A managed meetings program matches two groups of participants, for example buyers and suppliers. Participants pick who they want to meet in the app, and you generate the meetings from their picks within rules you set.
Before you start
You need to be an event admin or an organization admin.
Brella staff turn on Managed Meetings programs for your event. Until then, the Programs tab shows "Managed Meetings programs are not enabled". Contact your customer success manager.
Create networking slots in networking areas that allow 1:1 meetings. Program meetings are booked into them.
Everyone you add to a program must be a registrant of the event. People who were invited but haven't joined can be added.
Where to find it
Networking > Managed Meetings > Programs in the admin panel.
How a program works
A program has two sides, Side A and Side B. Each side is built from companies and their representatives, from registrant lists, or from individual registrants.
Each side follows a timeline of stages. By default these are Welcome & Get Started, Make your picks and Attend meetings.
During Make your picks, participants browse the other side and pick who they want to meet. Picks always go to the other side.
Promises set how many meetings and picks each participant gets, and who must never meet. See Set promises and must-not-meet rules for a program.
After the picks stage, you generate meetings from the picks. See Generate meetings for a managed meetings program.
Create a program
Open Networking > Managed Meetings > Programs.
Select New program.
Brella creates a draft program named "New program" and opens the setup in 6 steps: Program access, Branding, Program Stages, Promises, Filters & Settings and Review. Select Continue to move to the next step, or select a step name at the top. To come back to a draft later, select Continue setup on its row.
When you open Program access or Program Stages for the first time, Brella creates both sides. Each side gets the 3 default stages and a default promise.
Step 1: Program access
Choose who is on each side. Use the tabs at the top to move between the sides. They show Side A and Side B until you name a side, and show the name as you type it.
Enter the side's name in the header of the side's card, where it reads "Name this side, e.g. Buyers. Only admins see this." Names can be up to 30 characters.
To add companies, select Add companies. Select a company's checkbox to add all its representatives who aren't on a side yet, or expand its row and choose the representatives. Select Done.
To add people from registrant lists, select Add registrants > From lists, choose the lists and select Add <n> lists.
To add people one by one, select Add registrants > Individual registrants, choose them and select Add <n> registrants.
Repeat for the other side, then select Continue. You can continue without names, but both sides need a name before you launch.
How membership works:
A registrant can be on one side of a program only. The company and registrant drawers tag people who are already on a side Already on this side or On <side name>, and you can't select them. If a list you add includes someone from the other side, nothing is added. The admin panel shows "<n> registrants could not be added: registrants must not be on another side of the program."
A company brings in the representatives linked to it in Sponsors at the time you add it. In the Companies table, Reps shows how many of the company's representatives are on the side, for example "2 of 3". Expand a row to add or exclude representatives.
A registrant who represents a company counts as part of that company on the side, even when you add them individually.
Adding a list copies the people who are on the list at that moment. People added to the list later are not added to the side.
To remove companies or registrants, select their rows and Remove selected, or use the remove button on a row.
Warning: Removing a registrant from a side deletes the picks they made and the picks others made of them. Their existing meetings stay, but no longer belong to the program.
Step 2: Branding
Set how the program appears in the app. Changes save as you type.
A new program starts with these values: Tab name and icon "Managed Meetings", Program name "New program", Tag name for meetings scheduled within the program "Arranged by organizer", Stages section title "Timeline", Regular selection "Interested" and Priority selection "Must meet". Replace them as needed.
Field | What it does | Limit |
Tab name and icon | Name and icon of the program in the app menu. Required to launch. | 30 characters |
Program name | Title on the Home widget and the program page. Required to launch. | 50 characters |
Program description | Text under the program name on the program page. | 200 characters |
Tag name for meetings scheduled within the program | Required to launch. The app doesn't show it. Program meetings carry the event's Label for admin-created meetings instead. | 25 characters |
Stages section title | Required to launch. The app doesn't show it. It shows "Timeline" above the stages. | 20 characters |
Regular selection | Name of a normal pick. Empty means "Interested". | 20 characters |
Priority selection | Name of a priority pick. Empty means "Must meet". | 20 characters |
Hero image | Image on the Home widget and the program page. Recommended 3:1 (1200 × 400 pixels), JPEG or PNG. | 10 MB |
To change the label on program meetings, open Networking > Settings and edit Label for admin-created meetings under Managed meetings. The default is "Arranged by organizer". The label applies to every meeting the organizer arranges in the event.
The app menu keeps the tab name saved when you created the program ("Managed Meetings") and the first icon saved. Changing Tab name and icon later doesn't change the menu entry. To rename it, open Customization > Tabs and edit the Program page row.
Step 3: Program Stages
Each side has its own stages. The app shows them as a timeline, and each stage is open between its Opens and Closes times. Use the tabs at the top to choose the side. A red dot marks a side or stage with missing required fields.
Select a stage to expand it. Changes save automatically.
Enter the Stage title (up to 50 characters).
Set Opens and Closes. Times use the event's time zone, and Closes must be after Opens. Under each field you see the other side's date for the same stage.
Check the Stage announcement (up to 100 characters). It is the main line on the Home widget and the program page. Welcome & Get Started, Make your picks and Attend meetings stages start with a fixed text, for example "Pick the people you want to meet. Selection is now open." It is saved with your first change to the stage. You can replace it.
Enter a Stage description (optional) (up to 500 characters). It shows under the announcement on the program page.
For a Make your picks stage, set the CTA button text (up to 20 characters, default "Request meetings") and set the two switches.
For other stages, turn on CTA button to add a button. Enter Button text (up to 20 characters) and Link to: an in-app destination such as
schedule, or a full URL. The button works only while the stage is open.
Switches on a Make your picks stage:
Show inbound interest and comments on participant cards: people who picked the participant are listed under Interested in you, and their cards show the comment they left.
Show only participants who selected you: the browsing list shows only people who picked the participant. This works only while Show inbound interest and comments on participant cards is also on.
For a staged workflow, open one side's picks first with Show only participants who selected you off. Open the other side later with both switches on, so that side chooses from people who already picked them.
If both sides show only people who selected them before anyone has picked, neither side has anyone to choose. Leave at least one side open to browsing first.
The app applies the switches of the first Make your picks stage to every picks round on that side.
To turn a stage off, use its switch. Turned-off stages don't appear in the app. Welcome & Get Started and Attend meetings can't be removed, only turned off.
To add a stage, point at the space above, between or below the stage cards and select Add stage here. In Add a stage, choose Custom stage or Make your picks (a second picks round). Custom stages and extra Make your picks stages have a Remove stage button. In a launched program, new stages start turned off. Set their dates, then turn them on.
The participant's picks button works only while the Make your picks stage is open. Outside that time the button is grayed out or hidden.
Step 4: Promises
Promises set the number of meetings and picks, and who must not meet. Each side already has a default promise. See Set promises and must-not-meet rules for a program.
Step 5: Filters & Settings
Meeting locations and times applies to the whole program:
Locations: Any location, or In specific areas and choose networking areas.
Times: Any time, or Within a time window and choose networking slots.
Generate meetings books meetings only in the areas and slots you choose here. With Any location and Any time, or with nothing selected, it uses every networking slot of the event. Either way, both people need access to the networking area.
The other settings are per side. Use the side tabs to choose the side whose participants are browsing.
Filters available for <side name>: turn on the filters this side can use when browsing the other side, and drag them into order. The list has Operating in, Interest, Goal, Persona, Function, Industry, Company Size and any registrant custom fields marked as filterable. All are off by default.
Under List settings, choose:
Browse view: Individual profiles (pick people), Company profiles (pick companies) or Companies with representatives (pick a person within each company). Default: Individual profiles.
Sort by: Best match (default), First name (A–Z), Last name (A–Z), Registration date (Newest first) or Custom order (external tool). People who picked the participant are always listed first.
These settings save when you change them.
Step 6: Review and launch
Check each section. Select Edit to go back to a step.
Select Launch program.
If something is missing, the page shows "The program isn't ready to publish yet" with the reasons. To launch, the program needs:
2 sides, each with a name and at least 1 registrant
Tab name and icon, Program name, Tag name for meetings scheduled within the program and Stages section title
Opens and Closes on every stage that is turned on
Manage a launched program
A launched program opens on its own page with the tabs Overview, Registrants, Companies, Promises and Settings, and a Generate meetings button.
Overview shows the number of registrants, companies, promises and meetings, and the Meetings card.
Settings > Open setup reopens the setup steps. The last step now has Unpublish, which returns the program to draft and removes it from the app.
Settings > Delete program, or Delete on the program's row in Programs, deletes the program after you confirm "Delete this program?".
Deleting a program removes its sides, stages, promises and picks, and participants lose access to it. Meetings already created from the program are not deleted. Accepted meetings stay in participants' schedules, and drafts stay drafts, but they no longer belong to the program. To delete the drafts too, select Remove drafts on the program's Overview first.
The Programs list shows each program's status:
Draft: not launched. Only admins see it.
Scheduled: launched, and no stage has opened yet.
Live: between the first stage opening and the last stage closing.
Ended: the last stage that is turned on has closed.
Settings
Setting | What it does | Default |
Side name | Side name in the admin panel, up to 30 characters | Empty ("Side A", "Side B" shown) |
Stage switch | Shows or hides the stage in the app timeline | On |
CTA button text | Text of the picks button | "Request meetings" |
Show inbound interest and comments on participant cards | Lists people who picked the participant under Interested in you, with their comment | Off |
Show only participants who selected you | Limits browsing to people who picked the participant | Off |
Browse view | People, companies, or companies with their representatives | Individual profiles |
Sort by | Default order of the browsing list | Best match |
What attendees see
Only people on a side of a launched program see it. Everyone else sees nothing.
The Home screen shows a widget with the program name, hero image, the current stage's announcement and a short timeline.
The program appears under its tab name and icon in Menu in the mobile app. In the web app it is in the left menu (Menu in windows narrower than 768 px).
The program page shows the hero image, the program name and description, and the timeline. Participants select the timeline title to see every stage with its status.
During Make your picks, the stage button opens the picks flow. The mobile app and the web app use the same screens. See Make your picks in a managed meetings program.
Limits
2 sides per program. A registrant can be on one side only.
Side names: 30 characters. Stage titles: 50 characters. Stage announcements: 100 characters.
Hero image: 10 MB.
Welcome & Get Started and Attend meetings can't be removed. Each side keeps at least 1 Make your picks stage.
Removing someone from a side deletes their picks and the picks others made of them. This can't be undone.
Deleting a program can't be undone. It doesn't delete meetings already created from the program.
Troubleshooting
"Managed Meetings programs are not enabled"
Brella hasn't turned on programs for this event. Contact your customer success manager.
"The program isn't ready to publish yet"
Fix each listed item, then select Launch program again.
"registrants must not be on another side of the program"
A list you added includes at least one person from the other side. Remove that person from the other side first, or add the rest of the list as individual registrants.
Program meetings show "Arranged by organizer", not my tag name
The app uses the event's Label for admin-created meetings. Change it in Networking > Settings > Managed meetings.
The app menu shows "Managed Meetings" or an old name
The menu entry keeps the tab name saved when you created the program. Rename it in Customization > Tabs, Program page row.