Seminar event settings

Date and time

By default, tomorrow's date and 9am-10am will be given as the (first) Date and time (session) of the event. Click the cog icon to open the Start and Finish Date time selector and enter the required dates.

Select Add a new date if additional sessions are required or click the copy icon () to duplicate a session Date/Time and make the required edits.

To create an event without a known date (or remove a Date/Time) click the corresponding cross icon (). This will allow attendees to sign up to the Waitlist for this event where they will be booked automatically once one or more sessions are added.

When editing a Date and time or adding a new date the Select date dialogue box will display the following options:

• Timezone: Select the timezone you want this Event to be displayed in e.g. 'Pacific/Auckland'. This will display the start time, finish time and timezone in accordance with the timezone selected. If you choose User timezone, this will display the start time, finish date and timezone in relation to the preferred timezone of the user viewing the event.
• Start time: When creating or editing an event, the event timezone may differ from the timezone for the Start time. This is because the timezone for Start time is determined by the timezone of the user creating or editing the event. The timezone of the user creating or editing the event does not affect the event timezone itself. Use the calendar icon to open the calendar view date selector. 
• Finish time: When creating or editing a event, the event timezone may differ from the timezone for the Finish time. This is because the timezone for Finish time is determined by the timezone of the user creating or editing the event. The timezone of the user creating or editing the event does not affect the event timezone itself.

Duplicating a session is helpful where only one or two details will be different from the original session such as the day or the Room.

If your event spans several days, you can create one session with a different day for start and finish time, although you should indicate when breaks/lunch will be offered within the Event details area.  

If you will be in a different room and/or require different assets on different days, it would be best to create several sessions.

You can set the default date and time in the seminar global settings.

Rooms

Click on Select room under the Room column to choose an existing room for this event session or, if needed, Create a new room. Click Ok to save your selection(s) or Cancel to close the box without saving. Please see Manage seminar rooms for more information. Note that you can add multiple rooms for a single session, for example if you are using conjoined rooms or require additional breakout rooms.

If your event is run regularly over a set period of time (for example every Monday for a month) you should create a different session for each day so you don't book a room or for the entire month and calendar invites reflect the split training period.

If you select Create a new room within a seminar event, the room will only be available for the current event unless the Publish for reuse by other events checkbox is enabled. This room can be made available to other events at any time via the Edit event dialog box. To create rooms within a seminar event users must have the mod/facetoface:manageadhocrooms capability.

Facilitators

Click on Select facilitators under the Facilitators column to select an existing facilitator, or add a new facilitator if required. Select a facilitator, or multiple facilitators, then click Ok to confirm your selection. Alternatively, click Create to add a new facilitator and add the facilitator's details. 

Only users with the mod/facetoface:manageadhocfacilitators capability can create new facilitators from this page. 

In addition to the standard fields you can also select Add to sitewide list if you want to use the facilitator for other events. If this setting is not enabled then the facilitator will only be available for the current event. Facilitators created within an event can only be set as External, meaning they cannot be linked to a user on the site. If you want to create an Internal facilitator linked to a user account this should be done sitewide.

Assets

Click on Select assets under the Assets column to book existing assets for this event or, if needed select Create new asset. Click Save to save your selection(s) or Cancel to close the box without saving. Please see Manage seminar assets for more information.

Assets added via the Create new asset option will only be available within the current seminar activity unless Add to sitewide list option is selected. This asset can be made available to other events at any time via the edit event dialog box.

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Sign-up opens

If enabled, learners will not be able to sign up for this session until this time has arrived.

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Sign-up closes

If enabled, learners will not be able to sign up for this session once this time has passed.

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Maximum bookings

Sets the number of seats available at an event. When a seminar event reaches capacity, the event details no longer appear on the course page. The details will appear greyed out on the View all events page and the learner cannot enrol on the event. You can either use the selected room capacity or manually override the maximum bookings allowed.

If you expect a certain number of attendees to cancel or not attend the session, you might want to allow overbooking to ensure a full session. If you need to keep seats free for moderators or other trainers, you might choose to reduce the number of bookings available.

Enable waitlist

When checked, learners will be able to sign up for a seminar event even if it is already full.  When a learner signs up for a event that is already full, they will receive an email advising that they have been wait-listed for the event and will be notified when a booking becomes available. Please see Wait-listed events for more information.

When manager approval is required and a manager has the mod/facetoface/signupwaitlist capability then the user on approval will go directly into the session.

When manager approval is required and the manager doesn't have the mod/facetoface/signupwaitlist capability then the user on approval will go to the wait-list.

To stop an Editing Trainer, Trainer, or Course Creator adding learners to the waitlist when it has been disabled, the capability mod/facetoface:signupwaitlist must be disabled in the role.

Learners will only be wait-listed if they have signed up for a session themselves. If the learner is booked by a Site Administrator, Editing Trainer, Trainer, or Course Creator, they will be automatically booked into the course, regardless of whether the session is over capacity or not. Learners who have the Sign up to full events (mod/facetoface/signupwaitlist) capability set to Allow, will be signed up to the event instead of joining the wait-list.

Allow cancellations

Allow users to cancel their bookings At any time, Never, or Until specified period (x amount of time before the session starts). 

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Minimum bookings

Set a minimum required number of bookings for the event. If the required number of bookings is not met by a specified cut-off time/date then users in the relevant roles can be notified. If you are using legacy seminar notifications then the cut-off date is set by the Notify about minimum bookings setting (see below). If you are using centralised notifications then you can set when the notification will be sent by editing the Event under minimum bookings notification.

If you are using centralised notifications, the cut-off point can only be set in days when editing the notification. By default the cut-off point is the event start day, but you can set this to any number of days before the event for each notification.

Notify about minimum bookings

Set a cut-off point at which the system will check to see if the minimum number of bookings has been reached for the event. You can configure this time in weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds before the event starts.

If the minimum number of bookings has not been reached by the cut-off point then the appropriate users will be notified.

If you are using Totara's centralised notifications system then you can configure the notification recipients by editing the Event under minimum bookings notification.

If you are using legacy seminar notifications, the users to be notified are determined by role assignments and the Notification recipients setting under Quick-access menu > Seminars > General settings > Notification recipients.

Normal cost

Normal cost is the amount paid by learners who do not have a discount code.

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Discount cost

The discount cost is the amount paid by learners with a discount code.

If a discount cost is entered, the learner will be required to enter a discount code when signing up for a session.

Details

Details are tracked per event. If text is populated in the Details field, the text will be displayed on the user signup page. You can add this information to notifications for the event using the Event Details placeholder.

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