Import schedule from Excel

This tutorial will show you how to import your presentation schedule into Preseria using Excel so that you can easily send invitations to your event's presenters and have them upload their presentation files for the event.

Download Excel template¶

The Excel template is pre-filled with example data to show the correct formatting for each of the required and optional columns. There are two versions of the template; One using h:mm AM/PM - 12-hour clock and dates in month/day/year (US format), and one with hh:mm - 24-hour clock and dates in day/month/year (EU format). Choose one of the templates and don't mix EU and US date & time formats.

- Download Excel Import Template

Excel template columns explained¶

1. Session Title* - The title of the session (max 255 characters).
2. Session Location* - The location / room of the session (max 100 characters).
3. Session Date* - The date of the session (mm/dd/yyyy for US format or dd/mm/yyyy for EU format).
4. Session Start* - The start time of the session. (h:mm AM/PM or hh:mm).
5. Session End* - The end time of the session. (h:mm AM/PM or hh:mm).
6. Presentation Start - The start time of the presentation. (h:mm AM/PM or hh:mm).
7. Presentation End - The end time of the presentation. (h:mm AM/PM or hh:mm).
8. Presentation Duration - The duration of the presentation in minutes (0 - 999 min).
9. Presenter Email* - The email address of the presenter OR the keyword BREAK. Case insensitive (max 80 characters).
10. Presenter First Name - The first (and middle) name of the presenter (max 50 characters).
11. Presenter Last Name - The last name of the presenter (max 50 characters).
12. Presentation Title - The title of the presentation (max 255 characters).

* Required.

How the rows & columns are structured¶

• The first five columns defines the sessions of the conference (title, location, start/end-times)
• The following seven columns are the presentation info (start time, email, name, title of presentation) belonging to each session.
• You may only import sessions by not inserting any presentation rows between the session rows.
• The row-order of presentations matters and will become their order in the session.
• You can either input start & end times for the presentations (which must be back-to-back / contain no gaps, and correspond with the session start time) OR you can simply add their duration in minutes, letting Preseria calculate the start & end times for each presentation. You can't mix using start/end times and duration in the same session.
• Not all fields are required. Those that are, are marked in red.
• The expected format and character length limitations are shown in the header.
• A session must have the same start and end date. Only the time part differs.
• If you choose to use the Presentation Start & End columns instead of the Presentation Duration, keep in mind that the date part of each presentation must be identical to it's parent session and the times must be back-to-back.
• Add breaks by writing BREAK in the Presenter Email column.

How to upload your finished Excel file¶

Before you can import your data you need to have created the conference that the sessions & presentations belong to:

1. Go to Conferences
2. Click New Conference
3. Fill in the details and open the Conference
4. Click Import Schedule and upload your Excel file.

Please wait while the import is being processed. If you've got any formatting errors in your Excel file, you'll get an error specifying which rows needs to be fixed. When the sessions (and their presentations) are successfully imported, the page will refresh and you'll see all your sessions.

If your import file contained wrong info (wrong emails, titles, etc.) you can fix the individual sessions and presentations manually or you can fix the Excel file and import again. If you want to restart the import you need to delete the conference first.

To delete a conference:

1. Click Conferences in the top menu bar to list all your Conferences.
2. Click the three dots to the right of your conference to bring up the menu.
3. Click Delete and confirm.

Now you need to create the conference again (enter title, location, etc.) before you re-initiate an import.

How to add new sessions and presentations to a non-empty conference¶

You can perform the import in multiple stages if you want to start inviting presenters to upload before you know the details (presenters, titles, etc.) of all the presentations of the conference.

To add new presentations and sessions to a conference that already has sessions and presentations, just follow the same procedure as for a normal import.

IMPORTANT: The Excel import will treat all rows as new data, meaning you can only add new sessions and presentations to your conference, not update already imported sessions/presentations. If you want to append new presentations, remember to remove the already imported rows from the Excel file to avoid getting duplicate data in your conference.