About

About Seminar Website Template

By Khan Lab @ MBZUAI, UAE

This is a reusable website template for running an academic seminar series. It’s built with Jekyll and Bootstrap, and it lets you manage talks using a single data file (_data/speakers.yml). The site automatically renders upcoming speakers, detailed event pages, a searchable archive, and “Add to Calendar” actions.

Goals

  • Make it simple to publish a professional seminar website in minutes.
  • Keep content data-driven (no manual pages to maintain).
  • Support common workflows: registration, remote/hybrid meetings, junior-speaker slots, and 1:1 sign‑ups.
  • Be easy to deploy on GitHub Pages (or any static host) and maintain with PRs.

How it works

  • Single source of truth: Add/update talks in _data/speakers.yml.
  • Auto-generated pages: A python generator scripts/generate_events_md.py creates events/<id>.md for each talk.
  • Homepage: Lists upcoming events with speaker photos and quick actions.
  • Archive: Searchable, filterable (by year), and paginated list of past talks.
  • Event details: Title, speaker & affiliation, date/time, venue, abstract, bio, optional junior speaker, registration, and calendar buttons.

Modules (optional)

  • Event format — In‑person, Remote, or Hybrid. For remote/hybrid, show join link, meeting ID/passcode, and extra instructions.
  • Register button — Renders when a registration: URL exists.
  • Add to Calendar — Google and universal .ics download.
  • Meet the Speaker — Show a Doodle/Calendly (or any URL) for 1:1 bookings.
  • Junior Speaker — Compact card for a trainee spotlight below Meet the Speaker.

Configure these per talk inside _data/speakers.yml.

Theming & SEO

  • Bootswatch theming via _config.yml: 
    bootswatch:
  enabled_switcher: false # set true to show a Theme dropdown in the navbar
  theme: "" # "" or "default" = plain Bootstrap; or a Bootswatch theme name
  version: "5.3.7"
  • SEO: The {% seo %} tag (via jekyll-seo-tag) is wired in the <head> include. Set site metadata in _config.yml (title, tagline, description, url, baseurl).

Organizers (demo)

List your team in _data/organizers.yml:

- name: "Lead Organizer"
  title: "Assistant Professor"
  affiliation: "Your University, City"
  intro: "Initiates and oversees the seminar series; coordinates speakers and partnerships."
  photo: "/assets/img/organizers/lead.jpg"
  url: "https://example.edu/~lead"

The /organizers/ page renders responsive cards from this data.

Contributing & license

Issues and PRs are welcome to improve the template (docs, modules, accessibility, etc.).
Code is released under the MIT License. Please keep credits and consider sharing enhancements back.

Contact

If you’ve questions, suggestions, or need help, please reach out to the team at https://khanlab.bio or email us at aziz.khan@mbzuai.ac.ae.