SlidesUp

Overview

SlidesUp is a collaborative platform that helps conference organizers plan their events. It acts as a central hub for managing speakers, tracks, and schedules, providing an API that syncs the real-time agenda directly to custom event apps and digital signage.

Founder story

While helping organize major tech conferences, Kunal Bhatia grew frustrated by the chaotic mess of spreadsheets required to manage speakers and schedules. He noticed that every time the agenda changed, organizers scrambled to update the website, the mobile app, and the printed signs. He built SlidesUp to act as a single, real-time database that automatically syncs the agenda everywhere at once.

What it does

• Organizes conference agendas into days and tracks
• Manages speaker profiles and session details
• Assigns events to specific rooms and times
• Provides a real-time API for custom event apps
• Updates schedules instantly across all connected screens.

Who it's for

• Event planners
• Conference organizers
• Community managers
• Developer advocates.

Why it works

• Single Source of Truth: Keeps all organizers on the same page by replacing messy, out-of-date spreadsheets
• Developer Friendly: Uses a real-time database API, making it incredibly easy to build branded companion apps without backend work
• Instant Syncing: Any last-minute room changes or schedule delays are instantly pushed to attendee apps and digital signage
• Structured Data: Intelligently handles complex conference structures like concurrent tracks and birds-of-a-feather sessions
• Visual Planning: Offers a clear, visual grid of the entire event schedule to easily spot overlapping sessions.

Growth strategies

• Provided an open API that developers loved, leading to organic growth as they built custom conference apps.
• Targeted tech and developer conferences specifically, leveraging early adopters to spread the word.
• Pushed content marketing around the struggles of planning major events like SXSW and Droidcon.
• Kept the core tool lightweight to ensure rapid adoption without a heavy enterprise sales cycle.

Alternatives

• Cvent
• Ticketmatic
• Eventbrite
• Bizzabo

Comparison overview

• Cvent: A massive, enterprise-grade event management platform that handles everything from venue sourcing to massive corporate ticketing.
• Ticketmatic: Highly focused on the ticketing and box-office sales side of events rather than the pure agenda coordination.
• Eventbrite: The standard for general consumer event discovery and ticket sales, but lacks deep multi-track agenda management.
• Bizzabo: A premium 'Event Experience OS' geared heavily toward hybrid and virtual B2B marketing events.
• While Cvent or Bizzabo try to own the entire event lifecycle (including ticketing and heavy marketing), SlidesUp is hyper-focused on the actual core agenda. It acts as a developer-friendly, headless backend for your schedule, allowing organizers to easily push real-time changes directly to custom-branded conference apps.