To begin creating a Virtual Event in PathFactory’s Virtual Event Experience (VEX), start by navigating to the Virtual Event Tab in the primary PathFactory navigation.

Click + Add Virtual Event, give the event a name, then click Add Virtual Event (you can change the event name later if required).

With your event created, you can rename it and save to a different folder if you wish. You do so by locating the event in the list of events, and then hover over the event you want to configure. Click the pencil icon that appears.

If you want to remove an event,  hover over the event in the list of events, and then click the trash can icon.

At the prompt, confirm you wish to remove the event or cancel out of the process. Note: you cannot recover a deleted event.

PathFactory automatically generates a URL for the event (‘Event Link’) created as a new URL slug appended to the end of your PathFactory subdomain. It’s built automatically, using the customer subdomain of your PathFactory environment, with the event URL slug appended to the end. This becomes the public event URL and can also be used as the registration URL if you wish to use VEX to gather registrations. For more information see Registration and Sending Attendees to VEX. This URL slug can be changed in Event Setup (see below).

To configure your event, select the event from the list. You now see multiple tabs along the top of the screen. These are your customization tools.

The event name can be changed using the Event Name field. The event name is visible to your audience in several places (eg. the Event Page Title, and in the Header across your event), so be sure to choose something appropriate for an external audience.

The event URL slug is used on the end of the event URL, and can be changed at any time. Note: only change the event URL slug if you have not yet shared a link to your event externally. Changing the event URL slug changes the event URL, which causes the original link to no longer function.

Session configuration

Within a VEX, you add sessions and configure them to meet your needs. To access the configuration options for a particular session, click on your VEX event, and then click the session tab. Click Add Session.

Add Session popup menu If you are creating a Live session, this menu presents the date and time options. If an event is being run at a particular date and time, be sure to enter the appropriate start time, end time and time zone.

The time zone defaults to the time zone you have selected in your organization settings. You may update this setting later to reflect your personal time zone if you wish. Entering these details allows VEX to group live sessions by the day they’re happening in an agenda-style view.

Next, return to the list of sessions and you’ll see your new session there. Click its corresponding Configuration link. This brings you to the Configuration screen.

If an event is purely on-demand or an on-going series (eg. run as one webinar per week over the course of many weeks), then entering a start time, end time and time zone is not necessary.

External ID is an optional field that allows you to enter a unique text string for your event, which can then be passed along with visitor session data into other platforms. This can help to identify which visitor sessions were from particular virtual events. The “Experience External ID” field in the Visitor Session and Form Capture webhook will pull in this field see VEX Data Integrations for more information. For Example, if you set your External ID to “field_event_1” you could then parse out visitor sessions to that particular event in your Visitor Session Webhook by filtering on the “Experience External ID” field being “field_event_1”. Some customers enter unique campaign or program IDs into this field and then use automated programs in Marketing Automation to add attendees to the appropriate campaign.

The Attendee Registration Form dropdown menu section allows you to attach a PathFactory standard form from your PathFactory form library to a virtual event for attendee registration. When you select this field you will see a picklist of all of the standard PathFactory forms in your form library. You can only attach one form to an event and it is used across the whole event. For more information see Registration and Sending Attendees to VEX. Registrants who complete this form are visible in VEX analytics and their event engagement data can be pushed to external tools such as marketing automation systems. For more information see Data Integrations.

The language field allows you to indicate which language the event is in. As of the writing of this article this field is exclusively used to localize the text within the track protection feature described below.

Access Protection piggybacks on functionality introduced to PathFactory Campaign Tools (Content Tracks and Explore pages) in August 2020, allowing you to require email authentication against an allowed list to gain access. Using this feature, any visitor who does not provide an approved email address will not be allowed to access the event. Access Protection first requires setting up one or more groups (effectively allowed list email domains or specific email addresses), within Access Protection settings. With one or more groups you wish to whitelist set-up, you can then begin applying these groups to your event. Simply select the Access Protection field and choose one or more groups from the picklist you wish to whitelist to attend your event.

On the configuration screen, scroll down to the Access Protection field to chose the type of protection, and the groups allowed to view the event.

Just like PathFactory Campaign Tools (Content Tracks and Explore pages) when an attendee attempts to access an event they’re first presented with a modal window (shown below) which requires that they enter their email address. Parts of this modal window can be customized within Language Settings.

A confirmation email is sent only if their email address is on the Access Protection list. If so, an email is sent and they must click the link provided in the confirmation email to verify their email address. After verification, they are allowed access to the VEX event.

That’s it for your event’s initial set-up. Next learn how Registration and sending attendees to VEX works.