Case Study: Michigan State University’s MXR Conference unifies abstract management, peer review, registration, and payments with Fourwaves

Michigan State University unifies conference management in one platform for MXR 2024 and 2026 with Fourwaves

Michigan State University's SPARTIE Lab, led by Professor Rabindra Ratan, faced a fragmented system for organizing its MXR academic conference. They were managing abstract submissions and peer reviews on one platform, ConfTool, while requiring attendees to register and pay on a completely separate system. This two-system problem created significant administrative overhead and a disjointed experience for their community. The lab needed a unified solution, which led them to the Fourwaves conference management platform.

The solution was implementing the Fourwaves all-in-one platform to consolidate the entire conference lifecycle. This allowed the MXR conference to manage abstract submissions, peer review, registration, and payments from a single dashboard. As a result, the SPARTIE Lab streamlined its operations, eliminating the friction of managing separate systems. Professor Ratan highlighted key wins from using Fourwaves, including automated reviewer assignments that reduced manual workload and the platform's budget efficiency, allowing funds to be redirected towards the attendee experience.

Michigan State University