How to use the Appointments module

This article applies to the premium paid Appointments module, that is specially designed for congresses and trade shows. This is a separate module to the paid Meetings module.

The SpotMe Appointments module streamlines the process of setting up and managing meetings at congresses and trade shows, by combining powerful scheduling, room management and engagement functionalities.

Installing and accessing the Appointments module

The Appointments module is a paid module. Please contact your SpotMe Account Manager if you are interested in using it for your event.

Please note that the Meetings and Appointment modules cannot both be used on the same workspace. Before using the Appointments module for your congress or trade show:
- Make sure that your workspace or your workspace template does not have the Meetings module installed, as having the Meetings module installed alongside the Appointments module can cause issues when applying updates to the Appointments module. Please contact SpotMe support if you want to install the Appointments module in a workspace or template that already has the Meetings module installed there.
- When updating the Appointments module on the Marketplace (in workspace and workspace templates), please make sure that you always update the correct “Appointments” module, and do not install the Meetings module by mistake.

How is the Appointments module used in Backstage and in the app?

The Appointments module can be used pre-event by the event planning team to schedule any number of one-to-one or group meetings between attendees at events.

It is especially designed to facilitate this task in the context of complex congresses or trade shows, thanks to a clear calendar view with filters that indicate the attendee and room availability, as well as when the main agenda sessions take place.

In addition to being able to create meetings for event attendees, Backstage users can manage all the meetings in the event, create and manage meeting locations, and manage all the settings available in the meetings module.

In parallel, the Appointments module can be used by app users on web and mobile, in order to receive and respond to meeting invitations, as well as schedule their own meetings directly. This includes using the calendar view with the same attendee and room filters.

Meeting planners using Backstage can also create and manage a dedicated list of external users (participants) in the workspace, composed of event participants who are currently not using the event app.

This external users list can then be used by app users to search for external users/participants and add them to meetings. For more flexibility they can also directly add new external users while they schedule meetings onsite during a congress or trade show.

In order to make meeting scheduling more efficient, a Meetings request tab has been added to the Appointments module. Meeting planners can use it to request that their attendees share their availability in advance of scheduling the meetings.

Below we've created a breakdown of what Backstage users and app users can do using the Appointments module.

How can Backstage users (meeting planners) use the Appointments module?

Backstage users can schedule and manage meetings as well as configure how they want the meeting scheduler to be used for the event. They can:

• Create and edit meeting locations that can be selected by Backstage users and by app users when setting up meetings.
• Schedule and manage meetings, from the calendar view or from the Meetings tab.
• Search for and invite internal participants (app users) to meetings.
• Search for, invite and add new external participants (non app users) to the workspace's External users list.
• Customize the meeting information included in the ICS file / meetings slots, and how that information is added to the attendees native calendars.

Important: The way that the meeting details are displayed in calendars is dependent on the email client that the recipient is using.
- Google accounts will display a plain text version of the ICS description in the calendar slot with no text formatting, and links displayed as full URLs (instead of hyperlinks).
- Outlook accounts will simply display the last meeting invitation email body in the calendar slot, instead of the ICS information.
The behavior of these accounts is not something that can be controlled by the SpotMe platform.
It is therefore very important that meeting planners make sure that both the ICS files AND the meeting invitation, meeting update, and RSVP response email templates have all the same required information needed for the meeting invitees/participants.

• Send out meeting requests to find out the attendees' availability in advance of scheduling the meetings.
• Set up reminders that are sent to meeting attendees informing them of their upcoming meetings.
• Access and manage the External users list.
• Track the attendees meeting acceptance and meeting attendance statuses.
• Manage the meetings Settings.

How can app users (attendees) use the Appointments module?

App users, on web and mobile app, can receive (and respond to) meeting invitations, as well as schedule their own meetings. In summary they can:

• Create (organize) new meetings (via the meetings tab or the calendar tab).
• See and edit the meetings that they organized (change time, location, meeting name, invited guests, etc.).
• Search for and invite internal participants (app users) to meetings.
• Search for, invite and add new external users (non app users) to the workspace's External users list.
• Receive availability requests, so they can provide their overall availability for the event.
• Receive meeting invitations (with notifications in the app and emails) and respond whether they are attending or not (via the app).
• Add meetings to their native calendar applications along with all the details via the ICS files.
• Receive meetings reminder email informing them of their upcoming meetings.

Create meeting locations in Backstage

Meeting locations can only be created in Backstage, and can be selected when creating a meeting in Backstage or via the app.

To create a new meeting location, go to the Settings tab, and in the Location options, click on New location. The below fields are used to create the new location:

Name of the meeting location - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
Meeting location names are limited to 25 characters, to ensure the best display across all platforms.

Description of the meeting location - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
This could for example be information on how to find it, any specific equipment in the meeting location, or anything particular about the location that you wish to share with attendees.
Meeting location descriptions are limited to 80 characters, to ensure the best display across all platforms.

Allow event participants to book this location - visible to users in Backstage but not attendees in the app. Use this option to configure whether or not this location should be available to attendees to book via the app. You can for example disable option this if you want to keep this location only available to be booked for meetings that are created by the event organizers via Backstage, or use the Meeting location permissions setting below to configure targeting.

Meeting location permissions
Here you can use targeting to determine who among the app users can book the location and have visibility into the meetings that will take place there.

Capacity
Indicate the maximum capacity for the location, ie. the maximum number of people in a meeting who can use this location.

Date and time slots for the meeting - visible to users in Backstage but not attendees in the app.
Here you can select over what period(s) of time the meeting location will be available to be booked. Outside of these times, the location cannot be booked

You can create multiple distinct Start/end dates periods, for making the meeting available to be booked, using the Add date range button. You can also create multiple distinct Start/end time periods within each Start/end dates period, using the button. This is particularly useful if a location is not available on all days of the event, or if you want to make it available at different times on different days.

When you create additional Start/end dates periods, you can select the Copy time slots option in order to copy over the same Start/end time periods into the new date range.

Click on Save once you have finished creating the meeting location.

Here, for example, we have created 3 meetings locations:

The Room 1 location has a capacity of 8 people, the Room 2 location has a capacity of 4 people, and the Room 3 has a capacity of 2 people.

Note: In Backstage, event organizers can choose whether or not to allow custom meeting locations to be used in the app when attendees create their own meetings. More information

Using meeting requests to capture availability before scheduling meetings

Important: The information in this section describes how the meeting request functionality currently works. Please be aware that, starting April 7, 2026, several important changes have been made to how meeting requests work. These changes are all described in the new dedicated article called How can planners capture and leverage the availability of attendees to facilitate scheduling meetings.

In order to make meeting scheduling more efficient, a new Meetings request tab has been added to the Appointments module:

Meeting planners can use this tab to request that their attendees share their availability for meetings in advance of actually sending out the meeting invitations. This will therefore help to ensure that the invited participants are available and will ultimately accept the meeting invitations.

How do meeting requests work?

Meeting planners can create a "meeting request" that will be sent to the invited participants via email.

This meeting request email contains the meeting information and a link to a meeting request form, where participants can select their available date/time slots for the meeting.

The time slots that are listed in the meeting request form, and are available to be selected by the participant, are determined by the system according to:

• The availability of the representative (organizer): Time slots when the organizer is not available (based on existing meetings) are not listed in the form.
• The availability of rooms: Based on any specified times when rooms are available, and taking into consideration if the room is already booked or not.
• The meeting request duration: As specified in the meeting request.
• The Default meeting suggested start date and time for the event: per the selection in the Settings > Schedule rules section:
  

Once the meeting planner has received the responses to the meeting request from the participants (via the meeting request form), they can if needed convert the meeting request into an actual meeting invitation.

Creating a meeting request

To create a meeting request, select the New meeting request button and fill in the below information for the meeting:

Title
Title of the meeting request.

Description
This is optional, and can be used to add more details to the meeting request. Please scroll down to the email example below to see exactly what this description text refers to.

Duration
Use the dropdown to select the duration of the meeting. The possible duration values are based on the meeting duration settings configured in Settings > Duration.

Representative (organizer)
Use the dropdown to select the sponsor representative that the meeting is organized on behalf of.

Participants
Use the dropdown to select the participants (internal and external) that the meeting request will be sent to via email.

Once you have completed the above fields for the meeting request, you have two options:

• OPTION 1: Save the meeting request in Backstage and do not yet send out the meeting request email:
  Selecting Save at the bottom of the screen will save the meeting request and add it to the Meeting requests tab (the list of meeting requests).
  
  At this point, the meeting request email is not yet sent out. You can access the meeting request by selecting it in the list, and from here you can send the meeting request email to the participants by clicking on the Request availability button:
  
   
• OPTION 2: Save and send out the meeting request email immediately:
  Selecting Request availability will (after confirmation) immediately send out the meeting request email to the invited participants:
  
  At this point, once sent out, the meeting request will indicate:
  - To the right: The meeting request status, as well as the date and time at which the meeting request was sent out. 
  - At the bottom left: (in the "Participants" section) The response(s) from the invited participants:
  
   

How do participants answer a meeting request email?

The invited participants will receive the meeting request email. From here they can select the dedicated link to the meeting request form ("Click here to share your availability"), in order to share their availability:

To note, above you can see where the "description" text 
(referred to at the start of this section) is positioned in the email.

The email templates in the workspace that are used for the meeting requests emails can be configured via the Appointments > Settings > Communications > Meetings requests section:

By clicking on the link in the email, the invited participants will be able to indicate their availability via the meeting request form:

Here the attendee can see the meeting duration, the number of total participants (including themself), and whether the participants have already answered or not.

More importantly, they can choose their availability response for this meeting request:

• They can select the "None of the options fit my schedule" checkbox. This will result in the participant fully declining the meeting. OR
• They can select the date and time slots that will fit their schedule. The participant can select as many slots as they like.

Once they have made their choice, the participant can select Submit in order to send their meeting request response to the meeting planner.

How can I edit the look and feel of the meeting request form?

The meeting request form, as explained just above, is used by the participants to indicate their availability for a meeting, by selecting the times slots when they will be available.

This form can be customized so that it is aligned with the branding or identity of the organization or  event app. This is done in Backstage via the Request form tab:

Here the Backstage user can choose:

• A primary color that is used for the selected time slots and the button background.
• A button text color that will be used for the color of the text in the buttons.
• A Background image that can be uploaded and used for the background of the form.
  Accepted files types are PNG or JPEG, with a maximum file size of 10MB.
  Recommended resolution is 1920x720px.

As changes are made using these settings, a preview of the form is visible in real-time.

Clicking Save will confirm and save the changes made to the meeting request form design, which will be effective immediately.

How can a meeting planner see the meeting request responses and convert the meeting request into an actual meeting

In Backstage, in the Meetings requests list, the meeting planner can see the responses from the invited participants:

By selecting the meeting request from the list, the meeting planner can see exactly which participant has responded. They can also see what time slots were selected by the participant via the meeting request form (see "Proposed time slots"):

In the Participants section, for each participant in the meeting request, the meeting planner can also click on the dedicated link button in order to copy a direct link to the availability response form for that specific participant. This can be helpful for providing reminders with direct links (outside of using an email).

Likewise, the meeting planner can also click on the dedicated email button, in order to send an email (using the template of their choosing) to the relevant participant. For example, the meeting planner can, if needed, choose to select a "Meeting request reminder" email template to the participant, in order to encourage them to provide an availability response to the meeting request. These emails can also be scheduled to be sent in the future:

The following availability statuses are possible for participants who have been sent meeting requests: Available, Not available, Awaiting availability.

On the right side of the screen, the meeting planner can also see the overall availability of the participants for the meeting request. Two additional options are also available here:

• Reject request: This will set the status of the meeting request to "Rejected", and means that the meeting request will not be converted into a scheduled meeting. All participants will be informed that the request is cancelled (rejected) via email.
• Schedule meeting: This will set the status of the meeting to "Scheduled", and means that the meeting planner can convert the meeting request into an actual meeting. This is only possible once at least one participant has confirmed their availability for a time slot.

By selecting Schedule meeting from the meeting request, the meeting planner can directly convert the meeting request into a meeting.

The meeting request information is carried over into a New meeting window. To note, only the participants with a status of "Awaiting approval" or "Available" will be carried over, so participants that are not available at all will not be carried over.

Here the meeting planner can complete any missing information for the meeting, and also adjust the availability of the participants if needed.

Selecting Save will complete the conversion of the meeting request into a meeting, and send out the meeting invitations to the attendees.

At this point, the status of the meeting request in the list is set to Meeting scheduled:

If you open the meeting request, you will notice that it can no longer be edited, all the fields are greyed out:

Also, if you navigate to the Meetings tab, you'll see the newly created meeting in the list:

Create your meetings in Backstage

Event organizers can create meetings in Backstage. These meetings will be created on behalf of an attendee who will be the "organizer" of the meeting. The attendee who is the organizer of a meeting also has the ability to edit the meeting via the app.

New meetings can be created in Backstage via the Appointments module's Calendar tab (as described above) OR via the Meetings tab (that contains a list of the meetings already created in the workspace).

Note: Using the Calendar tab will provide the meeting planner with a customizable overview of the availability of the attendees and the rooms, and will significantly facilitate the scheduling of the meetings. 

Creating a meeting via the Calendar tab in Backstage

The first displayed tab in the Appointments module is the Calendar tab.

Here you will find a calendar view that you can customize by choosing what calendar information will appear here.

For example, you can choose to show the calendars of one or more attendees as well as the calendars of one or more rooms. Displaying this information will help you easily schedule one or more meetings with multiple attendees, as well as manage the scheduled meetings:

In the above example of the calendar view, you can see:

1 - The date that is selected for the calendar view. Only the meetings that are scheduled on this date will be visible. You can change the selected date using the forward and back arrows, or by clicking on the date and using the date selector. When displaying a day, you can scroll up and down to show the different times during the day.

2 - A toggle you can use to display or not the main agenda sessions for the day.

3 - Buttons to create a new meeting, export a XLS report of meetings, or import meetings via XLS.

4 - When enabled, the main agenda sessions are shown to the left side of the calendar view.

5 & 6 - Use the Display calendars drop-down located to the right, to choose which attendee (internal and external users) and/or room calendars that you want to include in the calendar view.
In the example above, in order to easily set up meetings between Miquel, Jamie, and Nicolas, and to see the availability of Room 1 and Room 2, we have selected the calendars of each attendee and each room in the Display calendars drop-down.
For external users that are selected in the calendar view, the user will see all the meetings that the external user has been invited to via the Appointments module.

7 - A legend that indicates the type or status of the meetings that are displayed in the calendar view based on their appearance.

To schedule a meeting from the calendar view, you can simply click on a suitable time slot in the calendar, or on the New meeting button.

Doing so will display the New meeting screen that is explained below

Creating a meeting via the Meetings tab in Backstage

To create a meeting via the Meetings tab, go to the Meetings tab and click on New meeting.

Doing so will display the New meeting screen that is explained below.

Entering the information for the new meeting in Backstage

The below fields are used to create the meeting:

Title of the meeting - mandatory field visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.

Date of the meeting  - mandatory field visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
Here you have to choose the date and start time of the meeting.

Duration of the meeting - mandatory field visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
Here you have to enter how long the meeting will last.

Note: It is not possible to create meetings that span over a single day (beyond 00:00). All times are based on the event timezone.

Organizer of the meeting - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
This is the attendee that will show as the organizer of the meeting in the app, and who will have the ability to edit the meeting via the app. You can use the dropdown to the right of this field to predefine what the attendance status will be ("pending", "accepted", "declined") for the organizer of the meeting. The organizer will still have the option of changing their attendance status in the meeting invitation in the app.
Note: Please be aware that some calendar apps (for example Yahoo or Outlook) do not support presetting the meeting response for a participant. This means that if you create a meeting in Backstage with meeting response already set (for example "Accepted"), it will still appear as a "Pending" in the calendars of participants who use these apps.

Participants of the meeting - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app. 
Here you can enter the name and select each attendee that will be invited to attend the meeting. 
You can select existing internal participants who are on the User list of the workspace (and who will have access to the app in order to respond to the Meeting request) and/or you can select "external users" who are not on the Users list of the workspace and do not have access to the app (but who instead are added to a dedicated External user list in the workspace).
If a user name appears in grey, this means that the user has a "hidden" status in their profile in the workspace, and is therefore not visible to other attendees via the app.
You can use the dropdown to the right of each participant to predefine what the attendance status will be ("pending", "accepted", "declined") for that participant. Participants will still have the option of changing their attendance status in the meeting invitation in the app.
Note: Please be aware that some calendar apps (for example Yahoo or Outlook) do not support presetting the meeting response for a participant. This means that if you create a meeting in Backstage with meeting response already set (for example "Accepted"), it will still appear as a "Pending" in the calendars of participants who use these apps.

Add external users/participants - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app (name only).
Clicking here will allow you to add people who are not currently using the app to the dedicated External users list in the workspace. Once added to the list, external users can be selected and invited to meetings, and you can easily manage their information in Backstage. 
External users can be added to the workspace and then edited by Backstage users. App users can also add new external users to the workspace, via the app, when scheduling meetings. More information on managing external users

Location of the event - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
Here you can select a location that is already created in the event. Locations will only be available to select here if they match the criteria of the meeting: this includes the meeting capacity, meeting date/time/duration, the location capacity, and the location availability for booking.

For example, if the meeting you are creating has 6 participants, then meeting locations with a capacity that is below 6 participants will not show in the dropdown. Likewise, if a meeting is scheduled to take place at a certain date and time, and that date and time does not match with the configured availability date and time slot(s) for booking the meeting location, then the meeting location will not be available to select in the dropdown. 

In case there is no suitable location, you can enter your own - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app.
The last field in the screen can be used as a free text field to describe a custom location for the meeting. It must be used when no predefined options are available to select in the above Location field. These open text locations do not have any configured capacity or time slots.

Adding a meeting location is mandatory when creating a meeting. Instead of selecting a predefined meeting location, users will have to create "custom" meeting locations using the "Enter your own location" free text field.

Description - visible to users in Backstage and attendees in the app
Add a description for the meeting

Internal notes
Add any notes regarding the meeting that will only be visible to meting planners in Backstage, and will not be visible in the app.

Read only
This will make sure app users can only view the meeting without having the ability to modify it.
To note, you can change the default behavior of this setting in the meetings metadata.

Disable notifications
By activating this setting, all communication (emails and notifications) will be disabled.
To note, you can change the default behavior of this setting in the meetings metadata.

"Read only" and "Disable notifications" will be used in their default configuration in the app as well. This means that if you set "disable notifications" in the metadata to "active", when someone updates a meeting in the app, it will skip the notifications. Same for "Read only", if enabled in the metadata, new meetings would by default be created in "read-only" mode.

This meeting, once created (after being saved in Backstage), will appear in the list of meetings in Backstage (the first one in the list below):

Once the meeting is saved, the meeting invitation will immediately be received by the participants, in the form of a notification in the app or an email for attendees that are not using the app.

Creating and editing a meeting using the app

Creating a meeting in the app

App users can create meetings via the app. To do this they need to open the Appointments section, and in the Calendar or the Meetings screen, tap the + button:

Note: App users can use the same Display calendars dropdown to choose exactly which attendee (internal and external) and room calendars they would like to see in their calendar view in the app, in order to help them schedule/create a new meeting.
Also, when looking at the meetings in the calendar view, you will notice that for a given meeting, a maximum of three attendee profile pictures can be displayed. If there are more attendees, for example 5, then the meeting will show three profile pictures and show a "+2" next to them.

In the next screen, app users can create the meeting:

The fields here are exactly the same as those described in the Creating a meeting in Backstage section.

App users will need to enter the meeting participants and the meeting start date/time/duration before they can select an available location, as the system will use this information in order to suggest the most suitable locations.

The meeting location is mandatory when creating a meeting. The app user can either select from the list of available meeting rooms, or enter their own custom location in the text field (if the "Allow custom location input when creating a meeting" option is not disabled in the Meetings > Settings > Location options section in Backstage). If no meeting locations are created in Backstage, then the Locations field (used to select predefined meetings) will not be available when scheduling meetings in the app.

The app user creating the meeting is considered the meeting organizer, and is the only person who can edit the meeting via the app.

The app user will tap Create, at the bottom of the screen, to finish scheduling the meeting.

Once the meeting is created, meeting invitations will immediately be received by the participants, in the form of a notification in the app (for the app users) and an email (for app users and non app users). More information on the emails and notifications received.

Editing a meeting in the app

Once an app user has scheduled a meeting, they can access the meeting and make any necessary changes.

This is done by tapping the "edit meeting" button in the top right of the screen. Only meeting organizers (or the attendee that created the meeting in the app) can see this button and edit the meeting

Once the meeting is modified, participants will receive notifications and emails informing them of the changes.

Editing the fields that are contained in the meeting page in the app

The meeting/s display template is used to manage the fields/content that is visible in the meeting details page when seen in the app. The display template associated with a meeting is visible here (referred to as “Frontstage page”):

For example, you can see that the below default meeting when seen in the app has the following fields:

These fields are reflected by the components that are included the default display template:

1. Meeting host bust
2. Meeting information
3. Meeting attendance
4. Meeting participants
5. Meeting description
6. Meeting notes

Backstage users can use the display template linked to a meeting in order to customize the information that will be visible in the app for the meeting.

They can for example rearrange the existing default components by dragging them up or down in the list, or remove any that they do not need (for example Description or Notes) by selecting them and clicking on the trash icon.

They can also add more components to the display template, such as:

A - Use a “Text” component to add additional text information to the meeting and format it using the rich text editor. 

This can include placeholders for meeting metadata that can be custom created (for example a “Meeting topic”):

That can then be used in Backstage to add a topic to the meeting page:

Or links to external content via URLs (example a google maps links, web pages, floor plans, etc.):

B - Use a “List. Forms” component that can be added to the meeting display template:

Adding this component to the display template will display the linked form(s) in the meeting page in the app, for app users to access as links. Backstage users can use the dropdown in the meeting details page in Backstage in order to select the forms that they want to link to the meeting.

Forms linked to a meeting can for example be a survey, a feedback form, or a form to capture an attendee’s signature:

The forms, once linked using the Forms field in Backstage (see above), will be added to the meeting page as links visible to the app users:

Managing external users

External users are event attendees who are not currently using the event app, but who can still be invited to attend a meeting during a congress or a trade show.

External users can also be leads that have been captured using the Universal lead capture module.

External user profiles are saved in the External user list in the workspace, present in the Users section:

This is a completely separate list to the App users list in the workspace, that can be leveraged in order to collect whatever information you may need regarding external (non app user) participants.

Once they are added to the External users list, these external participants can be selected when creating meetings via Backstage or via the app.

External user profiles can be added to the workspace:

• Via Backstage: By XLS import, or by adding external users manually (via the External users list or when creating a meeting in the Appointments module in Backstage).
• Via the app in the Appointments module: When creating a meeting and adding attendees, app users can create new external users that will be saved in the workspace and can then be invited to the meeting.
• Via the app in the Universal lead capture module: When capturing leads and saving their lead (external) user profiles in the workspace.

The external user information stored in the External user list can also be edited via Backstage. In addition to the default fields that are used to capture external user information: First name and Last name, custom fields can be added in order to collect the information you need.

Remember that external users do not use the app. They therefore cannot receive meeting invitations via the app. They can however receive meeting invitation emails with calendar invitations, that they can directly respond to in order to communicate their availability and add the meeting to their personal calendar. Please refer to the best practices and requirements described in the Making sure that participants receive your event emails article.

Adding a new External user via Backstage

Via the External users list:

Backstage users can add external users to the workspace by accessing the External users list in the Users section of the workspace:

The list of all existing external users is displayed.

Here you can click on New external user to add an external user profile to the list:

By default you must enter a First name, Last name for the external participant profile, and click Save to finish adding the profile.

If you try to add an external user to a meeting invitation or a meeting request, and the external user does not have an email address, the platform will show a message saying that you need to edit the external user's profile in order to add an email address that will be used to receive and respond to the invitation emails.

To note, additional metadata can be added to the workspace if needed in order to collect the data you need for external participants. This is done through the Settings > Metadata manager > Lead profile data type.

Via the New meeting window:

When you create a new meeting in Backstage, when adding the participants to the Participant field, there are three possibilities:

1. The participant will appear in the dropdown list: this means that they are on the user list in the workspace and can be selected to be added to the meeting.
2. The participant will appear in the dropdown with "External participant" displayed next to their name: this means that the attendee is already saved on the "External users" list in the workspace, and can be added to the meeting.
3. No participant will appear in the dropdown to match your search: this means that the participant is not on the user list or the external user list in the workspace. You will have to add the attendee to the "External user" list before you can invite them to the meeting.

To add a new external user, click on Add external participant +:

By default you must enter a First name, Last name for the external participant profile, and click Save to finish adding the profile.

If you try to add an external user to a meeting invitation or a meeting request, and the external user does not have an email address, the platform will show a message saying that you need to edit the external user's profile in order to add an email address that will be used to receive and respond to the invitation emails.

To note, additional metadata can be added to the workspace if needed in order to collect the data you need for external users. This is done through the Settings > Metadata manager > Lead profile data type.

Adding a new External user via the app

When using the app, attendees can also search for, select, or add external participants to the workspace in order to invite them to meetings.

This is also done when creating the meeting and searching for participants using the Add Participants field. Again, there are three possibilities:

1. The participant will appear in the dropdown list: this means that they are on the user list in the workspace and can be selected to be added to the meeting.
2. The participant will appear in the dropdown with "External participant" displayed next to their name: this means that the attendee is already saved on the "External participants" list in the workspace, and can be added to the meeting.
3. No participant will appear in the dropdown to match your search: this means that the participant is not on the user list or the external user list in the workspace. You will have to add the attendee to the "External participant" list before you can invite them to the meeting. 

Note: When adding new External participant via the app, the participant cannot use an email address that is already used by an existing participant. This is to prevent duplicate users in the workspace.

To add a new external participant, click on Add external participant +:


By default you must enter a First name, Last name for the external participant profile, and click Add external participant to finish adding the profile. Email address is optional:

Additional metadata can be added to the workspace if needed in order to collect the data you need for external participants. This is done through the Settings > Metadata manager > Lead profile data type.

If you try to add an external participant to a meeting invitation or a meeting request, and the external participant does not have an email address, the platform will show a message saying that you need to edit the external participant's profile in order to add an email address that will be used to receive and respond to the invitation emails.

Tracking the participants' meeting acceptance and meeting attendance statuses

There are two participant statuses that you can use in order to keep track of how your participants are responding to meeting invitations and whether they are attending meetings.

Meeting acceptance status

The participant's meeting acceptance status indicates if and how each participant that was invited to a meeting has responded.

It is updated automatically based on if and how the participant has responded to the meeting invitation:

• "Pending" means that the participant has not responded to the meeting invitation.
• "Accepted" means that the attendee has responded "Yes" to the meeting invitation.
• "Declined" means that the attendee has responded "No" to the meeting invitation.

Meetings attendance status

The participant's meeting attendance status indicates if the participant that has accepted the meeting has actually attended the meeting or not.

It is updated manually, ideally in real-time by the meeting planner based on whether the attendees turn up for a meeting:

• "Pending" means that no attendance has been tracked yet. This is the default status that all meeting participants have before the meeting planner makes any attendance status changes.
• "Attended" can be selected to indicate that the participant did turn up and attend the meeting.
• "No-show" can be selected to indicate that the participant did not turn up to attend the meeting.

How to access and use the meeting acceptance and attendance statuses?

The meeting acceptance and attendance statuses for participants are visible in the meetings details in Backstage, as well as in the meetings dashboard report.

In the meetings details, the acceptance and attendance statuses are visible as follows:

• Rsvp status = participant (or organizer) meeting acceptance status
• Set attendance = participant (or organizer) meeting attendance status

The "Rsvp status" (acceptance status) is updated automatically based on the participants response to meeting invitations, and can also be edited here in the meeting details by the meeting planner, if needed.

Note: Please be aware that some calendar apps (for example Yahoo or Outlook) do not support presetting the meeting response for a participant. This means that if you create a meeting in Backstage with meeting response already set (for example "Accepted"), it will still appear as a "Pending" in the calendars of participants who use these apps.

The "Set attendance" (attendance status) must be updated manually by the meeting planner via Backstage, and is not updated automatically.

Meetings notifications and emails

Meetings notifications

Push or in-app notifications are received by meeting participants and meeting organizers to inform them of new invitations, changes in meetings, or in some cases actions performed within the meeting.

Mobile app users will always receive push notifications, and web app users will receive pop-up notifications.

In the app menu, red bubbles will also appear over the Notifications and Meetings app menu items to indicate that notifications have been received.

Meetings emails (all attendees)

Keep in mind that external participants that are not part of the user list of the workspace, and who therefore do not use the app, cannot receive app notifications.

Important: The Appointments module relies on Amazon SES (SpotMe's preferred email provider) because it supports sending ICS calendar attachments with meeting invitations. This capability is not supported by Mandrill. For organizations that continue to use Mandrill as their email provider, please be aware that invitees from their organization's workspaces will not receive ICS files. They will only be able to accept or decline meeting invitations using the buttons in the email body, and the meetings will not automatically appear in their native calendar applications.

All meeting attendees, whether they are using the app (i.e., on the user list of the workspace) or they are external (i.e. not on the user list of the workspace), will always receive meeting notifications via email:

• When attendees are invited to a meeting, including the meeting organizer:
  
• When an update is made to an existing meeting that they are invited to:
  

Note: Adding participants to or removing participants from a meeting will trigger an email to all participants, including the organizer, of the meeting.

• When the participant's attendance status (response) for a meeting has been successfully updated:
  
• When a meeting that they are invited to is cancelled:
  

As you can see these emails always include an indication of what the notification is for (meeting invitation, update, attendance status change, or cancellation), as well as the details of the meeting (title, date, start/end time, location, and the name of the meeting organizer).

Additionally, the meeting invitation email and the meeting update email include the RSVP call to actions: Accept or Decline the meeting:

If the participant responds Accept or Decline to the meeting email (either in the email or in the header), it will update the attendee's status in the app and in Backstage.

Also, depending on the email client that the recipient is using, the participant may see the call to action buttons at the top of the email, like in the example below on Gmail (with “Yes”, “Maybe”, and “No”). Using these will determine whether or not the meeting is added to the participant's personal calendar (associated to the email provider),and will always send back the participant’s response so SpotMe so that their attendance status is updated in Backstage and in the app::

Similarly, the participant can also respond using the same buttons directly via their personal calendar that is associated with their email client or their native calendar application:

The email templates that are used to notify the meeting participants can be accessed and managed via the workspace email templates, available at Design > Emails > Templates:

You can also choose which email templates to use for each notification type via the Settings > Communication > Meeting request section.

Important: Please do not insert dynamic placeholders for user information (for example {{fname}}), as these will not be supported when emails are sent to external participants. More information on editing email templates.

Note: Custom email domains can be used to send the meetings emails for the Appointments module, however please note that the meeting organizer email address in the .ics file will always be appointments@spotme-meetings.com.

Full overview of when notifications and emails are sent

Below you will find a summary of when organizers, participants using the app, and external participants, will or will not receive notifications or emails based on the actions performed:

Adjusting the settings for your meeting

In the Appointments > Settings tab, you will find the following sections for adjusting the module's settings.

Location options

Allow custom location input when creating a meeting: Use this option to choose whether to allow custom meeting locations to be used in the app when creating meetings. If this option is disabled, the app users will have to choose a predefined meeting location when creating their meetings. This option should only be disabled if you have created a sufficient number of predefined meetings for your event audience to use.

Schedule rules

• Default meeting suggested start date: This is the default suggested start date and time when creating a meeting. You can use this field to modify the suggested start date and time. For example, if you are planning on holding meetings only at a specific day/time during your event, you can change this field to that specific day/time.
   
• Meeting possible starting time every: When creating a meeting, users will select the start time of the meeting. This field is used to determine what start times will be available. By default, start times can be selected for every 5 minutes: for example 10:05 - 10:10 - 10:15, etc.

Permissions

• Allow external invitations: Enabling this option means that meeting planners will be able to add external participants to the meetings they create. Disabling this option means that external participants cannot be selected or added when creating a meeting.
   
• Create meetings from within the app: Disabling this option means that meetings can only be created via Backstage. Fully enabling this option (without any targeting) means that all app users will be able to create meetings via the app. You can use the targeting here to specify exactly which app users will be able to schedule meetings via the app:
  

Duration

Here, event organizers can choose what the selectable meeting durations should be when creating a meeting:

You can select as many of these durations as you need.

Communication

Meeting planner notification

Email address to send an email to when a meeting is created/updated/deleted

Here you can add one or more email addresses, in order to notify those people via email of any newly created, modified, or deleted/cancelled meetings. This is a great way to keep a person or group of people informed of all the activity around meetings in the event, so that they can for example ensure that everything is going smoothly, or monitor the usage and availability of meeting locations. 

To note, meeting participants will already by default receive all email notifications, so the email addresses added here are recipients that are in addition to the existing meeting participants.

To note, no emails are sent when attendees accept or decline meetings, these meetings emails are only sent when a meeting is created/updated/deleted.

Meeting planner notification (email template)
 

Here you can select the email template that will be used for the Meeting planner notification.

You can choose to use the default Meeting planner notification email, or any other template that is present in the workspace (including your own custom templates). 

You can also select the “Don’t send this email” option, to choose to not send these emails for meetings.

The default email templates look as follows:

The information included in the default email is as follows:

• The name of the meeting.
• The name of the meeting organizer.
• The date and start/end time.
• The location.
• The number of participants.
• A calendar link.

Meetings email templates

Here you can select the email templates that will be used for the Meeting invitation, the Meeting invitation updated, the Meeting attendance status updates, and the Meeting cancelled email notifications that are sent to attendees.

These emails will be sent out automatically whenever a meeting is created, updated (modified), or cancelled, to all meeting invitees/attendees, as well as any email addresses that are added to the "Meeting planner notification" field.

You can choose to use the default email templates that are present in the workspace, or you can create your own custom templates using the Email template editor and select them here to be used.

Starting January 13, 2026, you can select the “Don’t send this email” option, to choose to not send these emails for meetings.

Meeting request email templates

Here you can select the email templates that will be used for the [Meeting request] Meeting invitation, the [Meeting request] Meeting rejected email notifications.

These emails will be sent out automatically whenever a meeting request is sent or rejected.

Starting January 13, 2026, you can select the “Don’t send this email” option, to choose to not send these emails for meeting requests.

Meeting reminders

With reminders, you can increase the likelihood that scheduled meetings actually take place.

You can for example send out a daily summary with a clear overview of the agenda. This helps participants prioritize the right conversations and stay on track throughout the day.

In addition, you can schedule automated, meeting-specific reminders by email or notification to be sent before each appointment. These timely prompts reduce no-shows and support punctuality.

To further strengthen meeting impact, briefing documents can be included, giving representatives instant access to key background information and discussion points. Navigation links can also be shared to help participants  quickly and easily find meeting locations.

There are three email reminder options that you can configure:

• A summary of the day's upcoming meetings to your app users (email).
• A summary of the day's upcoming meetings to your external users (email).
• Meeting start time reminders to all participants (emails and app notifications).

Send a summary of the day's upcoming meetings to your app users

This allows event planners to send an email that will contain a tailored summary of all the meetings that the app user has planned for the day:

The Backstage user can configure this reminder to:

• Choose between sending on the same day as the meetings or on the day before.
• Choose at what time to send the summary.
• Choose the email template to use.

The summary email will include only meetings that take place later than the summary email. For example, if you schedule the reminder to be sent on the same day at 9:00, only meetings that start from 9:00 onwards will be included in the summary. Meetings that take place before that time will not be included. Only meetings for which the participants have responded “YES” will be included into the summary.

Please note that in order to optimize distribution, some summary emails may be delivered slightly later than the originally scheduled time. This occurs in rare instances and the delay can be up to 10 minutes. Notifications are always sent without delay.

Send a summary of the day's upcoming meetings to your external users

This allows event planners to send an email that will contain a tailored summary of all the meetings that the non-app user (external user) has planned for the day:

The Backstage user can configure this reminder to:

• Choose between sending on the same day as the meetings or on the day before.
• Choose at what time to send the summary.
• Choose the email template to use.

The summary email will include only meetings that take place later than the summary email. For example, if you schedule the reminder to be sent on the same day at 9:00, only meetings that start at 9:00 onwards will be included. Meetings that take place before that time will not be included. Only meetings for which the participants have responded “YES” will be included into the summary.

Please note that in order to optimize distribution, some summary emails may be delivered slightly later than the originally scheduled time. This occurs in rare instances and the delay can be up to 10 minutes. Notifications are always sent without delay.

Send meeting start time reminders to all participants

This allows meeting planners to send an email to all participants (app users and external users) and a notification (to app users only), before the start of each meeting, to remind them when their next meeting will start:

The Backstage user can configure how many minutes/hours before the start of each meeting the email and notification will be sent, and select the email template to use:

Reminders will only be sent for meetings for which the participants have responded YES. 

When this reminder is enabled, in-app notifications will also be received by participants, unless disabled in the app via the notification settings.

When this reminder is enabled, emails will not be received if the participant has turned off the "reminder emails” setting in the app notification settings (described below).

The default email templates that are associated with these reminders are the following:

How can app users decide whether or not to receive notifications and  emails for meetings via the app?

If emails/notifications are enabled in Backstage for meetings and reminders, the app users can choose whether or not to receive these notifications by adjusting their preferences.

This is done via the web app or mobile app, by accessing the settings in the Notifications section, via the cogwheel button in the top right:

The setting for receiving the Meeting request notifications, Attendance updates notifications, Reminder notifications, and Reminder emails can be enabled or disabled here. Meeting summaries emails and notifications cannot be disabled here.

Manage who can see your representative's meetings in the app

You can apply targeting to a representative's (app user's) user profile in Backstage to control exactly who, among the other app users, can see the details of the representative's meetings.

You can decide to make the app user's meetings fully visible to other app users, completely hidden, or visible only to specific attendees.

To do so, go to the user profile of the app user in Backstage. Here you will see the Meetings visibility option, located in the Settings section:

If you select Custom here, you will be able to use the targeting controls to define exactly who among your app users will have visibility into the meeting details:

The app users who do not have visibility into the user's meetings will only see that the app user is "Busy" in their calendar when they have a meeting scheduled. None of the meeting details (attendees, rooms, title, description etc.) are visible:

Remember to click Save to confirm your choices.

Exporting or importing meetings

Meetings can be exported by clicking on the Export XLS button in the Meetings module in Backstage, or via the workspace dashboard.

The exported .xlsx file contain the following sheets:

Summary

• Meetings created: The total number of meetings that have been created
• Meetings confirmed: Meetings that have been accepted by at least two invitees
• Meetings declined: Meetings that have been declined either by the organizer or by all invitees
• Meetings canceled: Meetings that were canceled by either the organizer or a Backstage user
• Meeting types: number of in-person meetings / number of virtual meetings
  Virtual
• Meeting room capacity booked: Percentage of the meetings hours booked compared to the total room capacity

Meetings

• fp_ext_id: meeting id for export purposes
• Title: meeting’s title
• Start date and time: meeting's start date and time (yyyy/mm/dd HH:mm)
• Duration: meeting’s duration
• Meeting type: in-person or virtual meeting.
• Meeting status: Status of the meeting, with any of the following possible statuses:
  • Invited: Invitation sent, awaiting responses.
  • Confirmed: Meetings accepted by at least two invitees and where no attendance was tracked.
  • Declined: Declined either by the organizer or by all invitees.
  • Canceled: Canceled by either the organizer or a Backstage user.
  • Attended: Meetings with attendance recorded where at least two participants were marked as "Attended".
  • No-show: Meetings with attendance recorded with fewer than two participants were marked as "Attended”.

• Meeting acceptance: Number of attendees who have accepted / total invited attendees.
• Meeting attendance: Number of attendees who have attended / total invited attendees.
• Meeting location ID: ID of the meeting's pre-defined location (if applicable).
• Meeting location name: name of the meeting's pre-defined location (if applicable).
• Custom meeting location: name of the custom meeting location (if applicable).
• Organizer details: fp_ext_id (ID of the meeting organizer), first and last name, email address.
• Organizer - acceptance: did the organizer accept the meeting invitation: pending / accepted / declined
• Organizer - attendance: did the organizer attend the meeting: pending / attended / no-show

Meeting participants

• fp_ext_id: meeting id for export purposes
• Title: meeting’s title
• Start date and time: meeting's start date and time (yyyy/mm/dd HH:mm)
• Participant 1 - fp_ext_id: ID of the participant 1
• Participant 1 -  first name
• Participant 1 -  first name
• Participant 1 - acceptance: did the attendee accept the meeting invitation: pending / accepted / declined
• Participant 1 - attendance:  did the organizer attend the meeting: pending / attended / no-show
• Same data for other participants
• Participant role: Organizer or participant

Meeting rooms

• Room name
• Total capacity in hours
• Total meetings hours confirmed
• Total meetings created
• Total meetings confirmed
• Total meetings cancelled

Form results

A list of responses to the forms linked to the meetings

• Meeting fp_ext_id
• Meeting’s title
• Form fp_ext_id
• Meeting - title    
• Meeting - Start date and time   
• User fp_ext_id    
• User full name
• responses (using forms fields)

Meetings can also be imported by clicking on the Import XLS button. The imported file should be a .xlsx file with one row per meeting, and include information following the same structure and formatting as above.