On the page behind this guide, you can start creating your conference set-up. Note that everything you do can be changed afterwards. So in doubt you can still create the conference and investigate later with your colleagues what the best set-up is for you.
Starting the process by filling up this form is totally free and no payment will be requested if you do not organize your conference with us after all. You can then test our platform at will and decide at the very end whether you want to use our services.
You can even create a dummy conference for free to test all our services and understand why we are so special!
After completing this form you will be given access to an administration panel to manage your participants and handle the conference settings in more detail (e.g. create your conference website, include posters, ...).
Note that after creating your conference you will have access to similar guides describing each page of the administration panel: we want you to be able to understand each step of the process and be as transparent as possible.
Important: The fields that are compulsory are indicated with 'This field is required' directly in the form. Note that after completing the form, you must push the green button Create the conference at the bottom of the form.
Title: This is the title of your conference (or session if you are creating several parallel sessions, see later).
Abstract: This is what your conference will be about (it will be displayed on our website).
Public or Private: Private conferences can only be accessed by participants that have registered to the conference and have been validated by organizers. Public conferences can be accessed by everyone with the right link (a long complicated link is provided to organizers and they are free to share it to participants of interest or to display it publicly). Note that zoom-bombing is impossible in private conferences and is difficult in public conferences because participants still have to register to the CarbonFreeConf platform and bombers could be found and prosecuted easily.
Start and End dates: Say when your conference starts and when it ends (even if there are gaps or days off in between). For parallel sessions, say when the session starts and finishes, just make sure it is well within the date range indicated for the main (called master) conference (see later).
Conference Size: Indicate how many people you expect. This is used to prepare your virtual room, which will be capped at the value indicated. Note that if you have more or less participants than anticipated, you can always change this number later.
Fees: You have two options: either 1) you pay the conference fees by yourself or 2) you choose the mode where every participants pay 20 euros per person (i.e. it is easier for your institute and need no initial funding on your side). 1) With option 1, you can still decide that your participants must pay a fee to access your conference, then check the fee box. Once the box is checked you will have to enter the amount participants must pay (in euros, pounds or US dollars). Note that participants will be able to choose the currency they want to pay this amount. We will handle the payment and then redistribute it to you. There is also the option that you use the profit to offset more carbon emissions and if you do, check the right box (and thank you for being altruistic). The last possibility is that you let people decide how much they give. In this case check the box that says participants can give what they want. If you choose the simpler option 2), you have nothing to pay to organize and every participant pay 20 euros, which contributes in paying for the offset of carbon emissions for the conference (it is a set amount even if you create a long multi-session conference).
Proceedings: Check the box if you want us to handle the proceedings of your participants. In this case, the participants will have to come on the platform to write their proceedings and we will publish them on our platform.
Subject: The subject indicates the main area the conference is dealing with (e.g. Astrophysics, Biology, Earth sciences, Literature, History, ...).
Parallel sessions: If you want to run several parallel sessions, then check this box. In this case, you will first have to create the main conference (called master conference later), which is where the plenary sessions will happen. Then you will come back on this page to create the parallel sessions (called daughter conferences). When creating your master conference, you will be given an ID number that must be provided to create the daughter conferences. Once the daughter conference is created, it must be validated in the admin panel of the master conference for security reasons.
Can I create a dummy conference to test the platform?: Yes, you can do so and then check all our services and how it all works before the big day. Feel free to do so as we understand that you need to know how useful the platform is going to be for your own use.
Filling up this form will create a conference website?: No, this is done later when you are ready and want to show your participants what your conference is about and give them a place to go register.
Should I choose the simple 20€ per participant option or the option where I handle fees myself?: This is your own decision but it is indeed much more simple to use the 20 euros fees because it is fixed whatever conference your organize (i.e. even if it is a 5 day conference with 20 parallel sessions and 1000 participants). The other case is more complex because you will have to wait until you know the final number of participants to pay us the right amount to offset the right amount of carbon emissions and to use our services.