Scheduling Convention Sessions
The convention office often receives questions about the scheduling of sessions (e.g., Why is my session scheduled at 8:30 in the morning? Why is my session scheduled on the last day?).
There are many factors involved in scheduling convention panels.
The process of putting together the convention program, with more than 3,000 participants in about 800 sessions, is an intricate one. Among the factors we consider are room size, audiovisual requests, ADA-related needs, religious observance requests, and health needs. Plenaries require special scheduling consideration, and governance-related sessions have predetermined dates and times. Sessions sponsored (or cosponsored) by the same organization cannot take place at the same time. Participants cannot be scheduled against themselves. Sessions selected for the presidential theme are scheduled throughout the convention. Whenever possible, we try to avoid subject conflicts. These factors limit the available options for all sessions.
Can’t you change the date and time of my session?
The schedule for the production of the convention program is very tight. Each step of the process has a timetable, from editing individual program copy forms to formatting the final printed program. The factors noted above make it difficult to rearrange sessions after the convention schedule has been finalized.
The details above explain some of the constraints involved in scheduling convention sessions. Please note that there is a space on program copy forms to indicate scheduling requests. While the factors noted above may prohibit the scheduling of your session exactly as you request, we do consider all requests that are submitted with a rationale by the 1 April deadline.