Sessionboard is a full event content platform: a speaker CRM, submissions review, agenda building, and a stack of event-tech integrations. It's a lot of tool. If the part you actually dread is chasing speakers for bios, headshots, and slides, you don't need the whole suite — you need one clean link per speaker. That's Draftpile.
Pricing and features verified June 2026. Re-verified quarterly.
If you only need to collect bios, headshots, slide decks, and consent forms from your speakers — not run a full speaker CRM, submissions review, and agenda builder — Draftpile is a lighter, cheaper alternative. Each speaker gets one private link with only their items, status is tracked per item (missing, received, needs update, final), files are versioned, and you export a clean, auto-named folder. It's free to start and there's no demo or sales call to get going.
Sessionboard is a full event content platform — a speaker CRM, call-for-papers and submissions management, AI session evaluators, agenda building, and 15+ event-tech integrations. Draftpile does one thing: collect the materials. That focus is the difference — there's nothing to configure, no portal for speakers to learn, and no demo to book. If you need to manage the whole speaker lifecycle across a large conference, Sessionboard is built for that. If the painful part is chasing 30 speakers for their headshots and slides, Draftpile is built for that.
No. Each speaker opens their own private link and confirms the email they were invited with — no account, no password, no portal to navigate. They see only their own requested items and a clear status for each. This is deliberately lighter than a speaker portal, where contributors have to log in and find their way around a dashboard.
Yes. Draftpile has a free tier with 3 active rooms, unlimited contributors, file versioning, and CSV export — no credit card and no sales call. Pro is $19/month ($190/yr) for Draftpile Assist, custom branding, 10 active rooms, and no watermark. Sessionboard is sold through a demo and a quote rather than a published self-serve plan, which makes sense for an enterprise event suite but is heavier than many teams need for material collection.
Yes. Some teams run their submissions and agenda in a full platform but still find material collection painful, or they handle a smaller track, workshop series, or sponsor list separately. Draftpile works well as the focused 'collect the files' step: spin up a room, send each contributor their link, and export a clean folder you can hand off or upload wherever your assets live.
When collection is done, Draftpile gives you one ZIP: files auto-named like 'Sarah_Ahmed_Headshot_Final.jpg', grouped by item, plus a combined details CSV (one row per speaker, columns for every requested field). It's built to drop straight into a program, agenda, or website — not a database you have to export and reshape.
Free forever — 3 rooms, unlimited contributors, file versioning, clean folder export. No credit card.