Feature · Panel Submissions

Community-Driven Programming Without the Spreadsheet Hell

A public submission portal, multi-stage review workflow, panelist communications, and one-click conversion to schedule items. Open programming to your community without burying your programming team in email.

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Overview

Open-call programming is one of the best ways to keep an event fresh — community members pitch panels, fans propose meet-ups, subject-matter experts step forward — but most cons drown trying to manage it. Submissions arrive in email, get tossed in a spreadsheet, get lost, get duplicated, and the programming team spends more time chasing follow-ups than evaluating ideas.

Confanum gives you a public submission portal with a structured form (title, description, panelists, room requirements, AV needs, content warnings, runtime). Submissions land in a queue with status tracking. Reviewers score, comment, and vote. Once approved, one click drops the panel onto the schedule with all panelists, room, and AV requirements pre-populated.

Communications run from the same hub. Send acknowledgments, requests for revisions, approvals, and rejection notes from templated emails. Every panelist gets a portal where they can see the status of every panel they're on, update their bio, and confirm their availability.

Key Capabilities

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Public Submission Form

Embed on your website or share a direct link. Custom fields for title, description, panelists, room requirements, AV needs, content warnings, and runtime preferences.

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Multi-Stage Review

Triage queue, evaluation queue, accepted, declined. Move submissions between stages with status tracking. Multiple reviewers can score and comment on each.

Scoring and Voting

Configurable rubric — relevance, panelist credentials, content fit, freshness. Reviewers score and the system aggregates. Surface the best for final review.

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Reviewer Comments

Internal-only comment threads on every submission. Programming team debates, requests changes, and decides — all in one place. Full history preserved.

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Templated Communications

Acknowledgment, revision requests, acceptance, decline, and follow-up emails. Personalize with variables. Track delivery and open rates from the messaging hub.

One-Click to Schedule

Approved panels convert directly into schedule items with one click. Title, description, panelists, room, and AV requirements pre-populated. Adjust as needed.

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Panelist Portal

Submitters and panelists get a self-service portal. They see status, update their bio, confirm availability, and submit revisions without emailing the programming team.

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Cross-Year Archive

Every submission is archived and searchable. See what last year's submitters did this year, identify recurring proposers, and build a programming knowledge base.

How It Works

Step 1

Open the Call

Publish your submission form. Set deadlines, define what to collect, and announce. Submissions land in your dashboard queue.

Step 2

Review and Score

Programming team works through the queue. Score against your rubric, comment internally, request revisions, accept or decline. Status updates flow to submitters automatically.

Step 3

Build the Schedule

One-click conversion drops accepted panels onto the schedule. Panelist portals open. Confirmations and AV requests run automatically.

Open Programming Without Burning Out

See the full submission-to-schedule flow in a live demo. Bring last year's panel CFP and we'll set up the form so you can see real submissions land in the queue.

Schedule a Demo