Expert Advice, Best Practices and Product Updates
Explore our articles for scholarly societies, PCOs, universities and research networks.
December 2025 Product Update: Automated Certificates, Improved Review Management, and More
Introduction We have shipped a series of updates focused on making conference organization simpler and more reliable. These improvements target peer review workflows, clearer communication to presenters and participants, and a smoother schedule and website experience. Below is a detailed look at wha
16 Dec 2025
How to manage abstract submissions with a zero-dollar budget
Back when I was a PhD Student, I had managed abstracts and peer-reviews for a conference called 3DSIG (a satelitte meeting of ISMB/ECCB) between 2012 and 2015. It wasn’t huge (around 100-130 abstracts), but the amount of work was enormous and we wanted to keep a high standard for quality. Like many
11 Dec 2025
November 2025 Product Update: Tracks Management and Improved User Table display
Complex, multi-track events can be a challenge to manage efficiently. To help you organize them more easily, we’re introducing Tracks Management. We also introduced small but useful updates to how committee members are displayed throughout Fourwaves, including for reviewers, paving the way to future
06 Nov 2025
October 2025 Product Update: Pass Transaction Fees, Accessibility Improvements, and Upcoming Mobile App
Introduction We’re excited to share our most recent updates designed to help you reduce costs, increase transparency, and make your events more inclusive and accessible. We’ve also completed a major technical upgrade that boosts performance and lays the foundation for the Fourwaves mobile app coming
01 Oct 2025
September 2025 product update: New website headers, assistant, tags and more
We recently introduced several new features to give you more control, flexibility, and efficiency when running your events. New Website Headers We are offering new options to customize the header section of your event website and impress your audience. Four layout options to create the
05 Sep 2025
Introducing Organizations on Fourwaves
This year we're introducing Organizations on Fourwaves. This blog post aims to explain what Organizations are, why we're introducing them and what you need to know. What are Organizations? You can see an Organization as a home for all your events. For example, if you plan events for a research socie
10 Apr 2024
Product Update: Redesigned User Dashboard, Peer-Review Updates and Email Communication Enhancements
Maybe you’ve seen it already in your account, but we’ve just released some major improvements in Fourwaves. Tailored for event organizers, participants and reviewers, these changes promise a more streamlined, modern and efficient event management experience. We’re really excited to announce all the
01 Nov 2023
Product Updates Spring 2023
Here are some product updates! Color-Coded Session Tracks You can now create color-coded tracks and tag your sessions. Participants will be able to easily find session that match their topics of interest. Color-Coded Session tracks in your event schedule. Private Messa
28 Apr 2023
2022 Schedule updates
Why we made those changes The schedule is often packed with information, including: A session description A list of presentations and speakers A presentation times Links to livestreams The name of the physical room and more. Many participants browse the schedule on their mobile phones. At hybrid a
14 Nov 2022
Online platform for virtual poster sessions: How it works
Many event platforms have developed new virtual tools in the wake of the pandemic. Most of these tools are essentially the same: they allow the broadcasting of speakers, a chat, asking questions, and conducting live polls. Not much has been developed to organize virtual poster sessions. Why? First,
02 Sep 2022
January 2022 product updates
Here's a summary of the biggest January 2022 product updates! Beautiful event websites Your event website is one of the key elements between you and your participants. A clean interface that is easy and pleasant to use makes a big difference. We decided to give some love to the look and feel as well
10 Jan 2022
Meet Fourwaves
How It All Started It all started in 2012 when 4 Ph.D. students in bioinformatics at the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada were organizing a large student conference. They needed an easy way to plan and manage the event, but no tool was available at the time, so they built a website from scratch to
22 Nov 2021
Announcement of the upcoming launch of Fourwaves Version 3.0
The evolution of the technology underlying Fourwaves has passed through different stages. Version 1.0 (Science on the spot) launched in 2012 and upgraded to version 2.0 in 2014. Version 3.0, which will be released in the spring of 2021, took a lot of effort and time. This is why there has been very
06 Feb 2021