How PROTEO turns a rotating symposium into repeatable event workflows
Published on 19 Jun 2026
Each year, PROTEO brings hundreds of participants and more than 100 submissions to its annual symposium, an event that changes host university every edition. Since 2013, one of Fourwaves' earliest and longest-running users has relied on the platform to centralize registration, submissions, communications, and the event website, and to provide continuity from one year to the next.
Annual academic symposium, in-person, with rotating host universities
Quebec research network and university consortium
Centralize event management, streamline registrations and submissions, manage communications, build a complete event website, and provide continuity across annual symposium editions.
The PROTEO symposium’s event website, rebuilt and reused on Fourwaves for each annual edition since 2013.
About PROTEO
PROTEO is the Quebec research network on protein function, structure, and engineering.
The network brings together researchers, students, and professionals working across a wide range of protein-related fields. Its annual symposium is one of its key events, giving members an opportunity to better understand the diversity of expertise within the network, share their research interests, and build new collaborations.
Each edition gathers hundreds of participants and more than 100 submissions, making it both a scientific meeting point and a significant event to coordinate.
In 2024, the symposium was held at UQAM, where Marylou Meyer, PROTEO’s Coordinator, also works.
PROTEO's symposium is more than an annual meeting. It is where our members get to see the breadth of expertise across the network and identify opportunities to collaborate.
Coordinator, PROTEO research network
The challenge: managing a recurring symposium that changes host university every year
PROTEO’s annual symposium is not handled in exactly the same context every year.
Because the event changes location and host university from one edition to the next, the organizing team needs a system that supports continuity while allowing each edition to adapt to its host institution, logistics, and event requirements.
Without a centralized platform, this type of recurring academic event can quickly become difficult to manage. Registration, abstract submissions, attendee information, communications, and the event website all need to stay organized, accessible, and easy to update.
For an event that brings together hundreds of participants and over 100 abstract submissions, relying on disconnected tools or manual processes would add unnecessary complexity.
PROTEO needed a platform that could sustain the event’s structure year after year while giving each organizing team the flexibility to manage the details of its own edition.
Fourwaves: a long-term solution for academic symposium management
PROTEO has been using Fourwaves since 2013, making it one of the platform’s earliest and longest-running users.
For the network, Fourwaves has become part of the symposium’s operational structure. The platform gives the organizing team one place to manage the core components of the event, from the website to abstract submissions and registrations.
That continuity is critical for event organizers. When a symposium changes host university every year, having a familiar event management platform reduces friction. The organizing team does not have to rebuild the process from scratch each time or rely on a patchwork of tools that changes from one edition to the next.
Fourwaves provides a stable foundation that can follow the event across locations, host institutions, and organizing teams.
Fourwaves as the foundation of PROTEO’s symposium
For PROTEO, Fourwaves centralizes several parts of the annual symposium workflow.
The platform allows the team to build and manage a complete event website, making it easier to present key information to participants, speakers, and submitters. It also takes care of registration, abstract submissions, and communications, giving organizers a clearer view of the event as it takes shape.
This is especially important for a research network event, where participant experience and scientific content both need to be managed carefully. Attendees need clear information. Submitters need a simple way to send in their work. Organizers need to track registrations, submissions, and updates without losing time in scattered systems.
With Fourwaves, these tasks can be administered in one platform built specifically for academic and scientific events.
What works well for us is that Fourwaves understands academic events. It is not just a registration tool. It is instrumental in the way a symposium actually needs to be organized.
Coordinator, PROTEO research network
Fourwaves handles hundreds of participants and more than 100 submissions
Each PROTEO symposium brings together hundreds of participants and a multitude of abstract submissions.
At that scale, small administrative gaps can become larger coordination issues. Organizers need to know who is registered, what has been submitted, what information has been shared, and what still needs attention.
Fourwaves facilitates structured submission management. The solution gives the team the tools to collect submissions, organize participant information, and communicate with attendees without having to manually connect multiple systems.
For the organizing team, that structure makes the event easier to manage before, during, and after the symposium.
Continuity from one edition to the next
One of the defining features of the PROTEO symposium is that it rotates between universities.
The 2026 edition, the network’s 25th symposium, illustrates that rotation: it runs May 20 to 22, 2026, at Université Laval in Quebec City, co-presented with the Gairdner Foundation under the theme “Protein Innovations in Biomedical Sciences.”
The 2026 edition, the network’s 25th symposium, is co-presented with the Gairdner Foundation at Université Laval in Quebec City.
That rotation is valuable for the network because it reflects the diversity of its members and host institutions. But it also creates an event management challenge. Each edition may involve different local teams, venues, timelines, and logistical considerations.
Fourwaves maintains continuity across those changes.
Because the platform has been used by PROTEO for more than a decade, it provides a familiar framework that can be reused and adapted from one year to the next. This gives organizers a starting point instead of forcing every new host team to build the event process from the ground up.
For a long-running academic symposium, this protects institutional knowledge and makes the event easier to hand off.
Because the symposium changes host university every year, we need tools that help us keep the structure consistent while still allowing each edition to have its own identity.
Coordinator, PROTEO research network
Academic events depend on more than strong programming. They also need a clear process that assists organizers, participants, and the scientific community around them.
PROTEO is a compelling example of how the right event management solution for academia can oversee both the logistics and the long-term progression of an academic community.
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