Invite attendees to an event

In Zoho Calendar, attendees of an event can be added and invited by entering their email address in the Attendees field of the Create Event, Duplicate Event or Edit Event tab. You can invite contacts from within your organization and also from outside your organization. When organizing meetings in your organization, you need to check the free/ busy status of your colleagues before picking the best time for the meeting.

The event invitation request will be sent to the attendees and notifications will be dropped through email. After receiving the invitation, the attendees have to RSVP to the event after which the status will be updated to the organizer.

Steps to Send Event Invites to Attendees

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar.
2. Click the New Event button on the left pane of your calendar.
   
3. In the Create Event tab, provide the email address of the attendees in the Attendees field. You can choose the attendees' email addresses from the drop-down if the attendees are in your contact or if they are from within your organization.
4. Provide the Event title, Date and Time of the event.
   
5. You can also send invites to attendees from outside your organization. Type the complete email address of the attendee in the Attendees field and press enter.
   
6. You can send invites to a group of attendees from within your organization. Type the group name in the Attendees field and select the group from the listing.
   
7. Provide other details of the event and click Save.
8. A Send event invitation pop-up will appear. Select any one of the options given and click Confirm.
   

An event invitation mail will be sent to the attendees' email addresses, the email addresses of attendees outside your organization, and the group email addresses. Any changes made to the event will be notified through the same email thread. Attendees can RSVP for the event from the mail after which the event will be added to their calendar and the invitation status will be updated to the event organiser.

Participants' availability

Zoho Calendar allows you to check attendee availability before scheduling or updating an event. This helps you choose a time slot that works for most or all participants and reduces scheduling conflicts.

You can check participants' availability using the following options:

• Find a time – Quickly suggests the best available time slots based on participants’ schedules.
• Manage – Provides a detailed view of your attendees’ calendar events to know their availability and allows you to check meeting room availability.

Steps to check the participants' availability using Find a time

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar.
2. Click New Event button on the left pane of your calendar.
3. In the Create Event tab, enter the attendees’ email addresses in the Attendees field.
4. Set the Event Title, Date, and Time.
5. To quickly view the availability of each participant, select Find a time below the Date/Time field. 
   
6. The participants' availability section will show the next 5 best possible time slots where a majority of the participants are available.
7. You can also filter the choices with the 3 options available.
   • Earliest- This will show the 5 earliest timeslots available.
   • This week - This will show the possible timeslots in that particular week. (Week is shown based on the week start set up in your calendar settings).
   • Next week - This will show the possible timeslots in the next week.
     
8. Select the time slot which works for all the participants.
9. Provide other details of the event and click Save.

Steps to manage and check participant's availability using Manage 

1. Log in to  Zoho Calendar.
2. Click New Event or open an existing event.
3. In the Create Event tab, enter the attendees’ email addresses in the Attendees field.
4. Set the Event Title, Date, and Time.
5. Click Manage next to the Allow Forward check box. The Manage Participant & Check Availability window will open.
   
6. In the Participants tab, review the availability grid displayed on the right.
7. Each participant’s schedule is shown in a separate column, with their status displayed as Free, Busy, Tentative, Out of Office, Remote, or Private (event details hidden).
8. Click Next free time near the Date/Time field. The system will suggest the next available slot based on all participants’ calendars.
9. Select a time slot that works for everyone. You can also manually click or drag within the grid to choose a different time.
10. To check room availability, switch to the Room tab and select an available room if required.
    
11. Review the updated date and time.
12. Click Save changes to confirm the event.

Group availability

When you create an event and invite a group to the participants' list, you can altogether view the availability of the group members along with the list of participants, non-participants and the next free time. To check the Groups' availability while creating the event, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar.
2. Click the New Event button on the left pane of your calendar.
3. In the Create Event tab, provide the necessary details.
4. In the participants' field, enter the group address.
5. Click on Manage.
6. The list of participants will be provided along with the room details that you can modify. On the right side, you will find a detailed overview of the participants' availability, showing their private calendars and indicating whether they are free or busy. If a group has more than 50 members, access to availability information is currently restricted.
   
7. Select the required time slot which works for all the participants in the group.
8. Enter other required details and click Save changes.

Event email invite delivery status

When you create an event, invites will be sent to the attendees via email. In cases like server unavailability, non-existent email address, or typos in the email addresses, the email invite might not get delivered. You can check on the email invite delivery status from within the view event tab.
Follow the steps given below to find the list of all the emails delivered and undelivered, the reasons for failure and modify the email address if necessary.

Steps to check event email invite delivery status

1. Log in to Zoho Calendar.
2. Click on the event you want to check the delivery status.
3. An event view pop-up will appear with the event title, time and date of the event in your time zone and other details that you have given in the event creation box.
4. If all your event invites have been delivered, you will find the "All invites delivered" message in the participants' section.
   
5. If any of the invites weren't delivered, you would find an "Undelivered" message in the participants' section.
   
6. Click on the " All invites delivered / Undelivered " message for more information.
7. A pop-up for the Event email invite delivery status will appear with the list of all the invites delivered and bounced.
   
8. For invites which haven't yet been delivered, there are three possible error messages you will find,
   • Hard bounce - Unable to send the Event email invite since the email address is incorrect.
   • Soft bounce- Unable to send the Event email invite due to server error or your recipient's mailbox being full at the moment.
   • Delayed- The event invitation email is delayed. In this case, we will try to resend the email which can either get delivered or bounce back again. In both cases, you will have the option to resend it manually.
9. In the case of a hard bounce, you will have the option to modify the email address and resend it. For soft bounces and delayed cases, you can try resending the invite using the Resend button.
   

Event Invites for Past Events

If you are creating an event for a past date/ time and adding attendees to it, the event invitation will not be sent to the attendees. While creating such an event, you will be prompted that an event is a Past Event.