your event space:

  1. Add a title (e.g. Panel Event).
  2. Set a vanity URL, which (when copy and pasted) will direct your guests to the first room in your event space.
  3. For the sake of this event, we’ll leave the other settings as they are. (We don’t anticipate more than 150 people joining, we don’t need to customize workspace-wide reactions, etc.)
  4. To exit out of your Workspace Settings, simply click anywhere else on your screen.

Import rooms

Now it’s time to import pre-made rooms, which is the fastest way to get your event space up and running.

First, let’s walk through how to import your welcome room:

  1. Go to Room > Import from Room Gallery from the menu.
  2. Search for the “Welcome” room.
  3. Click on the preview of the room.
  4. Click on “Import.”

After you’ve imported your welcome room, go to Room > Import from Room Gallery and import the following rooms to fill out the event space:

  1. Panel
  2. Cocktail Bar
  3. Roof Terrace
  4. Candlelit Porch
  5. Event Lock
  6. Self Help Portal/Desk

Once you have all of your rooms imported, your Rooms List (the list of rooms on the left-hand side of your event space) should look like this:

Create a "door" to your event

When your guests arrive in your welcome room (the first room in your event space), they’ll need a way to get into the panel room for the main event.

The best way to give your guests a “door” to the event is to create a text box:

  1. Hover over the plus sign at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the text icon.
  3. Type “Click here to enter the event” in the text box.

And link that text box to the panel room:

  1. Click on the text box to select it.
  2. Click on the link icon in the toolbar.
  3. Click on the down arrow next to “Choose a room or enter a URL.”
  4. Select Panel from the dropdown.

Now, when guests click on the link in the welcome room, they’ll move into the panel room.

Create buttons to show and hide your "door"

Next, you'll want to create buttons that show and hide your "door" or entry link in your welcome room.

You can create a "Show Door" button by following these steps:

  1. Hover over the plus sign at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the lightning bolt icon.
  3. Click into the gray button and name it "Show Door."
  4. Drag the button into your Notes & Controls panel at the bottom of your screen.
  5. Select the button (if it's not already selected).
  6. Click on "Edit Action" in the toolbar.
  7. Click on "Action Button" in the configuration and select "Click here to enter the event."
  8. Click on the empty box that says "Property" and select "Visible."
  9. Click "Done."

Now, create a "Hide Door" button by following these steps:

  1. Click on your "Show Door" button.
  2. Hit Command-C on your keyboard to copy the button.
  3. Hit Command-V on your keyboard to paste the button.
  4. Click into the button and rename it "Hide Door."
  5. Click on "Edit Action" in the toolbar.
  6. Click on the blue check mark. (Now, this button will set you door as not visible).

More on how to use these buttons later!

Create a button to "bring all here"

Now, you'll want to navigate to your panel room — where you'll be for most of this guide. We're going to create a breakout button that will bring all of your guests to the panel:

  1. Hover over the plus sign at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the twisting arrows icon to add a breakout button.
  3. Click on the gray button. You’ll see a cursor pop up. Type in “Bring All Here.”
  4. Drag the button into your Notes & Controls panel at the bottom of your screen.

And configure that button to bring all users to the panel room:

  1. Select the button by clicking on it (if it’s not already selected).
  2. Click on “Edit Config…” at the top right of your screen.
  3. Click on “All users in the current room” under “Who will be moved?”
  4. Select “All users in the workspace (except pinned).”
  5. Select “Existing rooms” under “Where will users be moved to?”
  6. Click “Pick room(s) to move users into.”
  7. Select “Panel” from the dropdown.
  8. Click “Save.”

You'll want to create a breakout button because sometimes, your guests won’t see the link in the welcome room or will just want to linger there.

Assign speakers to slots

In ohyay, a user slot is a box that a user pops into in order to appear on-screen. By default, any user can pop into any slot.

To see this in action, add a few test bots to the panel room:

  1. Click on the room (or part of the room canvas that doesn’t have an element) to ensure that the room is selected.
  2. Click on the robot icon in the toolbar 4+ times.

You’ll see that the test bots, which look and behave like regular users, take up the four big user slots. When there’s no more room, they’ll start taking up the audience slot at the bottom.

Imagine that in your panel event, you’re hosting four speakers on screen. You’ll want to assign their slots so that only the speakers can pop into them.

Let’s assign in the first user slot on the far left:

  1. Click on the slot to ensure that it’s selected.
  2. Click on Mode: Auto in the toolbar.
  3. Select Manual from the dropdown.
  4. Click on the text box to the right of Assigned Email.
  5. Type in the email address of the speaker you want to assign it to. (You can try it with [email protected]).

When you type in the email, you’ll notice that the test bot will pop out of the slot. That’s because it’s reserved exclusively for the speaker.

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️ Double check the speaker's email

When the speaker arrives in your event space, you’ll want to double check that they’ve come in with the email that you’ve assigned them with.

To do so, click on their user thumbnail in the Rooms List on the left-hand side, click on Advanced on the top right corner of your screen, and check their email in the second line item of Advanced Properties.

If it’s a different email than the one you assigned, then go back into your slot assignment and copy and paste it into Assigned Email.

Create an audience slot

In ohyay, audience slots are multi-user slots set to Audience Mode. They’re a great way to accommodate more than 20 users in the same room and are common in auditoriums.

Lucky for you, there’s already an audience slot in the panel room. Add a few more test bots and you’ll see that this slot is different in a few key ways:

  • It rotates users on and off screen
  • It is muted
  • It can hold up to 50 users

Audience slots are a great way to accommodate more than 20 users in the same room. If you ever want to add your own audience slot, you can follow the steps below:

  1. Hover on the plus sign at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the multiuser icon.
  3. Hover over Mode in the toolbar.
  4. Click on Default.
  5. Adjust the number of max users you want in the slot.

Create a Q&A slot

You’ll notice that on the chair on the right-hand side, there’s a gray slot called a “click-to-join” that users in Director or Viewer Modes can click to come on-screen (and click again to go off-screen).

Click-to-join slots are commonly used in panel and classroom environments and simulate people raising their hands to ask a question.

If you ever want to make your own click-to-join slot, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the plus sign on the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the single user icon in the toolbar to add a user slot.
  3. Click on the slot to ensure that it’s selected.
  4. Click on Mode: Auto in the toolbar.
  5. Select Click from the dropdown.

Once your slot is made clickable, your guests can click into it to come on-screen and click it again to go off-screen.

📘

Hide & Show Q&A Slot

Some event producers will want to make action buttons in their Notes & Controls panel that show and hide the Q&A slot. It’s typical to show the Q&A slot and open up questions for the audience after the moderator has asked questions.

Create buttons to start and stop a recording

In ohyay, you can set up recordings of your event that you can later download and distribute to guests. Today, we’re going to set up action buttons that you’ll press during your event to start and stop your recording.

Follow these steps to create a button that will start your recording:

  1. Hover over the plus icon at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the lightning bolt icon to add an action button.
  3. Click on your action button and name it “Start Recording.”
  4. Click on Edit Action in the toolbar.
  5. Click on the Element dropdown and select Room.
  6. Click on the set dropdown and select invoke.
  7. Click on the blank dropdown next to “invoke” and select Start Room Recording.
  8. Click Done.

Now, it’s time to create a button that will stop your recording:

  1. Copy (Control-C) and paste (Control-V) the “Start Recording” button into your Notes & Controls.
  2. Click on the “Start Room Recording” dropdown and select Stop Room Recording.
  3. Click Done.

👍

Searching in action buttons

When searching in the dropdowns of action buttons, just start typing what you’re looking for (e.g. “Start Room Recording,” “Stop Room Recording” to get there faster).

👍

Testing out your buttons

To test out your buttons, hold down your option key on your keyboard (to go into Director Mode) and click on your buttons (one by one). When you start the recording, you should see “Starting Recording” come up in big red font at the top of your screen.

Create a button to break out your guests to rooms

Remember your breakout button that you created to bring all guests to the panel room?

We're going to make another one — this time to send your guests into the social rooms (Cocktail Bar, Roof Terrace, and Candellit Porch) after the panel wraps up.

Follow these steps to create a breakout button:

  1. Hover over the plus sign at the far left of the toolbar.
  2. Click on the twisting arrows icon to add a breakout button.
  3. Click on the gray button. You’ll see a cursor pop up. Type in “Send Guests to Social Rooms.”
  4. Drag the button into your Notes & Controls panel at the bottom of your screen.

Follow the steps to configure your breakout button:

  1. Select the button by clicking on it (if it’s not already selected).
  2. Click on “Edit Config…” at the top right of your screen.
  3. Leave "All users in the current room" selected.
  4. Select "Existing Rooms" under "Where will users be moved to?"
  5. Click "Pick room(s) to create temporary copies of."
  6. Select Cocktail Bar, Roof Terrace, and Candellit Porch.
  7. Click "Save."

When clicked, your breakout button will send your guests into your three social rooms.

Run your event from start to finish

Now that you have your event space fully set up with your list of rooms, action buttons, and breakout buttons, it's time for the most fun part of all — running your event.

Let's return to your run of show, which you'll want to have on hand at all times:

  • Guests arrive
  • Guests navigate to panel room
  • Q&A
  • Breakouts
  • Event ends

Here are the steps you'll want to take to make your event a success:

[Before your event]

  • Switch into Director Mode by clicking on the clapperboard icon in the menu bar. You'll want to be in Director Mode for the entire event, unless you need to make a last-minute edit.
  • Navigate to the welcome room. Click on your Hide Door button to hide the door to the event (if it's not already hidden).
  • Navigate to the panel room, where the majority of your buttons are located.
  • Send the speakers a link to the panel room (if they don't already have it) and get them situated. Make sure that they're properly assigned to the correct slots.
  • Click on your Start Recording button to start the recording before guests arrive.
  • Get a verbal confirmation from your speakers that they're ready for you to open the door to the event.

[During your event]

  • Navigate to to the welcome and click on your Show Door button.
  • Navigate back to the panel room. Watch as your guests start to filter in.
  • After a minute or so, when you're really ready to get going, click on your Bring All Here button to bring all of your guests to the panel room.
  • Watch the Q&A between the speakers and the audience.
  • Wait for the verbal cue from the speakers that it's time to break guests out into social rooms for the after party. Click on your Send Guests to Social Rooms button.
  • Drag the event lock room up to the top of the rooms list, so that new users who enter the event space will see that it's over.

Updated over 2 years ago