How do Related Sessions work?

Modified on Fri, 23 Sep 2022 at 04:44 PM

Related Sessions display similar sessions (based on the algorithm described below) to the session currently being viewed to help users discover related topics and better build their event schedules.  Contact your Project Manager if you wish to set up Related Sessions in your project.


Related Sessions can be based on indexed words that appear in a session's “title” and “description” fields and abstracts when available in the project.


The Related Sessions algorithm takes into account:

  1. Indexed words that appear in a session's “title” and “description” fields are analyzed for matches.  To maximize the feature, more data can be included in the description field to increase likelihood of matches to related sessions.

  2. If abstracts exist in the project, their media item label and the media description (the algorithm can be configured to also take into account abstracts' indexed words).

FAQs

Does the algorithm also use the keywords or metadata?

No, it does not use keywords/metadata.


Is the related session feature searching and relating to both subsessions (presentation level) AND parent sessions?

Yes, regardless if you are viewing a parent session or a subsession, the related sessions listed are based on data from all agenda items, including sessions and sub-sessions (presentations).  It displays the highest match if related sessions exist, regardless if it's a parent or sub-session.

What if my sessions do not have descriptions in them? For example, my subsessions only include a title and an abstract? 

It uses the abstract information followed by additional indexed words found in the title and description, even if the description is empty. 


Several of my sessions do not show related sessions, why? 

There is a certain minimum threshold of matched words for a related session to show. Therefore, only high matching items will show results in the related sessions. This may mean some sessions and sub-sessions do not show any related sessions.