This may be off topic in relation to the NE conference - but to Pedro’s point about portfolio reviews.
One thing that seems to happen fairly often from what I remember is portfolio reviews are scheduled the same time as another talk, and usually there are multiple review sessions as a result, but in regards to this years Southern conference, I know there were multiple review sessions, but one was Sunday morning when I imagine most people had already left or were packing up to check out.
It seems like rather then having multiple sessions if you held one session with NO concurrent lectures (put out coffee and snacks for people who want to socialize) it would better encourage professional participation in the portfolio reviews, and wouldn’t make those who reviewed feel like they were missing valuable content.