Inferred Sessions
In many events, Sessions occur back-to-back with limited or no opportunity to gather check-in data from people who remain seated in the room.
By using Jomablue Session Entry (Check-in) and Session Exit (Check-out) features, we can intelligently infer which sessions attendees participated inbetween these two data points. For additional information see the article: Managing Sessions under the section: Create a Location.
When Inferred Sessions are enabled, Jomablue employs an algorithm that determines attendance using various factors. The most significant factor is the Minimum Stay Percentage, which you can adjust (more details on this later).
When is Inferring Useful
- When there is limited changeover time between sessions
- When attendees generally remain seated for several sessions in a row
- When attendees must stay in a session for a specific duration to be considered as “attending” (e.g., CPD points)
How it works
The following rules must apply:
- If a Person entered (checks in) to a Session at a Location
- AND that Person has exited (checked out) from the same Location
- AND if that Person was in the Session for longer than the Minimum Stay Percentage
- AND if that Person has no interactions (check-in or check-out) at any other Location during that time
We can then infer that they remained in the room for the entire duration and therefore attended all sessions between the two data points.
Visual example
Minimum Stay Percentage
The Minimum Stay Percentage is a feature of Inferred Sessions ensuring that attendance calculations are meaningful. If Session A and Session B are back-to-back and Session A runs over time, People checking out immediately after Session A (e.g., 10 mins into Session B) should not be counted as having attended Session B.
The Minimum Stay Percentage indicates the minimum duration required for a Session to be considered attended. By default, the value is set to 60%, but you can adjust it after enabling Inferred Sessions (see Enable Inferred Sessions section below).
The algorithm is designed to be more lenient towards attendance (vs. non-attendance), since false negatives for attendance are generally more problematic than false positives.
Using the above example, if Session A and Session B are each 100 minutes long and a Person checks in at the beginning of Session A, they will be inferred as having attended Session B if they check out after the 60-minute mark of Session B. However, if they check out before the 60-minute mark, they will not be inferred as having attended.
Enable Inferred Sessions
- Navigate to Event Configuration > Settings > Event Settings Tab
- Select Yes
How do I see Inferred Sessions?
Inferred sessions are displayed whenever session information is displayed. After enabling this feature, you can assume that any session-related data reflects inferred attendance. For Example:
- In the Person Detail section under the Interactions and Session Attended Tab
- Visible in Exports
- Event App users see "Attended" icons in their agendas
- Networking recommendations in Community will consider inferred attendance
Attendees will receive survey questions for the Inferred Session if dynamic Surveys are in use - Insights charts will reflect inferred counts
Note:
- If you use Inferred sessions, the counts for "Checked in to session" may appear understated, as Jomablue can only infer attendance once the session exit interaction is logged. If sessions run back-to-back, the check-out data may not be logged for some time after the first session starts.
- Jomablue will not infer attendance for a restricted session unless the person is entitled to access it
- Inferred Sessions can be enabled or disabled retrospectively
If changes are made to the Minimum Stay Values or inferred session settings, it may take up to 10 minutes to see the updated results in Jomablue - People who have checked into a location and have not checked out, or interacted elsewhere, will be marked as attending the session they entered (as long as they meet the Minimum Stay Percentage)
