Conference agenda template

There's a lot of work that goes into planning and hosting a conference. From keeping track of schedule details—like activity timelines and locations—to organizing event vendors, arranging a conference is no small feat. 

That's where a conference agenda template comes in. A reusable framework that captures important event information, a conference agenda template lets you easily plan and organize your upcoming conference. Plus, a digital conference agenda template keeps your vendors, speakers, and teammates on the same page about the timeline and event details—so you never have to worry about last-minute changes slipping through the cracks. 

Don’t just make your conference look effortless—make planning it feel effortless, too. 

What is a conference agenda?

A conference agenda is an in-depth rundown of a conference’s schedule. Conference agendas are designed to give attendees an overview of what to expect throughout the conference and help organizers keep the conference on track. Typically, these agendas include information about conference events, such as each activity's time, location, and presenter. 

What is a conference agenda template?

A conference agenda template provides a basic structure to help you build and organize your conference schedule. When you create a conference agenda template in a digital format, you can include custom fields and sections that help you capture important conference information, including:

• An overview of the conference and its purpose.

• The name and location of the conference venue.

• The date of the conference. 

• Conference event details, such as the start time, location, and assigned speakers for specific sessions.

• Information on recreational conference activities, such as meal times, break times, and networking opportunities.

Plus, since conference agendas are duplicatable, you can easily make a copy of the baseline template and to build out schedules for similar conference itineraries going forward. 

What are the benefits of using a conference agenda template?

Static conference agendas—like those created in Microsoft Word or Excel—are useful tools for keeping track of a conference schedule on the day of the event. But their fixed nature means they can’t account for changes in real-time, making them difficult to use for conference planning. A digital conference agenda template, on the other hand, lets you plan your conference and collaborate with team members in one place.

With a digital conference agenda template, you can: 

• View your conference agenda in one place, including the start times for each scheduled activity, the room name or location for each session, and the session’s speaker or presenter. 

• Assign speakers and event facilitators actionable tasks with due dates, so everyone has clarity and visibility into how their roles influence the conference itinerary. 

• Use dependencies to see what conference events depend on each other and get notified when the activity you’re waiting on is complete.

• Take advantage of different project views, including Board View and List View, so everyone can view and manage the itinerary in a way that works for them. 

• Create custom tags to label conference events with important information, such as the room setup, AV needs, the event location, and more. 

• Create a collaboration hub with integrations for all your favorite business apps, like Slack and Google Drive. Turn messages into actionable tasks and keep track of mission-critical documents. 

• Track and update your conference agenda on the go using the Asana mobile app. 

• Reuse your template to create upcoming conference agenda plans, cutting down on upfront work and ensuring every conference itinerary follows the same structure.

What types of conferences can you plan with Asana?

Conference agenda templates created in Asana are flexible enough to scale across multiple types of conferences, including: 

• Virtual conferences: Create a conference agenda structured for virtual conferences. Collaborate easily with dispersed teams during event planning, and take advantage of our integrated apps that streamline virtual communication, like Zoom. 

• One-day conferences: Easily organize your single-day conference by breaking your conference schedule into sections, like “morning keynote,” “breakout sections,” and “afternoon keynote.”

• Multi-day conferences: Simplify the schedule for multi-day conferences by assigning due dates to each conference activity and using List View or Calendar View to view each day’s schedule in detail. 

• Yearly conferences: Planning an annual conference can be a heavy lift—a once-a-year event typically involves numerous stakeholders, vendors, and cross-functional teams. Streamline the process by connecting everyone in one place.  

• Press conferences: Align your public relations team on the purpose and plan for press conferences with a template structured specifically for PR announcements. 

Integrated features and recommended apps for your conference agenda template

Use your digital conference agenda template as a collaboration hub for your team through apps and integrations. Specific features, like different views and custom tags, allow you to organize work and provide clarity for your team. 

Integrated features

1. List View. List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

2. Board View. Board View is a Kanban board-style view that displays your project’s information in columns. Columns are typically organized by work status (like To Do, Doing, and Done) but you can adjust column titles depending on your project needs. Within each column, tasks are displayed as cards, with a variety of associated information including task title, due date, and custom fields. Track work as it moves through stages and get at-a-glance insight into where your project stands.

3. Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization. 

4. Start dates. Sometimes you don’t just need to track when a to-do is due—you also need to know when you should start working on it. Start times and dates give your team members a clear sense of how long each task should take to complete. Use start dates to set, track, and manage work to align your team's objectives and prevent dependencies from falling through the cracks. 

Recommended apps

1. Slack. Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

2. Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

3. Dropbox. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.

4. Zoom. Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.

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