Sessions
Creating a session
Three places to create a session — standalone, inside a playbook, or from an existing event in your calendar — all landing in the same prep builder.
A Session in Gleo is a unit of work, it's a meeting or workshop, with its prep, its agenda, and its participants. It's the kind of thing that already populates your calendar (a little too much).
There are three main ways to work with Sessions.
Standalone
A free-standing session not tied to a playbook. The default for one-off meetings.
2Inside a playbook
A session that belongs to a specific phase of an active playbook. The default when you're running a structured engagement.
From a calendar event
A session built from a meeting already in your calendar — title, time, and attendees pre-filled. Requires the Calendar integration.
Standalone
For quick sessions that you need on the fly...
- Sidebar → New session — opens the create form with no defaults.
- ⌘K → type new session → Enter — the command palette version, slightly faster if your hands are already on the keys.
Best for one-off internal meetings, ad-hoc workshops, or anywhere you don't have an existing playbook to slot the session into. Standalone sessions show up in the Sessions calendar alongside playbook sessions, so you don't lose them in the list.
Inside a playbook
When the session belongs to a structured engagement, create it from inside the playbook so it inherits the playbook's context (team, theme, roles).
- Open the playbook → Home tab (or Sessions tab) → New session.
- If the playbook has multiple phases, you'll be asked to pick the phase the session belongs to. Single-phase playbooks skip this step.
- Defaults inherit from the playbook: the team becomes the suggested participant list, the playbook theme applies, and the session sits inside the chosen phase in the playbook structure.
This is the default for any session that's part of an ongoing engagement.
From a calendar event
If the session is already in your calendar — a meeting you scheduled before deciding to "Gleo it" — you can pull it straight in:
- Sidebar → Sessions → switch to calendar view.
- Find the meeting in the External Sessions band below the divider.
- Click the event card → Create session from event.
The new session pre-fills its title, date / time, and attendee list from the calendar event. You're then dropped into the prep builder to add structure to the meeting.
This entry point requires the Calendar integration to be connected. Without it, you won't see the External Sessions band.
Some fields are pre-filled and locked when creating from a calendar event. Title, date, and time mirror the calendar event so the two stay in sync. If you need to change them, edit the event in your calendar and the session updates automatically.
What happens immediately after create
All three entry points always redirect to the prep builder. This is by design: the value of a session in Gleo is in its prep, so the create flow assumes you'll want to start there. Close the prep builder when you're done and you'll land in the full Session Planner with all the other tabs (Agenda, Participants, Responses, etc.) available.
If you don't have prep to add yet — say you're creating a session weeks ahead and just want to block the time — close the prep builder right away. The session is already saved; nothing's lost.
Walkthrough — try each entry point
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1
Standalone
Sidebar → New session. Title it, set a time, save. You land in the prep builder.
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2
Inside a playbook
Open any playbook → Home → New session. If asked, pick a phase. Save. The session now belongs to the playbook.
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3
From a calendar event
(Calendar integration required.) Sidebar → Sessions → calendar view → click an event in the External Sessions band → Create session from event.
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4
Close the prep builder to land in the planner
Whichever path you took, you're now in the prep builder. Close it (or save and exit) to land in the full Session Planner for that session.
Tips & pitfalls
Pick the right entry point at the start. Standalone sessions can't be moved into a playbook later; you'd have to recreate. If the session belongs to an engagement, create it from inside the playbook from the start.
Don't worry about the auto-redirect to prep. If you don't have prep to add right now, just close the builder. The session is saved; you can come back to add prep later.
Use Calendar-event creation for meetings already on the books. The two-way sync means dates and attendees stay in step automatically — there's nothing to be gained from typing the same details twice.