Dashboard contact lists are convenient way to for a conference host to dial-out to someone who is required on the current call, but not invited in advance. An account can have any number of contact lists. You may elect to create separate contact lists for different departments, regions or projects.

About Contact Lists

Contact lists must be created in advance by someone who is an account administrator. Once loaded to the system the contact lists are shared by all organizers associated with the account.

1. Contact Format

Contact Format

While it’s possible to add contact list entries directly into the ZipDX web portal, you may also prepare the contact details offline in advance.

The contacts lists are created or edited as text using a simple, comma delimited format (CSV) that can be created in any text editor or spreadsheet.

The basic format is as follows:

“Contact Name”,+1-713-555-1212,”Some notes about the contact”
“John Smith”,+1-713-555-1213, “VP Sales, US”
“Fred Jones”,+1-713-555-1214, “VP Sales, EMEA”
“Nancy Brown”,+1-713-555-1215, “CFO”
“James King”, sip:jking@verybigco.com,”VP Marketing”

The contact details may be a telephone number or a valid SIP URI.

If the contact name and the comment are enclosed in quotes the comma character can be used within the quoted text.

2. Creating/Editing Contact Lists

Creating/Editing Contact Lists

Contact lists can only be created or edited by an account administrator. Once created they are accessible for use by any other conference organizers listed in the account.

• Click on the Accounts tab
• Click on the Account Name
• Near the top of the page there are area to “Manage: Organizers and Admins or Contact Lists.”

• Click on Contact Lists (highlighted above)
• To create a new contact list click on Add a New Contact List or
• To edit an existing contact list click on the list name to load the list editor

Once in the list editing page (pictured above)

• Enter a descriptive Title
• Enter the various contact details
  • They can be entered directly into the text box or cut & paste from another program.
• Click on SAVE to upload the contact list.

3. Using Contact Lists

Using Contact Lists

During a live conference hosts see a set of Host Controls offered across the top of the conference dashboard. The contact lists are offered in the Dialout menu (as shown below.)

Click on Contact Lists to see the available contact lists for the account.

Click on one of the contact list names to see it’s contents.

Once viewing the contact list you can click on the column heading for Name or Description to re-sort the list.

Click on the phone number shown for the desired person to dial out process.

Once the dial out process has started the contact list automatically closes, returning to the dashboard.

Tip: Host Dial-Out occurs in the room where the host is located when they initiate the dial-out. If the host is in the main conference room then everyone on the conference will hear as the system calls the new participant.

If the host moves to an unused breakout room before initiating the dialout, they can dial out privately, without disturbing the conversation occurring in the main conference room. This was described a prior blog post: Dashboard Magic #1: How-to bring someone into an ongoing conference.