A conference is the most complex form of event in Indico. You should be able to manage its complete life-cycle, for instance, among other functionalities you can setup:
In order to create a conference, you just need to click on Create event and Create conference, in the blue bar at the top of the page. You will be presented with a form in which you:
Once this is done your conference will be created and you will be redirected to its Management Area. If you want to see the Home page of your conference, click on the button Switch to event page on the top right of the page.
The creator of this conference will by default have modification rights to it and is referred to as a Conference Manager as is anyone else listed in the Modification control list.
Remember that the category in which you want to create your conference must be public or you must have access rights to it.
To access the Management Area of a conference you need to
click on the modification icon 
in the top bar of the event
home page.
Once your conference has been created the Conference Manager can start setting up the conference from the Management Area.
The Management Area allows you to control, manage, setup and modify the different parts of your conference. The following sections will show each area of the Conference Management.
Clicking on the link Switch to event page to the top right of the page will take you to the home page of the event.
From the option General Settings in the left menu you can:
You can organise your conference from the Timetable tab in the conferece management area. When you start with a timetable it will look like this:
You can modify the start and end dates of the timetable, and you can start adding sessions, breaks, and contributions to your timetable.
In order to edit the entries in the timetable, you just need to click on the entry box and edition balloon will show up.
A session is essentially a time interval within which you organise many presentations of your conference. You can create sessions based on different reasons:
To create a new session, click on Add new and Session at the top right of the timetable. When doing so, you have the option to create a new session or add a block to an already existing session (if there is already at least one session in your timetable).
A session can happen in different intervals of time. If you already have a session (which will be like the first block) and you want to add more blocks for that session, you can do it from the menu (in the top bar of the timetable) Add new > Session > Add another block to: an already existing session.
However, this is optional, blocks can be used when the session takes place over more than one period of time. For example, you may have a morning block, then a break, and then an afternoon block within the same session. Also, you may have one day you have a session on a particular subject for a couple of hours and then two days later you may have another session on that subject.
To add a break to your timetable, use the menu Add new -> Break at the top right of the timetable. You will be presented with a form where you can modify the name, description, date and time of the break. You can also modify the address where the break will take place and the color in which it will appear in the timetable. Once the break is created it will appear in your timetable.
In order to modify your breaks, you need to click on the entry and an edition balloon will be displayed. Click on Edit to access the edit menu. By doing so, you can edit all the informations entered in the form when you created the break. If you quickly want to modify the duration or location of the break, click on the pencil to the right of Duration, Room and Location. You can also click on Move in the edition balloon. From this option, you can choose to move the break, inside a session or to another day.
If you delete a break, unlike a contribution, it will not remain anywhere. You will however be asked to confirm deletion.
To add a contribution to your timetable use the option Add new > Contribution. Here, there are two possible situations:
1. If there are already some unscheduled contributions (see Contributions Management), Indico will show a list of the contributions in which you select the one(s) you want to add. You can also choose to create a new one.
2. If there are no unscheduled contributions, a form for the creation of a new contribution will appear.
If you choose to delete a contribution and this contribution has been created/added from the Contributions option on the left menu, then it will be deleted from the timetable, but will remain in the contributions list under the Contributions option.
To edit a contribution:
Click on the entry in the timetable, an edition balloon will show up. You then need to click on Edit. You will be redirected to the contribution’s page, where you have six tabs, where you can edit the main options, the material, the sub-contributions, the protection, the tools and the paper reviewing. You can also choose in the edition balloon to Move the contribution. This allows you to move the contribution, into a session, or to another day.
You can access the Management area for a session from the edition balloon (this is the balloon that appears when clicking on the entry), by clicking Edit > Session properties.
This new page will allow to modify everything within that Session. You will see different tabs from which you can:
To edit a session, click on its entry in the timetable and an edition balloon will show up. From this, you can add a new block to the session (which you can also do by clicking on Add new -> session -> Add another block to). You can delete the session, but please note that if you do so, it will not remain anywhere else, unlike contributions. You will however be asked to confirm deletion first. From the edition balloon still, you can change the color of the entry in the timetable, or change the duration and location of the session by clicking on the pencil to the right of Duration, Room, Location. By clicking on Edit in the edition balloon, you have three options that appear.
From the Main tab in Session you can modify the general session information. You can modify the code, title, description, default place, default duration and layout (in the timetable) of the session. You can also add/remove any conveners.
In this tab, all the default values will be used as default values when creating a new block for the session. This default values are taken from the creation of the first block for the session.
From the Contributions tab you can see all the contributions that are part of your session. These contributions will only be shown once they have been added (see Adding Contributions to Sessions). Here, you can also add contributions to your session. If you know the contribution’s ID, you can make use of the Quick search option; type in the ID, and then click on seek it. If not, you can search for it. You can search by author, or by any of the filtering criteria. It is also possible to import a contribution, to get the PDF or author list of selected contributions. You can also remove contributions, by selecting them and then clicking on remove selected.
Each session can have an inner timetable. You can add new blocks, contributions and breaks inside this timetable.
This is the tab where you can view all the material belonging to the session. You can add , remove, edit or delete any material.
From the Protection tab in Session you can set the access rights for modification, access, and domain control in the same way as you can for the conference (see Protection Management). The only difference is the Co-ordination control in which you can assign someone to be the Co-ordinator, which means they can add and remove contributions and breaks to the timetable of that particular session.
From the Tools tab in Session you can delete, close the session or write minutes for it.
Inside sessions, you can create new contributions from the timetable or add unscheduled contributions (which have already been created and will be placed in the timetable later on). Here, we will see how to add/import contributions that have already been created.
To add contributions to a session you first need to import them from the main conference. To do so, use the Contribution tab inside the session:
Click on import contributions, this will take you to a screen where you can select the contributions you want to include in your session.
Once you have selected the contributions they will appear inside the Contributions tab in the session. You can then use the option Add new > Contribution from the Session timetable and select from the contributions you imported. When you have added a contribution to your session timetable you can edit the times, duration, room and location by clicking on the contribution box.
If there are rooms booked for the conference they will be shown at the top of a selection list during creating/editing sessions, slots, breaks and contributions. If the name of the booked room is green, it means it is not used in any other event in the current conference. Otherwise the name will turn red and information about event using this room will be shown while pointing this name.
This option is available on the top right of the timetable, to the right of the option Add new.
Step 1: Choose the type of rescheduling you want
Step 2: Choose the time gap between entries
You need to type a duration in minutes
Step 3: Choose to fit sessions to their content
You can choose to tick the option to fit all the sessions contained in the specific day to their content. This will change the start and end times of the session blocks occurring on that specific day in order to fit their respective content before performing the rescheduling.
This is where you upload and manage the material attached to the conference. The material can be minutes, papers, posters, slides, etc. You can control the access protection of the material by choosing it to be public, private or inheriting (see Access Control Policy).
From the programme option (on the left menu) you can add/remove tracks and access each of them by clicking on their name.
Tracks are parts of the conference to which abstracts and contributions can belong. For more on tracks, see Indico’s Glossary (section about tracks).
Inside tracks you can do the following:
You may wish to have some kind of registration process for those attending your conference. Here you can give the registrants options such as accommodation or any specific needs. The Registration Management comes in two parts: the Registration Form and the Registrants.
These are the steps in the registration process:
1. The conference manager enables the registration. To do so, go on the Registration option in the left menu, and click on the button Enable. He can set the registration deadline, the maximum number of participants, to set e-mail notifications etc. (see Setup tab).
2. The registrants apply for participation. To do so, they fill in a form that is found on the event’s page.
This form is set by the conference manager (see below). He can choose all the options that will be available to registrants, such as social events, accommodation etc. The conference manager will have the option to make certain events billable (such as lunches, expeditions organized within the conference etc.) and then to enable the e-payment. E-payment can be enabled in the Registration option in the left menu, under the tab e-payment (see E-payment).
3. The conference manager has access to the final list of participants, which he can manage.
4. Once the list of participants has been established, Indico automatically generates printable badges for each participants. The conference manager can customize them by going to the tab Registrants, selecting registrants and then clicking on Print badges (see Registrants, section Print badges), sending emails, exporting to excel, pdf, etc.
You can access the registration module from the option Registration in the menu on the left.
From the Setup tab you can enable or disable the registration. You can also modify the start/end dates of registration, the maximum number of registrants you will take, any announcements and if you wish to receive an email when a new registrant applies.
The registration form is split in sections. Each section is a part of
the registration form, and it contains many fields.
You can choose which sections of the form you wish to use
(see the following sections listed below). To enable or disable one of these
sections, click on the 
image next to that section; when it is
red it is disabled and when it is green it is enabled. Clicking on the
section name will let you modify it to allow the registrants to enter the
information you need (see Registration Area).
In here, you can control all the features of the registration form. To access the following options, you need to click on Modify in the first part of the setup tab
You can then choose what personal data to ask for in your form (title, position, institution etc. ). To enable or disable one of these sections, click on the image next to that section; when it is red it is disabled and when it is green it is enabled.
You can also choose which sections your form will contain; reason for participation, social events, etc. You can also remove/add a section by clicking on the buttons remove sect. and new sect.. Enabling and disabling sections works as above.
The last part of this tab is Custom statuses. This is the status of the registrant; you can add or delete statuses.
The Registrants tab will show a list of all the registrants for your conference.
From this list you can perform several actions on the registrants, as for example:
Also, beware that clicking on Select All or None will select or unselect all the registrants checkboxes.
Moreover, clicking on the registrant’s name will show you all his details and the information he provided in response to the form’s questions. And you can also modify them.
A preview of the registration form you have set. Feel free to try it, no registration submitted from this tab will be recorded.
You can choose to enable or disable e-payment by clicking on Enable/Disable. From this tab, you can customize the text to display in the payment page, the payment conditions, the email bodies related to epayment and the currency to use. See in the image below all the options.
The Call For Abstracts option has 5 tabs:
See below for more details about each tab, Call for Abstracts Setup
The Call for Abstracts process works in the following way:
The different tabs are explained below:
The options you can find inside the setup tab are the following:
Click on this tab to get a preview of the abstract submission form. Feel free to try this form, any submitted abstract from this tab will not be recorded.
The List of Abstracts tab shows all the abstracts that have been submitted to the conference:
You will need to fill in the form and click on submit .
You can also access each abstract by clicking on its name (see Abstracts). An abstract can be in one of 10 states:
From here you can customize the book of abstract:
You can also generate the PDF Book of abstracts.
Also, this is PDF file will be available from the conference home page (see Conference Display) containing all the abstracts, unless you disable it from the Layout menu, the Menu tab.
A notification template is an email template that the conference organizer can pre-define and that will be automatically used by Indico under certain circumstances (when an abstract is accepted, rejected or merged).
In order to create a Notification Template you have to:
An abstract is either submitted by an author or manually added by a Abstract Manager (conference organizers). It is then reviewed by the track coordinator of the track it belongs to. The track coordinator will propose to accept, reject or merge the abstract. If it is accepted, it will automatically become a contribution, (see Contributions Management) , which you can then place in the timetable (see Timetable Management). Here are the different tabs:
The Contributions menu shows all the contributions to the conference. These may be either accepted abstracts or abstracts added by the Conference Managers.
From the contribution menu you can:
icon. When the star is yellow, the material is marked as main resource). Once this is done, Indico will generate a table of contents for all the papers and organize all PDF files by chapters into a zip file.
.Each contribution has its own management area.
From inside the Main tab you can:
From the Material tab you can access the material of the contribution and add or remove documents (see Material).
From the Sub-contributions tab you can:
From the Protection tab you can:
From the Tools tab you can:
Sub-contributions can be added to a contribution to organize the contribution further.
From inside each sub-contribution you can modify the general details, add or remove presenters, and attach material in the same way as you can for contributions. From the Tools tab in a sub-contribution you can delete that sub-contribution or write the minutes for it; these will be attached to the material for the sub-contribution.
Material can be submitted by a user once the abstract has been accepted and made into a contribution. Material can also be added by the Conference Manager directly to the conference, or to a contribution or sub-contribution.
You can upload files or simply add URL links.
Access rights can be set for each material. From inside Access Control you can list those users that can view the material.
Protection:
Advanced:
When you click on this option (and if you haven’t chosen the type of reviewing yet) you will see this:
You will therefore need to choose a type of reviewing process. There are four options:
For more information about:
Referee, see Paper reviewing module - referee’s guide
Layout reviewer, see Paper reviewing module - layout reviewer’s guide
Content reviewer, see Paper reviewing module - content reviewers’s guide
This is where you set up the options for the content reviewing. Here, you can add your own statuses, questions that referees must answer, set default deadlines, set automatic email notifications and upload templates.
This is where you can assign managers, referees and content reviewers.
Here you can define competences for each user. This can be helpful while assigning contributions.
Here you have a list of all the contributions and their information. Depending on your role, you can assign them to reviewers (referee) or remove them (manager).
This is where you set up the layout reviewing. You can add the questions that must be answered by the layout reviewers, set the default deadlines for the judgments, set automatic email notifications and upload a template.
This is where you set up the reviewing for the conference. The tabs contain all the options described above put together; see Content reviewing and Layout reviewing
See Video Services in Lectures.
You can set up an evaluation form to be completed by the participants. To enable/disable, click on Show/Hide. For more on the evaluation process, see Event Evaluation
From this option, you can get the lists of pending people to become Indico users, all sessions’ conveners and all contributions’ speakers.
By clicking on this link, you will be presented with 3 tabs: Pending Submitters, Pending Managers and Pending Coordinators. In each of them, you will find a list of the corresponding users. From these tabs, you can remove selected users or send reminders.
You are presented with a corresponding list of users. You can send e-mails to selected users.
You are again presented with the corresponding list of users. You can send e-mails to selected users.
The same options are available in the three different tabs.
Protection in a conference is similar to that in a Category (see Protection). There is Modification Control, Domain Control and Access Control. When adding to the Access and Modification lists, you can also add Groups of users if any have been defined by Administration.
Modification Control Only the Managers listed in the Modification Control, the Creator of the conference, and any Administrators can access the Management Area of the conference. However, you can add a Modification Key which means anyone with this key can modify the conference without logging in.
Access Control When the conference is public, anyone can view the conference including the programme, timetable, abstracts, etc. When the conference is private, only those in the Access List, Conference Managers and Administrators can view the conference. When it is inheriting, it will have the same access protection as its parent categoy. Changing the parent’s access protection will change the conference’s access protection accordingly; see Access Control Policy.
If the conference is PRIVATE the event manager will be able to set a ‘Contact in case of no access’, so users with no access will know who to contact in order to request access.
Also when private you can also add an Access Key which means anyone with this key can access the conference without logging in. Users will get a message as the following:
Domain Control This option is only for public events. It allows to specify which domain (e.g. CERN) can access the conference. Therefore, only users from inside this domain will be able to access.
Session coordinator’s rights This informs you of the basic rights which are always available, and allow you to modify the optional rights the session coordinators have.
The conference Tools allow you to carry out certain actions on the whole of the conference.
Clone the conference if you would like to make another conference exactly the same. You have the option to clone it once, at fixed intervals, or on certain dates. You must clone a conference in two steps:
Step 1: Choose what to clone
Firstly, you need to choose what you wish to clone, i.e. the attached material, the tracks, the alerts etc. To choose any of this options, tick its corresponding box
Step 2: When to clone
You have three possibilities:
It is possible to create your own posters for the conference in Indico. You can either create your own and customize it, or upload a template.
From the list of participants, Indico automatically generates printable badges for each of them. You can customize them in this tab, and then print them.
As for posters, you have the option to create a new template or to upload an already existing one.
You can lock the event. If you do so, you will not be able to change its details anymore. Only the creator of the event or an administrator of the system/category can lock/unlock an event. You will be asked to confirm.
Delete the conference. There is no undo tool so far, but you will be asked to confirm deletion
Using the Material package option you can create a package of all the material that has been used in the conference.
The display area allows you to customize your conference. You can customize the menu that will be shown in the conference display (see Conference Display), change the colours of the conference background/text, add a logo and much more. It contains four tabs, that are explained below.
The display area allows you to customize your conference. You can customize the menu that will be shown in the conference display (see Conference Display), change the colours of the conference background/text, add a logo and much more.
This tab has two main parts:
. When it is green, the option is enabled, when red, it is disabled.This is where you can customize the menu that will appear in the event page. You can choose what options to display, add spacers or URL links.
In the image below, the title of the page is circled in red, and the text typed in the text box is circled in green.
Once you have created the spacer, the result will look as following in the event page:
In this tab you can upload iamges. This will give you a link for the given image. When you need to make use of this image, copy and paste this link. Clicking on it will redirect you to the image.
To upload an image, click on 
and then on Browse. Once you have
found the picture in your documents, click on Upload.
This shows you a list of all the actions performed on the whole of the conference. It shows the date, subject, responsible and module.
The Conference Display is the view that users of the conference will see. If the conference is public they will not need to log in to view the conference. It is also the area from which you can access the modification areas if you have access rights. The different areas of the conference can be seen using the left-hand Display Menu. This menu may be different if the Conference Manager has customized it. When a conference is accessed the Overview area is shown first.
Various parts of the conference display are always present in order for you to navigate or view the display area:
This is placed at the top left of the display view and
will take you back to home page of Indico.
This is also placed at the top left of the display
view and allows you to use additional features (e.g. export
the details of the conference in iCalendar format)
This will be underneath the display menu and enables
you to email the event support if conference management have
entered one.
This is placed at the top right of the screen and is
the access for logging in or out.
The Overview Area shows the main details of the conference including any material that is included and the date and location of the conference.
The Call for abstracts view will show the range of dates during which an abstract can be submitted.
From within the Call for abstracts a user can submit an abstract and view the abstracts they have submitted.
You need to be logged in as a user and the dates of submission must be in the time range to allow you to submit an abstract. Once logged in you can fill in the form to submit your abstract.
You need to fill in the title, content, and the mandatory fields specified (if any). You have to add/select at least one primary author. If you need to you can add any co-authors. It is possible to move authors and co-authors by doing drag and drop. Sometimes will be possible to attach files to the abstract, if the option has been set by the manager. You can also choose which track you would like your abstract to be included in as well as any comments you would like to add. You will receive an email notification after submitting.
You can view and see the status of any abstracts you have submitted. You can also create a PDF of your abstracts. By clicking on the abstract name you will see the details of the abstract.
When you click on an abstract’s title you will be taken to the abstracts view. This shows all the details of the abstract.
You can print the details of this abstract as a PDF using the icon in the top right corner.
The Author Index shows all the authors with contributions in the conference; the authors can be searched for by name.
The contribution(s) (see Contribution Display) they have written and the details of the author can be accessed by clicking on the name.
The Author Display shows the details of the author, e.g., contact details and the contribution(s) he has authored.
Contribution List in the menu takes you to all the contributions in the Conference. From here you can see a list of all or just certain types of contributions that you wish to see, e.g. only those contributions in a specific session.
You can access the display of each contribution by clicking on its name. You can also create a PDF of either selected contributions or all of them.
In the Contribution Display you can see all the details of the contribution, including the description, the author, the session (if any) it is included, any material (see Contribution Material Display) it has and any sub-contributions that belong to it. You can also access those details by clicking on their names. You can also print the contribution in PDF, XML, or iCal format by using the icons in the top right-hand corner.
If you have modification rights, you will have the modification icon next to the print formats and you can access the Contribution Modification Area.
The material that belongs to a contribution can be viewed by accessing the Contribution Display (see Contribution Display). Here, there is a section Material with all the resources attached.
Click in Add Material in order to upload more, in the edit icon to modify, or in the red cross to remove it.
The My conference area gives you access to those areas for which you have co-ordinator or modification rights. For example, if you are a Track Co-ordinator or a Session Co-coordinator those tracks or sessions will appear under My conference. Same thing if you are submitter for a contribution.
More information here:
The Registration Area shows you the dates in which you are able to register, the maximum number of registrants allowed and any contact information.
From the New Registrant Area people can fill in the forms that were chosen and customized from the Registration Management (see Registration Management). The registrant will need to fill in their personal information and anything else in the form that has been asked for.
Once your registration has been submitted you will be shown a screen to confirm your registration.
If the epayment is enabled. The user will be able to click the button next and proceed with the payment online.
The menu option which was New registration will also change to Modify my registration. This will present you with the form you filled in originally and will allow you to change the information you originally provided.
The Book of Abstracts selection in the menu will produce a PDF document of all the accepted abstracts (abstracts that have become contributions) that are scheduled in the conference. It also shows any contributions that are scheduled.
The Scientific Programme shows all the tracks with their descriptions:
You can create a PDF document of all the tracks using the PDF icon in the top right-hand corner. If you are a Co-ordinator of any tracks, you will have the modification logo next to that track and a Manage my track option in the menu as in the picture above.
You can access the conference’s timetable from the event page by clicking on the Timetable link. The Timetable area shows all the session, contributions, and breaks for the conference. You can access each session content by clicking on the session name. This will show you any contributions/breaks inside this session.
Clicking on a contribution will open a popup with the option “View details” that will take you to the display view of that contribution (see Contribution Display).
On the top right of the timetable, there are different options available to you:
Once you have chosen all your options, click on get pdf
In this conference, this is the normal view:
And this is the detailed view:
In this detailed view, you can click on the icon 
to get all the
material belonging to the contribution.
If you click on the contribution, a balloon will appear. Click on View details to access the contribution’s page. You can export this contribution by clicking on Export in the balloon. You can export it as a PDF, calendar or XML file.
Session View allows you to see any contributions or breaks within each session:
If you are a Session Co-ordinator or a Session Manager you will have the modification icon in the top right-hand corner as above. This will take you to the appropriate Modification area for that session. You may also make a PDF of the session.
