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v1.0.0 — Onsite Runtime, Exhibitor Commerce, Signage & More

Released: May 2026  |  Version: v1.0.0

What Changed For Your Team​

v1.0.0 marks ema's first production-ready release. The platform has grown from a strong administrative foundation into an end-to-end operating system for live events — covering what happens on-screen, on the floor, and backstage at the same time.

For event operators, the biggest shifts are the arrival of the onsite runtime (which brings programme state, room control, and signage to venue hardware), the exhibitor commerce and contract signing system (which moves the full exhibitor sales journey into ema), and the digital signage platform (which lets your team design, schedule, and push content to venue screens from a single interface). Alongside these major additions, enterprise teams get organization-level SSO/SAML/SCIM, the event website builder gives public audiences a polished arrival experience, and the registration lifecycle gains group registration, transfers, and upgrades.

The release also includes meaningful platform hygiene: project IDs are now UUIDs, the page builder moved from a custom implementation to the Puck editor, Cloudflare Realtime replaces the previous meeting/webinar video stack, and support chat migrated from Crisp to Chatwoot.

Highlights​

Onsite Runtime and Operator Cockpit​

The full onsite appliance is now production-ready. A venue hardware server syncs the live programme, controls room state in real time, and exposes a single-pane operator cockpit with role-based access, live activity feeds, and cloud Q&A and polling. Cockpit updates reach operators in real time without reloading, and device authentication is cached on the onsite server so check-in stays fast during high-traffic periods.

Exhibitor Commerce and Contract Signing​

Exhibitors can now be invoiced through a full commerce system directly inside ema. Operators define price tiers, discount codes, payment surcharges, and payment plans. Exhibitors check out through a public-facing portal, and executed contracts are generated as PKCS#7-signed PDFs with a full audit trail. The previous manual invoicing-outside-ema workflow is now entirely optional for projects using the Exhibition module.

Digital Signage Platform​

A canvas-based slide editor and cloud playout system lets teams design, schedule, and push content to venue screens. Screens pair through a browser-based pairing flow, and playlists can mix static slides, live session feeds, and custom content blocks. All changes reach screens automatically through the cloud playout pipeline.

Event Website​

Each project can now have a polished public-facing website — sessions, speakers, sponsors, schedules, and custom pages, all on a dedicated domain. The event website is built in the same admin interface as the rest of the project and can be published independently of the registration portal.

Enterprise Identity: SSO, SAML, and SCIM​

Organizations can configure their own SSO provider (OIDC or SAML) and provision users automatically through SCIM. Each organization's identity configuration is isolated and does not affect other organizations.

Registration Lifecycle Expansion​

The registration system now supports group registration with approval workflows, registration transfers between attendees, registration upgrades and downgrades, abandoned cart recovery with configurable timeouts, magic-link claim tokens, and addon categories with upsell rules. Payment, refund, overdue, and change-request emails are all configurable per event.

Detailed Changes​

Event Website and Public Pages​

The event website platform brings public-facing pages into ema for the first time as a first-class product surface.

  • Each project can publish a public website with a home page, custom pages, sponsor listings, speaker profiles, session listings, and schedule views.
  • Pages are authored with the Puck visual page editor, replacing the previous custom block builder. Puck provides a drag-and-drop canvas with a structured component palette and live preview.
  • The event website supports multiple versions, with a draft/published state model that mirrors the broader ema content lifecycle.
  • An authentication toggle on the event editor controls whether the website requires sign-in.
  • A draft banner appears in the preview when unpublished changes are present.
  • Version history is available on the event editor so operators can review or roll back to prior versions.
  • Public page configuration has been consolidated onto the portal-config model, simplifying the admin data model.

Onsite Runtime and Live Event Operations​

The onsite package moves from scaffolding to a fully operational runtime in this release.

  • The onsite appliance builder produces an installable package for venue hardware with its own self-contained data and file storage.
  • Programme sync keeps room state up to date by replicating content, sessions, and speaker data from the cloud on a configurable schedule.
  • The Room API exposes real-time room state — current session, next session, active speaker, and custom room properties — to devices and integrations.
  • A new operator cockpit provides a single-pane view for running a room during live events. Operators see current session details, programme timeline, Q&A and polling state, and live activity. Role-based access controls who can take each action.
  • The cockpit receives live updates in real time, so operators see programme state changes immediately without reloading.
  • Device authentication is cached on the onsite server, removing repeated cloud round-trips during high-traffic periods such as check-in peaks.
  • Sync pipeline hardening adds retry logic for edge cases in the cloud-to-onsite replication flow.

Digital Signage​

The digital signage platform is new in this release.

  • A canvas slide editor allows teams to create slides with text, images, video, session feeds, and custom content blocks. Multiple templates are available.
  • Screens and pairing: venue displays connect to ema through a browser-based pairing flow. Paired screens show an identity name and health status in the admin UI.
  • Playlists: screens are assigned playlists that define what content plays and in what order. Playlist items can have duration overrides and transition settings.
  • Cloud playout: the cloud playout pipeline pushes playlist changes to paired screens automatically. Changes propagate without requiring manual screen reloads.
  • UI refinements include an updated signage overview, improved playlist management, and canvas tooling updates from post-launch feedback.

Exhibitor Commerce and Contract Signing​

A complete exhibitor sales and contracting system is introduced in this release.

  • Operators configure price tiers for exhibitor packages, each with a price, entitlements, and an optional waitlist.
  • Discount codes reduce the checkout price for specific exhibitors.
  • Payment surcharges can be applied to specific payment methods (e.g., card surcharges).
  • Payment plans allow exhibitors to pay in instalments with configurable schedules.
  • Exhibitors check out through a public-facing checkout page — selecting a tier, applying a discount code, and paying or requesting an invoice.
  • Contract templates are configured by operators and associated with tiers or packages.
  • The guided contract signing flow presents the exhibitor with the contract inline, collects a digital signature, and produces an executed PDF with a PKCS#7 signature.
  • Signed contracts appear in the exhibitor record with a full audit log of signing activity.
  • Email notifications fire at each stage: checkout confirmation, payment receipt, contract sent, contract signed.

Registration Lifecycle​

The registration system adds several features that expand the supported event models.

  • Group registration: an organizer can register multiple attendees in a single checkout flow, with an optional approval step before group places are confirmed.
  • Registration transfers: registered attendees can transfer their place to another person, with optional admin approval.
  • Upgrades and downgrades: attendees can upgrade or downgrade their ticket type, with a recalculated price difference.
  • Abandoned cart recovery: carts that are left incomplete can be recovered by the attendee through a configurable timeout and recovery email flow.
  • Magic-link claim tokens: operators can generate single-use links that let recipients claim a pre-allocated registration place without going through the full checkout.
  • Addon categories: addon items can be grouped into categories for cleaner checkout presentation and upsell rules.
  • A configurable payment reminder, overdue escalation, refund notification, payment link, invoice, and change-request notification email rounds out the full registration email lifecycle.
  • Session access rule extensions allow per-session admission control based on registration type.

Identity and Access​

Enterprise identity management is production-ready in this release.

  • Each organization can configure its own SSO provider — OIDC or SAML — with per-organization isolation.
  • SCIM provisioning allows directory tools such as Okta or Azure AD to create, update, and deactivate users in ema automatically.
  • A post-signup onboarding flow collects structured first and last name fields on first sign-in, replacing free-form name entry.

AI and Content Authoring​

  • The AI assistant now supports document authoring from templates: operators describe what they need, and the AI generates a structured document in the knowledge base or document library.
  • Templated content generation accelerates production of standard event deliverables such as session descriptions, speaker bios, and exhibitor directory entries.

Live Video and Sessions​

  • Cloudflare Realtime replaces the previous meeting/webinar video provider for session and meeting video. Sessions now support live-stream URLs and real-time viewer counts.
  • Meetings feature improvements: enhanced meeting management, improved video session reliability, and updates to the co-host experience.
  • Session video pipeline improvements include better recording reconciliation and improved livestream URL handling for upstream providers.

Notifications and Integrations​

  • Slack notifications: users can connect a Slack identity to receive task, approval, and event notifications directly in Slack. Operators configure which notification types route to Slack at the organization level.
  • Rate limiting with allowlist admin UI (EMA-272): a conference-safe rate limiter protects the API during high-traffic event windows. Operators can manage an IP/CIDR allowlist for trusted infrastructure through the admin UI.
  • Support chat migrated to Chatwoot: in-app support chat now runs on Chatwoot instead of Crisp. No action is needed — the change is already live in your environment.

Me Portal and Attendee Experience​

  • Event filtering on My portal pages now filters server-side for faster and more accurate results.
  • Profile and account settings are accessible from the Me portal sidebar.
  • The My Event dropdown is restored in event navigation for quick access to personal event pages.
  • The leaderboard and gamification experience gains shareable scores and a theater mode for displaying the leaderboard on screens during events.

Venue and Wayfinding​

  • A venue library allows operators to store venue maps and spatial data at the organization level and reuse them across projects.
  • Indoor wayfinding renders route-finding overlays on venue maps for attendees, with floor switching and room-of-interest highlighting.
  • Kiosk mode supports an unattended wayfinding display that attendees can interact with in the venue.

Platform​

  • Project IDs are now UUIDs (EMA-284): all project identifiers in the API, webhooks, and URL parameters have been migrated from integer IDs to UUIDs. Integrations that hardcode numeric project IDs must be updated.
  • Onboarding redirect fixes improve first-session reliability.

What You Need to Do​

warning

This release contains breaking changes. Check whether any of the actions below apply to your team.

Project IDs Are Now UUIDs​

All project identifiers have changed from integer IDs to UUIDs (EMA-284). If your team has built integrations against the ema API or consumes webhooks, this affects you:

  • API clients and integrations: any call that passes a numeric project ID (e.g., projectId: 12) must be updated to pass the UUID form.
  • Webhooks: webhook payloads now carry UUID project IDs. Consumers that parse the projectId field must accept the UUID format.

Puck Page Editor Replaces Custom Block Builder​

The event website page builder now uses Puck. Pages authored with the previous custom block builder are not automatically migrated to Puck components. Review your event website pages and recreate any that use deprecated block types.

Exhibitor Entitlement Changes​

Some exhibitor entitlement model changes ship as part of the commerce system. Review exhibitor tier configurations that rely on custom entitlement definitions.

Additional Improvements and Fixes​

  • List views load faster with large datasets — per-row comment lookups were eliminated across list surfaces.
  • Every new deal now receives a version 1 record automatically on creation.
  • Profile updates now reflect immediately in the UI through optimistic cache invalidation.
  • Cross-project user suggestions are blocked on the Me portal talk author typeahead, preventing accidental cross-event author assignments.
  • Analytics queries are now strictly scoped per organization, preventing analytics data from leaking across organization boundaries.
  • EventsAir integration admin permissions tightened — only org admins can manage EventsAir credentials.
  • Me portal design system updates aligned remaining UI components with the shared design system.
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