In this post we would like to introduce you to all the new features and improvements of the latest SeminarDesk update from February 2021.
Flexible attendance
From now on, it is possible to specify for each event date whether guests should be able to attend flexibly, e.g. on the event day(s) of their choice.
When activating this feature, the attendance period can be specified, i.e. a date for the latest start and the earliest end date. In addition, a minimum or maximum duration (in days) can also be defined:
Flexible Accommodation
Similarly, a flexible accommodation period can now be offered for event dates, allowing guests to arrive one day earlier or depart later.
By activating the checkbox “Flexible accommodation” in the event date settings, several options can be selected for arrival on the previous day as well as for departure on the following day of the event, such as “Without meals”, “With breakfast” or “With breakfast and dinner”.
Meal plans on the booking page
In the booking page settings of an event it is now possible to specify which catering types, or meal plans respectively, should be offered for selection on the booking page.
Price levels on the booking page
The price levels that were already available for manual bookings since the last update can now also be selected by attendees on the booking page for an event.
To do this, the respective price levels must first be activated or enabled via the administrative settings for the booking page, after which they can be selected via the booking page settings per event.
Mark event dates as an "online event"
To better display online or virtual events, it is now possible to mark event dates as “online event”.
In the status email templates there is also the possibility to query with the expression {IfEmpty(IstOnlineEvent)} whether it is an online event and, depending on this, show or hide certain text blocks.
New editing view for event dates
With this update we have revised the editing view of the event dates.
The menu item “Event details (function room rental, invoices, etc.)” has been completely removed. All additional information about an event can now be accessed via the menu item “Edit event date”.
Move bookings when appointment is postponed
If there are already bookings for an event date, the event date can now no longer simply be changed. For this purpose, the “Move event date period” function must now be used.
When moving an event, you can then choose whether bookings – in addition to other data such as room or equipment bookings and timetable entries – should also be moved automatically.
Improvement of the payment import: recognition of "booking numbers"
When importing payments, the automatic recognition of the booking number has been improved to speed up the process of assigning payments to bookings.
HTML building blocks and snippets
Under Administration – Templates – General snippets, entire HTML blocks can now be stored as blocks – similar to what is already possible for email templates.
These can then be used in the HTML editors of the booking page settings for events, so that recurring blocks do not have to be entered again and again.
Notes and tasks without reference to a booking, etc.
Until now, tasks and notes could only be created if they were assigned to bookings, event dates or other objects.
With this update, general notes and tasks can now be created without object reference.
By clicking on “Notes” in the upper right corner, you will now find the menu item “Create general task”. Here you can differentiate between notes and tasks as usual and also select the area, such as “General”, “Meals”, “Accommodation” and “Event”.
Notification by email when task is assigned
SeminarDesk can now send an email whenever a new task is assigned to a user. By default, this function is activated for all users.
This can be changed individually by each user at any time via the personal settings by clicking on the own user name in the top right corner and on “My settings”:
Preventing the registration of more adult guests
Via the booking page settings it is now possible to define whether additional adult persons can be added during the online booking or not.
The new setting can be found in the “Booking” section of the web settings:
As always, we hope these improvements help you and look forward to your feedback!
All the best from
Christoph, Simon and Jan.