Creating a Conference

Once your organization is set up, you can create as many conferences as you need. Each conference has its own public landing page, submission portal, review system, and management dashboard — all managed separately.

1. Navigating to the New Conference Form

Go to your Organization Dashboard. If you are on the Free tier, this is at www.confychair.org/org/[your-slug]/. If you are on Pro or Enterprise, it is at [your-slug].confychair.org/.
In the left sidebar, click Conferences.
Click the "New Conference" button in the top-right corner.

Alternatively, navigate directly to:

Free tier: www.confychair.org/org/[your-slug]/conferences/new/
Pro/Enterprise: [your-slug].confychair.org/conferences/new/

New conference form with Identity and Dates sections

The "New Conference" form. The slug is auto-generated from the title but can be edited.

2. Required Fields

Conference Title

The full, official name of your conference. This appears on the public landing page, emails to authors, and the global Confychair directory. Must be at least 5 characters.

Example: International Conference on Advanced Computer Science and Information Systems 2026

Short Name

A brief identifier used in navigation, email subjects, tables, and badges where space is limited. Only letters, numbers, hyphens, and spaces. Max 30 characters. Auto-generated from the title but editable.

Example: ICACSIS-2026

Tip: Include the year in your short name — it makes it easier to distinguish when you run the same conference annually.

URL Slug

The URL-friendly identifier for this conference. Auto-generated from the title (lowercase, hyphens only) but editable. Once set, this becomes part of all conference URLs and cannot be changed after the conference is created.

Example: icacsis-2026

This produces URLs like:

www.confychair.org/conferences/icacsis-2026/ (Free tier)
ui.confychair.org/conferences/icacsis-2026/ (Pro tier)

Warning: Choose your slug carefully. It appears in every author notification, every submission confirmation link, and all public-facing pages. A typo here is difficult to correct after authors begin submitting.

3. Optional Fields (Dates)

All date fields are optional at creation time and can be set later from Settings → General.

Field	Notes
Start Date	The calendar date the conference event begins. Date picker, no time.
End Date	The calendar date the conference event ends. Date picker, no time.
Submission Deadline	Date and time after which authors can no longer submit. Uses a date-time picker.
Review Deadline	Date and time by which reviewers should complete their reviews. Uses a date-time picker.

Tip: If you know your dates, fill them in now. The submission deadline drives the countdown timer on your public conference page.

4. After Creating the Conference

Once you click "Create Conference", your conference is created and you are assigned as Organizer with full management access. The conference starts in Draft status, meaning:

The public landing page is not yet visible to the public.
Authors cannot submit papers yet.
The conference does not appear in the global Confychair directory.

You are redirected to your organization's conference list. From there, go into your new conference and configure it before opening submissions.

Note: Status is controlled from Settings → Public Page using the Publish button (Draft → Unlisted → Published → Archived).

5. Conference Settings Overview

After creation, navigate to Manage → Settings in the conference sidebar. The settings panel has a left-side tab navigation with the following sections:

Tab	Purpose
General	Full title, short name, logo, brand color, timezone, conference dates, review deadline, notification date, delivery mode, venue, website, and contact email
Public Page	Rich-text conference landing page editor (BlockNote editor) + publication status control (Draft / Unlisted / Published / Archived)
Roles	Conference-scoped roles and their permissions
Packages	Registration packages for attendees
Add-ons	Optional add-ons authors can select during registration
Registration	Registration form configuration
Submission	Submission workflow (abstract-first toggle, allowed file formats, deadlines, additional materials, abstract word limit, force-open switch)
Topics	Subject-area topics authors tag their submissions with
Review	Review policy (reviews per paper, blind type, reviewer attachments) and custom review criteria
AI	AI-assisted settings
Bank Accounts	Bank account details for payment collection
Templates	Email and notification templates

Tip: Bookmark your conference management URL. You will visit it frequently during the review period. The URL follows the pattern .../conferences/[slug]/manage/settings/.

6. Conference Dashboard Overview

The conference dashboard (.../conferences/[slug]/manage/) is your control center for the entire conference lifecycle.

Conference management dashboard showing submission count, review progress, and upcoming deadline cards

The conference dashboard after creation. Stats are all zero until submissions begin.

The sidebar navigation gives access to:

Overview — the dashboard summary
Submissions — manage all submitted papers, assign reviewers, record decisions
Reviewers — manage reviewer assignments and workload
Program — build the conference schedule (after decisions are finalized)
Settings — all configuration tabs listed above