Thinking About Speakers and Presentations
In EventsAir, you can capture all information pertaining to the speakers at a conference. This can include details about the presentation, the room, the time, audio-visual requirements and special requests. If you have a checklist of things you need the speakers to supply, such as a bio or high-resolution photo, the system will manage that, too.
This tool also manages the paper review process and includes the ability to set up a sophisticated review process according to keywords, themes, presentation types and sessions. You can also include panel reviewing and blind reviewing, and create a portal for reviewers to log in and perform their tasks. You can easily allocate sessions and rooms, and communicate with guest speakers, reviewers and co-presenters.
With a tool as sophisticated as this, you need to make sure you are planning well ahead of your event, often 6-18 months prior to the actual conference, depending on the number of speakers and the breadth of your agenda. You'll probably want to:
- Create a committee focused on managing the speaker program.
- Produce a call for papers, accepting submissions for presentations by type, length, format, etc.
- Develop a submission system (using an EventsAir Portal) to accept submissions from prospective speakers.
- Assign chairpersons and other Session Roles for specific tracks, and reviewers to look at, read and rate all submitted presentations.
- Create an approval process (usually by committee or track chairperson).
- Create a follow-up process for communications of acceptance, invitation to accept, and a speaker registration process.
- Create a speaker checklist (also in EventsAir) to track all speaker deliverables, such as biographies, photos, final presentations (in the correct format), travel and accommodation arrangements.
You can also use the EventsAir Run Sheet and Organizer Mobile App, so you and your team stay on top of the entire program. You can confirm all speakers are in place, handle room issues as they occur (too many people, temperature, projectors, audio issues) and stay connected as a team.
While the above recommendations work well for a large speaker program, they can be adapted quite easily for smaller programs as well. Depending on your needs you simply create a process and timeline that supports your speaker and presentation needs.