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Conferences fail on deadlines, not ideas. This timeline assumes a two- or three-day professional conference with a call for abstracts; shorten it for smaller events.
Six months out
- Form the organising committee and agree who owns what.
- Set the budget and the break-even delegate number.
- Book the venue and confirm dates.
- Draft the programme themes and invite keynote speakers.
Five months out
- Publish the event page with dates, venue and themes.
- Open the call for abstracts with a clear deadline, format and review criteria.
- Set up ticket types: delegate, student or trainee, member rates, international rate, companion.
- Approach sponsors with tiered packages.
Four months out
- Open registration with an early-bird window.
- Confirm keynote speakers and their travel.
- Plan workshops and their capacity limits.
Three months out
- Close the call for abstracts and start the review.
- Notify authors of decisions; confirm presentation slots.
- Push the early-bird deadline hard in the final week.
Two months out
- Publish the full programme with speakers and sessions.
- Brief the venue on room layouts, AV and catering numbers.
- If the conference offers continuing-education credit, confirm the accreditation and what attendance must be recorded.
One month out
- Final promotion push — most delegates book in the last weeks.
- Prepare badges: delegates, speakers, volunteers and the organising committee.
- Plan the door: how many scanners, where the queue goes, who handles problems.
The week before
- Print badges; test the check-in scan on the actual phones or laptops you will use.
- Send attendees the practical details: venue map, parking, schedule.
- Confirm certificate wording and signatories.
On the day
- Check people in per day — multi-day attendance matters for certificates and credit.
- Keep one person free to solve problems at the entrance.
The day after
- Release certificates to the people who attended.
- Send a short feedback survey.
- Review the numbers: registrations over time, attendance per day, revenue per ticket type.
Eventio360 covers this whole timeline: abstracts with review, ticket types in more than one currency, badges for delegates and your team, per-day QR check-in and verifiable certificates. See also how to run a CME-accredited conference.
Conference Management Software — Eventio360
Delegate, student and international tiers, calls for abstracts, name badges, per-day attendance and certificates — one conference management platform instead of five tools.
