If you’re planning on hosting a conference, a modern and up-to-date website is essential. Ideally, websites go live eight months before the launch date of the conference. This gives people time to learn about the conference and assess their diaries accordingly and also to give them the option to register their interest and book a place(s). Your conference website is the first point of contact for many of your members, guest speakers and potential future delegates.

You want this to tell people who you are, what you do and why they should attend. It needs to have a clear, concise message to everyone who visits it. For many people the creation of a website for their conference is the first step in the planning process. Here at Ireland Website Design, we know what you need. Conference websites are our specialty, our niche that we excel in and an area we are truly passionate about.

What does a great conference website contain?

Firstly, you will need the basic five pieces of information that all delegates and persons interested in your conference are looking for together in an easily accessible place. The five key points they will want are:

• Who are the keynote speakers?
• What are the submission criteria?
• Where is it being held?
• When is the conference?
• Why should a delegate attend?

Once you have the basic information guests are looking for, you can then start to consider the functionality aspects of your conference website. Always keep in mind that your conference website should ultimately lower your workload (particularly the admin side) substantially. It should also save you hundreds, if not thousands, of Euro on printing fees, phone calls, newsletter and print campaigns etc. Here is a quick list of website functions some of our conference-hosting clients have found essential to their online success:

Collection of abstracts and papers online, in one easy-to-access place: Forget trawling through hundreds of emails, our conference websites have everything you need in one functional and stylish place.

Online payment: We have specialist software that takes the hassle out of collecting payment from delegates. Quick, easy and simple for users to fill out, it is also perfectly secure, automatically putting payments into the bank account of your choosing.

Accurate live timetables: Simple to use and great for keeping delegates up-to-date with any changes or new additions to your conference. This adds a gravitas to proceedings as any changes to the timetable can be quickly implemented.

Author acceptance and publication: Any good conference website allows you to view all submissions, accept the ones you want and notify relevant authors immediately.

Author databases: With our modern conference websites, say goodbye to mundane design and hello to professional, interactive elements. Each author can have their own biography page; featuring any relevant presentations and files in a user-friendly system.

Peer review: An absolute must for any conference organiser, it is essential to enable reviewers to mark and review submissions online. We can even cut down the amount of time each review takes, providing an online marking scheme that enables reviewers to grade submissions in under 10 minutes.

Now that you know what the most basic elements of any good conference website is, why should you choose Ireland Website Design to build it for you? Not only are our team of talented team of designers, software developers, content writers and SEO specialists as passionate about your website as you are; but our design expertise and state-of-the-art software and capabilities power your project from start to finish. Through every step of design, implementation and initial use, our team is dedicated to creating your perfect website and ensuring it works smoothly. With years of experience covering many different conference websites, we know what it takes to make your project a success.

If you’d like to avail of our expertise or simply want more information on what we can do for you and your conference website, get in touch today.

Here is what Michelle from IAM had to say about working with us:

“Ireland Website Design did a great job designing the Irish Academy of Management website. We chose them because of the time they took to listen to us and we felt that they made a lot of effort to understand our needs. Their proposal to us was clear and detailed and they have stuck to their proposal with no hidden costs. They presented us with multiple ideas and options for the website image and design which were elegant and user friendly. They’ve introduced all the functionalities we need, the website is mobile responsive and they even designed logos and stationery templates to complement the new website design which is great. The team at Ireland Website Design have been easy to work with. They’re easily accessible on phone and email and any suggestion or request we had was no problem. They gave our team face to face training on updating the website, provided online tutorials as back up for the non-techies amongst us and, since the website has been operational, have checked back with us to make sure everything was ok. The team were reliable, attentive, creative and professional. The website was completed to our deadline and we are very happy with the result.”