Contents
The Engagement Panel provides event attendees with opportunities to interact with each other as well as presenters during your event. This panel comes with multiple, configurable features such as chat threads, direct messaging, polls, Q&As, and downloadable resources. Additionally, presenters may also use this tab to present media on the main stage.
Chat
The Chat feature allows attendees, speakers, and other event team members to interact with each other during your event. The Goldcast platform offers separate chat threads for the following areas of your event space:
- Public
- Session (one chat thread for each session)
- Speaker
- Booth (one chat thread for each booth)
- Room (one chat thread for each room)
Note: All chat messages are recorded and shared with organizers after an event has ended and can be viewed in the Post Event Dashboard.
Public
The Public chat is where you are able to chat and interact with all attendees for the duration of your event. This chat is not associated with a specific session and captures conversations that are visible to attendees throughout the event. If you choose to disable Public chat, only organizers and speakers will be able to post messages for attendees on this thread. If Public chat is enabled, all attendees can post in the chat.
Session
Once you join a session, you will have access to a chat specific to it. This chat can be used to share links and/or notes that are relevant to the conversation.
Session chat can be turned on/off live during your event and the change will update for attendees in real time.
Note: Once a session has ended, attendees will not be able to return to and view the session chat. The session chat thread will refresh with each new session.
Booths and Rooms
Similar to the Session chat, these chats are specific to a particular Room or Booth and can be used for networking purposes.
Speaker
If you are a Speaker, Moderator, or Organizer for a session, you will have access to the Speaker chat both backstage and while onstage or in the audience. This chat will not be visible to attendees or any speakers who aren’t a part of your session.
Publishing a Chat to the Stage
This is a great way to share messages in real time with attendees during a broadcast. To publish a chat to the stage, first send your message in any chat thread (Public, Session, or Speaker). Then, hover over the message you want to present on stage and click the "Share" icon.
Note: To publish a chat to the stage, you must be inside a broadcast.
This will share your chat message on the screen so that all attendees will be able to view it. You can share a chat message during a broadcast or break.
To clear the chat from the stage, click the x in the upper right corner of the chat window.
Private Chat
The Goldcast platform makes it easy to send private chats and 1:1 video chats. This feature can be used to message attendees, speakers, and others individually.
Video Messages
To video chat with an attendee, select the Video Call button under their name to notify them that you would like to chat.
Enabling and Disabling Chats, GIFs & Private Chats
Each chat thread can be enabled or disabled individually from the Look & Feel section of your event.
- Log in to Goldcast Studio with your credentials
- Click the hamburger icon
on the top left, and select the Events tab to get a list of all your events
- From the Events list, click the event you want to edit
- Click Look & Feel in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Scroll to Engagement & Communication and click to open the section
- Scroll to Chat Experience and click to open the section
- Turn on or off the Public Chat, Session Chat, Room Chat, Booth Chat, Private Chat & GIFs using their respective toggles
- Click Save in the upper right corner of the screen
Note:
- The Goldcast Platform does not allow the Speaker chat to be disabled.
- Goldcast allows attendees to search and share Level 1 G-rated GIFs from Giphy's database. Only non-offensive content is permitted.
Q&A
The Q&A feature allows event attendees to submit questions to presenters during their sessions. These questions are located under the Q&A tab on the Engagement Panel and can be submitted in text or video format.
To enable or disable Q&A as a whole, change these settings in each session.
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- From the Events list, click the event you want to edit
- Click Program in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Click the session you’d like to edit
- Scroll down to Engagement Options and click the arrow on the left side to open the section
- Click the arrow on the right side to open the Q&A section
- Turn on or off the Text Q&A and Video Q&A settings
- Click Save in the upper right corner of the screen
Responding to a Question
Attendee questions are located under the Q&A tab on the Engagement Panel. Attendees will utilize this tab on their end to submit both text and video questions.
When a text or video question has been submitted, a red dot will appear next to the Q&A tab. If you've enabled the Moderate Q&A parameter, you will need to click the Approve button for any question you'd like attendees to see.
Text Questions
Once a text question has been submitted (and approved, if Q&A is moderated), you can present it on the main stage by selecting the Share button, if you are in a Live broadcast.
To stop sharing, click "Stop Sharing" in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Questions submitted can also be responded to via text that will be visible to attendees directly under the question. Enter your response in the "Post an answer" box.
Note: Only one response can be posted per question, and once a response has been shared it can be deleted by clicking on Answered as shown below. Both organizers and speakers have the ability to do this.
After your response has been posted, the question will be Marked as answered and attendees will be able to view the posted response. This question can still be shared to the stage by clicking Share but can no longer be upvoted.
You can change the response or let the audience upvote more by clicking on "Answered". Both speakers and organizers can update answers this way.
Moderated vs. Unmoderated Q&A
The Moderate Q&A parameter allows you to view and approve submitted questions prior to letting attendees view and upvote them.
Note: Moderating Q&A is an event level configuration.
Anonymous Text Q&A
Attendees can ask questions anonymously. If this setting is disabled, all questions will include the attendee’s name.
Show Answerers' Identity
Show the name of the person who answered the question. If this setting is disabled, typed answers to questions will not have the organizer’s name listed.
Answerers' Alias
If you would prefer to post an alias as the person who answered questions, enter it here. For example, answers can come from “Company XYZ Team” or “Event ABC Team.”
To enable or disable moderated Q&A, anonymous Q&A, show/hide answerer’s identity or add aliases follow these steps:
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- From the Events list, click the event you want to edit
- Click Look & Feel in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Scroll to Engagement & Communication and click to open the section
- Scroll to Chat Experience and click to open the section
- Turn on or off the Moderate Q&A, Anonymous Q&A, Answerer’s Identity setting
- Click Save in the upper right corner of the screen
Deleting a Question
You can delete any question by clicking Delete question as shown below. Only the organizer & speakers have the ability to delete a question.
Video Questions
For video Q&A requests, select the Approve button to allow the person asking to present their question on the main stage. Video Q&A is available during Live broadcasts.
Polls
The Goldcast platform allows users to create polls for individual sessions. You may wish to add a poll to your session for surveying or engagement purposes. Polls are set up prior to an event and are then enabled and published from the Engagement Panel.
Setting up a Poll
Polls are set up when you create a session for your event program.
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- From the Events list, click the event you want to edit
- Click Program in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Click the session you’d like to edit
- Scroll down to Engagement Options and click the arrow on the right side to open the section
- Click the arrow on the left side to open the Polls section
- Click +New Poll
- Type your question in the Question field
- Click +Add Option to add an answer option. Add as many answer options as needed.
- Check the box next to “Allow multi-selection” if you would like to enable your attendees to select more than one answer option at a time.
- Click Save
Enabling a Poll During an Event
When you are ready to launch a poll, select the Poll tab on the Engagement Panel then click the Open button.
Note: Only one poll can be launched at a time.
Publishing Poll Results
If you would like to display poll results in real time, select the Publish button to display the incoming results on the stage during Live broadcasts.
To stop displaying poll results, select the Stop Sharing button in the bottom-right corner of the main stage or the Unpublish button on the Engagement Panel.
Click here to learn more about polls
Resources and Documents
Documents and other resources can be uploaded to sessions prior to an event. Speakers may wish to use this feature to share resources with event attendees while they are presenting.
Once a document or resource has been added, it can be accessed from the Docs tab on the Engagement Panel during the session.
Uploading a Resource to a Session
Upload supplemental materials for attendees to download or save. These can be URLs or files.
To add a resource:
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- From the Events list, click the event you want to edit
- Click Program in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Click the session you’d like to edit
- Scroll down to Engagement Options and click the arrow on the right side to open the section
- Open the Resources section by clicking the arrow on the left side
- To upload a document, click Upload Resource and select your file, give the document a name, and click Save
- To add a URL, click + Add Resource, and enter the name of your resource and the URL
- Click Save
- To remove a resource, click on the resource in the list and click Remove
Media
The Media feature allows you to upload and share slides and/or prerecorded videos during an event session.
- Live sessions support both slides and videos.
- Pre-recorded sessions do not support slides. It only supports videos that play automatically at the start of a session.
- The RTMP sessions do not support slides or videos, as the video playing on your main stage is streaming from an external platform and cannot be interrupted.
Uploading Slides and Video
Slides
For live sessions, you can upload PDF files of slides your speakers can share during the session.
To add slides:
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- From the Events list, click the event you want to add slides
- Click Program in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Click the session in which you’d like to add slides
- Open the Slides section by clicking the arrow on the left side
- Click +Add Slide
- To upload a new file, click + Upload PDF, locate the file and click Open, then Upload.
- Select the file(s) you’d like to use from the list (they will be highlighted in purple)
- From this window, you can also edit a file’s name, preview the file, or delete the file
- Click Save
Video
For Live or Pre-recorded sessions, you can upload video files to play during the session.
In a Live session, an organizer must manually click Play on the video to start it.
In a Pre-recorded session, all videos will play automatically in the order they are uploaded when the session time begins.
Learn more about suggested video lengths for pre-recorded sessions.
To add videos:
- Open Goldcast Studio and click the hamburger icon
- Open the Videos section by clicking the arrow on the right side
- Click +Add Video
- To upload a new file, click + Upload Video, locate the file and click Open, then Upload.
- Once the file is uploaded, it will be in Processing state. It takes approximately 4x the length of the video for Goldcast to fully process a video. Videos will only be able to be played in an event after they have successfully processed. (Processing will happen in the background - so you can save your session and edit other event details or navigate away from Goldcast during that time.)
- Select the file(s) you’d like to use from the list (they will be highlighted in purple)
- From this window, you can also edit a file’s name, preview the file, download the file, or delete the file
- Click Save
Presenting Slides and Videos
Media content that you've added to a session can be found under the Media tab on the Engagement Panel of your main stage.
The platform allows you to present media content while you are backstage, on stage, or watching live from the audience.
Launching Polls while Presenting Slides
Polls are a great tool to collect feedback and insights from your audience in real-time. They make your sessions more engaging and interactive. Goldcast allows you to seamlessly switch between polls and your slide deck anytime during your presentation.
Here’s how you can do it:
Once you’re in the Event Space, navigate to the Media tab in the Engagement Panel. Click the Share button on the bottom-right of the screen to share your slide deck on stage. This starts the presentation from Slide 1. Alternatively, you can click the Share icon next to each slide to begin the presentation from a specific slide.
At any point during your presentation, you can click the Poll tab in the engagement panel and click the Share icon to launch a poll on stage.
This stops the presentation, and the poll gets shared on stage.
If you want to switch back to your presentation, all you have to do is go back to the Media tab and click the Share icon next to the slide you want to present on stage. This action stops the poll from being shared on stage and automatically switches back to your presentation.
Your slide deck is back on stage, and you can continue the presentation right from where you left off.
Note: You can share several polls during your presentation. Remember, when you switch back to the presentation, the poll is no longer shared on stage. However, it’s still open to your audience. They can respond anytime during the session until you click the poll Close button.
For more information on sharing slides in Goldcast, see Presenting a slide deck.
For more information on creating and sharing polls in Goldcast, see Launching polls.