How to create mutually inclusive groups for sessions

How do mutually inclusive session groups work?

By creating a mutually inclusive group, you can make sure your attendees follow predefined registration paths on the event agenda, by registering to a full set of sessions based on an initial session registration choice.

Event planners can create inclusion groups that include several individual sessions.

When an attendee registers to one of the sessions in the group, they will automatically be registered to all the other sessions that make up the inclusion group.

This is applicable when attendees register to sessions via the app or via the registration page.

Likewise, if an attendee unregisters from a session that is part of an inclusion group, then they will automatically be unregistered from any other sessions that are part of the same inclusion group.

Mutually inclusive groups are applied as part of the session registration process, taking into consideration the other session settings that are available on the Sessions > Preferences tab.

Mutually inclusive sessions can be applied on all registration page types (private RSVP and public) and all event formats (in-person, virtual, hybrid).

Based on your needs, you can have multiple inclusion groups that work in parallel and even combine them with exclusion groups to create very specific registration paths.

Example of a mutually inclusive group in the agenda in the app

Here, for this example, on the same day we have two identical sets of two sessions that are repeated.

There is a set of two sessions that attendees can register to in the morning, and a set of two sessions that attendees can register to in the afternoon:

In the agenda, we wish to ensure that an attendee who registers for the Morning group - welcome and introduction session, is also automatically registered to the Morning group - why go hybrid for your events session.

Likewise, if an attendee instead decides to register to the Afternoon group - welcome and introduction session, we want to make sure that they are also automatically registered to the Afternoon group - why go hybrid for your events session.

This can be done by creating inclusion groups that include both sessions:

• One inclusion group will contain both morning sessions.
• One inclusion group will contain both afternoon sessions.

Once an inclusion group is applied to a session, the attendee will for example access the Morning group - welcome and introduction session, and see the following:

Here they will see the message indicating that "This session is linked to other sessions. (...)".
Where they will see what other sessions are linked to this specific session, as part of the same inclusion group.

By selecting Register for the Morning group - welcome and introduction session, they are also automatically registered to the Morning group - why go hybrid for your events session:

To note, in this above example, it would be beneficial to also use an exclusion group to prevent your attendees from registering to both the morning and the afternoon session sets. More information on using exclusion groups.

Example of a mutually inclusive group in the registration page

In the registration page, when attendees register to one session that is a part of the same inclusion group, they will also be automatically registered to all the sessions in the inclusion group.

When adding sessions that are part of an inclusive group to the registration page, all the sessions of the inclusion group no longer need to featured (the inclusive rule will be applied if just one of the inclusive sessions is featured).

In the same example as above, of the four sessions that are available for registration via the registration page, selecting one of the morning sessions will automatically register the attendee to both morning sessions, and selecting one of the afternoon sessions will automatically register them to both afternoon sessions:

How to create mutually inclusive session groups?

Mutually inclusive session groups are created in the Sessions module. To create an inclusive group:

1. Go to Content > Sessions > Registration tab.
2. Open the Mutually inclusive sessions section, and click on (1) New inclusion group +:
   

Here you can:

• Add a name (2) for the inclusive group. This name is only visible in Backstage, it is not visible in the app or the registration page.
• Use the dropdown (3) to select the individual agenda sessions that will be part of this inclusive group. To note, only the first 20 sessions that are available to choose from are shown in the dropdown. If you are not seeing the session that you are looking for, use the Search field to find it.
  Remember to always click on Save to confirm your changes.

All agenda session inclusion groups are visible in the in the Sessions module > Registration tab > Mutually inclusive sessions section, where they can be accessed, edited, renamed, and deleted if needed, by clicking on the ⋮ button located to the right of the group name:

Based on your needs, you can have multiple inclusion groups that work in parallel, and combine them with exclusion groups to create specific registration paths.