Sessions And Tracks

What are sessions?

Sessions are the individual talks, workshops, panels, or activities that happen during your event. Each session has a time, location, speaker, and description.

Sessions make up your event schedule. When you add sessions, attendees can see what is happening and when, helping them plan their time at your event.

Creating sessions

To create a new session, follow these steps:

1. Go to your event page
2. Click on the "Sessions" tab
3. Click "Add Session"
4. Fill in the session details
5. Click "Create Session"

Session details to provide

• Title: The name of the session
• Description: What the session is about and what attendees will learn
• Speaker: Who is presenting (you can select from your speaker list)
• Start time: When the session begins
• End time: When the session ends
• Room: Where the session is located
• Track: The category or theme this session belongs to (optional)
• Session type: Talk, workshop, panel, networking, etc.
• Capacity: Maximum number of people who can attend (optional)

Building your schedule

Your event schedule is created automatically as you add sessions. EventNerds organizes sessions by date and time, making it easy for attendees to see what is happening when.

Schedule view

EventNerds provides several ways to view your schedule:

• List view: Shows all sessions in chronological order
• Grid view: Shows sessions in a calendar-style layout
• Track view: Groups sessions by their track

Editing the schedule

You can edit any session by clicking on it and making changes. This is useful if:

• A time needs to change
• A speaker cancels and needs to be replaced
• A room assignment changes
• You need to update the description

Session tracks

Tracks are categories that help organize your sessions. They are especially useful for multi-track conferences where multiple sessions happen at the same time.

Why use tracks?

Tracks help attendees find sessions they are interested in. For example, a tech conference might have tracks like:

• Web Development
• Mobile Development
• DevOps and Infrastructure
• Data Science and AI
• Product and Design

Creating tracks

To create a track:

1. Go to the Sessions tab
2. Click "Manage Tracks"
3. Click "Add Track"
4. Enter the track name and description
5. Choose a color for the track (this helps visually organize your schedule)
6. Click "Create Track"

Assigning sessions to tracks

When you create or edit a session, you can select which track it belongs to. A session can only be in one track at a time.

Session registration

For some sessions, you might want to track who plans to attend. This is useful for workshops with limited space or special activities.

Enabling session registration

When you create or edit a session, you can enable registration by setting a capacity limit. Once enabled, attendees can register for that specific session.

How session registration works

• Attendees see which sessions require registration
• They can register for sessions from their attendee dashboard
• You can see who is registered for each session
• Sessions show as "Full" when capacity is reached
• You can add people to sessions manually if needed

Viewing session registrations

Click on any session to see who has registered. You can export this list or send emails to everyone registered for a specific session.

Room management

If your event happens at a venue with multiple rooms, you can manage room assignments for your sessions.

Adding rooms

To add a room:

1. Go to the Sessions tab
2. Click "Manage Rooms"
3. Click "Add Room"
4. Enter the room name
5. Add capacity and any notes (like "Ground floor" or "Has projector")
6. Click "Create Room"

Assigning rooms to sessions

When you create or edit a session, select a room from your room list. EventNerds will check for conflicts and warn you if you try to schedule two sessions in the same room at the same time.

Room capacity

When you set a room capacity, EventNerds can warn you if you assign a session to a room that is too small. This helps you avoid overcrowding.

Managing capacity

Capacity limits help you control how many people can attend specific sessions.

When to set capacity

You should set session capacity for:

• Hands-on workshops with limited materials
• Small rooms that cannot fit everyone
• Activities that work better with fewer people
• Special events like dinners or tours

What happens when a session is full

When a session reaches capacity:

• It shows as "Full" in the schedule
• Attendees cannot register for it anymore
• A waitlist is automatically created
• If someone cancels, the first person on the waitlist gets their spot

Managing waitlists

EventNerds automatically manages waitlists for full sessions. You can also manually add people from the waitlist if spots open up.

Session types

Different types of sessions help attendees understand what to expect.

Common session types

• Keynote: A major presentation, usually at the start or end of the event
• Talk: A standard presentation, usually 30-45 minutes
• Lightning talk: A short presentation, usually 5-10 minutes
• Workshop: A hands-on session where attendees learn by doing
• Panel: Multiple speakers discussing a topic together
• Q&A: A question and answer session
• Networking: Structured time for attendees to meet each other
• Break: Time for lunch, coffee, or rest

Creating custom session types

You can create your own session types to match your event. Go to Session Settings to add new types.

Publishing your schedule

Once you have added sessions, you can publish your schedule so attendees can see it.

Draft vs published

Sessions can be in two states:

• Draft: Only you and your team can see these sessions
• Published: Attendees can see these sessions on the schedule

How to publish sessions

You can publish sessions individually or all at once:

1. Go to the Sessions tab
2. Select the sessions you want to publish
3. Click "Publish Selected"

Or you can change a single session from draft to published by editing it.

Best practices for sessions

Here are some tips for managing your event schedule:

• Build your schedule early so attendees can plan ahead
• Leave buffer time between sessions for people to move between rooms
• Do not forget to add breaks, meals, and networking time
• Use tracks to organize complex schedules
• Set capacity for workshops or small-group sessions
• Double-check room assignments to avoid conflicts
• Keep sessions as drafts until all details are confirmed
• Test your schedule view to make sure it is easy to read
• Update the schedule promptly if anything changes