Sessions Schedule

Putting talks on the attendee schedule

Assigning a paper to a session is not the same as putting a talk on the schedule. The attendee schedule lists talks, and those are created when you choose Save to schedule in this sub-tab. A talk copies its room, day, and time from its session at that moment.

So the order is:

1. Session Plan — publish the plan, giving every session a room, day, and time.
2. Sessions Schedule (this page) — Save to schedule, so the talks appear.

The badge in the instructions panel tells you where you stand: "612 of 800 on the schedule", counted from the live data rather than remembered from your last click, so it is still accurate tomorrow morning.

The two numbers count different things: the second is every paper placed in a session, the first is the talks attendees can see. When they differ, a breakdown under the badge says why, in papers: papers in unscheduled sessions, papers not saved yet (or saved before their session had a time), invited items (Save to schedule doesn't turn these into talks yet), and papers no longer accepted that are still in a session. The Needs attention row's N unscheduled sessions (M papers) chip counts sessions, with their papers in brackets — so it covers only the first of those causes.

When a paper doesn't fit a session

A session's limit is time, not a paper count. Its papers' talk lengths are added up and compared with its time slot — a 10:30–12:00 session of 20-minute full papers holds 4. Talk length depends on the paper's type (for example Full paper 20 min, Short paper 12 min, Demo 10 min), set under Talk lengths in the Settings sub-tab; types without a length use the default paper length. A session with no time yet uses the default slot length.

The Papers column shows each session as papers / capacity. A session at capacity is flagged full; one whose papers need more time than its slot is flagged in red with how far over it runs (for example +20 min). The N over time chip in the Needs attention row filters the table to just those sessions; it turns solid red while on, and clicking it again (Show all) brings every session back. Flags are warnings, not blocks — a session chair may choose to shorten talks.

When a paper won't fit where you meant to put it, try these in order:

1. 1

   Pick a session with room. In Unassigned papers, sessions in the same track are grouped first, and each shows its day, time, room, and papers / capacity. Choosing one that would run over shows a warning and an Assign anyway button.

2. 2

   Create a new session. If every same-track session is full, use + New session for the extra papers, then Schedule it (or Suggest times) to give it a free room and time slot. Extra papers usually mean one more parallel session, not longer ones.

3. 3

   Move a paper out. Expand a full session, choose Edit session, and remove a paper that fits better elsewhere — it returns to the unassigned pool, and you can assign it to a session with room.

4. 4

   Shorten the talks. As a deliberate choice, lower the talk length for a paper type under Settings → Talk lengths so more papers fit each slot. Lengths can't go below the minimum talk length (15 minutes unless the organizer changes it). Hover a red over-time flag to see the per-talk length an even split would give — if that is below the minimum, shortening won't work and a paper has to move.

Session chairs

Every session needs a chair — someone who runs the room and keeps talks to time. The table shows each session's chairs under its name (for example Chair: A. Lee · Co-chair: B. Kim), or a muted no chair.

A chair has a status:

• Assigned — you added an existing user directly, or auto-assign did.
• Invited — an invitation email went out; they haven't answered yet.
• Accepted / Declined — their answer to the invitation. Answers show up the next time you open Session Plan or Sessions Schedule.

Attendees only see Assigned and Accepted chairs, so nobody is announced before they agree. A declined or expired invitation frees the seat.

1. 1

   Expand a session and click Session chairs.

2. 2

   Choose a Role (Chair or Co-chair). Then either pick someone From the committee, or search any existing user. The general chair and co-chairs aren't offered in the committee list; if you find one through search, a warning appears, but you can still assign them.

3. 3

   Click Assign to add a found user straight away — they get an in-app notification and a Webmail message, no email. Or fill in name and email and click Send invitation: they receive an email with the session's name, day, time, and room, plus an in-app notification and the same invitation in their Webmail; an account is created if they don't have one.

4. 4

   Everything in this dialog takes effect at once: change a chair's role from its menu, or remove a chair (the bin icon, then Yes; an invitation already sent isn't withdrawn). A chair's name, email, and affiliation come from their account or the invitation and can't be edited here; to change who chairs, remove them and add someone. Click Done when finished.

To fill many sessions at once, click Session chair assignments: N without a chair in the Needs attention row. It proposes a chair for every session that has none. Its tabs show Needs a chair (the proposals), Already chaired (sessions that keep their current chairs), and All:

• One session per person — each person is proposed for at most one session, counting chairs you've already set.
• Committee first — committee members are proposed first. The general chair, co-chairs, sponsors, and invited speakers are never proposed.
• First-author fallback — once every free committee member has a session, a first author of a paper in another session of the same track is proposed.
• No parallel clash — nobody is proposed for a session that overlaps one they present a first-authored paper in.

Sessions with no one left to propose stay without a chair. Review the table, swap or clear any row, then click Apply. You can pick someone for a second session by hand; the dropdown shows how many sessions each person already chairs. Nothing is saved until you click Apply, and sessions that already have a chair are never changed.

Sessions vs. Tracks

These are two different things, and it helps to keep them straight:

• A Session answers when and where — it's a scheduled block: a set of talks in one room at one time (e.g. "NLP — Oral 1", Room A, Tue 10:00). The schedule lives entirely on sessions.
• A Track answers what topic — it's a thematic grouping of papers (a research area) that a paper is assigned to at submission time. A track is not a slot on the calendar.

One track becomes many sessions: the "NLP" track might run as "NLP — Oral 1", "NLP — Oral 2", and "NLP — Posters" across the program. So you use Sessions to build the schedule, and Tracks to organize papers by topic — the track then guides how sessions are grouped (and, later, where they're placed).

Purpose

The Sessions sub-tab is a searchable, sortable browser of every session in your conference. Each row shows the session name, type, track, paper count, and schedule (date · time · room); expanding a row reveals the papers assigned to it, including invited submissions. A Suggest tool auto-generates sessions from your accepted papers.

When you use it

Use this sub-tab to audit your program — to confirm papers landed in the right sessions, find unscheduled or empty sessions, and check session types and tracks. Use Suggest when you want the system to draft sessions from accepted papers instead of building each one by hand.

Walkthrough

1. 1

   Open the Conference Leadership Console, select your conference, open the Presentation System tab, and click the Sessions Schedule sub-tab. It sits directly after Session Plan, which is the step before it.

2. 2

   Use the type and track dropdowns and the search box to narrow the list. Click Clear to reset all filters.

3. 3

   Click any column header (Name, Type, Track, Papers, Date) to sort; click again to reverse the order.

4. 4

   Click a row to expand it and see the assigned papers — paper number, title, an "invited" badge for invited submissions, and presentation format.

5. 5

   Page through results with the pager at the bottom and change the rows per page (10 / 25 / 50 / 100).

6. 6

   Review the Track coverage strip above the table — one chip per track showing how many sessions it has, how many accepted papers are assigned, and how many are still unassigned (highlighted). Click a chip to filter the table to that track.

7. 7

   Click a track's N unassigned badge — or the N unassigned papers chip in the Needs attention row for every track — to open Unassigned papers: the accepted papers not yet in any session, grouped by track. Tick papers, choose a session under Assign to session (sessions in the same track are listed first, marked ★), and click Assign. Only sessions from the papers' own program are offered.

8. 8

   Sessions showing unscheduled have no room, day, or time yet — usually they were created after the plan was published, or the planner couldn't place them. Click Schedule on the row to pick a cell: the dialog suggests free room × time-slot cells that fit the session's type (slots already running a session from the same track are listed last), or choose any slot and room yourself. A room already in use in that slot is blocked. Expand a scheduled session and use Change time & room to move it.

9. 9

   To place them all at once, click N unscheduled sessions · Suggest times in the Needs attention row. The planner proposes a cell for each unscheduled session without moving any session that already has a time, lists any it couldn't place and why, and saves only when you click Schedule N sessions. Sessions it couldn't place are grouped by cause — for example 15 Poster sessions: no Poster time slot. Use the group's button (for example Add a Poster time slot or Add a Small or Regular room) to jump to the sub-tab that fixes it, then come back and suggest times again. Or click Pick a time on a session to place it in any free slot yourself, even one of a different kind.

10. 10

    Click Suggest to open the suggester drawer, which proposes sessions grouped from your accepted papers — grouping orals by track is on by default when the program has tracks, and each session is named "{Track} — {Format} {n}". Adjust the options, then commit the proposals you want to create them.

11. 11

    Click + New session to build one by hand: pick the program and track, name it, choose the type and mode, then select which unassigned papers (filtered to the chosen track) to place in it.

12. 12

    When the sessions and their papers look right, click Save to schedule. The button shows its progress (Saving 340 / 800…) because a large programme takes a moment, and the result tells you how many talks were added and how many had their times refreshed. Each talk also takes its session's room — the room the published plan assigned, shown by name.

13. 13

    If any session with talks has no room (or the conference has no rooms at all), a Rooms are missing warning opens first: those talks would show Room TBA to attendees. Choose Cancel, publish the Session Plan or set the rooms, then save — or Save anyway for virtual-only programmes.

14. 14

    To give sessions chairs, expand a row and click Session chairs, or use Session chair assignments: N without a chair in the Needs attention row for every session at once — see Session chairs above.

15. 15

    To delete a session, expand its row and click Remove session — its papers return to the unassigned pool (they are not deleted).

Tips

Open the Conference Leadership Console