Add & delete a contact

Everything in an event hangs off a contact. A speaker is a contact on a session, a sponsor’s representative is a contact, an evaluator is a contact with a login — so before anyone can be assigned to a session, a booth or a task, they exist in CRM > All Contacts.

Training video · 6:41Finding your way: the new sidebar, the dashboard, and the five things people ask where they wentThe event Dashboard as a map (the countdown, the Need attention pill and Ask's Attention list, the Ask box, Top picks, stat cards that open filtered lists), the sidebar's five zones, where each old row lives now (Program for the old Sessions row, CRM for Contacts, Sponsors and Exhibitors, Settings → Library for fields, tags and personas), Rooms under Program Settings and on the Agenda's Rooms tab, where campaigns live (Send), finding who hasn't finished a task or a headshot, Export .CSV versus Download files bundle, Add Contact's in event / in organization search and the "already exists" message, pinning a page, and typing an old name into Find or ask.

1. 0:02The dashboard
2. 0:47Numbers that are links
3. 1:10The five zones
4. 1:45Program
5. 2:21CRM
6. 2:43Where Library went
7. 3:12Rooms
8. 3:42Where campaigns live
9. 3:58Who hasn't finished
10. 4:28Export or download
11. 5:01Adding someone who exists
12. 5:46Pin what you use
13. 6:09Find or ask

Training video · 5:03Contacts and importsThe Contacts module and its role views, adding a contact without creating a duplicate, columns and saved views, Options > Import (template, upload, mapping, validation), updating existing records by import, removing a contact from one event or all, and merging duplicates.

1. 0:02Contacts and imports
2. 0:28The Contacts module
3. 0:55Add a contact
4. 1:30Columns and saved views
5. 1:54Options > Import
6. 2:21Upload, map, validate
7. 2:46Import to update
8. 3:17People first, then sessions
9. 3:44Remove from one event, or all
10. 4:05Merge duplicates
11. 4:38Wrap up

Why use it

The Add Contact form is the first place a contact’s data enters an event, and gaps created at that moment are hard to chase down later. Marking fields required ensures every contact record starts with the information your team depends on — whether that is a job title, company, or custom field — before the record is saved. First Name, Last Name and Email are always required; you choose which additional fields to enforce. This applies only to the event’s Add Contact sidebar, so import, submission, and portal form rules stay independent, and contacts created through the Public API are not checked against it either.

The Contacts module

All Contacts is everyone attached to this event, whatever their role. The entries under it in the sidebar — Speakers, Chairpersons, Moderators, Submitters, Additional Contacts — are views of the same people filtered by role, not separate lists. Assign a contact to a session as a speaker and they appear under Speakers; nothing is copied.

Contacts belong to your organization, not to one event. The person who spoke last year is the same record this year, which is why adding a contact starts with a search.

Note

Adding a speaker from the Speakers module or from a session creates the contact first, the same way. Once the contact is on a session they show in Speakers as well.

Add a contact

1. In All Contacts, click Add Contact at the top right.
2. The panel opens on a search, not a form. Type a name or email. Matches are grouped into contacts already in event and contacts elsewhere in organization.
   • Someone already in the event: click View contact to open them — there is nothing to add.
   • Someone in your organization but not this event: tick them and click Add to Event at the bottom of the panel. See Adding existing contacts to a new event.
3. Only when nobody comes back, click Add new contact.

4. Fill in New Contact Details. First Name, Last Name and Email are always required, plus any fields your event marks required in Record Settings. The rest can be completed later, by the contact in their portal or by an import.
5. Click Create Contact.

Tip

Which fields appear in this form, and in what order, is set per event in Settings > Record Settings > Layouts. Put the fields your team fills in at creation time at the top and leave the rest for the profile.

Delete or remove a contact

1. Tick the box to the left of the contact. The bulk bar appears above the table with Edit, Send, Assign, More and Delete.

   

2. Click Delete. The dialog asks the question that matters:

   • Remove from this event takes the contact off this event only. Their record, history and every other event they are part of are untouched, and you can add them back later from the organization.
   • Remove from all events deletes the contact from your organization, including every other event. This cannot be undone.

Removing from this event is the right choice almost every time. Use Remove from all events for genuine mistakes — a test record, or a duplicate you would rather delete than merge.

Note

A contact removed from the event also loses that event’s portal access, including any sponsor or exhibitor portal access — the Remove dialog lists those sponsors and exhibitors before you confirm — and comes off any sessions they were assigned to. Their sessions stay; only the assignment is cleared.

Common questions

It says "This email address is already in use by another account" (or that a contact with this email already exists), but I cannot see them in the event. Why?

Both messages mean the same thing, and neither is about logins: an email address is unique across your whole organization, not just this event. An active contact with that address already exists somewhere in your organization — usually in another event, or removed from this event but not from the organization. Deleted contacts do not block the address.

Instead of creating the person again, click Add Contact, type the email, and look under in organization — tick the match and click Add to Event. To find them outside any event, open CRM → Contacts at the organization level and search by email. If two records do exist for the same person under different addresses, merge them.

Can I add a speaker without an email address, or use one placeholder address for several people?

Every contact needs an email address, and Sessionboard uses it to tell people apart: portal logins, imports, interest forms and duplicate checks all match on it. One shared placeholder such as tbd@yourorg.com makes those people collide. The second contact may be blocked, a portal login moves to whichever contact was given access last, and duplicate checks flag them as each other.

If you don’t have a speaker’s email yet, give each person their own address you control, for example events+lastname@yourorg.com, and replace it with the real one as soon as you have it. Hold off on invitations and reminders until then, because they go to that address.

Can I make more contact fields required, or take fields off the Add Contact form?

Yes. Open the event’s Settings > Record Settings > Layouts, stay on Contact Fields and click Show/Hide Fields. Untick the fields your team doesn’t fill in at creation time, drag the rest into order, and tick Required on any field the team must fill in before Create Contact works. First Name, Last Name and Email are always required and pinned at the top. Calculated and read-only fields can’t be required. A required checkbox must be ticked.

This applies to the event’s Add Contact form only. Imports, submission forms and portal forms keep their own rules. To require a field where the person fills it in themselves:

• On a submission form, switch on Required for the question on the Participant Information step.
• On a contact portal form, switch on Required for the question and assign the form on the person’s portal.

Where do I see my speakers?

Speakers are contacts with the Speaker role on at least one session, so they are a view of the same records as All Contacts. In the event, open CRM → People → Speakers; the same row exists for Chairpersons, Moderators and Submitters. A person appears there once they are on a session in that role — until then they are only in All Contacts. See Create and assign speakers and why a new contact isn’t in the Speakers view.

Related

• The contact profile — what is on a contact’s record and where to edit it
• Importing data — add or update many contacts from a spreadsheet
• Merge duplicates — when the same person exists twice