A Custom Group is a way of grouping together Data Types to use within the platform or bringing multiple Data Types that may have different permissions into a single group.
One of the most important use cases for Custom Groups is separating Hybrid participants from Virtual participants within a Hybrid event. All event participants, whether they are Hybrid or Virtual will be created under a single Data Type. This for example could be 'Exhibitor', all exhibitors, whether they are Hybrid or Virtual will be created under this single Data Type. It is a Custom Group which then identifies the participant as either a Hybrid participant, or a Virtual participant which changes the tag displayed on their profile and the ability to meet either virtually or in person, or both. There are of course more use cases to Custom Groups which we will cover in this article.
In this article we will cover:
- Understanding the Custom Groups page
- How to create a Custom Group
- How to add Data Types and profiles to Custom Groups
- How to delete Data Types and profiles from Custom Groups
- How to manage Group Permissions
- How to edit a Custom Group
- Custom Group use cases
- FAQs
Understanding the Custom Groups page
1. To navigate to the Custom Groups page, click on the 'Event Settings' tab and click 'Custom groups'.
2. If you have not already set up a Custom Group this page will be blank with a button named 'Create Custom Group' at the top right. We will walk through how to create a Custom Group in the next section below.
How to create a Custom Group
1. To create a Custom Group click the 'Create Custom Group' button at the top right of the page.
2. You will then land on the Groups creation page. The first field you will see is 'Group Name' this is where you will enter the name of the Group you are creating.
3. This is one of the most important parts of the process. Here you can select if the group is Hybrid (in person and virtual), Virtual (virtual only), or not specified. If you are creating the Hybrid and Virtual groups for your Data Types this is where you select access.
4. 'New group can see recommendations of', this will let you select which data types within other groups the group are are creating will be recommended within the platform. If you leave this blank it will not affect anything.
5. 'New group can see profiles, search and see lists of', this will allow you to limit what the group you are creating can see. If you want the group to only be able to see profile, search, and see lists of certain groups of Data Types, select the groups you have created here.
6. 'New group can display similar profiles', if this toggle is on, data types within this group will display similar profile recommendations when a participant views their profile. You will not be able to turn this on if your Data Types within this group have it turned off. You will be able to turn this off if Data Types within this group have it turned on, this will mean the Data Types within this group will not display Similar Profile recommendations if you turn this toggle off. If a specific Data Type is in two groups, one group that has this toggle enabled, and another that has it disabled, it will disable Similar Profile recommendations for that specific Data Type in all groups even if it is toggled on in one.
7. 'Unstructured metadata', If your event is not a MustMeet event you can skip this section.
8. Once you have finished creating your Custom Group, click 'Create Group'.
How to add Data Types and profiles to Custom Groups
1. Within Custom Groups, click 'View' on the right hand side of the group. Click 'Add Items' at the top right of this page. From here you can search for profiles you would like to add to the group.
2. You can add Data Types to Custom Groups but going into the 'Data' tab and clicking into a Data Type. You can select individual profiles to add to a group or you can select all with the check box next to 'Add to Group'. Please nite, to select all Data Types you will ned to click the select all button on each individual page to add all to a group.
3. You can click into a profile on the dashboard, and on the right hand side you will see a button named 'Custom Groups' click this button and you will be shown a screen where you can add this profile to a Custom Group.
How to delete Data Types and profiles from Custom Groups
1. Within the Custom Groups page click 'View' on the group you would like to remove a profile from. You can then click the tick box next to the profile or at the top you can click the tick box which selects all and then click 'Remove from group'. From here you can also move the profile to a different group by clicking 'Move between groups'.
2. Just like you can add a specific profile to a group by clicking into that profile, you can also remove them by clicking into the profile and going to 'Custom Groups' on the right hand side. Under 'Current groups' you will see which groups this profile is in. Click 'remove' to remove them from a group.
How to edit a Custom Group
1. To edit a Custom Group, Click 'View' on the right hand side of a group you want to edit. At the top of this page you will see the 'Edit Group' button. Click this to edit your group, this will take you to the same screen as you see when creating a new Custom Group. All of these fields will be editable.
How do group permissions work alongside data type permissions?
Custom Group permissions were designed primarily for use in MustMeet event, though they can be used in normal events too.
Custom Group permissions are set individually per group and allow the Event Organizer to specify other groups that members of a group can see, or be recommended. They only ever apply to profiles that are in a Custom Group - if a profile is not a member of any Custom Group, then they are not affected by group permissions in any way. There is an example below which should help explain this further.
Group permissions sit above data type permissions, so they act as a sort of second filter on top of any data type permissions that have been set already. They will not allow group members do anything that their data type already restricts them from doing, so you can effectively only further restrict permissions by adding more at the group level.
Example
You have two data types in your event, Attendees and Representatives. Data type permissions allow each data type to only see and be recommended members of the other data type, so Attendees cannot see other Attendees.
You then create two Custom Groups, Group A and Group B. Each group contains a mix of attendees and representatives. There are also some attendees and representatives that are not part of any Custom Groups.
Group A's permissions allow its members to only see and be recommended members of Group B, and vice versa.
Data Type Attendee - Group A
This participant can only see and be recommended Exhibitor Reps that are part of group B, and Exhibitor Reps that are not part of any group.
Data Type Attendee - not part of any Group
This participant can see and be recommended every Exhibitor Rep in the event.
Data Type Rep - Group A
This participant can only see and be recommended Attendees that are part of group B, and Attendees that are not part of any group.
Data Type Rep - not part of any Group
This participant can see and be recommended every Attendee in the event.
This will be the same in reverse for members of the other group.
How to configure Group Permissions
- Once the Groups have been created, click "View" and then into "Edit Group".
- In Recommendations, select who this Group can receive Recommendations of.
- In Profiles, select who this Group can see profiles, search and see lists of.
- To save your changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and press "Edit Group".
Custom Group use cases
- As mentioned, the primary use for Groups is MustMeet events. This is explained fully within a separate article here.
- Aside from the above, one of the most important use cases for Custom Groups is separating Hybrid participants from Virtual participants within a Hybrid event. This will add a tag to a participant's name to display whether the participant is a Virtual or Hybrid attendee. This will also affect the meeting locations available to these attendees. If a participant is in a Hybrid group it will show in-person and Virtual meeting rooms. If a participant is Virtual only, it will only show Virtual meeting rooms. This works on both web and mobile.
- Another important use case of Custom Groups is separating Data Types in lists within the platform. For example within an Exhibitors list on the navigation bar you could separate 'Premium' exhibitors from 'Standard exhibitors'. To add Custom Groups to a list in the navigation bar click the 'Event Details' tab and click on the 'Navigation page'. Make sure you choose 'Native List' within 'Item Type', select your data types for the list, and then select your Custom Groups. See our article Navigation Items article here.
Note, you can do this for any 'Native List' within navigation.
This will display on the platform as shown in the image below. This works on both web and mobile.
FAQs
What Data Types can I add to a Custom Group?
You can add any Data Type to a group.
How many Data Types can I have in a Custom Group?
You can have as many Data Types in a Custom Group as you like.
Can a profile be in multiple Custom Groups simultaneously?
Yes!
If I have a Custom Group within a list ('Display profiles outside of custom groups on the list' toggled off) will this only show the data within the Custom Group?
Yes, this will only show the data within the Custom Group.