A networking area is a place where 1:1 meetings happen. Each networking slot in your schedule belongs to one area, and the area decides how many meetings can run at the same time and whether each meeting gets a numbered meeting point such as "Table 12".
Before you start
You need to be an event admin or an organization admin.
Every event has a default area named Networking Area. It starts with the Open networking setup. You can rename and edit it, but not delete it.
Meetings are booked into networking slots. Create them in Content > Schedule > Timeslots and choose the area in the slot's Location field. See Create networking slots.
Allowed meeting types appears only when Group meetings is on in Networking > Settings.
Where to find it
Networking > Networking Areas in the admin panel. The table lists each area's Location Name, Location ID (with a copy button) and Meeting Points. Areas without meeting points show "-".
Create a networking area
Select Add New. The Create Networking Location drawer opens.
Enter a Name (up to 100 characters). Names must be unique within the event.
Under Who can access this location?, keep Anyone or choose Specific lists and add rules. See "Limit an area to specific lists".
If Group meetings is on for the event, choose the Allowed meeting types: 1:1 meetings, Group meetings or both. At least one is required.
Under Networking area setup, choose Use meeting points, Set a meeting capacity or Open networking. See "Choose a setup".
Select Create.
To change an area later, select Edit on its row. The drawer is named Edit Networking Location and ends with Save Changes.
Choose a setup
Setup | What it does | When a slot is full |
Use meeting points (marked "Recommended") | Numbered points, for example tables. Each accepted meeting gets one. | Depends on Allow overbooking |
Set a meeting capacity | A maximum number of meetings at the same time, with no numbered points. | Booking is refused with "is fully booked" |
Open networking | No points and no limit. | Never full |
An area can't use meeting points and a meeting capacity at the same time. The admin panel warns for the two setups without points: "Without meeting points, attendees may find it harder to locate each other efficiently. This setup could impact networking performance."
Use meeting points
Number of meeting points: how many meetings can run at the same time in the area. Minimum 1. Brella creates this many points for every networking slot in the area.
Meeting point name: Table, Spot, Point or Custom. With Custom, enter a Custom meeting point name of up to 15 characters. Attendees see the name with the number, for example "Table 23".
Allow overbooking:
Allow overbooking and show custom alert once the limit is exceeded (default): when all points are taken, the meeting is still booked, without a point. The meeting chat shows the Overflow alert message from Networking > Settings. Select Edit overflow alert text to change it.
Do not allow overbooking: when all points are taken, nobody can book or accept a meeting in that slot. Accepting fails with "Meeting tables are full. Try suggesting another time."
Reserve meeting points for companies and/or registrants: see "Reserve meeting points".
Set a meeting capacity
Enter the Meeting capacity (minimum 1). The field explains the effect with your number, for example "Setting the capacity to 10 means only 10 meetings can happen at a time. Once the limit is reached, attendees won't be able to schedule meetings for that time slot." Accepted meetings and draft meetings arranged by organizers both count.
Plan the number of meeting points
Estimate how many meetings you expect and how many networking slots you offer. For example, 60 meetings spread evenly across 6 nonoverlapping slots in one area use 10 meeting points per slot.
Treat that as a planning example. Allow for busy slots, reserved points and the venue's space. Overlapping slots share the area's points. If Allow overbooking is on, accepted meetings can exceed the available points, so decide where those people should meet.
How meeting points are assigned
Brella assigns a point when a meeting is accepted. Until then the meeting has no point.
Any free point in the slot can be chosen. There is no fixed order.
A point in use during an overlapping slot of the same area is not free.
Points reserved for someone else are never assigned.
A meeting gets a point only when at least one participant does not attend virtually. A meeting between two virtual attendees has no point. When one attendee is virtual and the other is not, the point is assigned and shown in the app to both; emails to the virtual attendee leave it out.
Meetings organizers arrange take a point when they are created, drafts included.
If you lower Number of meeting points, Brella removes the highest-numbered points from every slot, deletes reservations on them, and moves the affected meetings to free points when there are any. If you switch an area away from meeting points, its meetings lose their points.
Reserve meeting points
Reserve a point for a sponsor company or for one registrant. The owner's meetings in the area go to that point first. Nobody else gets it.
In the area's form, choose Use meeting points and set the Number of meeting points.
Turn on Reserve meeting points for companies and/or registrants. A first row appears under Assign companies to fixed meeting points.
Choose the point number. Points already reserved in another row show as "<n> • Reserved" and can't be chosen.
Choose Select company or Select registrant, then search for the sponsor or the registrant.
Optional: enter a Custom label of up to 20 characters, for example "VIP". The point's default name, for example "Table 3", shows next to the field.
Optional: select Hide table number from attendees. You can select it only when the point has a label. Attendees then see the label without the number.
Check the Attendees see preview under the row. It shows the chat's meeting details card as attendees see it.
Select Add for another row. Add is disabled once every point has a reservation; hovering it shows "Increase the number of meeting points to add more reservations".
Select Create or Save Changes.
Rules:
One reservation per point. A reservation for a company covers all of its representatives.
You can't reserve a point that already has meetings. The admin panel shows "Meeting point reservations cannot reserve tables that have meetings scheduled". Reserve points before meetings are booked. You can still change the label and Hide table number from attendees on an existing reservation after meetings are booked.
When you arrange a meeting for an owner in Networking > Managed Meetings, a Select meeting point field offers "<Name>'s Reserved Point" or Any non-reserved point, with the point's status, for example "Reserved table is still available."
If the owner's point is taken, the meeting takes a free non-reserved point, or none if overbooking applies.
To remove a reservation, select the x on its row and confirm "Are you sure you want to remove this reservation?" with Remove. Removing the last row turns the switch off.
How a label shows, for example "VIP" on Table 3:
Meeting cards and My Schedule in the app: "VIP • Table 3", or "VIP" when the number is hidden.
The meeting details card in the chat: a "VIP" row next to the number 3, or the "VIP" row alone.
Emails, push notifications and calendar files: "VIP, Table 3", or "VIP".
Meeting CSV exports always include the number.
A label of only spaces counts as no label. Clearing the label also clears Hide table number from attendees.
Limit an area to specific lists
Under Who can access this location?, Anyone lets every attendee book meetings in the area. Specific lists adds rules:
Under Who can send meeting requests, choose one list. The dropdown groups Ticket type lists and Custom lists. A list can be used in one rule only; a used list shows "This list is already used in rule #n".
Under Who can be invited by <list>, keep Anyone, or choose Only selected lists and pick the lists under Select lists that can be invited.
Select Add Rule for the next list. The rule summary reads "#1 <list> can invite: anyone" or lists the chosen lists.
How the rules apply:
Only attendees on a rule's list can book meetings in the area's slots. Everyone else does not see those slots.
With Only selected lists, the attendee can invite only people from the chosen lists into those slots.
Rules work in one direction. For List A and List B to request each other, create one rule for each list.
The rules don't override list permissions. Both people still need networking on and the right to exchange requests. See How permissions work when someone is on several lists.
Delete an area
Select Delete on a row and confirm with Yes, delete, or select several rows and select Delete (<n>). Deleting can't be undone. Reservations on the area are deleted with it.
The default area can't be deleted. Its Delete and checkbox are disabled.
An area used by networking slots can't be deleted. The admin panel shows "Can't delete <name>" with "<name> is assigned to <n> slots." Select Edit networking slots to open the Timeslots list filtered to that location and move the slots to another area first.
If any area in a multi-row selection still has slots, nothing is deleted. The admin panel shows "Some locations can't be deleted" with one line per area and the same Edit networking slots button.
What attendees see
A networking slot shows the area name as its location. In a virtual event it shows "Online meeting".
Once a meeting is accepted, the meeting card and the chat show the point, for example "Table 12", when the area uses meeting points. On a reserved point with a label, they show the label too, and only the label when you hide the number.
When every point is taken and overbooking is allowed, the chat shows the overflow alert. Attendees attending in person see it; virtual attendees don't.
Attendees with a reserved point see it marked as reserved for them or for their company when they suggest a meeting, with its label when it has one. See Meeting location.
Limits
Name: 100 characters, unique in the event. Custom meeting point name: 15 characters. Custom label of a reserved point: 20 characters.
Minimum 1 meeting point or a capacity of at least 1.
You can't reduce Number of meeting points below the number of points currently in use.
Reservations can't exceed the number of points, and each point holds one reservation.
A 1:1-only area refuses group meetings ("cannot accept group meetings"); a group-only area refuses 1:1 meetings ("cannot accept 1:1 meetings").
Troubleshooting
"<name> is assigned to <n> slots."
Networking slots still use the area. Select Edit networking slots, change each slot's Location, then delete the area.
"Meeting point reservations cannot reserve tables that have meetings scheduled"
The point you chose already has meetings in at least one slot. Choose another point, or cancel those meetings first.
Attendees report "Meeting tables are full. Try suggesting another time."
The slot's area has no free point and Do not allow overbooking is selected. Add points, or allow overbooking.
A meeting has no table number
Both participants attend virtually, the area uses a capacity or open setup, or all points were taken when the meeting was accepted.