If you are planning your workshop from an existing document, you can now seamlessly turn your content into a structured session using SessionLab’s built-in AI assistant.
No need to copy-paste across tabs or manually rebuild your agenda. Just upload your document and let the assistant do the heavy lifting - in a matter of seconds.
The currently supported input formats are:
PDF
Word
PowerPoint
Images (e.g. online whiteboard screenshot)
Support for Excel will come soon.
How to create a session out of an existing file
The files you upload are processed only for the purpose of generating your session. In accordance with our AI policy, your content is never used for model training or stored for other purposes beyond generating your session content.
Before diving into document-specific steps, here are a few best practices to get the best results when using the AI Assistant:
Be specific with your prompt: Clear instructions will help the AI understand what you're aiming for. If your file has columns, explain how they should be mapped into the columns of your session (see below for examples).
Expect to iterate: The first version might not be perfect, and that’s okay! You can use it as a starting point to further refine how your desired output should look like, and then ask the AI Assistant to try importing again.
Use line breaks clearly: If formatting matters (e.g., presenter notes, slide text), make sure your original file uses paragraph spacing or line breaks - this will carry through into the session blocks more reliably.
Ask for what you need: You can prompt the assistant to focus on time blocks, presenter notes, slide numbers, or even tone and structure. The clearer you ask, the better the output.
Use a blank session: Start with a blank session if you want your document to be the sole source of content.
How to import an agenda:
Create a new blank session in your workspace, and click the Ask AI icon at the top of your session planner, then click the staple icon in order to upload your document:
Find a document that you’d like to import a session from, and use the prompts in the chat field to guide the assistant through the way you’d like your session to look.
Example of Importing an Agenda from a Word or PDF document
While each document might be structured differently, here is an example for a prompt that was used to create a SessionLab agenda based on a Word / PDF document. Feel free to copy and adjust this prompt to make it fit for your case.
Please create a session from the uploaded Word document. In the Word document you will see several columns/headings: Map them the following way from Word document into SessionLab:
Column/Heading A -› copy that into the Time and Duration, making sure the time and duration are correct, lock just the first block's starting time, making sure it starts at 9:00 AM
Column/Heading B -› copy that into the Title and Description Column
Column/Heading C -> Copy that into the Additional Info column
etc...
Click Enter and after a few seconds, you’ll see your session blocks generated automatically.
You can then review, rearrange, or tweak the content to your liking - all within your familiar SessionLab environment.
Example of Importing an Agenda from a Power Point deck
While each PowerPoint presentation might be structured differently, here is an example for a prompt that was used to create a SessionLab agenda based on a PowerPoint slide deck. Feel free to copy and adjust this prompt to make it fit for your case.
I uploaded a PPT presentation now. Please turn this into an agenda, based on the information you can find in the presentation, the following way:
Pay attention to notes about timings
Add a short summary of the activities into the Description column
Bring in all the presenter notes you have in the slide deck, as "Additional Information" for the relevant session block. When you see that text is broken into multiple lines on the PowerPoint, please also make it appear the same way in multiple lines (i.e. use line breaks or Enter characters)
Extract into the Instructions column the following from the uploaded slide deck:
- "Slides": add the relevant slide numbers
- "Text on slides": copy the text on those slides here. When you see that text is broken into multiple lines on the PowerPoint, please also make it appear the same way in multiple lines (i.e. use line breaks or Enter characters)Specifically do not extract the “presenter notes” from the slide deck into Instructions because you have already extracted that into the Additional Information column.
The assistant will then generate your session blocks based on the slides and notes, complete with time estimates, descriptions, and structured fields.
And after this, you can rearrange the blocks and edit the session to fit your needs.
If your import didn’t turn out as expected or you have any feedback about the experience, don’t hesitate to contact us at support@sessionlab.com - we’re always happy to assist!