Creating and managing town halls in Zoho Connect
How to create a town hall session?
- Click Town Hall in the left navigation pane.
- Click New Town Hall, seen in the bottom-left part of the page or the "+" icon in the top-right part of the page.
- Add the name and description and select the participants for the session.
- Add panelists if needed.
- You can either start the session immediately or schedule one for later.
Who can attend a town hall session?
Everyone in the network - create a public town hall session within your Zoho Connect network so that all network members can have access to it.
Selected members or groups - provide access only to specific groups and individuals. If this option is selected, then panelists can only added from among the selected members and groups. Members outside the selected attendees cannot be added as panelists.
Preferences - Advanced options while creating a town hall
Who can answer questions?
Choose who can add answers to questions: only the panelists or anyone who has access to the town hall session.
End Time
Specify the time until when members can ask questions in the town hall session.
Add Tags
Tags help with grouping similar questions. Questions with the tags will also appear on top in the auto-suggestions list when a user is typing out a new question.
Schedule for later
Town hall sessions can be scheduled to start at a specific date and time in the future. If no scheduled time is added, the session will start right away.
Scheduling a town hall can be done only in the enterprise plan.How to enable moderation in a town hall session?
Moderation can be enabled by the organizer once it is created.
- Click the menu in the top-right corner of the (active) town hall page.
- From the dropdown, select Enable moderation.
Follow the steps mentioned above to disable moderation for the town hall.
What happens once moderation is enabled?
Once moderation is enabled, all questions, answers and comments will have to be approved by the organizer or panelists before they're shared in the town hall. Every time a participant posts a question, answer or a comment, the organizers and panelists receive a notification prompting them to review the content.
How can members interact within a town hall session?
Ask a question
Members can start asking questions by clicking the 'Ask a question' button. A post editor window would pop-up, where the question and additional details related to the question could be provided. Image embed, links and attachments can also be added to the question.
Follow a town hall session
Following a town hall session lets users receive notifications whenever a new question is asked. Individual questions could also be followed to receive notifications whenever a new comment or answer is added to that question. For town halls that are specific to groups or a set of members, only those members will have the option to follow the session or questions.
Upvote/Downvote & Comments
Members can react to questions asked by other members by upvoting or down voting, and can also add comments to discuss about the question or request additional clarification.
Answering questions
Members can add answers to questions only if they have been provided with this permission by the organizer. To add an answer, simply click any question and use the text bar provided at the bottom.
Filters & Reordering questions
All users who have access to the town hall could use the tabs provided at the top (All, Unanswered, Answered) to filter the questions, and reorder them according to Recent first, Oldest first or Most Upvoted.
How can organizers interact within a town hall session?
Organizers can add answers to questions and delete any question or comment made by the members.
Panelists can only answer questions and add comments, they do not have the permission to delete questions or comments.
Managing a town hall session
Organizers can stop a town hall session at any time by clicking Stop Session from the three-dotted (ellipsis) menu in the top-right part of the session screen.
They can also edit the session details (name, description, and panelists) by accessing the Manage option, set notification preferences, and delete the session—all these options are available in the three-dotted (ellipsis) menu in the top-right part of the session screen.
What happens once a session is stopped?
Once a town hall session is stopped, questions cannot be added. However, members or panellists can answer existing questions, and add their comments. Stopping a session also allows the organizers to Archive the session. The archive option appears in the three-dotted menu once the session is stopped.
What happens once a session is archived?
Archiving a town hall session would disable all activities and removes it from the left navigation section, so members will not have access to it anymore. Organizers can always un-archive the sessions by accessing the 'Archived town halls' section.
Restarting town hall sessions
Organizers can restart completed sessions at any time they choose to.
To restart a completed session,
- Click Town Hall from the navigation pane in the left.
- Click Completed Sessions.
- Click the town hall you would like to restart.
- Click the ellipses (three-dotted button) in the top-right part of the session screen.
- Click Restart Session.
The session will now appear in the ongoing sessions tab, and the attendees will be able to post new questions.How to restart an archived session?
Archived sessions can be restarted once they are unarchived.
- Click Town Hall from the navigation pane in the left.
- Click Archived town halls from the ellipses (three-dotted button) in the bottom-left part of the page.
- From the list of archived sessions, click the one you would like to restart.
- Click the ellipses (three-dotted button) in the top-right part of the session screen and click Unarchive from the dropdown.
- Once you get the message saying the session has been successfully unarchived, click the ellipses (three-dotted button) menu again.
- From the dropdown, click Restart Session.
The session will be listed under the ongoing sessions tab, and the attendees will be able to post new questions.
Notification Preferences
Organizers and panelists can configure notification preferences by accessing the three dotted (ellipsis) icon in the top-right part of the town hall session screen. They can choose to configure email notifications as well as push notifications for questions asked during the session.
Members receive a notification if new comments or answers are added to the question they've asked, or if any new comments or answers have been added to a question where they have participated. Members can configure these preferences in the general 'Notification Settings' page of Zoho Connect.
Zoho Connect's free plan lets you conduct only one live session at a time. Once a session is completed, the next one can be created. The session can be created only by the admin. The option to schedule a session is allowed only in the enterprise plan.
The enterprise plan lets users create and schedule any number of town hall sessions.
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