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Seat a congregation in a hall

Draw the hall from a template, seat everyone by college, let graduands choose if you want, and send each person their seat.

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A hall plan gives every graduand and guest a real seat, and gives each of them the way to it. You work on a copy until you're ready, and nobody is told anything until you send seats.

A plan of ceremony grounds: a stage and press area at the top, six canopies in two columns, three gates around the edge, and a line from Gate 3 to a gold dot on one canopy.A plan of ceremony grounds: a stage and press area at the top, six canopies in two columns, three gates around the edge, and a line from Gate 3 to a gold dot on one canopy.
What a graduand sees: the whole grounds, their seat and the way to it from their gate.

Draw the hall

  1. Open the congregation and choose its Seating tab. Add a session first if there isn't one.
  2. On the session, choose Start from a template, or Browse templates to see all of them. You can also reuse a hall you've drawn before.
  3. Check the plan. Seats for graduands and guests come from the session.
  4. Choose Activate. If a change would take seats from people, Durbar says how many and asks first.

Give out the seats

Say which college or group sits in which block, then allocate. People with access needs are placed first, then by college, programme and name. Guests sit together, near their graduand's college. Anyone already seated keeps their seat.

Let graduands choose

  1. On the session, choose Seat choice.
  2. Turn on Let people choose their seat, set when it Opens and Closes, and choose Save seat choice.
  3. While it's open, each graduand can pick a free seat in their own group's blocks, on their portal record or from their ticket link, and change it until it closes.

Nobody can see who took which seat. Guests don't choose. When it closes, Durbar seats anyone who didn't choose. It doesn't tell them, so send seats afterwards.

Tell everyone

Choose Send seats. Each person gets an SMS and email with a link to their seat, and their ticket shows it too. Download the seat sheet gives you the same list by block, row and seat.

On the day

  • Ushers can use Find a seat with an index number or a name.
  • Open live shows the hall filling up. See Watch the hall fill up.
  • If you may have to move, keep a second plan ready as a Plan B.

Ready to try it?

Sign in to the console with a code sent to your phone or email. The first code creates your account.

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