From Overwhelmed to Organized: Delivering a Global Event for 3000

Organizing a 3,000-attendee global conference is no easy feat.

Just ask Paula Montana, Operations Director for the Mental Health in Journalism Summit – an online event that brought together nearly 3,000 attendees, 170 speakers, and 70 sessions speaking many languages from across the world. 

What could easily have been an overwhelming logistical nightmare turned into a smoothly run success.

How They Did It:

• All-In-One Platform for Ease of Use: An intuitive interface kept things simple for organizers and attendees alike – no steep learning curves, just straightforward scheduling.
• Bulk Uploads: The ability to import all session and speaker info at once (in multiple languages) saved time and prevented errors.
• Categorization & Personal Schedules: Sessions labeled by topic and language, plus “My Schedule” tools, helped each attendee tailor their experience and find what they love.
• Time Zone Magic: Automatic conversion of session times for a global audience meant no one missed a session due to time zone confusion.
• Stellar Support: A responsive support team from Sched was ready to help, making organizers feel supported throughout the planning process.

In Paula’s own words, “Sched was an integral part of our event’s success. Its intuitive design and robust features made managing such a complex, large scale event easier than we ever thought was possible.”​

As Paula recalls, “Organizing something on this scale was a big challenge and having the right platform made all the difference.”​

For her team, that platform was Sched.

A Massive Summit Meets a Big Challenge

Paula’s summit had everything: a huge international audience, a packed agenda, and content in two languages. The sheer scale meant complexity at every turn. 

Sched provided a one-stop hub to manage it all. “Sched was exactly what we needed. It was a lifesaver,” Paula says.​

Right from the start, Sched’s impact was evident. “What stood out right away was Sched’s simplicity. The platform was easy to use, not only for us as administrators and organizers, but also for our attendees.” 

Sched turned a daunting planning process into something approachable for everyone involved.

Simplicity and Ease of Use for All

Despite the complex event schedule, Sched’s interface made it straightforward to build and share the agenda.

Paula’s team used Sched’s scheduling tool to present the program in a clean, intuitive format. “It let us display our program in a clear, visually appealing way that integrated perfectly into our website,” Paula notes.​

Attendees could effortlessly navigate the schedule on the summit site, thanks to Sched’s seamless website integration. This ease of use extended to participants: even with so many sessions, people could quickly find what they needed without confusion.

Sched transformed the summit agenda into a friendly, accessible experience for both organizers working behind the scenes and attendees tuning in from around the world.

Streamlined Setup with Bulk Uploads (Bilingual Made Easy)

Managing dozens of sessions and speakers by hand would have been impractical – especially in a bilingual event. 

Here, Sched’s bulk upload features were a big help. “Managing a bilingual event of this size could have been overwhelming, but Sched made it manageable with its bulk upload features,” Paula explains​.

Instead of entering 70 session details one by one, Paula’s team quickly uploaded all the information in bulk – from session titles and descriptions to speaker bios and profile pictures. Sched even allowed them to tag and categorize content by language and topic en masse. 

“We could quickly upload information about the sessions, the speakers, pictures, and even categorized everything by language and different tags,” Paula says, highlighting how this saved countless hours. The ability to bulk-import data meant that nothing was overlooked and the schedule remained consistent and error-free, despite being presented in two languages. 

What might have been a tedious administrative slog turned into an efficient, streamlined process, all thanks to Sched’s thoughtful design.

Organized Sessions and Personalized Schedules

With Sched, the massive list of sessions became neatly organized and filterable. Attendees didn’t have to scroll aimlessly or feel lost. Session categorization by type, language, and topic helped people zero in on what mattered to them. In Paula’s words, “For attendees, the session categories were a game changer.”​

The team labeled each session, keeping it simple for participants. “We labeled sessions by type, language, and subtopics, so that participants could easily find what was most interesting to them,” Paula explains.

Sched also empowered attendees to take charge of their own experience through personal scheduling. Using Sched’s platform, participants could build a personalized agenda with a few clicks. They bookmarked or “starred” sessions they wanted to attend and instantly saw their own custom itinerary. This feature was a hit with the crowd – as Paula shares, “They also love being able to create their own personal schedules right on the platform.”​

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by choices, each attendee had a tailored schedule in hand, making the summit experience engaging and stress-free. Attendees could filter sessions by category and build their personal schedule (“My Sched”), ensuring they never missed the talks they cared about.

No More Time Zone Headaches

Hosting a global event means juggling multiple time zones. Without the right tool, scheduling across continents can lead to confusion (and missed sessions). Sched solved this elegantly with automatic time zone support. “Sched time zone support was another huge help,” Paula notes gratefully​

People joined the summit from all over – from Los Angeles to London to Lagos – yet nobody had to manually convert times. Sched automatically displayed each session in the viewer’s local time. 

According to Paula, “With people joining from all over the world, the automatic time zones meant that everyone could follow the program in their local time without any confusion.” This feature eliminated one of the biggest pain points of virtual conferences. 

Attendees simply logged in and saw exactly when each talk was happening for them. No math, no mistakes – just stress-free scheduling for a worldwide audience.

Support That Made Planning Smoother

Throughout the planning journey, Paula’s team never felt alone. Sched’s customer support was like an extension of the summit team, ready to help at a moment’s notice. In fact, Paula is quick to praise the human side of the platform: “Lastly, I want to give a shout out to Sched’s customer support team,”​ she says. 

Whenever questions came up or a tweak was needed, the support staff responded with lightning speed. “They were always responsive and quick to answer any questions and solve any issues, which made the entire planning process so much smoother for us,” Paula recalls​. 

This kind of partnership gave the organizers peace of mind. Even as unexpected challenges arose (as they inevitably do with events), the team knew Sched had their back. The result was not just a well-run event, but a planning experience that felt collaborative and under control.

From Complexity to Success: An Event Transformed

By the end of the summit, it was clear that choosing Sched had been a great decision. What started as a highly complex, high-stakes project turned into an efficiently managed experience that attendees and organizers alike could enjoy. 

With Sched, the Mental Health in Journalism Summit not only handled the 3,000 attendees, 170 speakers, and 70 sessions with ease – it created a positive, engaging experience for everyone involved. 

A platform that brings order to chaos and supports you every step of the way? For Paula and her team, that made all the difference.