Attach handouts to a session

Steps

1. Open Program, go to Agenda, and open the session.
2. Find Handouts and upload a file.

   

3. Delete any handout you no longer want.

What to upload

• Slide decks, after the session rather than before.
• Worksheets for a workshop, before it, so people arrive prepared.
• Reference material — a report, a specification, a reading list.

PDF is the right format for almost everything. It opens on every device, keeps its layout, and cannot be accidentally edited. Convert slide decks to PDF rather than uploading the original file.

Keep files small

People download these on venue wifi, on a phone, in a room with three hundred others. A 90 MB deck will not open.

Export slides as a compressed PDF. If a file is genuinely large, link to it from the session description instead of uploading it.

Getting them from speakers

The practical difficulty is not uploading, it is collecting.

• Ask for slides as a deadline before the event, not "afterwards".
• Say what you will do with them — speakers are more willing when they know the deck is going to attendees, not being published forever.
• Some speakers will never send them. Do not hold the whole agenda for one.

What happens next

Handouts appear with the session on your public agenda. Anyone who can see the agenda can download them — there is no per-attendee restriction.

Common problems

The upload fails. The file is too large. Compress it.

Attendees cannot find them. They are on the session in the agenda. Tell people where to look — a line in your closing email works.

A speaker asked you to remove their deck. Delete the handout. Do it promptly; it is their material.

You want handouts available only to attendees. Not supported — they are public with the agenda.

The file downloads with a strange name. It keeps the name you uploaded. Rename files sensibly before uploading.