Drupal as event management system

So, on the heels of a 70+ site migration to a single Drupal codebase, one our next tasks is to create an event management system (so, a Drupal installation) that can be used to manage our annual conference. Too many questions here - not sure where to begin...

My first approach to this was to try and find out if anyone has created an installation profile or, even better, a "product" for event management in Drupal - as Open Atrium is to enabling the creation of a fully-Drupalized intranet. I was surprised that I wasn't able to turn up anything - um, there's a business idea if anyone has the time/initiative! I mean, many many 100s and 1,000s of conference and event websites are built each year and many, presumably with Drupal (I know, at least, that Drupalcon sites are Drupal!). So, that must mean that all of these people are reinventing the wheel for each conference by searching, selecting, gathering together and tweaking existing Drupal modules for things like calendar functions, scheduling of events, abstract and review systems, registration, etc.

So, that's what we're doing now. We need the following as core functions:

• Calendars
• Locations and room scheduling
• Abstract submission and review (for posters and oral sessions)
• Workshop submission, selection, scheduling and signup
• Meeting submission, selection, scheduling and signup
• Registration (no handling of payments, though)

among other basic event features. I'm sure most of the modules are there for these items, though they might need tweaking and customizing. But, it would be great if Drupal had installation profiles or some kind of installation (collection of files that make up a Drupal install) to create basic sites for things like:

• blogs
• community sites (well, I guess the basic Drupal is this)
• wikis
• event sites
• intranets (Open Atrium is one example)
• others?

where once one installs these pre-fab Drupal installs, the basic modules are already enabled, or at least ones for each main component or functionality are suggested. The more I write about this more I realize this might be a tall order. But, it would be desirable, I think. And, could move Drupal forward in UX and in uptake. I created this blog with Drupal, much the same way 1,000s of others probably did. If we could have only "communicated" via a prefab install with certain modules, settings enabled. If only...

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