Event program model
ema's conference program is built in three layers: talks (the individual presentations), sessions (time-bounded containers that group talks), and the schedule (the full published view of all sessions across all days and rooms). Content flows from submitted proposals all the way to a published program through a structured review and acceptance workflow.
Talks
A talk is a single presentation, paper, or contributed piece of content. Talks are the atomic unit of the program. They have:
- A title, abstract, and optional description.
- One or more authors — the speaker or speakers presenting the talk.
- A track — the content stream the talk belongs to (e.g., "Machine Learning", "Clinical Practice").
- A talk format — the presentation format (e.g., oral, poster, workshop).
- A status — where the talk is in your workflow (e.g., submitted, under review, accepted, rejected, withdrawn).
Statuses are configurable. You define the stages that match your program committee's process.
Sessions
A session is a time slot on your program. It has a start and end time, a room or location, a track, and a session format. Talks are assigned to sessions when you are ready to build the schedule.
A session can hold one talk (a solo keynote) or many (a paper presentation stream). Sessions are also where you record the session chair, streaming links, and recording consent settings.
The schedule
The schedule is the assembled view of all sessions across your event days and locations. ema's schedule builder lets you place sessions visually, drag talks between sessions, and manage parallel streams across rooms.
Session statuses track where each session sits in the build process — from draft through published. The published status controls what appears on any public-facing program view.
The submission and review workflow
When abstract or paper submissions are open, authors submit talks through the public submission form. Submitted talks enter your review workflow:
Submission configuration
The submission form, open and close dates, content type requirements (abstract, full paper), co-author rules, and file upload limits are all configured under submission settings. You can also set whether authors receive automatic acknowledgements and whether they can edit their submission after it is submitted.
Review configuration
You assign reviewers to talks. Reviewers score talks using a rubric you define. The review config controls how many reviews each talk needs, whether reviewers can see each other's scores, and the scoring scale. Once enough reviews are collected, the program committee can make acceptance decisions.
Acceptance workflow
Acceptance decisions move talks from one status to another. ema can send automated author notifications when a decision is made. The acceptance config also controls whether authors must confirm their place by a deadline, and what happens to talks whose authors do not confirm.
Allocations
An allocation is the assignment of a specific person (such as a session chair or a moderator) to a session. Allocations track who is responsible for running each session and can be used for scheduling communications and on-site logistics.
Entitlements and registration access
Registration types can be linked to entitlements that grant access to specific sessions or tracks. This is how you give "Full Conference" attendees access to everything while "Workshop only" tickets grant access only to the workshop track.
Manage submitted and invited talks.
Create and configure sessions.
Build the event schedule visually.
Configure the abstract submission form and dates.
Set up the reviewer assignment and scoring process.
Manage acceptance decisions and author notifications.