Automating Conference Schedule Notifications

Case Study

Client: Non-Profit Organization Supporting Tech Education

The non-profit organization **Techsgiving **needed a scalable and automated solution to manage its event schedule for an annual conference. The challenge was to extract session details from the event’s HTML-based schedule, structure the data for use in Google Sheets, and automate reminders via calendar invites and SMS notifications.

Objective:

• Extract and parse session details from the conference schedule webpage.
• Organize the data into a structured Google Sheet for easy management.
• Automatically create calendar events and send SMS/email reminders to attendees who opt in.

Impact:

1. Streamlined Data Management: Eliminated manual processing of session schedules.
2. Improved User Engagement: Automated reminders ensured attendees were informed and engaged.
3. Enhanced Accessibility: Enabled users to integrate schedules seamlessly into personal calendars.

---

Solution Overview

Workflow:

1. HTML Parsing: Extract session details from the event webpage.
2. Data Structuring: Organize parsed data into Google Sheets.
3. Automation:
   • Create Google Calendar events for sessions attendees plan to attend.
   • Send SMS/email reminders for confirmed sessions.

---

Implementation Details

1. HTML Parsing and Data Extraction

The schedule HTML was parsed using regular expressions to extract key session attributes such as:

• Date
• Start and End Time
• Session Title
• Track
• Speakers
• Description
• Location

Technical Features

1. Regular Expressions: Used for precise data extraction from HTML.
2. Google Apps Script:
   • Managed data in Google Sheets.
   • Automated Google Calendar and SMS functionality.
3. Scalability: Capable of handling schedule updates and additional notifications seamlessly.

---

Results

• Reduction in Manual Effort: Session details and reminders were handled automatically, saving hours of manual work.
• Higher Attendance: Timely reminders led to an increase in attendee participation.
• Reusability: The solution can be adapted for future events or other non-profits.

---

Future Enhancements

1. Error Handling: Improve resilience to malformed HTML or missing fields.
2. Customization: Allow users to select specific sessions of interest.
3. Integration: Extend functionality to integrate with additional communication channels like Slack or WhatsApp.

---

This case study demonstrates how technical automation can empower non-profits to focus on their mission by reducing operational overhead while enhancing user experience.