Online paper presentations have transformed the reality of many events.
After all, this is a great way to keep producing high-level events and presenting quality scientific work.
But how do you run a successful online event with a large volume of paper submissions and presentations?
It’s certainly not an easy task for organizers!
With that in mind, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to optimize everything from planning to running online paper presentations.
- Planning;
- Organization;
- Broadcasting.
1. Improving Your Planning
First, before opening the call for papers, you need to define essential questions, such as rules, deadlines, and reviewers.
So, this is the stage where you should check whether reviewers are available for online review and know how to use the necessary technologies.
For example, if your paper presentations will take place in a virtual room, like Zoom, it’s important to walk reviewers through how to use it and the broadcast rules.
In addition, at this stage you need to define important points, such as:
- How and through which tool submissions will be made;
- How papers will be distributed to reviewers, and who will be responsible for that task;
- What thematic tracks the presentations will be divided into;
- Setting presentation dates and times that work well for attendees and reviewers.
This is usually when we turn to spreadsheets and emails!
So, it’s important to organize this stage well so that too much information and too many extra tools don’t overwhelm the organization, especially if the organizing committee is small.
Automate the Process
For this reason, an events management platform is a great alternative for anyone who wants to bring everything together in one place, such as:
- A single event website with both a registration and a submission area;
- The ability to send emails to attendees;
- Automated distribution of papers to reviewers, as well as scheduling;
- Organized presentation rooms with quick, secure access for attendees through the platform.
Once these first steps are defined, it’s time to open submissions for your event. That’s when you’ll start receiving and organizing the papers.
2. Organizing Online Paper Presentations
The second step in organizing online paper presentations is managing the information from submissions.
At this stage, organizers are usually trying to access information as quickly and practically as possible.
That’s why many turn to spreadsheets. After all, they really do offer a good visual overview.
But there are several ways to get there when it comes to submissions. For example:
Email + Spreadsheet
This format involves allowing submissions to be sent by email to the organization, through links or attachments.
Then, it’s up to the organizer to fill in the spreadsheet with the data and attach the files sent by attendees.
Although this is a common method, it’s the least recommended one, since organizers and attendees can run into issues like emails not going through, full inboxes, and incorrectly filled-out information.
Google Forms + Spreadsheet
Many people turn to online forms instead, with Google Forms being the most common.
This solution is indeed quite practical, since it can automatically generate a spreadsheet with all the responses.
However, the downsides of this alternative are:
- All the information requested in the submission form ends up in the spreadsheet, and too much information can overwhelm the organizer;
- The organizer has to download every paper and then forward them to reviewers;
- For paid registrations, the organizer has to manually check whether each submitted paper’s payment was completed.
Events Platform
As already mentioned, spreadsheets packed with too much information can become a real headache for organizers.
With that in mind, events platforms have been working to bring solutions together and automate several processes that used to be done manually.
For example, Even3 has a paper submission system that lets you link submissions directly to registration, making it easier to keep track of everything and avoiding payment issues.
In addition, the platform has an intuitive interface and lets you:
- Build a complete presentation schedule in just a few clicks, avoiding scheduling conflicts and organizing papers by thematic track.
- Register multiple sessions and define the presentation format, duration, distinct virtual room links, and dates.
- Store papers in the cloud, keeping them always available to attendees and organizers;
- Distribute papers to reviewers and let attendees track the review process right within the platform.
You can also organize your online paper presentations into 2 formats:
Organizing Online Oral Presentations
For oral presentations, you can set the presentation time per paper and the session’s total duration, dates, times, and links to the virtual room where the presentation will take place.
The system automatically calculates how many papers will fit into the session, based on the time slot and the presentation time set for each paper.
For example, if the session lasts 1 hour and the presentation time per paper is 10 minutes, the session will fit six papers.
Organizing Poster Presentations
You can also allow online poster presentations.
In this case, the organizer sets the session’s poster capacity, duration, dates, time, and virtual room.
Attendees simply need to share their screen to display their poster, optimized for virtual presentation.
Even3 also offers a dedicated area for paper presentations.
In other words, it’s a great solution for the final step of this guide: broadcasting the online paper presentations.
3. Broadcasting Online Presentations: Solutions to Optimize Your Event
Finally, it’s time for the presentations. In other words, one of the event’s key broadcast moments.
Organization matters a lot at this point, but the experience of reviewers and attendees matters even more.
That’s why Even3 offers a solution to optimize this stage of your event.
For events with submissions, there’s a dedicated paper presentation module.
In this area, attendees can access all of the event’s paper presentations, as well as a separate section showing the sessions they’ll be presenting in.
This module makes life easier for attendees, automatically directing them to the video conference links used for online paper presentations.
This way, the platform keeps things organized in separate, well-structured areas: the paper presentation area and the general event broadcast area.
A real differentiator for events with a large number of submissions, right?
Now that you know all these possibilities, you can finally start optimizing your event!
With Even3, you can eliminate bottlenecks, boost productivity, and deliver a unique experience to attendees.
Make online paper presentations easier — talk to one of our consultants and schedule a demo of our features.
