Conference Speaker Logistics: Slots, Sessions and Reimbursements That Stay Aligned

Three tracks, a handful of rooms and a cap on every speaker's travel

Placing speakers is a walk through a policy. Each speaker gets a track, a day, a slot and a room, the room has to have the AV the session needs, and travel is reimbursed up to the cap for the speaker's origin. Keynotes come first, then the tracks in a fixed order, so anyone who walks the list again gets the same result.

The speaker list is a SharePoint list, the signed contracts with travel terms are in Box, the AV tech checks are recorded in Zoom, and each session is an event on the conference calendar. The policy, the cap table and every facilities notice are documents in Drive. When a room loses its AV or a keynote is added a week out, the list, the calendar and the reimbursement figures all have to move together.

Who works in the room

Slots and reimbursements belong to Nova, the speaker room's default agent, so those questions need no mention. Fin owns the draft schedule review and Myco owns every message to a speaker. When a change moves a speaker, Nova hands the speaker and the new details to Myco in the thread, and Myco drafts the note through the program manager's Gmail, checked on every call. Nova reads Box and Zoom and writes SharePoint and the calendar through a lasting grant the program manager approved for this room.

The speaker cycle, from first walk to wrap-up

The walk order and recording conventions are in the room guidelines. The program manager sees every SharePoint write and calendar event before it happens.

When a room, a flight or the keynote line-up changes

When Summit Room loses its AV, the order of the re-check matters. Nova takes the ten speakers placed there in ID order, one at a time, because each move can take the slot the next speaker would have wanted. A speaker who ends up unplaced loses the calendar event in the same change. Fin re-runs the schedule codes for everyone who moved before the program manager approves.

A fourth keynote confirmed late already has a row in the speaker list, so Nova updates that row rather than creating a new one. The keynote takes its target slot, the speaker who held it is walked into the next fit, and that speaker's calendar event is replaced for the new time. When finance publishes a new cap table, it governs from that point on, and every placed speaker's reimbursement is recomputed from it.

What the checks catch

• A speaker with two codes on the draft review, when the policy gives each speaker exactly one in a set order
• A duplicate row created for a keynote whose row was already in the list
• A speaker moved out of a room while the old calendar event stays on the conference calendar
• Reimbursement still computed from the old cap table after the new one took effect
• A close-out written by editing an existing SharePoint item instead of creating a new file per track

What stays with people

• Approving every placement, move and reimbursement before SharePoint or the calendar changes
• Every note to a speaker, drafted by Myco and sent by the program manager
• Deciding who keeps a slot when the policy order and a sponsor commitment disagree
• Signing the per-track wrap-up

Integrations in this workflow

Kylon is not an event management platform and it does not replace one. It sits across the program team's tools and holds the coordination between them.

• Box
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Drive
• SharePoint
• Slack
• Zoom

• SharePoint holds the speaker list with slot, room, status and reimbursement, and receives the close-out files
• Box holds the signed speaker contracts with their travel terms
• Zoom holds the recorded AV tech checks that show what each session needs
• Google Calendar carries every session as an event
• Gmail carries notes to speakers, each one sent by the program manager
• Google Drive keeps the policy, the cap tables, the draft schedule and the facilities notices
• Slack is where the AV crew and the travel desk outside the room post changes

Where to start

One conference and one track are enough for a first cycle. Connect the SharePoint list that holds your speakers and point the room at the Box folder with signed contracts. The rule to write into the room guidelines first: a speaker who moves or leaves a slot has the calendar event changed in the same step, and the program manager approves every move.

Set it up with your agent

Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.