Sched.org makes it easier to take advantage of NamesCon’s great keynotes and panel discussions.
NamesCon starts on Sunday in Las Vegas. It’s going to be big (800+ people) and packed with content (125 speakers and panelists). With a number of concurrent sessions, planning is required to make sure you don’t miss out on the sessions that most interest you.
This year, NamesCon used Sched.org to create the schedule. Attendees have received an emailed invitation to use Sched.org to view and create their own schedules as well.
I was initially skeptical about using the service, since it’s one more system you have to log in to and figure out how to use. However, I found it very simple to create a schedule and export it to my Google Calendar. Here’s the simple way I used Sched.org to figure out which sessions I wanted to attend and add them to my calendar.
1. Click the link in the email you received and set a password.
2. Go to the “Schedule” drop down and pick a view. I found “simple” to be the best to quickly see available sessions at each time.
3. Scroll down to view the sessions available at each time. Click the radio button next to the sessions you want to attend.
4. Click the mobile phone icon.
5. You’ll see a number of options for connecting Sched.org to your calendar.
You want to select the options for “your schedule”, not “all”. The simplest way to transfer to your calendar is to click the appropriate Subscribe link. If you’d prefer your calendar to not connect directly to Sched.org, you can export it instead.
Here are instructions for importing an .ics file into Google Calendar.
David Gruttadaurio says
Thanks Andrew… wish I had this a month ago! See you there.
Jothan says
Andrew thanks for taking the time to type this up – the sched.org site has a lot of helpful notes as well but this was right on the money.
I encourage people to use the online version of the site rather than downloading the ICS file because we are getting amazing last minute additions to the speaking lineup.
Last year a lot of folks missed Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg because he was a flash keynote over a lunch (we literally found out that morning that he was coming through Michele Neylon of Blacknight on Foursquare)
-Jothan
Co-Founder of NamesCon and sched.org editor for the event.
Taylor McKnight says
Awesome write-up Andrew! I’m so glad that you found the iCal feeds useful.
You’ll also receive an email each morning of the event with your personal schedule and one-click ways to view it on mobile/web/print. We’ve tried to make it super simple for everybody to take their schedule in the format they want 🙂
If you have any feedback/ideas along the way, I’m passionate about improving our app. Email me any time.
– Taylor
Sched, Founder