Modeling Conference Data

ScheduleItem Interface

typescript

export interface ScheduleItem {
  id: number;
  code?: string;           // External system ID (e.g., pretalx talk code)
  title: string;
  abstract?: string;       // May contain markdown from CfP system
  speakerCodes: string[];  // Maps to Speaker lookup table
  start: string;           // ISO 8601 datetime in UTC
  end: string;             // ISO 8601 datetime in UTC
  duration: number;        // Minutes
  isBreak: boolean;        // Breaks render differently
}

Key Design Decisions

•All times in UTC — displayed in event timezone via toLocaleTimeString with timeZone option
•Speaker references by code — not by name, enables speaker lookup pattern
•isBreak flag — breaks render differently: no speaker, dimmed styling, emoji icons
•Abstracts may contain markdown — strip before rendering with cleanAbstract()

Speaker Lookup

Record<string, Speaker> for O(1) lookup by code:

typescript

export interface Speaker {
  code: string;
  name: string;
  avatar: string; // URL
}

export const speakers: Record<string, Speaker> = {
  ABC123: {
    code: "ABC123",
    name: "Jane Smith",
    avatar: "https://example.com/avatars/ABC123.webp",
  },
};

For detailed schema examples, see reference/schedule-schema.md.

Multi-Day Conferences

Filter by day using ISO date prefix:

typescript

const day1Items = schedule.filter(item => item.start.startsWith("2026-02-12"));

Special Events

Community dinners, parties use emoji in title and longer durations:

typescript

{
  id: 9900001,
  title: "🍽️ Community Dinner — Venue Name",
  abstract: "Details...",
  speakerCodes: [],
  start: "2026-02-12T16:30:00Z",
  end: "2026-02-12T18:30:00Z",
  duration: 120,
  isBreak: false,  // Not a break — it's an event
}

Abstract Cleaning

Strip markdown before rendering:

typescript

function cleanAbstract(text: string): string {
  return text
    .replace(/\*\*/g, "")
    .replace(/\*/g, "")
    .replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]\([^)]+\)/g, "$1")
    .replace(/\r\n/g, " ")
    .replace(/\n/g, " ")
    .replace(/\s+/g, " ")
    .trim();
}

Timezone Display

Store UTC, display in event timezone:

typescript

function formatTime(isoString: string): string {
  return new Date(isoString).toLocaleTimeString("en-GB", {
    hour: "2-digit",
    minute: "2-digit",
    timeZone: "Europe/Helsinki",
  });
}