Accept, waitlist or decline submissions

Submissions lists everything that came in through your call for speakers. You decide on each one; there is no review committee or scoring.

Read a submission

Each row shows the session title, its speakers, when it was sent and the track the speaker chose. Select the row to read the description and see each speaker’s name and email.

Use Show to switch between Undecided, Accepted, Waitlisted, Declined and All. The count next to each tells you how many are in it.

Add a submission yourself

A proposal sometimes reaches you another way, such as an email. Select Add a submission, enter the session title, a description and the speaker’s name and email, then select Add submission. It waits in Undecided with the rest.

Decide

Select Accept to put the session on your agenda. It appears on Agenda in Unscheduled, and its speakers appear on Speakers.
Select Waitlist to keep it in reserve in case a place opens up. It stays in Waitlisted.
Select Decline to set it aside. It stays in Declined.
Select Undo to move a decision back to Undecided.

Decisions take effect straight away. Declining an accepted session takes it off the Agenda page.

Deciding never emails anyone by itself. You tell speakers from Let speakers know, below.

Decide on a board

Select Board next to List to see your submissions in columns: Undecided, Accepted, Waitlisted and Declined. Search and the track, format, speaker and Team picks filters apply to the board too.

Drag a card to another column to change its decision, or use Move to… on the card. With a keyboard, pick a card up with Space or Enter, move it with the arrow keys and drop it with Space or Enter.
Each move saves straight away and offers Undo.
Moving a card never emails anyone. When speakers haven’t heard about a decision yet, the board says so, for example “2 accepted, 1 declined, emails not sent yet”, with a button to Let speakers know.

On a phone, the columns scroll sideways.

Let speakers know

Let speakers know, under the list, has one email for each decision. Each one is shown exactly as the speaker gets it, filled in for a real speaker on that decision.

Accepted: accepted speakers get the invite from your speaker email plan, with links to the details you need from them. It goes out once you approve the plan.
Declined and Waitlisted: edit the subject and message. Select a field such as First name, Session title or Event dates to add it where your cursor is; it’s filled in for each speaker. The preview changes as you type. Save keeps your text; Use the default puts ours back.

To send, select Email N declined speakers (or waitlisted), then Send now. If no card is on file, Sessions asks you to add one first. Each speaker gets one email per session, and nobody is emailed twice for the same decision: the count shows who hasn’t heard from you yet. Addresses that unsubscribed or bounced are skipped, and Sessions lists them.

Speakers your plan includes

Your plan includes a number of speakers per event: 75 on Starter and 150 on Growth. A speaker on several accepted sessions counts once. If accepting a session would go past the limit, Sessions doesn’t accept it and says so. Choose Growth or talk to us about the platform for a bigger event.

Review with a committee

To hear what your team thinks without a formal review, ask for Team picks: a quick Yes, Maybe or No from each teammate, with a comment.

Review plans, reviewers, rounds and scorecards are part of the Sessionboard platform, and so are statuses of your own, such as Shortlisted or Invited. The Score with your committee and Your own statuses cards on Submissions tell you more.