Hosting a virtual event is similar to hosting an in-person event with a few exceptions. We've created this guide to walk you through every step needed for your Zoom event to run smoothly and successfully.

Connecting Splash to Zoom

The Zoom webinar is your event's venue, so making sure it's created is the first step in the event process. To get started, you'll need to make sure the Zoom Webinars integration is set up for your team.

Here’s how it works:

A Zoom webinar is created whenever an event is created in Splash. The Splash event’s title, start date, end date, start time, end time, and time zone sync to the Zoom webinar. The Splash event owner is also assigned as the webinar host.

After RSVPing yes in Splash, guests are automatically synced to the Zoom webinar as approved registrants. Guests who attend the Zoom webinar have their status update to Checked In in Splash. When guests leave the Zoom webinar, their status updates to Checked Out in Splash.

Now that you’re familiar with how the integration works, let’s create an event.

Creating an event

To create a new event, click New Event from your Events Dashboard.

Enter your event title and then select an Event Type that matches one of the selected options in your organization’s integration settings. If you’re unsure of which Event Type to select, we suggest reaching out to your admin.

As a reminder, the Splash event’s title, start date, end date, start time, end time, and time zone are synced to the Zoom webinar. If a start or end time isn't provided, the webinar defaults to one hour.

The time zone selected in Splash is the time zone for the Zoom webinar. If a time zone selected in Splash doesn’t exist in Zoom, a time zone with the next similar offset (e.g. UHC-8) will be assigned in Zoom.

Once you’ve created your Splash event, check that your corresponding Zoom webinar was created by following these steps:

1.  Open the event from your Events Dashboard.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Integrations.

This page reveals a full list of integrations connected to the event, including the Zoom webinar. Click to reveal additional integration information like the webinar ID, host email, and the general join URL.

If you don't have access to event integrations, you can confirm event creation is successful by checking in Zoom or by reaching out to your admin.

Assigning webinar hosts

The Splash event owner’s email address is automatically assigned as the webinar host. If a Splash event is created by an email address that doesn’t have a Zoom account, the account used to authenticate the Zoom Webinars integration will be listed as the webinar host.

Setting capacity limits

Since capacity limits don’t sync from Splash to Zoom, you'll need to make sure your Splash event capacity matches your Zoom webinar capacity. You can confirm your Zoom capacity limits by viewing your webinar license.

As a reminder, Splash capacity limits are set within an event's settings.

Sending guests webinar URLs

Communication is key for letting your guests know how to access your event in Zoom. By default, Zoom sends an automatic confirmation email to all registered guests.

However, your team can choose to disable Zoom confirmation emails so that all guest communication comes from Splash. This not only prevents Zoom from sending confirmation emails, but also allows you to send branded webinar emails through Splash. These emails include webinar join URLs that are unique to each guest's registration.

Sending branded webinar emails through Splash

Design your email as desired and then add the [zoom_webinar_join_url] tag to ensure each guest receives their unique webinar join URL.

You can find the Zoom tag under the Advanced Options section of your email template.

Add the tag directly to the body of your email to display the full text version of the URL. To bring more style to your email, try adding a button and setting the URL as the Zoom tag. 

The tag generates a guest-specific join URL meaning no two are alike. If a guest’s unique webinar URL is shared, Splash check-in and check-out data may be compromised. We recommend including a note in your email to let guests know the webinar join URL is directly connected to their registration.

If a guest isn't able to locate their original confirmation email, the confirmation email can be re-sent from the Guests tab. Select the guest from the guest list and click More Actions to send the email again.

If a webinar join URL isn't found for a guest, the tag will default to the general Zoom join URL. If the general join URL isn't found, the tag will redirect the guest to the Splash event page.

To access each guest's unique URL, follow these steps:

1. Open the Guests tab.
2. Click on Columns.
3. Select Zoom Webinar Join URL.
4. Click Save.

Hover over each URL in the guest list to reveal a copy button for easy sending.

Sending emails through Zoom

If your team doesn’t opt into sending unique join URLs through Splash, then every guest that RSVPs will receive a confirmation email from Zoom instead. With this option, you can choose to keep Splash confirmation emails enabled or disable them completely.

Testing the end-to-end experience

Once you’ve checked the above steps off your list, you’re ready to test your event.

1. Head to your Event Dashboard and click View as Guest in the top right corner.
2. Submit an RSVP for your event. You’ll want to submit a real RSVP instead of relying on sending test emails to ensure the Zoom tag generates correctly.
3. Confirm that the confirmation email is sent with all the necessary webinar details, including the unique webinar join URL.
4. Check that you’ve been added as a participant to the Zoom webinar by opening the Integrations tab from your Event Settings.
5. Click Open Zoom Webinar to open the webinar in Zoom and confirm that you’ve been added to the participant list.