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Conference registration development

For conference organisers, professional bodies, learned societies and university event teams who run a call for papers, publish a multi-track programme, sell registrations in phases to several delegate types and need badges and check-in to work on the morning without a spreadsheet.

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The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

An annual professional conference runs over two days with four parallel tracks, six hundred delegates, forty speakers and a dozen sponsors.

  • The call for papers goes out as a form that emails abstracts to the programme chair; reviewers receive batches by email and send scores back in a spreadsheet that has to be merged by hand.
  • Registration is a separate form with early bird, standard and late phases switched by someone changing the price field at midnight.
  • Members pay less than non-members, students less again, and speakers should not pay at all, but the form has one price list, so refunds are issued afterwards for everyone who was charged the wrong rate.

Where it gets harder

A company sends eight delegates and wants one invoice; the organiser creates eight registrations by hand and raises the invoice in accounting.

  • Delegates choose sessions by email and a popular workshop with a room that holds forty gets ninety names.
  • Dietary and accessibility needs are collected in a free-text box and discovered by the caterer on the morning.
  • Badges are mail-merged the night before and anyone who registered late gets a handwritten one.
  • On the day, check-in is three people with printed lists, and nobody can say until the evening how many actually turned up.
  • Sponsors ask for the attendee list they were promised and the organiser spends the following week on it.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom conference registration build normally covers:

  • Registration types such as delegate Member, student, speaker, exhibitor and sponsor guest, each with pricing phases that switch on dates the organiser sets
  • A call for papers with abstract submission Reviewer assignment, scoring and a decision that notifies the author and flows accepted work into the programme
  • Sessions with tracks Rooms and the capacity the organiser records for each room
  • Delegate session selection against that capacity With waiting lists
  • Group registrations Where a company books several places on one invoice and names the delegates later
  • Dietary and accessibility requirements collected as structured fields and reported to the caterer and venue
  • Sponsor packages With the benefits each includes and a sponsor portal for logos, profiles and permitted attendee data
  • Badge generation with layouts per registration type and on-site printing
  • A check-in desk and self-service check-in by QR code
  • Programme publishing to the public site and a delegate schedule on the phone

How discovery works

Discovery follows last year's event from the call for papers to the final attendance report with the organiser, the programme chair and the finance contact: how reviewing was done, which registration types and phases existed, how groups and invoices were handled, where session capacity broke, how badges were produced and what sponsors were promised. Each becomes a named stage in the scope document: call for papers, programme, registration, session selection, badges, check-in, reporting.

Deliberately out of scope

  • The venue's room booking and catering orders, which stay with the venue, and the society's membership database, which is connected so that member rates are checked rather than rebuilt

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

An academic society running a five-day congress with twelve parallel tracks, nine hundred abstracts reviewed by a committee of sixty, poster sessions, pre-congress workshops sold separately, group bookings from university departments with purchase orders and a mobile schedule with personal agendas. That is a different build from a one-day industry conference with two tracks, and the scope document says so plainly.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Discovery notes from a walk-through of last year's event, including the review process, registration types, phases, group bookings and badge production
  • A written scope document naming each stage from the call for papers to the attendance report, with what is out of scope
  • Design of the submission and review screens, the registration flow, the session chooser, the badge layouts and the check-in desk on phone and desktop
  • The build, deployed to your hosting or ours
  • Migration of existing registrations, submissions under review and sponsor records from current forms and spreadsheets, where relevant
  • Training for the organising team, the programme committee, the registration desk and sponsors, with a short written guide
  • Handover material and full ownership of the source code and your data

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

  1. Onboarding

    Access, contacts and a look at the current submission form, the review spreadsheet, the registration tool, last year's badge files and the sponsor agreements.

    Project stage: Onboarding

  2. Planning

    Discovery with the organiser, programme chair and finance contact; registration types, phases, review workflow, session capacity rules, group invoicing, badge layouts and sponsor benefits are agreed in the scope document with a milestone plan.

    Project stage: Planning

  3. Design

    Clickable designs of the registration flow, the reviewer screen, the session chooser, the badge templates and the check-in desk, checked on the phones and laptops the desk will actually use.

    Project stage: Design

  4. Development

    Built in stages: registration types, phases and payment first, then the call for papers and programme, then session selection and groups, then badges, check-in and sponsor and attendance reporting.

    Project stage: Development

  5. Client review

    The team runs a rehearsal: a phase change at midnight, a group booking with a purchase order, a reviewer round, a session that fills, a badge print run and a mock check-in morning, and tells us where it does not match the event.

    Project stage: Client review

  6. Revisions

    Pricing rules, review scoring, capacity behaviour, badge layouts and desk flow are adjusted from the review and re-checked against the scope document.

    Project stage: Revisions

  7. Ready for launch

    Registrations and submissions migrated, payment and invoicing tested end to end, badge printers paired, programme published, checklist signed off before registration opens.

    Project stage: Ready for launch

  8. Delivered

    The organiser runs the conference on the new system; optional maintenance and hosting continue under their own agreement.

    Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

  • Card payment providers for registrations and invoicing software for group bookings and purchase orders
  • Membership databases so member rates are checked against live membership
  • Badge printers at the registration desk and QR scanners for check-in
  • Email and SMS providers for submission decisions, confirmations, joining instructions and session reminders
  • Video platforms for hybrid sessions and recordings
  • Calendar feeds for personal delegate schedules
  • Abstract and proceedings publishing systems for accepted papers

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A five-day academic congress with twelve tracks, nine hundred abstracts and departmental group bookings

The situation

A learned society ran its congress on a submission form, a sixty-person review committee working from emailed spreadsheets, a registration tool with a single price list and badges mail-merged the night before.

Why it is a custom build

This needs a custom build because the review workflow, the membership check and the group invoicing with late naming sit together in a way general event registration tools do not combine.

The scope we would propose

  • Abstract submission with topic tags, reviewer assignment by topic and conflict of interest, scoring rounds and a decision that places accepted work into a track, room and slot
  • Registration types for members, non-members, students and speakers with phases that switch on set dates and a member check against the society database
  • Departmental group bookings against a purchase order with delegates named later
  • Pre-congress workshops sold separately against the room figures the organiser records
  • A mobile programme with personal agendas
  • Badge layouts by type printed on demand at the desk
  • QR check-in with a live attendance count for the chair

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

  • Number of registration types and pricing phases, and whether member rates need a live membership check
  • Call for papers: review rounds, reviewer numbers and conflict of interest rules
  • Programme size: tracks, rooms and whether delegates select sessions against capacity
  • Group registrations, purchase orders and invoicing rules
  • Badge layouts, on-site printing hardware and self-service check-in
  • Sponsor packages and the attendee data each is permitted to receive
  • Hybrid sessions and recordings
  • Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

Start from a package

Conference registration package

Delegate types with pricing phases, sessions with capacity and selection, group bookings on one invoice, dietary and accessibility fields, badges and QR check-in for conference organisers.

Custom build
View the package

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

When is the package enough and when do we need a custom build?

The conference registration package covers registration types with phases, sessions with capacity and delegate selection, group bookings, dietary and accessibility fields, badges and check-in with configuration. A custom build is the honest answer for a multi-round call for papers with a large committee, a live membership check against your own database, hybrid delivery or several events run by one organisation. Discovery tells you which before anything is quoted.

How does the call for papers connect to the programme?

Accepted submissions become programme items with their authors as speakers. The programme chair drags them into tracks, rooms and slots; the speaker is registered at the speaker rate automatically and sees their slot in their own schedule. Changes to the programme update the public site and delegate agendas without re-entry.

Can a company book several places on one invoice before it knows who is coming?

Yes. A group booking holds a number of places against a purchase order or an invoice, and the booker names each delegate later, up to a date you set. Named delegates then choose their own sessions and dietary needs.

What do sponsors get?

Each sponsor package lists the benefits included. The sponsor portal lets them upload logos and profiles and download the attendee data their package and each delegate's consent permit, which the organiser controls rather than the sponsor.

Who owns the system afterwards?

You do. Source code and data are handed over at delivery; hosting and maintenance are optional and separately agreed, and the system can move to another provider.

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