Ticketor - How to: Tips on Creating an Online Event

Tips on Creating an Online Event

Creating online event is very similar to creating a regular event with some minor differences.

Ticketor supports both 'Live' and 'On-Demand' streaming events.

Click here to learn about Creating an event on Ticketor

Online events

Online events can be performed through a variety of conferencing or streaming tools including Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Zoom, Wistia, etc.. The attendee needs to click on a link to join the event and optionally they may need a password or special instruction.

When creating the venue, you can set the venue name to something like 'Online', 'Online through [your provider name]'

Admission

You have 2 options for controlling the admission and making sure only people with a ticket can attend.

1- Admission On Ticketor (Preferred)

Whether you are planning a 'Live' event or an 'On-demand' one, Ticketor will take care of the admission and ticket validation so you can easily monetize your events or videos.

Choose the option to Stream on Ticketor, then get the embed code from your streaming provider and add it to your event. A 'Watch Here' link will be added to your tickets and confirmation emails and the buyer can click on the link, enter the code on their ticket and the system will validate the ticket and upon validation, admit them to the page with your embedded video.

Hints

•  For on-demand videos, set the duration of the event to all the time that the video is available for watching.

•  To secure your video and making sure that a user cannot share the video after they get admitted, there are certain actions that you can take.

In your streaming provider, choose the option that the video can only be watched when it is embedded in certain domain, in this case: ticketor.com

•  You have the option to allow 'Exit for re-entry' or not allow it.

If exit for re-entry is allowed, the buyer can click on a button to leave the event and they can re-enter from the same device or another one by re-entering their ticket code, otherwise they have to watch the full event on the same device.

In either case, if the viewer's computer dies or becomes inaccessible, the admin can use the Gate Control page or app to enter the buyer's ticket code in 'Exit mode' (un-scan the ticket), so the buyer can use the ticket again on a different computer.

Where to upload the videos?

While you can technically use any streaming providers, it is important that your streaming provider have the security feature to restrict the video to only be viewable when it is embedded in your site. Meaning that the video is not watchable from the streaming provider site for public and it is not sharable through a link.

Wistia

Wistia offers good video restriction and a free plan. Upload your video to Wistia, set the project to 'Locked' as explained here, then follow the instruction here to enable 'Domain Restriction' and restrict the video only to ticketor.com .

Vimeo

Vimeo PRO or Vimeo Business also offer domain restriction. After uploading your video, set your Vimeo privacy settings by following the instruction here and make sure to enable the 'Only on sites I choose' embedding option and restrict the video embedding only to ticketor.com .

YouTube

YouTube offers domain restriction only to Content Manager users. Follow the instruction here and restrict the video embedding only to ticketor.com .

Other Streaming Providers

You should contact the streaming provider to make sure they have feature to restrict the video, so it is only viewable when it is embedded in certain domain.

2- Manual Admission

Set the venue address to the link (URL) to join the event or leave the address empty if you prefer not to reveal the URL before the purchase.

You may get a warning that the system could not find the address. You can ignore the warning.

To reveal the link or any other instruction after the purchase is complete, from the 'Details tab' add it to 'After purchase notes' box. The content of this box will be shown to the buyer after the purchase is completed.

If you prefer to reveal the URL at a later time, maybe last-minute on the event date, you can use the Control Panel > Events & Venues > Mailing List feature and send an email to all the buyers. On the 'Send Tab' select 'Send to customers who have purchased tickets to the selected event'

If your streaming / conferencing provider can accept attendees email or a password, you can use Control Panel > Events & Venues > Admission List Detail to export the attendee list.

Each purchase has a unique 'Confirmation Number'. Each ticket has a unique barcode number. You can use this data as the username or password for the attendees to log in.

Please note that a purchase may have several tickets and so all those tickets will have the same confirmation number and email associated with them but each ticket will get a unique barcode number.

If you need to get individual attendees email address or ask the each attendee to select a username or a password, you can follow Control Panel > Help & Support > Help & Instructions > Question Manager (Asking questions from buyers)

Optionally you can create a delivery method from Control Panel > Account & Settings > Delivery Methods for online events with proper name and description and use it in your event instead of the e-ticket or will-call options.


Example: Creating a ticketed event on Facebook

Note: The below technique can be used with other social networks, streaming or conferencing sites.

Create a private Facebook group for your event.

Set the group in a way that you have to approve every new member and that the new members should answer the following question:

  • Purchase your ticket from [your Ticketor address] and enter the barcode number that appears on your ticket, here:

Create your event on your Ticketor site, set the venue address to the Facebook Group URL and instruct the buyers to join the group as soon as their purchase is complete so you have plenty of time to validate the barcodes and admit the attendees to the group.

To admit people to the group, go to the gate control page of your website, copy and paste the barcodes entered by attendees to the gate control's barcode box. If the barcode is accepted, add the user to the group.

At the time of the event, start a live stream to the group.

PS: You can leverage this opportunity to get more followers for your social network



This blog and video show you how to how to create ticketed online event (live streaming or on-demand) or monetize your videos:

How to create ticketed online event (live streaming or on-demand) or monetize your videos