Build around dynamic conference data instead of a static event site
Schedules, accepted papers, and submission-related information shift during the lifecycle of a conference and cannot be managed comfortably as hand-edited static content alone.
Decision
I treated the conference as an application problem, not just a content problem, and used API routes plus Mongo-backed data handling for the dynamic pieces.
Keep the site mostly staticUse embedded third-party conference toolingOwn the data-backed experience in the Next.js app
Impact: The product could represent real conference operations instead of only the public marketing layer.
Tradeoff: This added backend responsibility to a site category that many teams would keep mostly static.
