Scheduling
Intro
Planning your event is partly a process of curation, thinking about the arrangement of your sessions to best delight your attendees and partly a complex logic problem, ensuring that you don’t double book speakers, that the right resources are available, that the attendees can move from one location to another etc. Lineup Ninja is focused on making this easy.
To get started we recommend watching this tutorial video to get orientated, then read on through this page to learn how to manage some common scheduling needs with Lineup Ninja.
How do I ensure speakers are available?
When you link a speaker to more than once session Lineup Ninja will alert you if you have double booked the speaker.
During your Call For Papers process you can ask your speakers when they are available. Lineup Ninja will use this data to ensure you can only schedule the session on a day where they said they were available. If the speaker lets you know their availability outside of the CFP submission then you can adjust this for the individual speaker.
How do I ensure the location is large enough for the session?
Ensuring a location is large enough is a combination of two things:
If the location has a larger, or equal, capacity compared to the session then the session will be planned successfully, if it is smaller then you will see a scheduling error.
How do I ensure the location has the right resources to deliver a session?
For a successful session to be delivered the right equipment must be available for the presenter. Lineup Ninja uses resource to track these requirements. When you assign a resource to a session then it can only be scheduled in a location that has the same resource assigned to it.
If you plan a session in a location that does not have a resource that a session requires then you will see a scheduling error. You can fix this by either making the resource available in the location, moving the session to a different location, or editing that session to remove the resource from the session.
How do I keep sessions on the same theme in the same location or group of locations?
You may want to keep sessions on the same theme in the same location, this can make it easier for attendees who are interested in a particular topic as they won’t have to move around from one session to the next.
Lineup Ninja calls themes or topics, ‘Tracks’. When you assign a track to a session it will then need to be scheduled in a location that has the same track assigned to it.
If you plan a session in a location that does not have the track of the session assigned to it then you will see a scheduling error. You can fix this by either adding the track to the location, moving the session to a different location, or editing that session to change or remove the track.
How do I ensure sessions take place on a specific day or days?
If you have a group of sessions that needs to take place on a specific day or days then you can manage this with labels. A label can be used to enforce scheduling to specific dates, you then apply that label to the sessions you need to ensure are scheduled on that date.
Follow this process to get going:
- Navigate to then
- Now click the blue plus icon to add a new label that will be used and name it whatever makes sense for your event.
- Navigate into the Label by clicking on its name
- On the ‘Dates’ row click to edit the row
- Choose the dates you want to restrict the sessions to and click to save the row
- You will see a toggle button underneath the dates you just configured. Toggle this on to make these dates a scheduling requirement
- Navigate to the list of sessions and filter the table to select the sessions you want to apply this date requirement to
- Choose ‘Add Labels’ from the bulk actions
- Select the new label you just created then save the change
- The sessions will now be required to be scheduled on the selected dates!
How do I prevent clashes for my attendees?
When thinking about scheduling your event content is it important to consider what your attendees are looking for. If you’re running a conference on a diverse range of topics in a field then it’s possible that attendees will largely be interested in only one or two different topics. If you schedule multiple talks on the same topic at the same time then an attendee won’t be able to see everything for their interest.
Lineup Ninja provides can help you here with configuration called ‘Concurrency’. The dictionary definition of ‘Concurrent’ is “existing, happening, or done at the same time.”, using the ‘Concurrency’ settings you can limit the number of things that are happening at the same time.
You can apply this limit to Tracks, Resources or Labels to best fit your needs.
Tracks
If you would like to limit the number of sessions running in the same track then navigate to and select the name of the track. Then edit the ‘Concurrency’ setting to set the maximum number of sessions in this track that can run that the same time.
Resources
You can also limit the number of sessions requiring a particular resource that run at the same time. Navigate to and select the name of the resource. Then edit the ‘Concurrency’ setting to set the maximum number of sessions needing this resource that can run that the same time.
Labels
If you wish to limit on a different criteria than tracks and resources tne you can use labels. Navigate to and select the name of the label, or create a new one. Then edit the ‘Concurrency’ setting to set the maximum number of sessions with this label that can run that the same time. Then apply the label to the sessions you want to limit in this way.
How do I allow enough time between one session and another so speakers and attendees can move and the stage can be prepared?
When a session ends there may you may want to reserve a period of time before another session can be configured in the same location. Lineup Ninja calls this ‘Changeover Time’.
You can configure this in 3 different locations.
In you can set the default changeover time that applies to all sessions. This is a super easy way to enforce a gap between all sessions.
In click the name of a location and you can set the changeover over time for that location. This will set a minimum changeover time for a location, useful if it has a complex stage that needs to be reset or if it will take time for the attendees to vacate the room.
In click the name of a session and you can set the changeover time for that session, this overrides the default setting for the event.
The changeover time is the longer of the location changeover time or the session changeover time.
How do I configure the running order of a group of sessions?
If you have a group of sessions that you need to ensure run in the right order then you can use Scheduling Rules to configure this. This can be useful when, say, you have a workshop that follows an introductory presentation.
Browse to one of the sessions and in the ‘Scheduling Rules’ section click the blue plus button. You can these choose the relationship to another session. For example if this session needs to run ‘Before’ another one then simply choose ‘Before’ and the name of the other session and click the check mark.
You can also set rules to ensure that sessions start after another one, at the same time as, or run immediately before or after another session.
How do I ensure a session takes place in a location or locations?
Sometimes you want to ensure that a session takes place in a specific location such as a stage, or group of locations, such as online video rooms.
There are two ways to configure this in Lineup Ninja, depending on whether you want to configure this for just one or two sessions, or for a larger number of sessions.
I have a large number of sessions I want to ensure take place in a location
If you have a group of sessions that needs to take place on in a specific location or group of locations then you can manage this with labels. A label can be used to enforce scheduling to specific locations, you then apply that label to the sessions you need to ensure are scheduled on that date.
Follow this process to get going:
- Navigate to then
- Now click the blue plus icon to add a new label that will be used and name it whatever makes sense for your event.
- Navigate into the Label by clicking on its name
- On the ‘Locations’ row click to edit the row
- Choose the locations you want to restrict the sessions to and click to save the row
- You will see a toggle button underneath the dates you just configured. Toggle this on to make these locations a scheduling requirement
- Navigate to the list of sessions and filter the table to select the sessions you want to apply this date requirement to
- Choose ‘Add Labels’ from the bulk actions
- Select the new label you just created then save the change
- The sessions will now be required to be scheduled in one of the selected locations!
I have just one or two sessions that I want to ensure take place in a location
To ensure a session takes place in a location set a Scheduling Rule for that session. Browse to the session, and in the ‘Scheduling Rules’ section click the blue plus button. You can then choose ‘In Location’ and then the name of the location and click the check mark.
If you have multiple locations that the session can run in then you can add multiple rules.
How do I ensure a session does NOT take place in a location?
To ensure a session does not take place in a location set a Scheduling Rule for that session. Browse to the session, and in the ‘Scheduling Rules’ section click the blue plus button. You can then choose ‘Not In Location’ and then the name of the location and click the check mark.
How do I ensure that sessions take place in the same location as each other?
Sometimes you want to ensure that two or more sessions take place in the same location as each other, but you’re not actually concerned which specific location that is, only that the end up in the same one.
To do this configure a Scheduling Rule for the session. Browse to the session, and in the ‘Scheduling Rules’ section click the blue plus button. You can then choose ‘In Location With’ and then the name of the other session that should be in the same room.