Trade shows, conventions, and expos with a conference component need effective conference agenda management. The content must be easy to manage, displayed nicely on all devices, and offer attendees the best possible browsing experience for conference sessions. There are a few main factors that affect the way an agenda is being conceived and built.
Data first
The first step in conference agenda management is understanding key data:
-number of sessions and days
-number of speakers per session
-details volume on each session
Knowing this, a choice between quite a few approaches. Here are a few logic examples:
4-5 days, 100 sessions per day, 4-5 speakers per session and quite a bit of content for each session
The “small blocks” approach should be taken. This means only displaying the session title, time & date and maybe a few categories+icons in the agenda listing. Leave the big content, speakers and action buttons inside the single session page. Yes, single session pages are better suited for big content chunks inside the sessions as opposed to modal windows. You can see this approach at Google IO conference.
2-3 days, 20-30 sessions per day, no speaker details and just a quick excerpt content for each session
In this case a one-pager agenda that has no single session pages should be sufficient. Slightly bigger boxes will be needed to fit all the content but you save time by not making users go to pages that have quite small bits of content. Alternatively, can go with the “small blocks” and show session details in small modal windows. CES conference in Las Vegas uses this approach.
Data feed
Sessions and speakers of the agenda can be managed within the website backend or be fetched through from external sources. Managing data within the website backend is the most straightforward approach. This way there is full control and APIs can be create to feed the data to apps or any other external tools.
Getting external data on the other hand presents a few challenges:
-are there reliable feeds?
-want to import data into the website or just want to consume?
-is the platform ready to integrate external APIs into the global search?
Things tend to be more complex on the external data approach but the end results are amazing because you just manage the business aspects of your show while the website and the apps update without editors intervention.
Large events tend to use external tools to manage the content while smaller ones prefer to have the site content separated to the business tools they use to manage the event. A careful analysis of the data feeds and data options is important before even starting the project plan.
Filters and search
As the number of sessions grows, efficient filtering and search features become crucial. For smaller events, search may not be necessary, but for larger events with hundreds of sessions, advanced filtering and search capabilities are a must.
Ideally, this should be approached on a front-end level, meaning that once the agenda is loaded, the search and filtering should be done on the fly without page reload. Relevance is essential, so it’s important to carefully choose which data is crawled for search and how deep the search goes. Some solutions search only titles and descriptions, while others extend to categories, speakers, and speaker details. It’s best to analyze with your agency to determine the best approach.
Also, consider special requirements for sponsored sessions, such as keyword inclusion/exclusion and sponsor branding. Careful planning ensures seamless integration of these features into your agenda.
Interested in more details about events conference agendas, let’s get in touch.
