It’s hard to believe we’re witnessing a superpower invading a European country. What’s happening in Ukraine has me simultaneously losing faith in the ability of humans to not choose war, and growing faith that people rapidly come together in support of those who are facing grave risks even when we may not personally know them.

I believe in the power of people coming together to learn and to solve big problems, and it’s a core part of what we deliver for our customers at Splash. We want to support and take a stand.

Starting today, we’re giving Splash for free to organizations that are supporting Ukraine and Ukrainians, matching employee donations, and making it easy to get involved with the organizations making a difference in the lives of Ukrainians.

If you work for or know an organization that could benefit from event software in their mission to help Ukraine, please start with this submission form.

I hope you’ll take a little time to study the following organizations and find a way that you and your company can also get involved in this travesty. May our thoughts and hopes be with the people of Ukraine and align with our actions to support them.

• Finding new ways to empower everyone on your team.
  
• Creating meaningful events in all formats easily — including hybrid.
  
• Providing education for every learning style to keep you current.

Watch the announcement.

Watch the announcement.

Make your 2022 events calendar sparkle with the Jumpstart Hub Theme↓. It's designed to promote a full lineup of events in the most beautiful way possible, and works great for any series, roadshow, or general events calendar.

Speaking of event calendars, did you know Splash Hubs are embeddable anywhere? With Embeddable Hubs↓you can feature your upcoming events on Splash and non-Splash pages alike, so you can amplify the impact of all your experiential programming.

Making sure the tools your teams use are 100% on point is the surest way to scale in 2022. Account Configuration↓doesn't mean updating your profile picture — it's auditing your Splash integrations, brand assets, templates, and team members to make sure everyone is accessing the platform in the best way possible.

Now in Limited Availability is the new Event Format Selector↓. Those with early access will notice a new question on your event creation form that asks how your guest will attend. If your response is Virtual or Hybrid, Splash will automatically equip your event with Virtual Event Page functionality.

Every indication is that IRL events will be back with a vengeance in 2022. Be Ready for On-Site↓by reintroducing yourself to Splash's in-person events resources.

Where to Donate

International Rescue Committee: Families affected by the Ukraine crisis need your help. The IRC is on the ground in Poland, prepared to support displaced families with critical aid, including food, medical care and emergency supplies.

World Central Kitchen: WCK serving thousands of fresh meals to Ukrainian families fleeing home as well as those who remain in the country.

The UN Refugee Agency: USA for UNHCR protects refugees and empowers them with hope and opportunity. Send Hope to Families in Ukraine. Your kind gift will provide emergency aid to families in Ukraine and wherever the next emergency occurs.

Outright Action International: Has started to receive the requests for support from LGBTIQ organizations that are preparing to receive LGBTIQ people in search of shelter, safety and security.

CARE: Providing food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support, and cash assistance -- prioritizing women and girls, families, and the elderly.

International Medical Corps: Expanding medical services, providing crucial mobile health services and training healthcare workers on infection prevention and control. 

Project HOPE: Has emergency response teams in Poland, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine providing health screenings, essential medicines and supplies.

Direct Relief: Equipping field medics in Ukraine and providing medical support to Ukraine and the surrounding countries receiving refugees during this crisis.

MedShare: Working with their international partners to support refugee communities and provide much needed medical supplies. 

CORE: On the ground in Poland supporting the immediate needs of people fleeing Ukraine in the wake of this massive humanitarian catastrophe.

Airlink: Supported the transportation of 5 assessment and emergency response teams to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, with more on their way and connecting with humanitarian, logistics, and airline partners in the region to send relief supplies.

IFAW: Directing emergency funds to their two partner shelters in Ukraine to initially cover pet food, veterinary supplies and wages for daily care staff.

Voices of Children: Today, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, they are providing non-stop assistance to affected children and families from all over the country, providing emergency psychological assistance, and assisting in the evacuation process.

People in Need: People in Need is providing financial support to local NGO partners to support displaced people with water, food, hygiene, and other urgent humanitarian needs -- including psychological support and assistance to the people of Ukraine.

Lifeline Ukraine: Lifeline Ukraine is a national, professional, suicide prevention and mental health support hotline, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Lifeline Ukraine was established to provide help for veterans and their family members first and foremost.

National Bank of Ukraine - Humanitarian Fund: NBU has opened a special fundraising account for humanitarian assistance for Ukrainians affected by the conflict. Your donation will go directly towards humanitarian relief efforts.

National Bank of Ukraine - Armed Forces Fund: NBU has also opened a special account to raise funds for Ukraine’s Armed Forces. 

So, if your 2022 plans include an event series, roadshow, or just a dynamite events calendar, look no further than Jumpstart.

Next time you create an event, you'll see Jumpstart listed in the Hubs category. You can also start using it today by simply clicking here. 

And to really start the new year right, read the Hubs 101 guide and take the interactive online course.

"These days, we're thinking about all the ways to keep your attendees as engaged as possible." - Perry Piep, Technical Writer

• Embed your live stream provider and interactivity tools of choice. Splash gates your event to sync valuable data back to your CRM and MAP systems automatically.
  
• Market and host branded virtual events with a consistent look and feel.
  
• Guarantee the optimal guest experience in one, streamlined setup flow.

More Branding and Automation: Splash + Zoom 2.0: 

This update to the Zoom Webinars integration is available for all users with a paid Splash account.

If you use the Zoom Webinars integration, you know it's all about automation:

• Automated webinar setup
• Automated registration & check-in sync
• Automated sync back to your CRM or Marketing Tech

With this release, events using the Zoom integration will have the webinar automatically embedded in Splash's Virtual Event Page, allowing you guests to view your webinar in a fully branded and gated virtual venue.

The result: Same data and automation. Same hosting process. Transformed guest experience.

Note: If you prefer doing things the original way, no sweat — that'll still be your the default option.

Here's how it works:

1. As you normally would, create an event using the Zoom integration. Then add the Virtual Event Page to your event from the Event Overview screen.

Open the Embed Settings. Your newly created Zoom webinar ID will be automatically entered, completing the embed step.

2. Design your virtual experience inside the Virtual Event Page.

3. In your confirmation email, reminder emails, and calendar invites, insert the [virtual_event_url] tag to send each guest their personal access link.

To learn more about hosting an event using Virtual Event Page, check out our 101 Guide and official online course.

In the above example, the Splash team is using a dual embed in Virtual Event page with a Zoom webinar for streaming and Pigeonhole Live for attendee engagement. 

"You're now in full control over what your guests see when they enter your virtual event."

Nikki Vorwerk, Splash CSM

This theme isn't only one of our most visually innovative set of event templates, it's got all the best practices for running a live event in its digital DNA:

1. Conditional registration form for collecting virtual vs. in-person attendance
2. Separate content blocks for virtual and in-person Details, Venues, Agenda, and Downloads
3. Dedicated section for Health & Safety Information

4. Fully designed Virtual Event Page, with Countdown, Check-in, and Live Stream screens
5. Multi-track email templates for virtual, in-person, and undecided guests

Who said hybrid events would be hard? Double your business impact by getting started today.

"In moments, transform a single event page into a serving platter of options. As always, your brand, fonts, and colors automatically apply." - Product Manager Lizzy Hindman-Harvey

"This update enables flexibility to pick and choose how you map the data, and make sure the Campaign Object is built exactly how you need."

Faisal Mawani, Sr. Solutions Consultant

ICYMI: We created a national holiday (no, seriously) celebrating the heroes who tame chaos, craft experiences, and get BIG results.

That's right: Now and forever, September 23 is officially Field Marketer's Day.

Among festivities, we're hosting a Build Along workshop — an exclusive opportunity to develop new skills and get inspiration from other field marketers using Splash.

What is a Build Along?

A Build Along is a hands-on training workshop where you'll be using Splash to create a reusable event marketing asset — in this case a branded event theme for field programming.

You'll be guided along by a Splash product expert and joined by other customers with similar use-cases.

The workshop is filling up fast, so grab your spot today.

Choose Wisely: Event Format Selector

The Event Format Selector is currently in Limited Availability.

At Splash, we're always looking for ways to make hosting virtual and hybrid events easier.

The new Event Format selector — now in Limited Availability — is the latest example.

Many users will now see a new question when creating an event that asks “How will your guests attend?”

If you choose Virtual or Virtual and In-Person, the Virtual Event Page will be automatically added to your event — our recommended method for hosting a virtual or hybrid event in Splash.

This extra bit of automation is our way of making sure you always have the right tools for the event you’re hosting.

Plus, this feature is a key building block for some much bigger releases in 2022. (Yep, that's what we call a tease!)

Our Product team will increase the number of users that have access to the Event Format Selector every couple weeks or so through the end of the year and early next.

So, please keep an eye out, and let us know what you think.

P.S. If your organization has a custom event creation form, you'll be excluded from the Limited Availability period.

"All text elements are formatted to scale two unique languages harmoniously across all screen sizes."

-Ash Ifkovitz, Splash Designer

Countdown elements are available to all users. Hubs are available to users with a paid Splash plan. 

Countdowns and hubs are so sweet, they ought to require parental supervision. Quick refresher:

• Countdowns show guests how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until your event begins.
• Hubs allow you to organize multiple events on a single page, like a calendar visitors can subscribe to for updates.

Both are beloved for being "beautiful and dynamic," according to Splash engineer Taylor Parker. So how'd they get sweeter?

You now have the ability to edit how each countdown element is labeled, making it really easy to add a touch of whimsy or translate the element to another language.

On hub pages, the button that either reveals additional blocks or hides them can now be named for each state. In other words, it can read "Show More" when there are additional events in your calendar, or "Show Fewer" or "Collapse" if users want a shorter list to scroll.

"Gone are the days of hardcoded English."
Taylor Parker, Splash Engineer

For Pride Month and Beyond: That's the Theme

This theme is available to all users.

 
Featuring a bold color palette and a dizzying arrangement of content elements, Splash's theme for Pride Month is designed to awe audiences and make it easy for hosts to customize for their programming.

Said Splash's Director of Product Marketing, Piper Stull-Lane, "Like all themes in Splash, this one includes templates for your event page, registration form, emails, and share cards. It's a great solution for any event that is celebratory or meant to be eye-catching."

Peep the preview below, then read on to see customer examples and details for how to use this theme today.

How do I start using this theme? 

To use the Splash Pride Theme, create a new event and click into the Recommended Tab — it'll be the first theme you see in the month of June.

What can I use this theme for? 

The Splash Pride theme naturally works great for Pride events, but it's also easy to customize, making it highly versatile.

Some examples from last year include Shopify's gender affirmation event and Splash's event about diversity and inclusion. Some organizations take the theme beyond Pride — favorites are Bread’s Black Lives Matter in Tech, MoCADA's Juneteenth celebration, and Uncubed's Virtual Career Fair.

• Help Center (knowledge base)
• Case submission
• Access to the Splash Community
• Live trainings
• Online courses
• Info on Support Plans 

The new navigation makes finding answers a breeze. Plus it's the best place to discover our latest offerings for upcoming webinars, trainings, and product demos.

I personally have three webpages bookmarked: the New York Times crossword, Gmail, and splashthat.com/support. Will you join me?


It's Raining Resources: Hybrid & Product Tour

If you've made is this far, you learned about empowering your Splash team, the importance of virtual events, and how how to crush hybrid. Powerful stuff.

Now, what do you do if you need to tell a teammate or co-worker how all that stuff works in Splash?

You send them the new Splash Product Tour !

This fast-moving, digestible overview tackles Splash's full array of capabilities — including virtual and hybrid events. It's also a recommended watch for newer Splash users because it provides inspiration for how to leverage the platform to its fullest extent.

If you like what you see, shoot us a line at hello@splashthat.com or tag us on social using the @splashthat handle.

Not to be outdone: How to Host a Hybrid Event is live in our knowledge base. This is a personal favorite alongside the Virtual Event Page 101 Guide and Virtual Events Checklist.

If you're taking advantage of the new Hybrid Branded Theme or prepping your plans for the return to in-person events, give the 7-step hybrid guide a read.

For more pointers, check out:

1. 7 Best Practices for Building & Hosting Hybrid Events

2. How to Overcome the 5 Biggest Challenges of Hybrid Events

3. 7 Virtual Events You Can Run Today

• Upload multiple color sets to your Brand Library for easy event re-skinning.
• The days of changing individual color swatches on an event are over. Just toggle between color sets to work faster.

• Standard: Gain access to our knowledge base, walkthrough videos, best practices, and Slack community.
  
• Priority: Receive personalized walk-through videos, expedited responses, and monthly solutions in your support service review.
• Priority Elite: Gain access to a named support lead who oversees all of your cases, plus Reporting dashboards.

Key topics of the 101 Guide include:

One-Click Registration? Sign Me Up:
Social RSVP

This feature is available to users with a paid Splash plan.

There are few things online as delightful as auto-fill. Now, imagine being able to give that gift to every guest that reaches your registration form.

With Social RSVP, guests can register to your events faster than ever using Facebook or LinkedIn, while you, the host, reap the benefit of clean and connected data. That's a win-win.

To begin using this functionality, just add the Social RSVP question to any form, and choose Facebook or LinkedIn. 

Tools to be Great: This Month's Product Resources

These features are available to users with a paid Splash plan.

If you're as excited about February's release as we are, you'll want to peep this month's recommended product resources.

These include choice materials for getting the most out virtual and hybrid events, best practices for accessibility, and lots more.

Here are February's resources:

• Virtual Event Page - Online Course

• Virtual Event Page - 101 Guide

• Virtual Events Checklist

• Hybrid Events Guide
• Virtual Breakout Sessions
• Virtual Events Playlist

• Accessibility in Splash

• Splash Help Center