Conference planning template
Conference planning timeline template
Event prep has a brutal property: almost everything depends on the venue and the speaker list, and both take longer to lock than anyone plans for. This template puts the dependent dates in view so you can see what a two-week venue delay does to ticket sales.
Use this template
Opens in the editor. Free, no signup.
The milestones
Roughly 36 weeks end to end. Weeks are relative to the first milestone — set your own dates once it's open in the editor.
| When | Milestone | Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Week 0 | Venue locked | Logistics |
| Week 5 | CFP open | Content |
| Week 15 | Speakers confirmed | Content |
| Week 16 | Tickets on sale | Marketing |
| Week 32 | Run of show locked | Logistics |
| Week 36 | Conference week | Event |
What to put on it
- Venue contract signed — the date everything else hangs off.
- CFP open and CFP close, if you're taking submissions.
- Speakers confirmed, which gates the marketing push.
- Tickets on sale, plus an early-bird cutoff if you have one.
- Run of show locked, usually three to four weeks out.
- Event days themselves, so the countdown means something.
Questions
- When should I start planning a conference?
- Six to nine months out for a few hundred attendees, twelve or more if you need a large venue or want speakers who book their year early. The venue is nearly always the long pole.
- What's the difference between a run of show and a timeline?
- A timeline covers months of preparation at milestone resolution. A run of show covers the event days themselves, minute by minute. Use this for the first and a separate document for the second.
- Can I share this with sponsors and speakers?
- Yes — publishing produces a public link, and anyone who opens it can hit Remix to spin up their own copy without touching yours. Published timelines are immutable, so the version you sent stays the version they see.
Make it yours in about a minute.
The template opens as a draft in your browser. Edit the dates, publish when it's right, and share the link — it unfurls as a preview of the actual timeline in Slack, Teams, Discord, and iMessage.
Use this template