Chapter 26

Four worked conference setups, from symposium to congress

What a real configuration looks like. Note how much is switched off in each.

Product One-day workshop Scientific congress Accredited meeting Returning annual
Internet UploadsOnOnOnOn
Call for AbstractsOnOn
Review & ApprovalOnOn
PostersOnOn
Papers on DemandOn
Abstract ViewerOn
Poster ViewerOnOn
Paper ViewerOn
Attendee AppOnOnOn
BeaconOn
Session FeedbackOnOn
Open MicOnOn
Where the talks come from Invited A call for abstracts Invited Last year's file, plus a call
Where the schedule is built In Rostrum In Rostrum Imported, edited in Rostrum Imported skeleton, extended in Rostrum

One-day workshop

Six sessions typed in by hand, files collected from four speakers, questions taken from the floor, and an evaluation form at the end for the CPD record. Nothing else is switched on and nothing else is needed.

Scientific congress

The full Path A chain: an invite-only call, per-track review panels, a committee selection board, decision letters, and conversion into a program of orals and posters. Signage in the building, an app in delegates' pockets, and content review on the accepted decks.

Accredited meeting

The program is fixed and imported. The work is compliance: every deck reviewed and approved before it is shown, locked against replacement afterwards, and evaluation data collected per session as evidence.

Returning annual meeting

Last year's fixed items imported as the skeleton, this year's open slots filled from a call, posters converted from accepted abstracts, and the app carrying it all. No signage, no content review — the committee trusts its speakers.

The one that is easy to overlook

Notice that in every column above, the schedule is built or edited in Rostrum — even the imported ones, because a program never survives contact with reality unchanged.

The setup most often assumed to be a poor fit is the large invited congress: four days, six parallel rooms, two hundred talks, and no call for abstracts at all because the scientific committee invites everybody. That event needs nothing from chapters 06 to 12 — and it is the setup that gains most from Chapter 14, because the work it cannot avoid is exactly the work this platform does: rooms, tracks, a grid, running order, file collection from two hundred speakers, and signage that stays right when something moves.

If you are running one of those, you are not an awkward fit for Rostrum. You are the case the schedule builder exists for.

Read this in the full single-page document