CATALYST Abstract Management FAQs

Yes! CATALYST currently integrates with several AMS platforms, payment gateways Authorize.net and Bluepay, and iThenticate plagiarism detection software.  CATALYST has the capability to integrate with other platforms, so if you’re looking for a specific integration, just let us know! We’re happy to discuss your requirements, timeline, and budget for integration.

When you work with Omnipress, you are assigned a dedicated project manager who serves as your primary point of contact for the entire project, including site set-up and deployment, answering questions, providing suggestions, conducting training with you and your team, and providing ongoing customer support.  On average, it takes approximately three weeks to set-up and go-live with your site. However, that timeline can be adjusted as necessary to meet your needs.

Not at all. CATALYST is hosted on Azure cloud-based servers which yield a 99+% uptime, so submitters, reviewers and administrators can access your site at any time, from any device with the appropriate login credentials.

For event planners, administrators and staff, support is provided via phone or email by your assigned project manager from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday-Friday, excluding U.S. holidays. For submitters and reviewers, CATALYST features automated password recovery assistance, which typically comprises 70% of all support requests. For all other technical support questions, submitters and reviewers submit an online support request. CATALYST is integrated with Zendesk®, the leading online customer help tool in the world. We also provide 24/7 access to a comprehensive, searchable library of help articles that are updated frequently.

No, there is no minimum or maximum. Because we are hosting CATALYST on one of the top cloud-based services, we can easily flex its capacity to handle collections of all sizes, from large to small.

You can use CATALYST to collect just about anything you need for your conference, including: abstracts, papers, posters, presentations, speaker photos and bios, session handouts, sponsor and exhibitor materials, logos, pre-recorded session videos and even applications for awards, grants and scholarships. CATALYST can support just about any file format type, from Word documents and PowerPoint files to PDFs, videos, images, and audio files.

Because CATALYST is so flexible and scalable, it works well whether your process includes multiple rounds of collection and review, or it can be used as an invited-speaker-only, final collection site for papers, presentations or even for recording and submitting session videos for virtual or hybrid events.

Absolutely! Except for some hard-coded text and buttons (such as Submit, Edit, and Withdraw), your CATALYST submission site starts essentially as a blank slate. You determine the steps in your collection process, the questions you want to ask submitters and reviewers, the limitations and requirements for those questions, and the order that information is provided, and your Omnipress project manager will set up your site accordingly. We also can dynamically show or hide fields based on a submitter or reviewer’s previous answers or based on the submission or review type. This personalization is a standard part of every set-up and is included in the cost of your site.

You can also use CATALYST to build your conference schedule through our simple drag-and-drop feature. Once your schedule is finalized, you can publish that schedule and all session content to our virtual event platform. Or, if you are using a different 3rd party platform or mobile event app, we will provide an exported file of all data for you to upload into your event tech platforms or tools.  Omnipress is also a conference printing specialist, so we can turn that same content into a printed program book, proceedings, or digital flipbook.

CATALYST can be used for a simple registration process and is PCI compliant for secure payment collection. We recommend discussing your registration process and requirements with your Omnipress account manager or project manager so that we can help determine a solution that will work best for you.

Each year, we work with hundreds of associations, non-profit organizations, association management companies, event planning companies, corporations and other organizations on their call for abstracts, papers or speakers, as well as delivering session content to attendees online, in a mobile app or in print.

We welcome the opportunity to be included in your RFP process. Please send your proposal to: JustAsk@omnipress.com. A member of our team will reach out to confirm receipt and next steps.

Absolutely. CATALYST is PCI compliant. We frequently work with customers who opt to charge their speakers and authors a small per-submission fee to protect the quality of the submissions they receive. Some organizations who have a simple registration process also use CATALYST to capture event registration and fees.