Help / Roundtables

What is a Roundtable

A Roundtable is a meeting poll. Instead of sending one person a booking link and letting them pick a time, you propose a handful of candidate times to a group, let everyone mark which ones work, and then book the time that suits the most people.

It's the tool for "let's find a time that works for all of us" — and it works even with people who don't use 42min and never sign in. You manage roundtables from the Roundtables page (under Dashboard in the sidebar, next to Event Types).

What it is

Every roundtable is built on one of your existing event types. The event type decides the meeting's duration, location (Google Meet, Teams, phone, in person…), and which reminders and workflows run once the meeting is booked — you don't redefine any of that. The roundtable just adds the "which time?" question on top.

The flow has three parts:

1. You propose times. Pick candidate slots from your real availability — as few as one, up to 128.
2. People vote. Each person opens a link and marks the times that work for them (Yes, optionally Maybe). There's no "No" — leaving a time unmarked simply means it doesn't work.
3. You book one. When the responses are in, you book the winning time with one click. 42min creates the meeting on your calendar and emails everyone — exactly as if it had been booked through the event type's normal booking page.

While a roundtable is collecting votes, 42min places a tentative "42min Round Table Hold" event on your calendar for each candidate time, so those slots don't get booked out from under you. The holds are removed automatically when you book a time (all but the winner) or cancel.

When to use it

• A team meeting across several calendars — find the slot that clears everyone's schedule without a dozen back-and-forth emails.
• An external group — clients, candidates, or partners who don't use 42min. They vote with just a link; no account needed.
• A recurring sync's first session — poll the group once to lock in a time.
• An interview panel or a workshop — gather availability from several people, then commit to the time most can make.

If you only ever meet one person at a time and just need them to pick a slot, you don't need a roundtable — a normal booking page is simpler.

Who can vote: two access modes

You choose this when you set the roundtable up:

• Anyone with the link — 42min mints one shareable link. Anyone who opens it adds their name and email and votes. Best for larger or open groups.
• Specific people — you add invitees by email and 42min sends each of them a personal voting link. Best when you have a fixed list and want to track who has and hasn't responded. Only this mode supports required invitees and reminders.

The access mode is locked once you publish, because switching it would invalidate the links already in people's inboxes.

What voters can see

• Open voting — voters see a running count of how many people picked each time.
• Blind voting — voters only ever see their own choices; the tally is yours alone.

Either way, you always see the full grid of who voted for what on the Results tab.

The lifecycle

A roundtable moves through a few states, shown as a badge on its card and detail page:

• Draft — you're still building it. Nothing has been sent; nobody can vote. You can edit everything and delete it freely.
• Open — published and collecting votes. The shareable link / invites are live and calendar holds are in place. You can still add or remove candidate times and invitees.
• Booked — you (or auto-book) confirmed a time. A real meeting now exists and everyone has been notified.
• Expired — the voting deadline passed without a time being booked. Voting is closed, holds are cleared, but you can still go in and book a time.
• Canceled — you called it off. Voting is closed and the calendar holds are removed.