The conference expo is for paid sponsors (with some flexibility decided by the chairs); at NeurIPS these also included nonprofits. The expos last a day to a day and a half and allow the sponsors hold talks, panels, workshops, or demos.
The expo calls are prepared by the chairs, and then level 5 forwards this to the potential sponsors and posts on the website. (reference the EXPO call draft in the documentation prep folder) See expo application here.
Once the selections have been made by the chairs, the eventhosts team will contact the sponsors for additional required information that wasn't present in the application process. (reference the email in the documentation prep folder) Contracts will be written up by Helmsbriscoe, and will be based on what each conference needs for space. Contracts can then be auto generated with each respective sponsor through the admin portal. The applications need to be accepted or rejected in the database first.
A schedule will be made by the expo chairs. For virtual, each sponsor is asked when they can present, for the in person conference, the schedule should be easy to generate based on the number of presentations. (reference 2019 EXPO in Vancouver) Using the workshop editor, enter the respective information so links can be sent to the presenter from SlidesLive for the upload of any pre-recorded videos. For in person conferences, rooms will be re-used to save costs, and these will be based on the venue contract and reviewing the floor plans. AV will be set up by the venue, and each expo will be designed an expo brochure by Darren. See example floor plan and brochure here.
Each expo is allotted complementary tickets, and only the primary contact can add comps for his team. Though, any associated expo organizer can edit the workshop expo schedule.