Author: Zeb Reyaz

We’ve packed this month’s release with quality-of-life upgrades that save clicks, tidy data, and give you more control over the attendee experience. Here’s the quick tour:

What’s New & Noteworthy

1. Personalized Admin Dashboard
   Hit Customize to hide or show only the widgets you care about. New widgets: countdown timer in Event Status, circular campaign graphs, session and community stats, survey snapshot, review overview, and more.

2. Domain Blocking in Contacts
   Stop unwanted sign-ups by blacklisting entire email domains.

3. One-Click RSVP From Emails
   Guests can now Accept or Decline an invite right inside your campaign—no login required.

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In a world that's rapidly pivoting toward hybrid and virtual engagement, universities and nonprofits find themselves at a crossroads. Traditional in-person conferences are wonderful, but let's be honest; they aren't always practical. Travel costs, global crises, accessibility issues; the hurdles are real. And when it comes to research events, the need for dynamic interaction isn't just a preference, it's a necessity. Researchers need to discuss, not just present. They want to engage, not just observe.

Enter Dryfta's Virtual Meeting Platform: a breath of fresh air designed specifically to meet the complex needs of academia and mission-driven events.

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In July 2024, dozens of African health experts with accepted talks to a major HIV/AIDS conference in Munich found themselves watching from home as their visas denied by the host country. Around the same time, U.S. government agencies facing new budget cuts outright banned their scientists from traveling to conferences (even on personal time) until an outcry forced a reversal (Source: US NIH reverses conference travel ban for scientists). These incidents underline a stark reality: academic and nonprofit public health conferences are being squeezed by a perfect storm of shrinking travel grants, slashed research funding, and record-high visa restrictions. The stakes are high. If we don’t adapt, we risk conference halls filled only with those privileged enough to afford airfare and visas, and an empty seat where a young scientist from the Global South should have been sitting, sharing insights that could save lives.

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How’s planning going? We’ve been busy polishing Dryfta so the platform keeps doing more of the heavy lifting for you. Here’s what just landed in your account:

What’s New & Noteworthy

1. Super‑Sized Webinars
   • Host up to 500 speakers/moderators on camera
   • Livestream to 8 000 viewers simultaneously
   • Moderators can flip the switch from “watch‑only” to “join the stage” for live Q&A and allow participants to ask questions

2. Undo‑Button for Almost Everything
   Accidentally delete a user, order or submission? Head to the new Restore Center and bring it back in seconds.

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Organizing large-scale conferences in a global context has increasingly become a complex undertaking. Senior event managers and corporate planners must now consider multiple aspects such as attendee data protection, compliance with international policies, and sophisticated technology integrations. While SaaS-based event management platforms, hosted on a shared cloud, have been a dominant force in recent years, a gradual movement toward on-premise event management software, installed and fully managed within private cloud, is reshaping the way enterprises approach event management. This adjustment is driven by a variety of factors, including the imperative of having total control, meeting advanced security requirements, and adhering to evolving data regulations in different geographies.

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