Getting started
The shortest path from an empty event to something an attendee can open — and what has to be true before you publish.
What it is
Your event has two halves. The dashboard is where you work; the attendee app is what your attendees open on their phones. Everything you fill in here shows up there — usually the moment you save it.
When to use it
Read this once, before your first event. It is the map: which screens matter in what order, and which decisions are hard to change later.
Before you start
- An event created from the dashboard (New event), with a name and dates.
Try it — this is a sandbox, nothing here is real
Walk a brand-new event from empty to published. Two of the paths below are the mistakes people actually make — take them deliberately.
A freshly created event. The overview tells you what is missing.
Draft
This event is not visible to attendees yet.
Done
Todo
Todo
Todo
nookpass.app/e/nook-summit
Nook Summit 2026
No sessions yet.
Publishing is not the last step, it is a switch
Publish only controls visibility. It does not check that the event is ready, and attendees can arrive the moment the link is out.
Session
0
Attendees imported
Ticket not found
Check the code on your pass, or contact the organizer.
Live
Attendees can open the event.
Click a control above. One of them is the mistake people actually make — take it on purpose.
Step by step
- 1
Find your way around the dashboardAny event screen
On the left is a bar of apps — Event App, Registration and so on — and beside it a panel with one app's screens. The bar shows only icons until you point at it; then it widens over the panel to show each app's name under its icon. Clicking an app shows its screens in the panel straight away without leaving the page you are on; click a screen to open it. While you look at another app's screens, a small aqua dot on the bar marks the app you are still in. All events at the top of the bar goes back to your events list. Along the top, the breadcrumb says where you are (Events › your event › the screen), and the header's right-hand side holds HeyNook, the little colourful robot, which opens Channels (your event's #support, where HeyNook answers questions about NookPass), the publish controls and your account menu — the round initial in the corner.
Tip. The bar shows six apps. Optional modules such as Lucky Draw or Announcements are under Apps at the end of it: click Add beside one there, or Add to your apps on its card on the All apps page. Add as many as you like; the first ones fill the bar, the rest wait under Apps, and the ones you open often take any room left. Drag the icons to put them in your own order. To see every app side by side, click See what every app does at the foot of the Apps menu.
- 2
Set the basics firstEvent App → Settings
Name, dates, timezone and venue. Everything time-related in the product is displayed in the event's timezone, not the browser's.
Careful. Set the timezone before you build the agenda. Changing it later does not move your sessions — they keep the wall-clock times you typed, which is almost never what you want after a timezone change.
- 3
Put content inEvent App → Content
Agenda, Speakers, Sponsors. Start with the agenda: it is the screen attendees open most, and speakers link to sessions from it.
Tip. Every content type has a CSV import. For anything over about twenty rows, import rather than type.
- 4
Make it look like your eventEvent App → App Customization → Appearance
Brand colour, fonts, logo. There is a live preview beside the form — you are not guessing.
- 5
Decide what attendees can seeEvent App → App Customization → Navigation
Rename, reorder or hide any screen. An event with no exhibitors should not show an Exhibitors tab.
- 6
Choose how people get inRegistration → Event Registration Setting
Ticket QR, emailed code, magic link, self-registration — or make the event fully public with no sign-in at all.
Careful. If you pick a ticket-based method, attendees must exist before they can sign in. Import them first.
- 7
PublishHeader, top right of any event screen — **Publish**
Until you publish, the attendee app returns nothing for this event — a draft event is invisible, not just unlisted. Publish when the agenda and the sign-in method are ready; you can keep editing afterwards. Publish shows the address that is about to go live before anything changes, and nothing is sent to attendees. Press Publish now, and it ends on the live address with Copy app link, Open the app and a QR code to download.
When it goes wrong
Every one of these has happened to someone. Symptom first, because that is what you will have.
Published an event with nothing in itwarning
Ticket sign-in with no attendee listblocker
Changed the timezone after building the agendawarning
What people ask
Kept in the words people use, because that is what you are about to type.
How do I save a note and find completed to-dos?
In Notes, choose Save or press ⌘S / Ctrl+S. You can keep typing while the save runs; anything typed after you pressed Save stays marked Unsaved changes, so save again when you are ready. In To-dos, open tasks stay visible regardless of how much work was completed before. Expand Done and choose Load more completed tasks to browse more completed work. If a page fails to load, Retry completed tasks tries that page again without removing the tasks already shown.
Can I keep editing after publishing?
Yes. Content changes are live for attendees as soon as you save — there is no second publish step for content.
Does unpublishing delete anything?
No. It hides the event from attendees. Everything you entered is still there when you publish again.
Where is the sign out button?
In your account menu: click the round initial in the top-right corner of the dashboard, then Sign out. Account & security (password, two-factor) is in the same menu.
More detail
It used to sit in a Signed in card at the bottom of the sidebar. That card is gone; the account menu replaced it on every screen, phones included.
How do I switch the dashboard to dark mode?
Open the account menu (the round initial, top right) and pick Dark under Theme. System follows your computer's light/dark setting and switches with it.
More detail
The choice is remembered per browser, not on your account — a laptop and an office screen can differ, and teammates are not affected. It changes the dashboard only: the attendee app's look is set in Event App → App Customization → Appearance, and the door scanner and Q&A console keep their own design.
How do I hide the sidebar to get more room?
Inside an event, click the panel button at the very bottom of the bar of apps, under Search. The panel of screens hides and the bar stays. Click any app, or the same button, to bring the panel back.
More detail
On pages outside an event (your events list, team, account) click ☰ beside the NookPass mark: the sidebar hides completely and a ☰ appears at the left of the header to bring it back. The choice is remembered in this browser. On a phone there is no sidebar to hide: the event's screens are a strip you scroll sideways under the event name.
How do I keep the screens I use most at the top of the sidebar?
Hover any screen in the panel and click its ☆. It joins Favorites at the top of the panel, above every app's screens; click the star again to remove it.
More detail
Favorites are yours, not the event's: the same list shows on every event you open, and nobody else on the team sees it. Up to ten screens, in the order you starred them, above the screens of whichever app the panel is showing.
IssueA module I used before is missing from the bar
It is an add-on that is not on your bar for this event. Click Apps at the end of the bar and click the module, or click Add beside it to keep it among your apps. Add to your apps on its card on the All apps page does the same. If your bar is already showing six, it waits under Also added in Apps: drag it above the line to put it on the bar.
More detail
An add-on joins your bar when you add it, or by itself once you have opened it on a couple of separate occasions recently, and leaves again after a week or two without use. There is no limit on how many you add. The bar shows six — Event App, Registration and the first four add-ons in your order — and the rest are listed under Also added in Apps, where dragging one above the line puts it on the bar. It is per person and per event, and it switches nothing on or off: the module and its data are untouched. While you are in, or looking at, a module that is not on the bar, Apps lights up in its place. The bar is worked out when the dashboard loads, so it never rearranges while you are using it.
Where can my team ask for help together?
In the event's #support channel. Click the colourful robot in the header: Channels opens on the event you have open, and only that event; from the dashboard home it asks which event. Tag @HeyNook in a message (the Ask HeyNook switch does it for you): a couple of seconds later a 👀 appears on your message to say HeyNook is on it (unless the answer is already there), and the AI answers in a thread beside it, where anyone who can open the event can read the answer, reply, or ask a follow-up. The 👀 goes when the answer arrives. A message that tags only a teammate goes to people, so HeyNook puts no 👀 on it. Thank HeyNook (@HeyNook thanks!) and it reacts with a ❤️ instead of answering.
More detail
Every channel belongs to one event, and only people who can open that event see it: a teammate limited to some events never sees another event's questions. Inside an event the window cannot switch to another one, so it always matches the screen behind it; to see another event's channels, open that event, or open the robot from the dashboard home and pick it there. Full window shows the channel list, the channel and a thread side by side; Dock to the right keeps them beside the dashboard, which makes room for them; Collapse, Esc or the robot again folds the window away. A message without @HeyNook goes to people only; in #support Ask HeyNook starts on, so untick it to ask your team instead. Type @ to mention someone: the list offers HeyNook and the people who can open this event, and a mention of you is highlighted. Ask a person under an answer brings in NookPass support, who reply in the same thread; the channel shows Waiting for support until they do, then Support replied. New questions and replies appear as they are written, for everyone with the window open. The newest questions open first; scroll up, or choose Load earlier messages, for older ones.
Can HeyNook change a setting for me?
Where it's switched on for your workspace, yes, in an event's #support, for a few settings: app modules (Live Q&A, chat, the directory and so on), registration rules (open or closed, total registrations, approval, one registration per email address), whether the event is published, and what shows in the bottom tabs and side menu. Ask in plain words, like *@HeyNook close registration*. HeyNook doesn't change anything itself: it shows a card with the setting before and after, and nothing happens until you press Apply. You can Undo from the same card.
More detail
What it can do depends on your role on the event, checked when you press Apply as well as when you ask. Changing these settings takes Owner or Manager. An Editor or Viewer who asks is told who can do it, and can still ask how a setting works or how it is set on this event. Only the person who asked can apply a card; teammates reading the thread see it and who it's waiting for. A card lapses after a day, and it won't apply if someone has changed that setting since, so it can't overwrite a teammate's change. Saying "yes" in the thread doesn't apply it; the button does. HeyNook can't touch dates, wording attendees read, ticket settings, permissions or plans, and it sends you to the screen for those. In a team channel HeyNook answers but doesn't change anything; ask in #support.
Can my team have its own channels, notes and to-do list for an event?
Yes. In Channels, choose + Add channel under the channel list and give it a name (it becomes lower case with hyphens, like #logistics). Below the channels, Notes holds shared pages, written with formatting (headings, bold, lists, links), and To-dos a checklist with an assignee and a due date for each item.
More detail
Like #support, all of it belongs to the event and is seen only by people who can open it. Anyone of them can post, write a note or add a to-do; archiving a channel or deleting a note is for whoever made it, or someone who can edit the event. In a team channel HeyNook stays out unless you tag @HeyNook; then, a couple of seconds in, it puts a 👀 on your message while it works and answers in the message's thread. A thank-you to @HeyNook gets a ❤️ rather than an answer. Messages, replies, new channels and the notes and to-do counts update live for everyone with Channels open. In a note, the toolbar formats the text (or use ⌘B / Ctrl+B and the like), and people who can edit the event also get AI Assist to tidy or reformat it. Summarise at the top of a channel, #support included, has HeyNook write a note of the whole channel over the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or everything, topic by topic with decisions and open questions. On any thread or note, Summarise to note has HeyNook write a note of that one conversation, and Find to-dos has it suggest action items: nothing is added until you untick what you don't want, adjust names and dates, and choose Add. Each to-do links back to where it came from. People are shown by their name; if yours shows something read off your email, set it on Account (your initial, top right → Account).
What does each app do?
Open Apps at the end of the bar and click See what every app does. The All apps page shows every app on this event side by side: what it is for, where attendees meet it (the attendee app, a big screen, email and so on) and every screen it has, each one a link into this event.
More detail
You can also reach it by typing "all apps" into ⌘K, and on a phone it is the first item in the strip of screens. It lists the same apps and screens as your bar, so a beta screen that is not switched on for this event is left out there too. Present in its top corner shows the page full screen, without the dashboard around it, for walking someone through the product; press Esc to leave. Each add-on's card has Add to your apps, the same as Add in the Apps menu, and Your bar near the top shows the six places and what fills them, with Remove on the ones you added, and any you added past them. Adding always works: once the bar is showing six, the card says Added · under Apps. Neither is shown on a phone, which has no bar, or in Present. Nothing on the page switches a module on or off.
Why is the sidebar a bar of apps and a panel?
So the screens you came for are at the top of the panel, not under a stack of app rows. The bar keeps the apps you use in one column that never scrolls away, and the panel shows only one app's screens. Everything else is under Apps at the end of the bar.
I clicked an app and the page did not change
That is on purpose: clicking an app shows its screens in the panel, so you can look around without leaving what you are working on. Click one of the screens to open it.
More detail
An app with only one screen — Live Q&A, say — opens it straight away, since there is nothing to choose. The aqua dot on the bar marks the app holding the page you are still on, and the panel goes back to that app as soon as you open any page.
Can I change the order of the apps on the bar?
Yes. Drag an app's icon up or down the bar and let go where you want it. From the keyboard, focus the icon and press Alt+↑ or Alt+↓. To choose WHICH of your apps are on the bar, open Apps and drag them by their grip: above the line is on the bar.
More detail
The order is yours, on this event — it changes nothing for anyone else. An app you have placed that later drops off the bar comes back to the same place when it returns.
What does Used often mean under Apps?
That add-on is on your bar because you have opened it on a couple of separate occasions recently, not because you added it. It leaves by itself after a week or two without use. Click Keep beside it in Apps to keep it.
More detail
Opening an app several times in one sitting counts once, so a busy afternoon does not crowd the bar. Four add-ons fit beside Event App and Registration; the ones you added come first, and the ones you use most win whatever places are left.
How do I find a setting when I don't know which menu it is in?
Type into Search all screens… at the top of the panel: the screens are replaced by matches from every app as you type, and Enter opens the first. For a fuller search, press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows), or click Search at the bottom of the bar.
More detail
⌘K understands what you want to do as well as screen names ("stop people registering twice" finds Registration), and before you type it lists the screens you opened recently. Or ask AI Assist: it answers from these guides and can tell you the menu path.
Full reference
Everything, in detail. Folded away because you almost certainly do not need it to finish the task.
The dashboard layoutEvery control in the dashboard's frame, where it is, and what it does.
| Control | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Bar of apps | Left edge (desktop) | Icons only until you point at it or Tab into it; then it widens over the panel, without moving the page, to show each app's name under its icon. All events at the top, then six apps: Event App, Registration, and four add-ons — the first ones you added, then the ones you open often. Drag a tile up or down to reorder (or Alt+↑ / Alt+↓); the order is yours, per event. Clicking an app shows its screens without leaving the page; the app being shown is the light tile, and an aqua dot marks the one holding your page. |
| Apps | End of the bar | Lights up while you are in a module that is not on your bar. Opens On your bar first — your six, with Remove beside the ones you added, and Used often and Keep beside the ones the bar added by itself — then Also added, the apps you added past the six, then More apps, every other module with what it is for and Add, then See what every app does. Drag an app by its grip (or Alt+↑ / Alt+↓) above the line to put it on the bar; the last add-on there moves below it. Adding is never blocked. Per person, per event. Shows or hides the module only — never enables, disables or deletes it. |
| #support | The robot in the header → Channels | An event's shared support channel: every question as a message, its answers in a thread beside it. Seen only by people who can open the event; inside an event the window is that event's alone, and from the dashboard home it asks which event. Tag @HeyNook (or turn on Ask HeyNook) for an AI answer, leave it out to post to people only, and type @ to mention someone who can open the event; Ask a person brings in NookPass support, who reply in the thread. The window opens full or docked to the right beside the dashboard, and Collapse (or Esc) folds it away. |
| Team channels, Notes, To-dos | Channels → the channel list | + Add channel makes a channel for the event's team; Notes are shared, formatted pages and To-dos a checklist with assignees and due dates. All of it is the event's, seen only by people who can open it. Summarise at the top of a channel writes a note of the channel over a period; on a thread or note, Summarise to note and Find to-dos have HeyNook write a note or suggest to-dos, which you confirm before they are added. |
| All apps | Apps → See what every app does (⌘K: "all apps"; first in the strip on phones) | Every app on this event on one page: a map grouped by the job each app does, where attendees, exhibitors and staff meet each one, and a card per app with its screens as links into this event. While it is open, Apps lights on the bar and the panel lists the apps. Present shows the page full screen; Esc leaves. Add to your apps on an add-on's card adds it, and Your bar at the top shows the six places, with Remove on the ones you added, and any added past them. Changes no setting. |
| Panel | Beside the bar | The app's name and what it is for, Search all screens…, Favorites, then every screen of the app under its group headings. The screen you are on has a dot. |
| Search | Bottom of the bar (⌘K / Ctrl+K anywhere) | Opens the full search: screens by name or by what you want to do, and your recent screens before you type. Beta screens not switched on for this event are left out. |
| Hide / show the screen list | Very bottom of the bar | Event screens: hides the panel and keeps the bar; clicking any app brings it back. Other pages: ☰ beside the NookPass mark hides the sidebar and puts a ☰ in the header to bring it back. Remembered per browser. Desktop only. |
| Breadcrumb | Header, left | Events › event name › module › screen. Earlier steps are links. Hidden on phones; narrow screens show the last two steps. |
| Search features… | Header, right (pages outside an event, and narrow screens) | The same search as ⌘K. |
| AI Assist | Header, right | Opens the help assistant in a drawer. Answers from these guides; can hand the conversation to the support team. Present only where the assistant is switched on. |
| Publish / LIVE | Header, right (event screens) | A draft shows Publish, with a Draft badge beside it on wide screens. A published event shows LIVE · View app, which opens the attendee app. The arrow beside either opens Share event… (link, QR code, embed) and Copy app link; on a live event it also has Unpublish…, which asks first and says what goes offline. |
| Account menu | Header, far right — the round initial | Shows who is signed in, Account & security, Theme (Light / Dark / System) and Sign out. |
| Section strip | Under the event name (phones) | On a phone the sidebar is replaced by a sideways-scrolling strip of every screen, grouped by module. |
Dashboard theme
Light, Dark or System (follows the operating system and changes with it). Stored in the browser, not on the account, so it is per device and per browser and never affects teammates. Applies to the organizer dashboard only — not to the attendee app (whose look is the event's Appearance settings), the door scanner, the Q&A console, or the system console.