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Difference between Groups, Types, and Type Categories

  • Updated

This article explains the difference between Groups and Data Types in the Grip platform. While they have some similarities they are vastly different in what can be done with it.

For any person working at Grip or Customer using the system it often requires a true architectural understanding of the platform in order to use them correctly.

Besides explaining the differences between the two we'll explore some common use cases of how Groups and Data Types can be used separately or in combination with each other. 

What are Data Types?

Characteristics

Data Types have the following characteristics that are fundamental to the Grip platform: 

  1. A Profile can only belong to one Data Type across an entire app. This is particularly important to understand for clients that do multiple events with Grip.
  2. The following properties can be assigned to a Data Type
    1. Metadata
      1. What Metadata is Shown
      2. What Metadata can be Filtered By
      3. What Metadata can be Edited by a User
    2. Relationships
    3. Permissions
    4. Session Limits (How many people from a particular Data Type can join a session)
    5. Extensions
    6. Home Feeds (Article is a Placeholder)
    7. Premium Packages (Article is a Placeholder)
    8. Engagement:
      1. Notifications
      2. Emails
    9. Analytics:
      1. Meetings from type to type
      2. Recommendations, Connections and Meetings in Chord Diagrams

As you see, Data Types are a very important and large part of the platform. However, they do have some very specific restrictions, the most important one being that a user can only belong to one Data Type. Therefore, we introduced Groups.

Use Cases

Types can be used in hundreds of different ways but the correct and most common way is to identify vastly different types of profiles such as Companies, Attendees, Speakers and Exhibitor Representatives for example. 

While currently often used for segmenting different types of attendees such as "Attendee Gold" and "Attendee Silver" we see this being partly replaced by Groups to provide a more streamlined user experience for organisers, increasing flexibility and reducing the setup times of events.

What are Groups?

Characteristics

Groups are much more flexible and have the following characteristics within the Grip platform: 

  1. Groups exclusively live within a single event. This is a very big difference with Data Types and they should therefore only be used to structure data within a particular event.
  2. Profiles can be part of multiple Groups within a single event. Wow! That's a huge difference! As you'll read below in the different use cases.
  3. The following Properties can be assigned to a Group
    1. Permissions on Recommendations and which Profiles can be viewed.
    2. Session Limits (How many people from a particular Group can join a session.)
    3. Coming soon:
      1. Notifications, Extensions and More.
    4. Groups are also fundamental to the Grip MustMeet experience - contact sales@grip.events or your Customer Success Manager to learn more about our new AI-Powered MustMeet Solution.

Use Cases

Groups are currently mainly used to set permissions for MustMeet events. However, we're excited about seeing organisers using them in different ways to provide fun new experiences in the platform. For example, Groups would be perfect to provide a list of Exhibitors that are exhibiting for the first time. Or to show a list of exhibitors that are part of the 'innovation tour' for example. 

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