Overlapping Sessions

Event Organizers can now prevent Attendees from registering for overlapping Sessions. This functionality allows for a more organized and manageable event schedule and ensures that an event's resources like Session seats and event spaces are used effectively.

The following event types are just a few examples where you can use the overlapping Sessions feature.

• Large-scale events & conferences:
  • Ensure that Attendees do not book Sessions that occur simultaneously, improving schedule management.
• Classes, workshops & training:
  • Prevent time conflicts in Session attendance for classes or workshop Sessions.
  • Avoid overlapping training Sessions to ensure employees can attend all required training without conflicts.

Prevent Session Overlapping Field

The Prevent Session Overlapping checkbox was added to the Event object to prevent Attendees from registering for overlapping Sessions.

• Field Label: Prevent Session Overlapping
• API Name: conference360__Prevent_Session_Overlapping__c
• Data Type: Checkbox
• Help Text: If this is checked, registration for overlapping Sessions is not available to an Attendee.
• Default Value: False (unchecked) When checked, Attendees cannot register for overlapping Sessions.

If Prevent Session Overlapping = “True” (checked), Attendees cannot register for overlapping Sessions. When the field is enabled, the following will occur.

• During checkout, the Add All button will not be visible on the Session Registration page.
• The Add button next to the Session will be grayed out if an Attendee tries to select a Session that overlaps with a Session already in their cart.

Limitations

• This only applies to Sessions within the same Event. It does not apply to overlapping Sessions across different Events.
• The overlapping Session validation occurs only on the Attendee-facing Event Page URL. There is no validation on the Salesforce side. This allows Event Organizers to book overlapping time slots when registering Attendees for Sessions in Salesforce.

Update the Event Page Layout

If the Prevent Session Overlapping field is not on the Event object’s page layout, follow the steps below to add it.

1. Go to Setup.
2. Click the Object Manager tab.
3. In the Quick Find box, enter and click “Event” (conference360__Event__c).
4. Click the Page Layouts tab.
5. Click Event Layout.
6. Enter “Prevent Session Overlapping” in the Quick Find box.
7. Drag and drop the Prevent Session Overlapping field onto the page layout.
8. Click Save.

Examples

The following examples show how using the Prevent Session Overlapping field can prevent Attendees from registering for overlapping Sessions.

Event 1

• Event Date: March 3
• Event Item 2 has the following Sessions.
  • Session C: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
  • Session D: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
• Registration Process
  • Attendee 2 selects Event Item 2 with Session C and Session D.
• Result: Fail – Attendee 2 cannot complete the registration process because the Session times overlap.

Event 2

• Event Date: March 3
• Event Items
  • Event Item 5 has the following Session.
    • Session G: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
  • Event Item 6 has the following Session.
    • Session H: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
• Registration process:
  • Attendee 6 selects Event Item 5 with Session G.
  • Attendee 6 selects Event Item 6 with Session H.
• Result: Fail - Registration failed because the Sessions overlapped. The Sessions are related to different Event Items, but the user used the same data for each Attendee.