The agenda data file needs to be a CSV file following a specific schema. The CSV file contains one individual event per line. Not all the information is required for all types of events.

The CSV file needs to include these columns:

  • date_start: The start date, in ISO 8601-format (e.g., 2025-01-01T12:00:00)
  • date_end: The end date, in ISO 8601-format (e.g., 2025-01-01T12:30:00)
  • type: The type of the event. Must be one of:
    • session_presentation: A regular presentation or lightning talk that is part of a (parallel) session.
    • meta: A meta-type of event. These do not have authors or abstracts and are intended to identify, e.g., coffee or lunch breaks.
    • single, keynote, special: These types all are technically the same, but allow you to categorize different types of events. Our intuition is to use the keynote type for Keynotes, special for special conference-wide events (such as a conference dinner, opening and closing remarks), and single for any type of event that doesn’t match the other categories. You are free to re-define any of these categories depending on the types of events your conference offers, since the categories won’t be displayed to the users.
  • title: The title of the event
  • abstract: The abstract for the event
  • author: The author(s) for the event
  • location: The location for the event. This is used to match up parallel sessions and group events by location, so make sure to not vary the spelling of your locations. Usually, you will want to use just room numbers for anything happening in the main venue, and include more information only for external events (such as conference dinners).
  • session: The name of the session for this event (only needed for session_presentation). This is used to group presentations in sessions together. Examples could be “Parallel Sessions 1” or “Parallel Sessions 2”.
  • session_order: A number specifying the order of a single session presentation within their session (e.g., for four presentations, you would use 1, 2, 3, and 4).
  • chair: An optional chair for the session, keynote, or other event.
  • notes: This column does not need to be present in the CSV file, but if it does, it can contain some text with notes for an event. For example, if you offer hybrid sessions, you could add the Zoom link here. Notes will be shown in the event details below the chair.

Tip: The CSV file can contain more than these columns, which spares you from having to remove superfluous columns. Also, sometimes columns don’t have to be filled in and can remain empty (e.g., locations for coffee breaks).