Beta & Experimental Features

Portals (Beta)

In DevelopmentManage on the Beta Features page

Portals give speakers and sponsors a self-service web experience where they can manage their own profiles, session details, deliverables, and contracts — reducing back-and-forth with your event team.

Beta feature — PORTALS_ENABLED flag required

Speaker Portal and Sponsor Portal are separate beta features, each toggled independently on /beta. They are also gated by the PORTALS_ENABLED server environment flag. Both features are in active development; the standalone portal apps (speaker and sponsor) will replace the current Forge-route previews before general availability.

What it does

Speaker Portal

The Speaker Portal is a self-service website where accepted speakers can log in (via a secure magic link sent by Forge), view their session assignments, update their bio and headshot, submit presentation files, and complete any event-specific deliverables — without needing access to Salesforce or your internal Forge workspace.

  • Magic-link authentication — no password required for speakers
  • Profile editing: bio, headshot, social links, company, title
  • Session overview: assigned sessions, time slots, room assignments
  • File upload: presentation slides, speaker photo, additional assets
  • Deliverable checklist configured by the event team
  • Session abstract editing (if permitted by event settings)
  • Speaker acceptance/decline for session invitations
The Speaker Portal dashboard showing session assignments, profile completion status, and pending deliverables for a speaker at Planner Conference 2026.
The Speaker Portal dashboard showing session assignments, profile completion status, and pending deliverables for a speaker at Planner Conference 2026.

Sponsor Portal

The Sponsor Portal is a self-service website where confirmed sponsors can log in, manage their sponsorship profile, upload logo and brand assets, review their benefits and deliverable checklist, and sign off on contractual items — reducing sponsor management overhead for your team.

  • Magic-link authentication for sponsor contacts
  • Brand asset upload: logo, banner images, brand guidelines
  • Sponsorship benefits display: what is included at their tier level
  • Deliverable checklist with completion tracking
  • Contact management: sponsor point-of-contact details
  • Contract review and digital sign-off (when enabled)
  • Booth assignment and logistics information (when Tables & Seating is enabled)
The Sponsor Portal benefits view for a Gold sponsor at Planner Conference 2026 showing deliverable status and asset upload.
The Sponsor Portal benefits view for a Gold sponsor at Planner Conference 2026 showing deliverable status and asset upload.

How to enable

  1. Go to /beta and toggle Speaker Portal on (for the speaker portal) and/or Sponsor Portal on (for the sponsor portal). These are independent toggles.
  2. Ensure your Forge deployment has PORTALS_ENABLED set to true in the server environment. Contact your administrator if you are unsure.
  3. Open your event in Forge. A Portal Settings section will appear in the event Settings tab.
  4. Configure portal access: choose which speakers/sponsors receive magic-link invitations, and customize the deliverable checklist.
  5. Click Send Invitations to dispatch magic-link emails to your speakers or sponsors.
  6. Recipients click the link in their email and land on the portal without needing a password.
  7. Monitor completion from the Forge event workspace: the Speakers and Sponsors tabs now show portal deliverable completion status.

Authentication and security

Portal sessions use signed magic links. Each link is valid for 72 hours and is single-use. After first use, a session cookie is issued that expires after 7 days of inactivity. Portal sessions are completely separate from Forge staff sessions — a speaker or sponsor cannot access the Forge management workspace.

Magic link security

Magic links are sent to the email address stored in the conference360__Speaker__c or conference360__Sponsor__c Salesforce record. Verify contact email addresses in Salesforce before sending invitations. A compromised email account could grant portal access — treat portal invitations like any sensitive access credential.

Salesforce data model

Salesforce Field Mapping
ForgeSF ObjectSF Field
Speaker profileconference360__Speaker__cName, conference360__Bio__c, conference360__Title__c, conference360__Company__c
Speaker session assignmentconference360__Session__cconference360__Speaker__c lookup, session time, room
Sponsor recordconference360__Sponsor__cName, conference360__Level__c, conference360__Account__c
Portal session (auth)portal_sessions (Forge Postgres)Signed magic link token, expiry, Salesforce record Id — no PII stored in Postgres

Current limitations

  • Speaker and Sponsor portals currently run as Forge Next.js routes (under the Forge domain). Standalone subdomain apps are planned before GA.
  • File uploads are stored in Salesforce Files linked to the Speaker/Sponsor record — Forge is a pass-through and does not store files in Postgres.
  • The deliverable checklist is configured per-event and is not yet templatable across events.
  • Sponsor contract sign-off is in preview — legal validity depends on your jurisdiction and terms.
  • Portal email invitations use Forge's transactional email system. Custom sender domains require SendGrid configuration.
  • Portals require PORTALS_ENABLED=true on the server — this is not a UI-only toggle.
  • The staging portal deployment (separate ECS/ALB/Route53 configuration) is in progress. Self-service staging portal testing may not be available for all tenants yet.