FieldComm Group Support Portal

This article is primarily designed for Chairs and Project group leaders who schedule events using Workspace.

You will notice that there are 4 event types. 

The features and behaviors are summarized in the table below.  I recommend using the events that include "emails invitation/cancellation" support.

Single Event, Recurring Event.

Behave as before.  A message is sent out with an ICS attachment.  Attendees can manually add that to their calendar.  If you delete the event, the user does not get a notice.  The calendar entry is not removed nor marked cancelled.  Calendar entries need to be manually updated/removed by the user.

Single Event with email invitation/cancellation support, Recurring Event Single Event with email invitation/cancellation support,

This support generating email messages as native calendar invitations (no longer just ICS attachments).  Furthermore, if someone accepts the entry on their calendar, this will be visible to you on Workspace.  If you update/cancel meetings from workspace, these will generate updated Calendar invitation emails that will update individuals' calendars.  This is identical to how the legacy Kavi worked.

However, using these new events have a few points you should be aware.

Changing Recurring Events will have unintended consequences.  If you need to update the details of a recurring event, such as the web meeting link, you are advised to cancel and create a new meeting.  This is because the outlook invitation will link back to the first in the series and this will not have the change.  Workspace does not permit the original event details to be updated after the event has passed.   The confusion is with the Outlook invitations that will not hold the correct data. Workspace will give you the option of changing meetings moving forward.  However, be aware that Workspace will then send out meeting updates for each recurring instance.  Users may see a "flood" of email messages from workspace. That said, cancelling a single meeting in a recurring meeting is OK and work as expected.

Information seen in the User's Calendar Invitation

The “description” of the calendar does not make it into the calendar entry.  Instead, individuals are provided with a link to see the full details.   This is the part of the email that you typically include conference call information.  Again, it’s there, but only by link provided in the calendar entry.

Entering Teleconference Information

In the invitation, you can specify location information.  I suggest selecting “Online” (NOTE:  This is multi-select, you can select 0 or more options)

Then, set the conference web address.  Pay attention to the HTTP/HTTPS as it defaults to HTTP, but your link is HTTPS.  

Watch out for extra spaces before or after the link.  The extra spaces at the end often happen when you copy and paste from another application. This extra space will give an error when submitting the event. The error message does not tell you this is the issue.

Note at the Login Instructions DO make it into the calendar entry, however the text is NOT formatted.  It also has a maximum character limit, so if you get an error saving the calendar entry, shorten it up.  (The error will be non-specific)

My recommendation is to just list the URL here and keep the login simple.  You may list one or 2 conference numbers.  Most web meeting software provide you with the phone number AFTER you launch the web app.

You must click the "Send Invitation" button to send it out

Make sure you select Yes to Invite all community members when saved!

It is important that you set this to "Yes" or email invitations will NOT go out.     If you forget, you can trigger email manually by inviting members to events (see below) This field does not show up if you are existing an existing invitation.  However, if you do edit an invitation, it is still recommended to manually "invite members to events" because changes ONLY go to those that accepted to invitation.  "Inviting members to events" goes to all members of the community.

Updating an existing event to use the new style (w/ calendar invites)

If you have an existing event that was setup using the older method and want to use the new method with calendar invitations, you MUST CREATE A NEW EVENT.  While you can technically edit an existing event and change the event type, the invitation function, required to send out the email inviting the group, is not present.

Rescheduling or updating the details of a scheduled event using calendar invites.

If you scheduled an event with the calendar invitations, changes will automatically propagate to those people that accepted the meeting invitation.  However, if the person had not yet accepted the invitation, that person will not get an update.

To make sure everyone receives the update, under the settings wheel, select Invite Member to Events.

From there, you will see a list of invitations.  Find the one you just changed, verify "All Community Members" and click "Send Invitation."

This will make sure everyone received the updated notification.

Reviewing those that have accepted the invitation.

After you create an event of this type, you need to add your working group members to the roster.  Using the management settings, select Manage Events.  

Find the event you just scheduled.   From there, click the down arrow and select manage roster.

Those users that accepted the calendar invitation will show up as registered.  Those that declined it will show up as cancelled.