docs: def standardize_input_data(data):
      """
      Ensure utf-8 encoded strings are passed to the indico API
      """
      if type(data) == bytes:
          data = data.decode('utf-8')
      if type(data) == list:
          data = [
              el.decode('utf-8') if type(data) == bytes else el
              for el in data
          ]
      return data