Help & Support
Everything you need to know about using submitcfp.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I submit a talk?
Go to 'Discover CFPs' from the sidebar, find an open CFP, and click 'Submit Your Talk'. You'll be guided through the submission form.
Can I edit my submission after submitting?
Yes, as long as the CFP window is still open. Once the CFP closes, your submission is locked for review.
How do I withdraw a submission?
Open the submission detail and click 'Withdraw'. You'll be asked to confirm with an optional reason. Note: once the event date has passed, withdraws are locked — the talk either ran or it didn't, no after-the-fact retraction.
How do I contact an event organizer?
From your submission detail, click 'Contact Organizer' to send a direct message via the platform inbox.
How do I create an event as an organizer?
Switch to Organizer mode using the sidebar role switcher, then click 'Create Event'. Configure your event details, CFP dates, tracks, and review settings.
How does the review process work?
After CFP closes, reviewers score submissions using criteria defined by the organizer (default: Relevance, Originality, Clarity, Speaker Quality — each 1 to 5). Organizers can customize these criteria with different names and weights. Use the 'Submissions' page to make final accept/reject decisions.
What is the Talk Library?
Your Talk Library stores all your previous submissions and standalone talks. You can quickly reuse them when submitting to new events.
How do I assign reviewers to specific tracks?
Go to the 'Review Pipeline' page from the Organizer sidebar. Under the Team tab, invite reviewers and set their tracks and review stages. Note: track assignment is metadata that organizers use to plan workload — reviewers see all submissions in their stage by default and use the track filter on the Submissions page to focus on their track. Use review stages (L1/L2) for hard isolation between groups.
When do speakers see accept/reject decisions?
Whichever happens first: (1) the organizer clicks 'Publish Results' on the event card in the Organizer Dashboard, OR (2) the event date passes. Until either of those, speakers see 'In Review' and don't know the verdict. Publishing results only changes visibility — to email speakers, use the separate 'Notify Speakers' button.
Who can change a talk's status (Accept, Reject, Waitlist)?
Only the event's Final Program Chair (also called the super-organizer) can flip a talk's status or publish results. Co-organizers, reviewers, and team members can leave scored reviews — but only the chair makes the final call. The chair defaults to the event creator and can be transferred to any team member via the Co-Organizers section in event settings.
How do co-speaker reminders work?
Open the Co-Speakers page from the Organizer sidebar. You'll see every pending co-speaker grouped by company and primary speaker. Nudge them individually (per-row Remind), pick a few with checkboxes (Remind selected), or nudge everyone (Remind all). Throttled to 1 reminder per 48 hours per co-speaker by default to prevent inbox spam — already-accepted co-speakers are auto-skipped.
Review Rounds Guide (L1 / L2 / L3)
Everything you need to know about multi-round review workflows.
1What are Review Rounds (L1, L2, L3)?
- Round 1 (L1): Initial screening — all submitted talks are visible to L1 reviewers. This is the broadest filter.
- Round 2 (L2): Deep review — L2 reviewers see submissions that are still active (not rejected). They also see L1 reviewers' scores and feedback.
- Round 3 (L3): Final selection — the last stage before accept/reject decisions.
You can have 1, 2, or 3+ rounds depending on your event's needs. Configure rounds in the Review Pipeline page.
2Can review windows overlap?
- Reviewers cannot submit reviews before their round's start date
- Reviewers cannot submit reviews after their round's end date
Common configurations:
1. Sequential (recommended): L1 ends → L2 starts. Each round builds on the previous.
2. Overlapping: L1 and L2 run in parallel with different end dates. Use only when speed is critical.
Overlap consistency lock: once a later-stage reviewer (e.g. L2) submits a review, the original (e.g. L1) review is LOCKED. Editing it returns 409. This prevents the "L2 said L1 scored 3" narrative becoming inconsistent because L1 quietly changed their score later. Contact the organizer if a correction is genuinely needed.
Configure dates in the Review Pipeline page under each stage.
3Which talks are visible to L2 reviewers?
The platform automatically filters submissions for later-stage reviewers. L2 reviewers also see:
- L1 reviewer scores and public feedback (to build on prior evaluation)
- The submission's current average score
Important: Same-stage reviewers (e.g., two L1 reviewers) do NOT see each other's scores or feedback — this prevents bias.
Tip: Use the 'Publish Results' button only after ALL rounds are complete. This prevents speakers from seeing intermediate decisions.
4Can same-stage reviewers see each other's scores?
- Same-stage reviewers see: Submission details only + their own review form
- Later-stage reviewers see: Prior stage reviewers' scores and public comments
- Organizers see: All reviews from all rounds, including private notes
This ensures unbiased, independent evaluation at each stage.
5What happens after the review window closes?
1. Reviewers can no longer submit or edit reviews for that round
2. Organizers can still view all scores and make decisions
3. Go to Submissions (in the Organizer sidebar) to:
- See all submissions ranked by average score
- Filter by track or status
- Batch accept/reject using score thresholds
4. Use Auto-Promote between pipeline stages to advance qualifying submissions
Important: Speakers only see their result when you click 'Publish Results' on the dashboard. The separate 'Notify Speakers' button sends emails — you can time these independently.
6How does scoring work?
- A name and description (shown to reviewers)
- A weight (1x to 5x) — higher weight = more impact on total score
If no custom criteria are set, the platform defaults to 4 categories: Relevance, Originality, Clarity, Speaker Quality.
Each criterion is scored 1 to 5. The weighted average becomes the total score. On the Submissions page, scores are color-coded:
- Green (≥ 4.0): Excellent — strong accept candidate
- Amber (3.0 - 3.9): Good — borderline, needs discussion
- Orange (2.0 - 2.9): Fair — likely reject
- Red (< 2.0): Low — reject candidate
7Which stage-date configurations does the platform allow or block?
🚫 Blocked (the API returns 400 and your DB stays unchanged):
1. L2 starts before L1. Stages must start in entry order. If L1 begins on the 10th, L2 cannot begin on the 5th.
2. A stage's end_date is before its start_date. A round can't end before it begins.
✅ Allowed (intentional organizer flexibility — these are NOT bugs):
3. Mid-flight extension. While L2 is open, you can push L2.end_date out further. Useful when reviewers need more time.
4. Mid-flight shrink. You can also pull L1.end_date in (e.g. close a stage early). Reviewers immediately stop being able to submit for that stage.
5. Publish results before stages end. The "Publish Results" toggle is intentional override — sometimes organizers publish accept lists before all reviews finalize.
6. Empty / unset stage dates. Drafts where you haven't picked dates yet pass validation. The stage simply isn't reachable until dates are set.
7. Single stage, or zero stages. Both work fine. Use a single stage for simple events; skip stages entirely for flat review.
Same-day starts and overlapping windows are also allowed — see "Can review windows overlap?" above. The overlap consistency lock prevents the only real risk (L1 silently editing after L2 reviewed).
If you ever try one of the blocked configurations, the platform returns a clear error message naming the offending stage and the conflicting date — no silent corruption.
Roles & Decisions Guide
Who can decide what — chair, co-organizers, reviewers, speakers.
Superadmin vs Super-Organizer — what's the difference?
Superadmin (= Platform Admin)
- Scope: the entire SubmitCFP platform — every event, every user, every organization.
- Who: SubmitCFP staff (support, ops, founders). NOT regular customers.
- Purpose: break-glass / support / debugging. Helps you when something goes wrong on YOUR event.
- How identified: `users.is_superadmin = True` OR email is on the platform whitelist.
- NOT attached to any specific event.
Super-Organizer (= Final Program Chair)
- Scope: a single event — the one they were assigned to.
- Who: a member of YOUR event's team. By default the event creator; transferable to any co-organizer.
- Purpose: final decision-maker on submissions — flips status, publishes results, transfers the chair role.
- How identified: `events.super_organizer_id == user.id` (with creator fallback for legacy events).
- Different events have different chairs. Being chair of Event A gives you ZERO power on Event B.
How they interact: a Superadmin is automatically treated as the chair on every event (the escape hatch — required so platform staff can help in support situations). The reverse is NOT true. Being a Super-Organizer on your conference does NOT make you a Superadmin.
Quick test: if the action affects only one event (status flip, publish results) → it's a chair concern. If the action affects the platform / multiple events / support → it's a superadmin concern.
Who can change a talk's status?
This single-decider model was added (Feb 2026) after live-event organizers reported the "five organizers each clicking a different button, last click wins" problem on events without a dedicated review team. The chair is the impartial final caller — co-organizers, reviewers, and team members can leave scored reviews and recommendations, but only the chair commits the decision.
Who is the chair on my event?
- By default, whoever created the event is the chair.
- The current chair can transfer the role to any team member via the Final Program Chair section in the event's Co-Organizers tab.
- The chair role moves immediately — the old chair instantly loses status-flip + publish power.
What happens if I'm a co-organizer and I click Accept?
You'll get a clear 403 message: *"Only the event's super-organizer (program chair) can change a talk's status. Leave a review instead, or ask the chair to make the final call."* Your scored review still saves — just not the final status.
Can co-organizers review talks?
Visibility cheat sheet:
- L1 reviewers → only see their own review.
- L2 reviewers → see L1 reviews (private notes stripped) + their own.
- Co-organizers → see ALL reviews from ALL stages, including private notes.
- Final Program Chair → exactly the same read access as co-organizers; the difference is decision power.
- Superadmin → full access everywhere (platform escape hatch).
What is the Decision History panel?
- Who changed the status (actor name + email)
- From and to statuses
- Optional rationale note the chair attached
- Exact timestamp
It appears in the talk detail panel on `/events/[id]/review` once at least one decision has been logged. New events start clean (empty array). Legacy talks created before Feb 2026 don't get back-filled — the first new status change after the release starts their history.
Who sees it?
- Organizer team + reviewers + chair + superadmin → see the full unredacted history.
- The speaker of the talk → sees a privacy-preserving summary only (e.g. "reviewed by 5 people, 3 decisions"). They never see actor names or notes.
- Anyone else → 403.
Use it for: catching accidental overrides ("Bob flipped this to rejected — was that intentional?"), explaining decisions in retrospectives, and onboarding new team members who want to understand past calls.
How does transferring the Program Chair role work?
- The current chair card (avatar, name, email, "Chair" badge).
- A Transfer chair role to… dropdown listing every other team member.
- A Transfer button.
Rules:
- Only the current chair can transfer. Co-organizers can't grab the role.
- Target must already be on the team. Invite them as a co-organizer first if needed.
- The transfer is immediate — you'll lose status-flip + publish power the moment you confirm.
- The chair role is never automatically downgraded — even if the chair leaves the team manually, the field doesn't auto-clear. (Always transfer before leaving an event.)
How do co-speaker reminders work?
Three ways to nudge:
1. Per-row Remind button — appears on hover, targets a single co-speaker.
2. Remind selected — check the boxes on the rows you want, then click the bulk CTA.
3. Remind all — fires reminders to every pending co-speaker on the current filter.
Throttle: each co-speaker can only be reminded once per 48 hours by default. The throttle window is configurable per event (`events.cospeaker_reminder_throttle_hours`). Already-accepted co-speakers are automatically skipped. The response toast tells you exactly how many emails were sent vs. throttled.
Who can send reminders? Any team member — OR the talk's primary speaker (the person who invited the co-speakers in the first place). Not chair-only because reminders are administrative, not a final decision.
Contact SubmitCFP Support
Send us a message directly. We'll respond within 24 hours.