Index:
Overview
The Conference Engine (CE) is an integrated on-line registration system, website generator, financial accounting, typesetting and publication facility. The strongest side of CE is abstract submission system that combines ease of a Word-like abstract editor with full automation of the paper processing system.
With CE we provide complete service, with hardware and software bearing entire electronic traffic related to the conference organisation, participant and abstract registration, payment processing and publishing of the conference materials with unique ISBN number assigned.
Nowdays, the CE is the most developed and widely used electronic service for scientific conferences available. Although being used on all continents, it is most popular in Europe and Poland, where it came from in 1998.
The conference website with on-line registration can be opened same day. CE is optimised for huge conferences (unlimited number of participants), however special sponsorship programme is available for small low-budget meetings too.
Features
CE generates professionally looking conference website (see example), set of on-line registration forms, maintains the conference database and automatically typesets ready-to-print Book of Abstracts (see example). Abstract acceptance and correction tools, mass-mailing communication, post-conference electronic Journal (see example) and many other services are available.
Conference Engine consists of eight logical modules:
- conference website editor
- participant registration
- abstract registration
- financial services with on-line payments
- administrative tools for Organisers
- automated typesetting and publishing facilities
- on-line Journal of the conference
- communication (mass-mailing) subsystem
Conference website editor allows for quick change of conference website from any location using standard web browser. Work may be distributed among people, so several co-organisers edit different sections of the webpage at the same time. Access to various parts of the document (e.g. symposia sub-pages) may be arbitrairly granted, which enforces smooth team-work and clearly defines responsibility ranges. More info...
On-line participant registration is done by on-line forms that allow to enter information related to participant and his/her affiliation(s).
Participant's registration forms are intuitive and lead to enter correct data. Underlying scientific database simplifies registration since user is prompted to pick ready answers from list rather than to enter several times the same data (e.g. name of institution). More info...
Abstract submission is the most demanding task in the registration procedure. Author uses dedicated on-line abstract editor, similar to MS Word. He/she may change abstract many times, from any place, with a standard web browser. Author is offered with a great degree of editing freedom, however, the Organisers and the publisher define a common format in order to provide consistent appereance of all abstracts submitted. Upon pressing of "Save" button, the abstract is immediately processed by the Conference Engine™ that checks and automatically corrects the abstract according to the format requested.
Two types of abstracts: standard and rich are available. Standard abstracts allow for simple formattings only, while rich abstracts can contain pictures, list, tables and more complex formattings. More info...
Financial services allow for on-line fee payment and ordering of lodging, meals, excursions, etc. In particular we offer:
- on-line ordering forms (prices can change before/after deadlines automatically)
- credit card payment facility charging all major credit cards in real time (10-20 seconds)
- money transfer facility
- integrated accounting system that collects incoming payments and automatically assigns them to participants
- on-line preview of incoming payments, so participant can check whether money transfer arrived to the Organisers
- receipt download facility, so each payment is confirmed in writing without human paper work
- on request we arrange dedicated fully-featured Internet banking account for the conference (EUR, USD, PLN)
- on request we issue charge card to the conference bank account
Our payment system accepts the following credit cards:
Administrative tools give Organisers direct control on participant registration, abstract registration and event settings. While logged-in, the Organiser finds extra "Administration" item in main menu. Options available there give power to manage participants, view, edit, accept, send for correction or reject abstracts. Time of presentation can be set for every abstract. This enables Conference Engine™ to publish complete Programme and Book of Abstracts. More info...
Typesetting and publising engine compiles all data collected during on-line registration and creates set of ready-to-print documents that are delivered directly to the print house. The most complex publication, Book of Abstracts, consists of all abstracts submitted and accepted. It has table of contents, index of authors and preface to each chapter (symposium) and to the book as a whole. Prefaces can be edited in a similar on-line editor like abstracts were. This allows parallel work of all chairmen, speeding up creation of the final version of the book. Typesetting of entire book takes minutes, printing (depending on technique) between few hours (laser) and few days (offset). This sets safe abstract correction deadline as close as 1-2 weeks from begining of the conference.
Besides Book of Abstracts, a separate Programme booklet, lists of presentations, badge labels, proceedings submission labels and other documents may be automatically generated.
Automated typesetting provides highest quality of the materials, saves money (manual typesetting costs over €10 per page), eliminates human errors from such a highly-structured publication like Book of Abstracts and pushes deadlines to physical limits of the print house technology.
Typesetting module of the Conference Engine™ is currently the most powerful scientific publication system available.
On-line Journal of the conference is a separate webpage (linked with main webpage) that summarizes "hot" information of the event. Content of the Journal is being prepared in real-time, which means that it reflects contents of the event's database in every second. Journal consists of all presentations, current timetables, lists of posters and interactive zoomable city maps with crucial places marked (venue, airports, hotels). It contains also download section, where printed conference materials (e.g. Book of Abstracts) may be obtained in PDF format.
Communication module is a chairman's time-saver. Advanced database queries trace and compare current knowledge of participants with status of their presentations. If the status has been changed (e.g. chairman accepted an abstract), a notification e-mail is automatically created and sent to the author. E-mail traffic is strongly moderated, i.e. participants receive important information only. For example, a 1000-participant event requires delivery of 6-8 thousands of various notifications. Assuming that just 1 minute is needed to write an e-mail, this tool saves 16 days of valuable chairman's time.
Communication module features also clever mass-mailing. Organisers send e-mail to all participants within few minutes. Additionaly, all participants are divided into few tens of practical categories (e.g. "those who did not submit any abstract" or "those who did not pay the fee"). Customized e-mails can be selectively delivered to those categories of participants (e.g. "Please consider abstract submission").
Moreover, mass-mailing tool has a "watch" option. When turned on, mailing will watch every hour whether any participant joined a category (e.g. "those who did not correct abstract over 7 days"). If so, predefined e-mail will be sent (e.g. "You have passed abstract correction deadline").
Customers
Our Customers are mostly scientific institutions that organise conferences, meetings and workshops. The system, however designed for large events (over 1000 participants), is a convenient solution for small workshops as well (50 participants or even smaller).
First-time organisers, apart from the electronic service, enjoy free-of-charge consulting concerning optimal event placement. We advice about abstract requirements, publishing quality, arrangement of deadlines, financial procedures and so on. Please see some general advices now.
Promotions
We wish to make Conference Engine™ available to most, or even all Organisers, despite of local or financial constraints that may apply. We prepared supporting plans that abolish those limitations, so you are able to order conference support in peace of mind.
Flat rate - chance for small events
We offer flat rate for all events. It means that there is no installation fee for setting up conference support. This is promotion targeted mainly to small events. The Conference Engine™ can now be used for every workshop, no matter how small it is. Enjoy state-of-the-art, professional conference service for a change that you may have in your pocket now!
Sponsoring programme
Low budget conferences may take advantage of our sponsoring programme. In this programme we adjust service fee with respect to overall costs of the conference. The Organisers will be asked to present grand total income of the event (budget transparency). We will attempt to set costs of electronic support as a reasonable fraction of total spendings. In this mode of operation, customer support is limited to on-line resources only (no personal support is available) and advertisements of the sponsor will be placed in preferred locations.
Ordering
On-line registration, either participant or abstract, can be arranged in a couple of hours. If you organise a small, single thread, event, please be prepared to provide:
- full name of the event
- acronim of the event (e.g. "ERTF 2006")
- begining and end dates
- place
- projected number of participants
- date of the registration to be opened
If you organise large, multi-symposia event, please also list the symposia letters (A-Z) and respective subjects.
Please send these information to [email protected]. We will contact you as soon as possible.
If you need just a quotation, please provide at least projected number of participants, name, date and place of the event. Please, do not hesitate to ask any question.
Examples
Examples of conference websites, Books of Abstracts and on-line Journals may help to imagine how your conference would look like. Please have a look at the table below showing examples of typical conferences:
| Conference | Website | Book of Abstracts | On-line Journal |
| Small | example | example | example |
| Medium | example | example | example |
| Large | example | example | example |
Support
We provide full customer support for entire period before, during and shortly after the conference. Most of issues are fixed over-the-phone or by e-mail contact. Conferences which are beneficients of our sponsoring programme are not eligible to the support, however.
Manual
The Conference Engine™ is an intuitive and self-explanatory system. Most of users spent from 2 to 10 minutes for registration and abstract submission. However, we provide manuals for each component of the system for those who wish to master of the information shape.
We provide a separate manual for Organisers. It describes administrative tools, e.g. how to manage participants, accept or edit submitted abstracts, etc.