Hi! So I’m pretty new to Airtable but it seems awesome and I’ve achieved a lot, mostly through help found in this forum. This is the first time I’ve actually had to ask something because I’m really stuck. And I’m not sure what I’m trying to do is even possible, but be good to know either way!
So my setup is all based around events, and I have the following key tables:
- Speakers
- Sessions
A session has multiple speakers, and speakers can be associated to multiple sessions. All pretty simple so far.
But here’s where the complication comes in. For big virtual events, commonly each speaker will be in their own Zoom room, which is then combined into a single stream (I won’t bore you too much with the tech). So normally we’ll have x10 Zoom URLs to be used for the whole event, with speakers assigned to a room for a session.
e.g. 10-11am - Speaker XYZ - Zoom Room 3
It’s worth considering that a speaker may be in one room for one session, and a different room for another (just to make things difficult!).
So I started by creating a table of the Zoom rooms and their associated URLs, all good there.
Then I need one final table to join it all up together (let’s call it the Speaker Room table), with the following key fields:
- Session
- Speaker
- Room
I can do this all manually, no problems. But what I’d like to do is a little automation to ensure I’ve not missed anything. So in an ideal world I’d like to automate the following:
- Speaker is added to an session via linked record (remember that multiple speakers can be added to a session)
- System automatically creates a record in the Speaker Room table, with linked records for speaker & session pre-populated
- I’ll then manually add the Zoom room (linked record), but at least I have a record for each speaker/session to remind me that I need the room details
So using automations, I can do the above when the first speaker is added to a session (using “conditions” i.e. speaker column within session table contains a value).
What I really can’t work out is how to do this when I add a second speaker to a session! I can create a new record, but it pulls through all the speakers associated to that session. I just want to create a record for the last speaker added. Or alternatively create multiple records once the speaker list for a session is complete, via a “all speakers added” checkbox or similar.
So in short, I want to automate the creation of a single record for each occasion that a speaker will be speaking for a session.
I have tried everything I can think of but no joy. I’ve even questioned whether my data model is simply not correct but can’t see another way. Any help would be hugely appreciated!
If you read this far, thank you If you help me I owe you a beer!