run.events enables event organizers to create and customize Calls for Content. Event organizers can decide when the Call for Content will open and close, configure the 'Terms of Speaking' messages for the Call for Content, or customize and require fields for entering and modifying speaker profiles and session submissions. Once the event organizer configures the Call for Content, it can be shared with potential speakers and promoted through various channels. After each submission, run.events will send confirmation emails to speakers and notify organizers when new submissions are received.
In most cases, event organizers will have a dedicated content team that evaluates and selects the content for the event. They need to review content submissions, evaluate sessions, and ultimately decide which session proposals should be included in the official program. run.events enables event organizers to create and manage their content teams. Two roles are involved: Content Owners, who guide and supervise content selection and agenda-building process, and Content Team Members, who evaluate content submissions. Content Owners decide for each Content Team Member whether they will evaluate all content submissions or only a subset assigned to them.
Content Owners have the responsibility of organizing content submissions using a Kanban-style board. Each submission is assigned to an 'In Evaluation,' 'Accepted,' or 'Declined' bucket type. As a helping hand for managing content submissions, there may be multiple buckets of each type. While each submitted session proposal can be in only one content bucket, multiple labels are assignable to aid the Content Team in organization and identification. run.events uses textual content ratings, such as 'Must Have,' 'It's Awesome,' 'It's OK,' 'Not Awesome,' and 'Can't Have' to simplify the evaluation process. This method makes it easier to agree upon than numerical ratings, where a score of '4' can have different meanings for different team members. Sessions marked as 'Must Have' or 'Can't Have' receive special attention since these indicate that the Content Team Members have strong feelings about them. Once the Content Team Members finish their evaluations, Content Owners will send acceptance and decline messages to the speakers about their session proposals.
With run.events, Content Owners and event organizers can create the event agenda, which includes selected content and other elements like catering, parties, and extracurricular activities. As events grow larger, this process can become complex, so run.events provides helpful technical features. For instance, the pop-up window allows each 'Accepted' content bucket to be placed on a separate computer monitor, which helps Content Owners retain the big picture and overview while building the agenda.
The agenda builder also fully supports real-time collaboration among Content Owners, meaning that each change made to the agenda is visible to all users working on it in real-time. Finally, the color-coding feature highlights sessions with the same labels, which allows Content Owners to spot similar sessions and avoid scheduling conflicts easily.
Our goal in developing run.events was to simplify speaker management and allow event organizers and Content Owners to customize speaker communications based on categories, labels, and the event's progress. Content Owners can communicate differently with speakers in different buckets, even if all are 'accepted,' because there might be different contractual obligations with the speakers from different buckets. Every event organizer knows the speaker management process starts with content submissions and often extends beyond the event's conclusion. Also, the speaker information and session confirmation process is fully automated in run.events, with speakers needing only a single click to confirm their participation.
run.events enables event organizers to create customized session feedback forms, which attendees can use to evaluate sessions they attended. The session feedback forms can be as simple as a single star-rating input or complex, allowing attendees to rate different aspects of the sessions or presentation. Attendees can use the run.events mobile app to leave session feedback if event organizers have enabled that option. Event organizers can decide whether to make the feedback available to the speakers. They can also choose to clean up the feedback before making it available to speakers, removing ratings and feedback that have nothing to do with the sessions.
