How to update a conference agenda on the day

Once your Board is published, you can keep editing the agenda while the event is on. Schedule, Speakers and Details stay editable, changes save as you go, and they reach every open phone and the foyer screen within about 10 seconds. Nothing tells guests unless you choose to: after a change saves, choose Add to Changes, and a new time or room then shows as moved. Guests don't need an app or an account, nobody has to refresh, and it's free.

Which agenda changes to make quietly, and which to tell guests about

Some changes on the day just tidy things up. A typo in a session title, a speaker's job title, a bio that arrived late. Guests don't need to hear about those, so let them save quietly and the Board simply shows the corrected version.

Others change where someone needs to be. A new time, a new room or a cancelled session is worth telling guests about, because someone may already be on their way to the old one. For those, choose Add to Changes once the edit saves. It goes into Changes on the Board, and a new time or room shows as moved.

You can also post a change from Live. Choose Change a session, pick it and set its new time, place or status. Check Was and Now, add a line in Note for guests (optional) if it helps, then choose Post change. Guests see the old time crossed out, in the schedule and in Changes.

A Harbourside example

Say you're running Harbourside. On the morning, one panellist drops out of the 11:30 panel. You open the panel on Schedule, take them off it, and it saves. That's a quiet fix: the panel still starts at 11:30 in the same room, so there's nothing for guests to do.

After lunch, the 14:00 workshop has to move to the Garden Room. You change its room, and when it saves you choose Add to Changes. Guests see the workshop as moved, it's listed in Changes, and the foyer screen shows it too.

Cancelling a session and fixing clashes

To cancel a session, use Change a session and set its status, so guests are told. Removing a session from Schedule during the event can also cancel it and tell guests instead, which means nobody who'd planned on it is left looking for it.

If an edit makes two sessions clash, CueDuck warns you but doesn't stop you, so you can sort the agenda out in whatever order suits you.

When a whole room is running behind

If a talk overruns and everything after it in that room slips, you don't need to edit each session. Running late pushes a session and the ones after it back by 5 to 60 minutes in one go, for one room or every room. Running late has the steps.

News that isn't a schedule change

For news that doesn't touch the agenda, like lost property, choose Notice, write it and choose Post update. Turn on Urgent only when people have to act. It leads the Board until you choose Resolve or Correct.

Who can change the agenda on the day

Editing the agenda and moving sessions are for the organiser's team. Stewards can post normal notices from their own phone without an account, but they can't move sessions or post urgent updates.

Fixing the agenda after the event

Until the Board closes, 7 days after the end, you can still fix the schedule, speakers and details, say to correct a speaker's name before people look back at it. The dates stay as they ran. For next year, use Duplicate.

A printed programme can't change at all, so make sure it points guests to the Board. How to keep a printed programme up to date on the day covers that, and Posting on the day has the rest of editing during and after the event.

If you've got an event coming up, put your agenda into CueDuck for free at cueduck.com and see how it looks on a guest's phone.