Sessionboard vs Submittable.
Submittable handles application intake and review for grants and awards across industries. Sessionboard Awards is built for event programs — where winners speak at the annual meeting, reviewers return next season, and speaker CRM should accumulate across abstract, awards, and advocacy workflows on one record.
SIDE BY SIDE
Where each one does its work.
Read from the approved comparison, not from a feature checklist. Where we could not verify a Submittable capability from their own material, the cell says so.
| Capability | Sessionboard | Submittable |
|---|---|---|
| Review rounds and rubrics | Review plans with rounds, committees, rubrics and conflict-of-interest rules. Your team changes forms and review steps without a services ticket. | Configurable forms and review stages for varied programs. |
| Call for papers beside awards | Submission forms with logic per track and format; abstracts, disclosures and files on one submission. Returning speakers arrive with their history. | Grants, fellowships, and awards across nonprofit and corporate use cases. |
| Awards without a meeting | Awards runs on its own or beside the annual meeting, on the same record either way. | Built for standalone submissions, so it fits only when no conference program ties to outcomes. |
| Awards and nominations | Nominations, review rounds and winner showcases on the same forms, review plans and portals as sessions. | varies |
| Nominee and reviewer portals | Nominee and reviewer portals on the same branded portals as speakers; the Coordinator agent reminds whoever is late. | varies |
| Ceremony and winner content | Live Transcribe in the room or from Zoom, ON24 and Goldcast; transcripts, captions, clips and quote cards in a library searchable across events. | varies |
| Winner promotion with attribution | Share kits with tracked links for speakers, sponsors and attendees; registrations traced back to the share. | varies |
| CRM and AMS | Two-way sync with HubSpot, Salesforce, iMIS, Fonteva and Nimble AMS; public API, webhooks and an MCP server. | varies |
| Registration | Stays where it is. Accepted sessions and speakers sync to Cvent, Swoogo, Bizzabo and others. | varies |
Where Submittable fits best: submission intake is the only digital workflow required. What often stays with Submittable for now: horizontal grants programs unrelated to events. This page compares workflow and product fit, not a feature checklist.
WHERE IT DIFFERS · ONE RECORD
Nominees, reviewers and winners are the same people as your speakers.
Awards run on the same forms, review plans and portals as sessions, so a winner becomes faculty and a reviewer returns next cycle without a volunteer list rebuilt from email. Submittable ends a season in an export; the record carries it into the annual meeting.
- Nominations
- Review rounds & rubrics
- Reviewer records persist
- Winner showcases
GROWSMember engagement and non-dues revenue
WHERE IT DIFFERS · WINNERS AS CONTENT
The ceremony is a session. Treat it like one.
Capture the ceremony, clip the acceptance, and hand winners a share kit with a tracked link. Registrations traced to those shares land on the winner’s record and on the attendee who came.
- Live Transcribe
- Clips & quote cards
- Winner share kits
- Registrations traced
GROWSReach from the people you just celebrated
Questions, answered
Does Sessionboard replace Submittable?
For event-linked awards and conference programs — yes. Unrelated grants shops may keep Submittable for horizontal intake.
Can we migrate one awards program first?
Yes. Pilot Sessionboard Awards on the meeting tied to your conference while other grants stay put.
Multi-round review?
Yes. Rubrics and chair tools parallel abstract committee workflow on the same platform.
OpenWater vs Submittable vs Sessionboard?
OpenWater and Submittable are forms engines; Sessionboard is the program record for events.
Can we export everything later?
Yes. Submissions, scores, speakers, agenda, transcripts and media export by CSV, program book export, the public API and webhooks.