Shared conference calendar

Shared conference calendar

Create a useful reference agenda that does not consume people's meeting availability.

Establish the inputs

Use assets/calendar-worksheet.md. Reuse information already supplied. Ask only for missing facts that affect correctness: official source, event dates, venue IANA timezone, calendar owner/destination, and intended readers/editors. Never infer timezone from the operator's computer. Distinguish a private team calendar from a publicly shared event calendar.

Inspect the existing destination and prior imports before creating anything. Prefer an authorized existing calendar when it serves the purpose. Use a connector/API when available; otherwise use the authenticated browser. With no live access, prepare an ICS and exact setup instructions and label the live setup unfinished.

Normalize the agenda

Read the official agenda and linked session details. Capture source ID, title, date, start/end, timezone, venue/room, speaker, source URL, and confidence. Retain concurrent sessions; this is a reference calendar, not one person's itinerary. Do not copy private notes into shared descriptions.

Prefer explicit organizer updates over stale listings. Keep a source/change log and flag contradictions. Never turn an unpublished time into a precise appointment: a known date may have a Free all-day “TIME TBD” marker; unknown dates stay in a separate unresolved list. Do not confuse a short public workshop with an independently arranged longer activity.

Build and publish

1. Create a separately named reference calendar with the venue timezone. Verify the destination before importing or writing.
2. Make reference events Free / transparent. Colors are cosmetic. Sharing “see only free/busy” is a visibility permission and is different from event Free/Busy status.
3. Include source links and useful logistics. A reference copy of a dinner does not accept the original invitation or add guests. Do not add ATTENDEE fields to an ICS reference export.
4. Prefer API upserts with a saved source-ID → remote-event-ID mapping for ongoing maintenance. If using ICS, assign stable UIDs from conference namespace plus source ID; use valid timezone-aware times, CRLF, escaped text, UTF-8-safe 75-octet line folding, and exclusive all-day end dates. Validate event counts, ordering, and sample times before import.
5. ICS import is a snapshot. Stable UIDs alone do not guarantee that repeated Google imports update existing entries. Do not reimport blindly. Inspect and update the existing records, or prepare a deliberate replacement plan without deleting unrelated events.
6. Apply the requested sharing permissions. Give viewers event details and editors only the intended editing rights. Public access is a separate explicit choice. If sharing would notify people and the user has not authorized invitations, finish the calendar and present the exact recipients/permissions for approval.

Read references/google-calendar.md for provider steps and sources.

Verify and hand off

Compare imported event count against the normalized agenda, accounting for pre-existing records. Check first/last dates, simultaneous sessions, room names, one all-day marker, and timezone rendering. Confirm events are Free and sharing matches the requested scope. Check recipient visibility when access permits; otherwise report it unverified.

Return the calendar link or ICS path, source timestamp, counts, permissions, unresolved times, and update instructions. Save the ID mapping/change log privately with the user's project, not inside the distributable skill. Recommend placing selected sessions and duties on each attendee's own calendar as Busy; use conference-personal-plan if installed.