A quick test how to use the Angular UI router without controllers. Would need to remove resolvers as well, no?

route-definition.js

angular.module('scheduler.conferences', ['ui.router', 'expose-to-scope'])

.config(function($stateProvider) {
  $stateProvider

  .state('conferences', {
    url: '/conferences',
    directive: 'conferenceList',
    resolve: {
      conferences: function(ConferenceService) {
        return ConferenceService.getConferences();
      }
    }
  });
});

ui-router-expose-to-scope.js

(function(angular) {
  'use strict';

  angular.module('expose-to-scope', ['ui.router'])

  .config(function($stateProvider, $injector) {
    $stateProvider.decorator('views', function(state, parent) {
      var views = parent(state);
      Object.keys(views).forEach(function(viewName) {
        var view = views[viewName];
        if (view.resolve && !view.controller) {
          view.controller = buildExposingController(view.resolve);

          if (view.directive) {
            var deps = Object.keys(view.resolve);
            view.template = createTemplate(view.directive, deps);
          }
        }
      });

      return views;
    });
  });

  function buildExposingController(resolve) {
    var deps = Object.keys(resolve);
    deps.unshift('$scope');

    var ctrl = function($scope) {
      $scope.resolve = {};
      for (var i = 1; i < deps.length; i++) {
        var dep = deps[i];
        $scope.resolve[dep] = arguments[i];
      }
    };

    ctrl.$inject = deps;

    return ctrl;
  }

  function createTemplate(name, deps) {
    var directiveName = toSpinalCase(name);
    var template = '<' + directiveName;

    template += deps.reduce(function(acc, dep) {
      return acc + ' ' + dep + '="resolve.' + dep + '"';
    }, '');

    return template + '></' + directiveName + '>';
  }

  function toSpinalCase(camelCaseName) {
    return camelCaseName.replace(/[A-Z]/g, function(letter, pos) {
      return (pos ? '-' : '') + letter.toLowerCase();
    });
  }

})(angular);