Send us the details about your Virtual Fair
Submit your Virtual Fair Request Form and tell us about your fair. Our team will create your fair.
If you are not a current CampusGroups client, please first see our Virtual Fair page for additional information or Request a Demo to speak with a member of our team about creating a Fair.
Edit your Fair settings
Go to Admin > Engagement > Virtual Fairs to access your Fair. Add your description, time frame, and set who will be managing your Information Booth.
Determine your Fair layout
Decide whether you want to use the standard Zones layout or use a custom map image. Custom maps can be uploaded from your Fair Settings and you can email support@campusgroups.com to make your map clickable to your setup.
Create your Zones
Go to Zones and select the button to Create Zone. Choose the Zone name, sub-title, and color. Add an icon, and select the size the Zone will display as (standard Zone layout only).
Select the groups participating in the Fair
Assign existing groups by Group Type, and upload new groups (departments, community partners, employers, etc.) via upload.
Assign groups to Zones
Groups can be assigned to a single Zone individually, or en masse by filtering groups by Group Type, Category Tag (visible to Users), or Admin Tag (visible to Admin only).
Invite group leadership to the Fair
Existing group officers will be pre-populated. Newly created groups can have leadership added by uploading system Users and then uploading the same people as Group Members (selecting 1 in the “Is Officer” column). Booth Owners will need access to the Directory in order to see information about the Users who visit their booth. This can be updated under Admin --> Settings --> User Permissions. Talk to your CSA if you have questions about this!
Encourage groups to add content to their booths
Groups should select applicable Interests, Sports, and Industries in order to have visitors receive suggestions of groups to connect with. When setting up the booth, choose to activate Group Chats where all visitors enter a single chat with all group officers/representatives, and add a meeting link to a live video conferencing room. Additional options to include: cover photo, tagline, description, add links to videos and websites, and upload documents and additional photos.
TIP: Send a message to your club leaders or other main contacts to invite them to build out their booths. Here is a sample email inviting group leaders to your virtual fair that you can use as a starting point for your communications.
Make sure all booths are activated before the Fair
Booths can be activated from the Admin menu, or individually by the Group leadership through going to their group Dashboard > More > Virtual Fairs, then selecting to Activate Booth.
Create an Event for the Fair and invite students
Add the Fair as an Event under the organization hosting the fair, with the option of including it as separate event times to indicate when groups will be online and staffing their booths. Advertise the Fair by adding a banner to your Homepage to access the Fair in one-click and send out an email to encourage students to register and attend (including the link from the Preview Fair page as the event location).
Monitor attendance and engagement during the Fair
View the number of touchpoints (visitors, chats, interests) in real time. Use the Information Booth to answer one-on-one questions for students that need general instructions or advice.
Pull reports and review engagement after the Fair
All students that click the button in a group’s booth indicating interest will be added to that group’s member list as a Contact, which will include a custom Member Tag with the name of your Fair. Officers can find the their list of Contacts by managing their group > Members > Contacts > filter by the correct Member Tag.
Officers can create and add additional tags to keep track of conversations and can easily add students as full members or send targeted communications with more information.
Administrators can pull additional reports from within the fair by navigating to the fair page and clicking on List of Participants. From this page, use the dropdowns to filter your data as needed and pull a Participants Report or a Booth Visits Report.
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Below please find some top Q&A from administrators at our webinar on Hosting Your Virtual Involvement Fair with CampusGroups.
Q: Can we integrate a virtual fair within our orientation CampusGroups portal?
A: We have not tested this yet, but given that you can add Web Views in your orientation app, you should be able to embed the Virtual Fair link into it. The Map View will have to be tested to work well on a mobile phone.
Another possibility is to create a separate event app for your Virtual Fair, and to allow students to switch between the Orientation App and the Virtual Fair app. We are looking into automatically creating a mobile app for each Virtual Fair.
Q: Will non-students (partners, parents, etc.) be able to attend the virtual fair as a guest, without an existing CG account?
A: Yes, they will be able to attend by creating a guest account when prompted by accessing the Virtual Fair through the link for the first time.
For parents and families without login credentials, they would be able to sign up and attend, but would be added as a guest user to the platform. This is necessary in order to be able to track their activity within the fair and to be able to provide you and the other departments with the information on who visited and requested more information. These users can be deactivated after the fair and will not count against your overall campus user count.
Q: In terms of external partners, could this be used for career fairs where the Groups would all be external companies/recruiters?
A: Yes, our Virtual Fair module is designed to work for multiple types of fairs, including Career Fairs. The same way that student organizations and officers need to be added to the platform, companies and recruiters will also need to be uploaded in order to gain access and to set up their booth.
Q: Is the interest list customizable? For instance, we’re a medical group so surgery, OB/GYN, etc?
A: Yes! You can customize your interest list. We just need to receive your list of interests by email.
Q: Does it have to be moderated by club officers during the fair, or will it be evergreen? That is, could a student visit the fair later and see all the same information?
A: The Virtual Fair is live for a set amount of time which could be several days. After the end of the Fair, all the booths in the fair will be unpublished and made unavailable for students. Only the group officers will still have access to their booth (after the fair).
Q: Could this also be used for a Virtual Career Fair, Resource Fair (i.e. to highlight departments/offices/programs), a majors and minors fair, virtual study abroad fair, etc.?
A: Yes Absolutely! This can be used for any virtual “fair”. Your departments will just need to have groups within the CampusGroups Platform at your campus to be included in the fair.
Q: Would non-profit partners get the same treatment as employers if we wanted to host a Volunteer Fair? For a resource fair (not a club fair), would ALL departments need to have a page in the system?
A: You can add those groups and users with the same permissions and access within your system.
Please note: any group specifically created to be represented at the fair will not be counted toward your total of groups for your platform.
Q: If we are hosting a career or research fair, but have a CampusGroups platform set up with groups for student clubs, would we be able to set-up additional groups to take part in this fair? Would this affect the current structure of group set-up for student clubs?
A: Yes, you can add additional groups and users. Any group specifically created to be represented at the fair will not be counted toward your total of groups for your platform.
Q: How would students gain access to the fair? If multiple groups on campus are facilitating fairs for their own departments, would the students see all those when they log in, or will there be a link directing to one specific fair?
A: Students log on with their Single Sign-On credentials if SSO has been set up, or can log on by simply entering their email address (they will receive a 6-digit code by email in order to authenticate). Each fair will be hosted separately, and a link to each fair can be added to the home page of CampusGroups thanks to the Customize button. You can decide to host multiple Fairs, or to group different types of groups into Zones inside one single Fair.
Q: How do Groups indicate their "interests" to facilitate the "matching?"
A: When setting up their booth, groups have the ability to specify their interests.
Q: Is there opportunity for the fair to be a week long, with different "live times", like 5-6pm every day but the other times it would open without the ability to interact with a member?
A: Yes, a fair could last for a week, or be opened multiple times over several days. When the fair is opened, officers can decide to turn off Live Chat if they don’t think they will be available to answer questions from visitors.
Q: Is it possible for international students from around the world (in different time zones) to participate?
A: Yes, CampusGroups is available for international students who live abroad and are in different time zones.
Q: If chat is not turned on in the system, can it only be accessible for the involvement fair, but not the broader system?
A: Yes, we could make this happen on demand.
Q: Is it possible to have the groups be ordered alphabetically instead?
A: You can sort alphabetically however the default is set to “most active”. You can change this in the far right dropdown menu of the listing.
Q: How are booths displayed if all the clubs are active?
A: The most active groups will be displayed on top. The more videos, photos, links, documents you upload on your booth, the higher your group will rank in the listing.
We might be able to take other parameters into account. We are open to suggestions on how to sort the groups differently.
Q: What is the time frame of the fair, and is it 'LIVE'? Does it have to be moderated by club officers during the fair, or will it be evergreen? That is, could a student visit the fair later and see all the same information?
A: You are able to set the time frame for the fair, whether it is a few hours or even a few weeks.
Q: Can this be integrated with a University’s single sign on?
A: Yes. The Virtual Fair will be built right into the CampusGroups system so the same Single Sign On used to sign into CampusGroups will also allow users to sign right into the Virtual Fair.
Q: Can students only connect in a chat feature and not live video chat when visiting a club booth?
A: Yes. Chat only is possible.
Q: Speaking of chats, is there a video feature for an exhibitor/org tabling to be on camera and speak to anyone “dropping in”?
A: There is the option to include a Meeting Link (i.e.: Zoom, Webex, Teams, Hang out, etc) for anyone to “drop in”.
Q: Is there a way to facilitate a zoom meeting/call?
A: The officers of the group can list their available times for 1-on-1 meeting. Students can book time slots on officer meeting schedulers (a standard CampusGroups feature), and click a Zoom link to start a face-to-face video meeting.
Q: So, if each society would have a zoom link set up - where the students can go to talk live - how would you manage this if you had 50 people entering that zoom link at once?
A: If you are using Zoom, you can control the group size and utilize breakout groups to keep it smaller. Encourage booth owners to use the waiting room so you can have one on one conversations or small groups at a time.
Q: Where does the link to the meeting display?
A: It will be displayed on the booth page.
Q: Do the Admins of the Fair also have a page that would have a link for a zoom room as well? Or would it just be shared in the chat between student and Admin member?
A: We will add this as a Feature Request, thank you!
Q: Could community partners/groups outside of campus have booths without a CampusGroups account (and be given access to customize their booths)?
A: Yes, outside groups can be added and gain access to their booth.
Q: Can you speak to ADA compliance?
A: The Virtual Fair module is accessible. We can provide a VPAT for the CampusGroups platform at large. Any accessibility bug should be reported to our team and will be treated as a regular bug as part of our SLA.
Please contact support@campusgroups.com with any questions.