What is a symposium?
Plural: symposia or symposiums. The word comes from the Greek symposion, a shared banquet with conversation. Today it usually means an academic, scientific or medical meeting, often in research, healthcare and industry.
A symposium is a professional event on one narrowly defined topic, where invited experts give short talks and discuss them with the audience.
A symposium typically has one theme, a handful of selected speakers, plenty of time for discussion and an audience that is invited rather than recruited. Most run for half a day to a full day. A symposium can stand on its own or sit inside a larger congress, for example as a satellite symposium.
Symposium vs. conference, seminar and congress
These terms are not standardized and are often used loosely. In common usage they differ mainly in size, breadth of topic and how much of the time goes to discussion.
| Format | Topic | Size and length | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Symposium | one narrow topic | dozens to a few hundred, half a day to a day | a few expert talks, lots of discussion, invited audience |
| Conference | a topic or an industry | dozens to thousands, one to three days | talks, panels, networking; common in business |
| Seminar | one subject, taught | small group, a few hours to a day | one or two instructors, focus on learning rather than debate |
| Congress | a whole field | hundreds to thousands, several days | many parallel sessions, exhibition, often run by a professional association |
Types of symposia
- Scientific or academic symposium: at universities and institutes, often around a research focus or in honor of a person.
- Medical symposium: for clinicians and healthcare professionals, often with continuing education credit, which usually requires documented attendance.
- Satellite symposium: a symposium held alongside a large medical or scientific congress, often hosted by a pharmaceutical or medical device company. Industry codes and continuing-education rules apply to these events.
- Hybrid symposium: talks on site and streamed, with questions from both audiences.
How to organize a symposium
A symposium is small but demanding: the audience is invited, speakers need their own handling, and attendance often has to be documented, for example for continuing education credit or for compliance with healthcare professionals.
- Invite a defined group with personal registration links instead of an open sign-up page.
- Register with professional details such as institution, specialty and chosen sessions.
- Handle speakers as their own group with travel, hotel and AV needs.
- Track attendance per talk or session by badge scan, as proof and for reporting.
- Send a survey afterwards on content and speakers.
Symposia in AirLST
AirLST keeps attendees, speakers and guests on one list, from the personal invitation and registration with sessions to attendance per session.
- Personal invitation with registration link
- Registration with custom fields and sessions
- QR check-in with attendance per session
- Survey and reporting after the symposium