Orientation

The twelve conference software modules at a glance

One module is always on. The other eleven are yours to choose. Most events use three or four.

ModuleIn one lineWho it servesNeeds
Always on
Internet Uploads
Collects presentation files against enforced deadlines, and chases the people who are late Speakers, coordinators Nothing
Call for Abstracts Builds your program: solicit, peer-review, revise, select, notify, convert — abstracts or whole session proposals Submitters, reviewers, committee Nothing
Review & Approval Reviews the finished slide decks before they are shown, across revision rounds Reviewers, speakers Nothing
Posters A second content line — author uploads, board numbers, delegate questions Poster authors, delegates Review & Approval, for poster review only
Papers on Demand A third content line — pre-recorded presentations, uploaded as video and watched on demand Paper authors, delegates Nothing
Abstract Viewer Publishes the accepted abstracts — searchable, with authors, sections and optional disclosures Delegates, the public Call for Abstracts
Poster Viewer The branded poster gallery — templates, viewing windows, and the public display Delegates, the public Posters
Paper Viewer The branded on-demand video gallery — templates, viewing windows, and the public display Delegates, the public Papers on Demand
Attendee App The delegate-facing mobile web app at your event's own address Delegates, speakers A URL slug
Session Feedback Questionnaire-based session evaluation, collected by QR code Delegates, program staff A questionnaire, assigned
Open Mic Audience questions from a phone, moderated at the front of the room Delegates, session chairs Rooms on the venue
Beacon Digital signage driven by the same program data as everything else Everyone in the building Sessions in rooms

The five in the first group form a pipeline: abstracts become program items, program items collect files, files get reviewed, posters and on-demand papers run alongside. The three in the middle publish what the pipeline produced — each a branded, templated gallery with its own viewing window. The four in the last group are ways the finished program reaches people in the room. You can take any slice of any group.

What is not a module

Several of the things Rostrum is most used for are not in the list above, because they are not optional and cannot be switched off. They are the platform itself:

  • Building the program — tracks, rooms, sessions, presentations, speakers, the agenda grid, the schedule builder, and the running order. Every event has this.
  • Importing a program from a spreadsheet, and the import history and rollback that go with it.
  • Communications — the email templates, the automated reminders, magic links and the contact book.
  • Sponsors, and the placements that surface them on signage and in the app.
  • Questionnaires, shared across three modules — see Appendix A.
Where the schedule gets made

It is worth being explicit, because the module list can give the wrong impression: Call for Abstracts is how talks are solicited, not how the schedule is built. An event with no call for abstracts at all — an entirely invited program — still plans its tracks, rooms, sessions and running order here, and that capability is core rather than a module you buy.

The companion guide covers it as Path C in its Chapter 14, alongside the two routes that bring content in from elsewhere.

Read this in the full single-page document