FAQ

Who is behind Lanyrd.com?

Lanyrd is handmade by Natalie Downe, Simon Willison, Sophie Barrett, Jake Archibald and Tom Insam.

What kind of events can I add?

Pretty much any professional or hobbyist event. Most events have at least one speaker, we call them all conferences but you can add workshops, unconferences, evening events with talks, conventions and so forth. The site is geared towards knowledge sharing events with sessions and participants of some sort.

How do you pronounce "Lanyrd"?

We pronounce it "Lanyard" (or "Lanyerd with a British accent!) — it's named after the thing you wear around your neck at some conferences.

Can I export my events as iCal or into my Google calendar?

Yes indeed! If you are logged in, you can find the link to your own personal iCal file on your dashboard at the bottom right of the page.

Conferences, topics, places and topics-in-place pages all sport iCalendar feeds. These should work with iCal on the Mac, Outlook on Windows, Mozilla Sunbird and other calendaring applications. Click the "Subscribe in iCal / Outlook" link to subscribe to the feed — any changes on Lanyrd will then be reflected in your calendar. If you just want to grab a copy of the current set of events you can use the "Save to iCal / Outlook" link instead.

How do I add a book I've written? What about arranging my conferences in a series?

You can add books using the add a book interface. Once you've added a book, you can edit the book's authors to link to their Lanyrd profile pages. You can also add contributors to a book, such as technical reviewers or foreword writers.

We're still working on the UI for managing conference series, so at the moment you'll need to contact us using the "Report an issue" form, or directly at support@lanyrd.com.

I've added a duplicate of another conference! What should I do?

Contact us at support@lanyrd.com and we'll sort it out for you, or use the "Report an issue" link at the bottom of the conference page.

What does "tracking" an event do?

Tracking lets you show interest in an event without committing to attend it. Maybe you haven't bought your ticket yet, or perhaps you won't be able to make it there but you'd like to keep an eye on what is happening. Conferences you are tracking (as well as those you are attending) appear on your calendar and will help to suggest events to people who follow you.

How can I add sessions, slides and videos?

Read our blog entry for details on how to add talks and sessions to your conference or to your speaker profile. If you want a fancy tag cloud on your profile page of subjects you speak about, make sure you add topics to your sessions.

You can add slides, videos, audio files and more to your sessions (or sessions given by other people) using the coverage form, available on each session page for logged in users. You can read more about that on our blog.

I want to play with your data. Will there be an API?

Yes, an API is in the pipeline. If you are interested in receiving announcements and updates about the API, you can join our API discussion mailing list.

Can I change my profile information or opt out entirely?

By default, Lanyrd displays your name and profile from Twitter. You can provide a custom profile for Lanyrd by editing your profile. You can also add hi-res photos to your profile and update your bio. If you do a lot of public speaking, or are a conference organiser, this is especially helpful for you.

If you really really really want to you can opt out of Lanyrd, for now you can email us to let us know, this will delete your page and any references to your Twitter account on the site, but that's no fun!

Why does Lanyrd need write access to my Twitter account?

Until Twitter have implemented finely grained permissions (as seen in Ben Ward's excellent mock-up) we need to ask for full write permissions to perform relatively simple actions such as allowing you to follow another user. Don't worry though, we promise never to post to your Twitter stream unless you explicitly ask us to, cross our hearts! We also hate applications that auto tweet on your behalf so we would never do that!

What about other languages?

Feel free to add any conference regardless of the spoken language it will be in.

I've noticed anyone can edit a conference and add and remove speakers — is that really a good idea?

Our intention is for Lanyrd to work a bit like Wikipedia — we keep track of all changes made to a conference (we're not exposing that information in the UI just yet, but we plan to soon) and any vandalism can be quickly reverted.

Can I get a high quality version of your logo to use in publication or presentation

Of course you can, the Lanyrd logo is available as a layered fireworks file or you can use one that is more optimised for use outside the website (also a layered fireworks file), alternatively you can download various sizes: 512px square, 158px square, 48px square, 32px square or 16px square. Please also note that in publications Lanyrd appears capitalised and not as Lanyrd.com, please also include the url http://lanyrd.com/

Our main font is Trebuchet but we are using Eigerdals Bold and Eigerdals Black for headings. Eigerdals Black is also the font used in the logo.

I still have questions, how do I contact you?

If you have any questions or feedback, we would love to talk to you! please drop us a line and we will get back to you as soon as we can.