Whova automation

Update a Whova agenda after a schedule change and tell attendees

Two days before the event the venue gives your breakout room away, or a keynote speaker's flight is cancelled. You open Session Manager to fix times and speakers, and the attendees who built a personal agenda still need to hear about it.

Cotlet does it in your own Whova account with list_sessions, update_session, add_session and send_announcement, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Official options

Can Whova do this on its own?

Whova has no API for the agenda (checked 12 Oct 2026), and its Zapier app has no agenda trigger or action. Inside the dashboard, Session Manager offers Bulk Move for back-to-back blocks, bulk room, track and tag assignment, Swap, and a spreadsheet re-import that updates sessions matching on Session ID. Each of these handles one kind of change, and none of them writes the attendee announcement. A change that mixes new times, a replaced speaker and a message to attendees still takes several passes in the dashboard.

By hand

How you do it in Whova today

  1. Open the Content tab, go to Agenda Center > Session Manager and find each affected session in the agenda.
  2. For a block of back-to-back sessions, click Bulk edit > Move multiple sessions, pick the first and the last session and set a new date and start time; Whova only offers sessions that start within 30 minutes of each other.
  3. For a new room, use Bulk edit to assign a room to the selected sessions; Whova overwrites the room already set on each of them and flags double bookings on the review step.
  4. To trade two time slots, click Swap on a scheduled session in Session Manager and check the preview of both dates, times and rooms before confirming.
  5. Write an announcement to attendees by hand. Session Manager edits sync to the event app and agenda webpage, but Whova's notes on these tools say nothing about telling attendees, so a change easily goes live without a word to anyone.

With an agent

How to update a Whova agenda after a schedule change and tell attendees

Prompt 

The venue took our Room 2 on day 2: move the four afternoon breakouts in the Workshops track to start at 3:00 PM, keep their lengths, check no speaker ends up in two places, then draft an announcement for attendees.
  1. 01

    Read the day as it stands

    The agent calls list_sessions for the affected date, narrowed to one track when the change only touches that track, and notes every session ID with its current start, end and speakers before planning anything.

  2. 02

    Plan the new times first

    New start and end times keep each session's length and the gaps between sessions. Before writing, the agent checks the plan against the rest of the day: a speaker booked in two sessions that now overlap, or a session pushed past the last item of the day, stops the run with a question to you.

  3. 03

    Change one session at a time

    update_session receives only the fields that change, so titles and descriptions stay untouched. A session that already shows the target time is skipped, which makes a second run after a timeout safe. For a cancelled speaker, the agent sends the full new speaker list, because the speakers field replaces the old one rather than adding to it.

  4. 04

    Add what the change creates

    When the change needs a new slot, such as a replacement talk or an extra break, add_session creates it with the times and track from the plan, and the speaker you name lands in Speaker Center like a speaker added by hand.

  5. 05

    Draft the announcement, wait for your OK

    The agent writes one short announcement that names each moved session with its new time, and send_announcement holds it until you approve the wording. A change to a description or a typo fix gets no announcement unless you ask for one.

What you get back

Example data 

Northwind Summit 2026, day 2 (22 Oct), Workshops track.
Moved 4 sessions: Pricing workshop 2:00 to 3:00 PM, Data room 3:15 to 4:15 PM, Partner clinic 4:30 to 5:30 PM, Roadmap Q&A 5:45 to 6:30 PM.
Skipped: none. Lengths and 15-minute gaps kept.
Check: Jon Pike also speaks at 3:00 PM in Main stage (Growth panel). Not changed; tell me which one moves.
Announcement drafted: "Day 2 workshops now start at 3:00 PM. See the updated times in the agenda." Waiting for your OK.

Other ways to ask

  • Dana Reyes cancelled: replace her with Jon Pike in every session she speaks in and draft an announcement.
  • Push everything on day 2 after lunch back by 30 minutes, but do not announce it yet.
  • Add a 20-minute sponsor lightning talk at 12:30 PM on day 1 in the Main stage track with Leo Brandt as speaker.
  • Check tomorrow's agenda for any speaker booked in two sessions at the same time and list them.

Before you automate it

What Whova allows, and what to know first

  • Whova's Bulk Move keeps the order and the time gaps of the sessions it moves, and sub-sessions travel with their parent session.
  • Assigning a room through Whova's bulk edit overwrites any room already set on the selected sessions, and the review step flags double bookings before you confirm.
  • Whova's Swap button warns when the two sessions have different durations, so a swap between a 45-minute and a 60-minute slot needs a time fix afterwards.
  • Re-importing a session spreadsheet in Whova updates the sessions that match on Session ID and adds rows with new IDs as new sessions.
  • Whova announcements reach app users as a push notification and are also connected to attendees' email, so people who never installed the app still get them.

send_announcement asks for your OK by default. To run it on a schedule without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Whova: Bulk Move tool in Session Manager · Whova: bulk assign rooms, tags and tracks · Whova: swap sessions and move sub-sessions · Whova FAQ: communicating with attendees

REST

Call update_session from a script

curl 

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/whova/update_session \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event_id":"284611","session_id":"s_30871","start":"2026-10-22T15:00:00-07:00","end":"2026-10-22T16:00:00-07:00"}'

Example response 

{
  "session_id": "s_30871",
  "event_id": "284611",
  "title": "Breakout: Pricing workshop",
  "start": "2026-10-22T15:00:00-07:00",
  "end": "2026-10-22T16:00:00-07:00",
  "status": "updated"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is whova_update_session. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

Tools

Whova tools this automation uses

Cotlet Whova tools used to update a Whova agenda after a schedule change and tell attendees
Tool Parameters
list_sessions event_id, date, track
update_session event_id, session_id, title, start, end, tracks, speakers, description
add_session event_id, title, start, end, tracks, speakers, description
send_announcement event_id, message
All 11 Whova tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

Can the agent move a whole block in one call, like Bulk Move?

No. update_session changes one session per call, so the agent moves a block session by session and keeps the gaps itself. Whova's own Bulk Move stays available in Session Manager under Bulk edit.

Should I re-upload my agenda spreadsheet instead?

A re-import works when your file carries Whova's Session IDs, because Whova updates sessions that match on Session ID and adds the rest as new ones. For a handful of changed times or speakers, editing those sessions directly avoids touching the rest of the agenda.

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