How a conference runs end to end — the operations manual
The operations manual as individual chapters: from an empty event record to the doors closing, with the branches for each kind of participant.
- Why choose Rostrum for a scientific meetingThe case for running a conference program on one record end to end: what it replaces, what it costs, and why the price is published.
- How conference software built on one event record worksThe shape of the platform: one event record that carries the call, the review, the program, the files, and the room — instead of five tools stitched together.
- Who does what: roles and permissions in a conference programThe roles a scientific meeting actually has — organizers, event managers, reviewers, speakers, submitters, attendees — and what each can see and do.
- How speakers and reviewers get in without another passwordPasswordless entry for conference participants: magic links, invited accounts, and why most people never see a login form.
- Creating a conference event: venue, timezone, and datesThe first ten minutes of a new meeting: the event record, the venue and its timezone, and the handful of dates everything else hangs from.
- Choosing which modules a conference needsHow the twelve modules switch on per event, what each one adds, and why a small symposium and a full congress run on the same platform.
- Configuring a call for abstracts for a scientific meetingSetting up submission windows, tracks, questionnaires, and review rules before a call for abstracts opens.
- Inviting submitters to a call for abstractsOpen calls versus invited calls, the contact book, and how invitations reach people who have never had an account.
- How authors submit an abstractThe submission experience from the author side: drafts, co-authors, disclosures, files, and what happens at the deadline.
- How blind peer review works in a conference programAssigning reviewers, blinding author identities, scoring against questionnaires, and keeping reviewers inside exactly what they are allowed to see.
- Deciding which abstracts to acceptTurning review scores into decisions: staging, comparing, and recording accept/reject outcomes without notifying anyone prematurely.
- Notifying authors and collecting confirmationsSending decisions, collecting presenter confirmations, and handling the withdrawals and swaps that follow every notification round.
- Converting accepted abstracts into the conference programHow acceptances become presentations, posters, and sessions without re-entering anything — the abstract was counted once and carries through.
- Importing a conference schedule from a spreadsheetBringing an existing program in from Excel: field mapping, venue-timezone conversion, dry runs, and rollback when a file was wrong.
- Building a conference program on a visual agenda gridSessions, presentations, rooms, and times on a drag-and-drop grid that always shows venue time — however the content arrived.
- Collecting presentation files from speakers before a deadlineGetting slides and media in ahead of the meeting: personal upload links, versioning, formats, and chasing what is still missing.
- Reviewing and approving speaker files before the meetingThe Review & Approval workflow for uploaded content: who checks what, statuses, and how approved files reach the room.
- Running poster sessions from collection to displayPoster collection, review, numbering, and presentation — on boards, on screens, or both.
- How people are told: conference email that sends itselfTemplate libraries, merge fields, automated sweeps, and the rule that a draft event never emails anyone.
- Giving attendees the program without an app storeThe attendee experience: a web app at a short link with the live agenda, no install, no account creation at the door.
- Driving conference room signage from the programDigital door signs and lobby screens that read the schedule directly — change the program and the signs follow.
- Collecting session feedback during a meetingPer-session feedback forms attendees actually fill in, and where the results land for the program committee.
- Taking audience questions without a microphone runnerOpen Mic: attendees submit questions from their seats, moderators filter, and the room screen shows what was chosen.
- What event analytics tell a program committeeSubmission funnels, review progress, file readiness, and attendance signals — the numbers that drive the next planning meeting.
- Where AI helps run a conference program — and where it never acts aloneGrouping, naming, extraction, and drafting with review gates on everything; scheduling stays deterministic and nothing is written without a human.
- Which conference modules depend on whichThe dependency map: what each module requires before it earns its place, and the order that avoids re-work.
- Four worked conference setups, from symposium to congressComplete configurations for four realistic meetings — which modules, which settings, and why — ready to copy.
- Managing shared libraries across a society’s eventsThe organization home: templates, contact book, sponsors, and analytics that outlive any single meeting and carry to the next one.