also are there any other suggestions on cleaning up the code?

Your getDate function can be replaced with POSIX::strftime

use POSIX;
my $date = POSIX::strftime('%d_%b', localtime);
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If you turn your block comments at the top of your code into POD, you'll get a manpage for free using perldoc.

=pod

This script takes CONF_IN and populates
3 templates which are then put into a final file all 
together
Usage: perl conf_add.pl
requires:
input: templates in templates folder
input: list of conference IDs and conference PINs
        with ID and PIN on one line in order.
program outputs to file: conference_additions

=cut
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perlcritic is a tool which can offer other best practices.