Use a single entry for navigation branding:

Allow a view to override the brand (esp. for conference splash pages),
Use the app name link for the admin control panel,
use the conference short title for end user content within a conference,
fall back to the app name link.

Visually, there are two substantial changes:
(1) the conference title (or short title) serves as the brand when viewing
conference content;
(2) the short title isn't shown redundantly on the navbar and the top of the
sidebar when editing a conf.

app/helpers/application_helper.rb

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 module ApplicationHelper
-
   def bootstrap_class_for(flash_type)
     logger.debug "flash_type is #{flash_type}"
     case flash_type
@@ -112,4 +111,23 @@ module ApplicationHelper
 
     result
   end
+
+  def default_brand
+    link_to CONFIG['name'], root_path,
+            class: 'navbar-brand',
+            title: 'Open Source Event Manager'
+  end
+
+  def short_title_brand(conference)
+    link_to conference.short_title, conference_path(conference.short_title),
+            class: 'navbar-brand',
+            title: conference.title
+  end
+
+  def brand
+    content_for(:brand) ||
+    (default_brand if controller.class.parent == Admin) ||
+    (short_title_brand(@conference) if @conference) ||
+    default_brand
+  end
 end

app/views/conference/show.html.haml

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-= content_for :splash_logo do 
-  = link_to @conference.title, "#", :class => 'navbar-brand'
+= content_for :brand do
+  = link_to @conference.title, conference_url(@conference.short_title), class: 'navbar-brand'
 = render :partial => "home/conference_details", :locals => {:conference => @conference}

app/views/layouts/_navigation.html.haml

@@ -7,13 +7,8 @@
         %span.icon-bar
         %span.icon-bar
         %span.icon-bar
-      = yield(:splash_logo) 
-      = link_to CONFIG['name'], root_path, :class => 'navbar-brand', :title => "Open Source Event Manager"
+      = brand
     .collapse.navbar-collapse
-      = yield(:splash_header)
-      - if @conference && !@conference.short_title.nil?
-        %p.navbar-text
-          = @conference.short_title
       -if user_signed_in?
         %ul.nav.navbar-nav.navbar-right
           %li.dropdown