--- title: "Conference Session Booking, Networking and Live Q&A" description: "Let delegates pick sessions with a place each, scan only the people who picked each room, and help them meet, book meetings and ask questions live." canonical: "https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/registration-and-badges/sessions-and-networking" --- # Conference Session Booking, Networking and Live Q&A 1. [Event Operating System](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system) 2. [Registration & badges](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/registration-and-badges) 3. Sessions & networking # Fill Every Room With the Right Delegates and Get Them Talking Delegates come to a conference for the sessions they chose and the people they meet, and both go wrong in familiar ways: a workshop room fills with people who never signed up while the delegates who did wait outside, and the networking happens only between people who already knew each other. With Ticket Fairy, delegates pick the talks and workshops from your agenda on their order page, with a place each and a [waiting list](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/event-waiting-list) when a room is full. Your door team scans only the people who picked each session, and the attendance report tells you which sessions people really came to. Alongside it, delegates join an attendee directory on their own terms, book one-to-one meetings at your tables and times, and ask questions and vote in polls in every session from a QR code. [Book a Live Demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) - Room numbers known before the day - The right delegates through each session door - Meetings booked and questions asked in every session ![Ticket Fairy dialog to let people pick a sponsor deck workshop, with its kind, time, places, room, track and the waiting list switch](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--let-people-pick.png) ## Turn Your Agenda Into Sessions Delegates Can Pick Every talk and workshop on your agenda that delegates cannot pick yet waits in Sessions, ready to open. Its title, time and room come straight from the agenda, so you add only how many people the room holds, a track such as Design or Leadership, and a description delegates read before they choose. Open a session for picking now, or prepare it and open it when your programme is final. Group sessions by kind and track the way your printed programme does, so a delegate looking for every leadership workshop finds them together. Add sessions that are not on your agenda too, such as a sponsor's breakfast briefing. Turn on a waiting list for the sessions you expect to fill. When someone drops a session, the next person on the list receives an email to take the place, so a popular workshop stays full without your team chasing people. - **From your agenda**: title, time and room already filled in - **Kinds and tracks**: talks and workshops grouped the way your programme is - **Waiting list**: the next person is emailed when a place comes back - [Let ticket holders pick the conference sessions they attend](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-ticket-holders-pick-the-sessions-they-attend) ![Ticket Fairy Add a session dialog with the title, kind of session, start and end, places, room, track and description](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--add-a-session.png) ## Give Every Delegate Their Own Agenda Delegates find Your sessions on the order page they already have, with each session's day, time, room and the places left. They pick, drop or join a waiting list, and one button adds every pick to their own calendar. A buyer who booked for colleagues picks for each of them. A session that clashes with one a delegate already picked says which, before they tap, so nobody holds two places at the same hour and leaves a seat empty. There is no app to download and no second account to create, because the agenda lives on the order delegates received when they bought. Your team sees each delegate's picks too. Look up any ticket holder, see the sessions they chose and add them to another, which suits a speaker's guest or a sponsor who needs a seat in a full room. - **Pick and drop**: on the order page delegates already have - **Clash warnings**: before two picks overlap - **Their calendar**: every pick added in one step - **Add to a session**: your team places a delegate by hand ## Change a Session Without Breaking Anyone's Plans Once delegates have picked a session, its time and places stay as they are, so nobody loses a place or finds a clash they never chose. You can still change the title, room, track and description, which covers the speaker swaps and room moves that happen in the last week. When a talk moves on your agenda, its session says Agenda time changed, so your team sees the difference and never works from two different times. Ask Fai to make a session from an agenda item or open one for picking, and she shows you the session before she saves it. - **Picks protected**: time and places held once delegates have picked - **Everything else changeable**: title, room, track and description - **Agenda time changed**: flagged when the talk moves on your agenda ![Ticket Fairy dialog to change a talk people have picked, saying its time and places stay as they are](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--change-a-picked-session.png) ## Let Only the People Who Picked a Session Through Its Door Your door team scans each ticket at the room door. The door says Let them in, Already in with the time they first came in, or Not for this session with the reason in plain words: they did not pick it, the room is full, the door is not open yet, the session has ended, or another ticket on the same account already used the place. The door shows how many people are inside, how many picked the session and how many places the room has, so your room never goes over its numbers and your door team never has to count heads. Two doors scanning the same ticket at the same moment let it in once. - **Session door**: admits the delegates who picked it - **Plain reasons**: every turn-away explained in plain words - **Inside, picked and places**: the room's numbers at a glance - [Scan delegates into event sessions at the door and see who came](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/scan-ticket-holders-into-sessions-and-see-who-came) ![Ticket Fairy door of the Hiring your first designer talk, with the ticket field and the numbers inside, picked and places](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--door.png) ## Put a Volunteer on Every Room Door Share a door link for each session, and a volunteer scans tickets from their own phone with no dashboard login. The door page shows each person's first name and ticket type so the volunteer can greet them, and never an email address or an order. Each link opens one session's door and nothing else, and you stop it when the session is over. Ask Fai to make a door link for a session, and she shows it to you before she makes it. - **Session door link**: one session, one phone, no sign-in - **Only what the door needs**: first name and ticket type - **Fai**: makes a door link after your yes - [Let event staff work a desk from their phone with a desk link](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-event-staff-work-a-desk-from-their-phone) ![Ticket Fairy session door on a volunteer's phone, with the ticket field and how many people are inside](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--door-link-page.png) ## Plan Next Year From the Sessions People Attended Attendance shows, for every session, how many delegates picked it, came in, did not come and were turned away, with the most and least popular sessions at the top. Size next year's rooms from it, repeat the workshops that filled and rethink the ones that did not. No-shows are the figure most organisers never see. A session where many delegates picked a place and never came tells you to overbook it next time or move it away from lunch, and a session that turned people away at the door tells you it needs a bigger room. - **Attendance**: picked, came in, did not come and turned away - **Most and least popular**: your strongest and weakest sessions first - **No-shows**: delegates who picked a place and never came ![Ticket Fairy attendance report of a design conference, with places picked, people let in, no-shows, people turned away and the most and least popular sessions](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--attendance.png) ## Help Delegates Meet the People They Came For Switch on the attendee directory and ticket holders see Meet other attendees on their order page. Each delegate chooses what others see, from job title and company to their interests and who they would like to meet, and only delegates who joined see each other. People who share an interest, such as ticketing or sustainability, are suggested to each other. Add your meeting places, such as the meeting lounge on level 2, with how many meetings each holds at once, then add blocks of meeting times for each day. Delegates ask each other to meet at a choice of your times, the person asked accepts one, and each booked meeting gets a free table. Nobody, and no table, is booked twice at the same time, and every request, answer and change reaches the other person by email. Exhibitors switch on meeting bookings from their own exhibitor page, add what they offer and their own times, your meeting times, or both. Ticket holders find them in Exhibitors on their order page and book, the exhibitor's team accepts or declines each booking, and you see every exhibitor meeting beside the others in Meetings. A delegate unsure what to say to a stranger asks Fai for a first message. She drafts a short note in their language from what both people chose to show, and the delegate edits it and sends it themselves. Fai never sends a meeting request on anyone's behalf. - **Attendee directory**: delegates join it and choose what shows - **Meetings at your tables**: booked at the times you set, never double-booked - **Shared interests**: the right people suggested to each other - **A first message**: drafted by Fai and sent by the delegate - [Send Every Exhibitor and Sponsor Home With Results They Can See](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/exhibitors-and-sponsors/exhibitor-leads-and-sponsor-results) ## Give Every Session a Live Q&A and Polls Add a Q&A for a keynote or panel, linked to its session on your agenda, and show its QR code on the projector. Delegates scan it with their phone camera to ask questions, vote for the ones they want answered and answer polls, with no app and no sign-in. Choose whether questions show at once or after a moderator approves them, allow anonymous questions when you want honest ones, and decide whether delegates see poll results after they vote. Your moderator shows, marks answered, hides or puts back each question. The presenter view puts the top questions in large type with the open poll beside them, so your speaker reads the room at a glance. New questions arrive within seconds, and closing a Q&A keeps every question for afterwards, ready to open again. - **QR code and link**: shown in the room, with no sign-in - **Moderation**: show, mark answered, hide or put back each question - **Polls**: with results for the room or for you alone - **Presenter view**: the top questions in large type ## How Organisers Run Sessions and Networking - ### A Design Conference With Hands-On Workshops Each workshop room has a set number of places, so every workshop opens for picking with a waiting list. Drops on the morning of the event go to the next person on the list, and every workshop runs full with nobody turned away at the door. - ### A Technology Summit With Three Tracks Delegates build their own agenda across the Product, Data and Leadership tracks and add it to their calendar. The attendance report shows that the afternoon data talks filled, and next year they move to the main hall. - ### A Trade Event Built on Meetings Buyers and suppliers join the directory, find each other by shared interests and book meetings in the meeting lounge. Every meeting gets its own table, and nobody is booked twice in the same slot. - ### A Members' Annual Congress The keynote Q&A takes anonymous questions with moderation on. The chair reads the top questions from the presenter view, and the questions that went unanswered stay on the Q&A for afterwards. - ### A Training Day With Limited Labs Volunteers scan delegates into each lab from a door link on their phone. A delegate who did not pick the lab is told why at the door, and the lab never goes over the number of workstations. [Book Demo Call](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [Get Started for Free](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/registration) ## See It in Your Dashboard - ![Ticket Fairy Sessions view of a design conference, with totals, a workshop from the agenda to open for picking, and each day's talks with their places picked](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--sessions-list.png) Every session with its places picked, and the agenda items still to open. - ![Ticket Fairy ticket holder look-up with a full conference pass, the two sessions its holder picked and Add to a session](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--ticket-holders.png) Look up any delegate, see the sessions they picked and add them to another. - ![Ticket Fairy Make a desk link dialog for a session door, scanning tickets into the Hiring your first designer talk](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-sessions--door-link.png) Make a door link for any session and hand it to a volunteer. ## Set It Up Step by Step - [Let ticket holders pick the conference sessions they attend](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-ticket-holders-pick-the-sessions-they-attend) - [Scan delegates into event sessions at the door and see who came](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/scan-ticket-holders-into-sessions-and-see-who-came) - [Let event staff work a desk from their phone with a desk link](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-event-staff-work-a-desk-from-their-phone) - [Run a conference on Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-a-conference) ## Questions About Sessions and Networking ### Sessions & networking #### Which events have sessions and networking? Conferences, conventions and business events have sessions, in a section called Agenda on a conference, Schedule on a convention and Programme on a business event. Networking is one of the Programme sections on conferences, technology events, conventions and business or corporate events. #### Who can set up sessions, the directory and Q&A? You need an owner, admin or producer login on the event, from the event's Operations page. Fai can also make a session from an agenda item and open it for picking after you confirm. #### Can I charge for a session? The sessions delegates pick on their order page come with their ticket. Sell a paid workshop as an add-on, with the number of places in the room as its stock. #### Can door staff let someone in who did not pick the session? No. A refusal at a session door is final. Add the person to the session in Ticket holders, then scan their ticket again. #### When does a session door open, and does it need a connection? It opens 30 minutes before the session starts. Each scan needs a connection, because the door checks that the person picked this session. The door says when it has no connection, so ask people to wait and scan them when it is back. #### When does a no-show count? Once the session has ended. Picked but did not come counts the people who picked it and were never scanned in. #### Is anyone added to the attendee directory without asking? No. The directory is off until you switch it on, and delegates join it themselves. Each person chooses which details others see, can change them or leave at any time, and nobody can download the directory. Every time someone on your team opens the list of people or meetings, it is recorded. #### What if someone misuses the directory? Remove them with a reason. They are hidden from everyone straight away, their requests and meetings still to come end, and they cannot join this event's directory again. You can also cancel any meeting before it takes place, and both people are emailed with your reason. #### How many times can a delegate offer, and what if I have no meeting places? A delegate offers up to three of your times, and the person asked accepts one. With no meeting places, meetings are booked with a time only and the two people agree where to meet. #### How do Q&A questions and polls work? Anonymous questions show their names only to the people who moderate. A poll has from 2 to 6 answers. Once people have voted, the question and answers stay as they are, a closed poll cannot open again, and opening a poll closes any other open poll. ## Explore More of the Event Operating System - [Registration & badges Check attendees in and print branded badges at the desk or a self check-in kiosk, with volunteers working the desk from a link and every reprint on record. Registration & badges](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/registration-and-badges/registration-and-badges) - [Leads & sponsor results Booth staff capture and rate visitors from a link on their own phone, Fai drafts follow-ups each exhibitor approves, and exhibitors and sponsors see their results on their own page. Exhibitors & sponsors](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/exhibitors-and-sponsors/exhibitor-leads-and-sponsor-results) - [Run of show Build the run of show from Fai's draft, catch clashes and late finishes, call every cue live, catch a late stage up in one step and give every team its own day sheet, backstage TV and calendar. Show day](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/show-day/run-of-show-and-show-calling) - [Line-up & running order Applications scored by your panel and Fai, running-order checks with tested fixes, and a line-up announced in waves with a timetable fans can star. Artists & line-up](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/artists-and-line-up/line-up-and-running-order) [Back to **Registration & badges**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/registration-and-badges) [Previous **Registration & badges**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/registration-and-badges/registration-and-badges) Ticket Fairy in full: [ticketing platform for event organisers](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/), with the features, pricing and support behind this page. ## Ready to Build a Stronger Event Business? Book a live demo, and we will set up your first event on the Event Operating System with your team. ## Start Selling Tickets Online Sign up without a credit card and build a test event before you commit. Go on sale in minutes when you are ready. No monthly subscription required for ticketing Start selling tickets immediately Ticketing tools included in the service fee [Get Started for Free](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/registration) [Talk to Fai Now](#) Ask Fai, our AI assistant, about Ticket Fairy’s features, pricing and how it could work for your event. No credit card required ## Book a demo call See the referral model that drives 20% more ticket sales on average, learn which campaigns sell tickets, answer buyers faster and keep queues moving. How many tickets do you sell per year? 45-Minute Video Call Pick a Time That Works for You The Ticket Fairy, Inc. is a fintech company and technology platform. The Ticket Fairy, Inc. is not a bank, financial institution, or regulated financial services provider. Vault banking services are provided through regulated banking partners. Ticket Fairy Capital financing is provided by third-party private credit partners. The Ticket Fairy, Inc. does not make credit decisions, and all funding terms, approvals and conditions are determined by those lending partners. --- This page is on Ticket Fairy, a ticketing, marketing and operations platform for live events and the venues that host them: festivals, club nights, concerts, conferences and tours, and night clubs, beach clubs and concert venues. It grows revenue with fan rewards that turn an audience into a sales channel, and runs the money side with payments and payouts, Vault business banking, and working capital advanced against ticket sales. [How Ticket Fairy ticketing works](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing) · [Ticket Fairy for AI assistants](https://www.ticketfairy.com/llms.txt)