Conferences

By Ross Woods (2nd ed. 2013)

Conferences, conventions, and seminars are also relatively simple events, even though they can be quite large. They are all gatherings of people to exchange or discuss information, make decisions, give education, and build relationships. These might be called symposia, presentations or information sessions. Some large conventions have thousands of people meeting over a period of days with accommodation provided.

Conferences have different kinds of purposes:

They normally have plenary sessions (large meetings of all attenders) and small groups or workshops. They might also have a banquet and times for rest, recreation or site-seeing.

 

The client

Start by meeting the prospective client, who will usually be the representative of the organization running the conference. Show him/her around the venue, and explain the different kinds of meeting rooms available and the different ways of setting them up. Your basic questions are:

  1. What is the purpose of the conference?
  2. What is the theme or tone of the conference?
  3. How many people do they expect? Is the estimate firmly based on past attendances at their previous conferences?
  4. What links does the client's organization have to other branches of its organization or to kindred organizations? Do you need you need to inform or invite them?
  5. How do they want the venue set up?
  6. What kind of services do they want? Are they asking you to run the conference or are they only hiring a venue? For example:
    • Sending invitations
    • Organizing speakers
    • Guest registrations, info packs
    • Welcome drinks, coffee/tea, light food, full meals, after-event drinks, etc. (Hint: if you don't have beverages, at least provide water.)
    • Digital projector, Internet access, sound technician.
    • Document services: photcopy, binding, etc.
    • Minute-taking
    • Food service
    • Accomodation
  7. Set a date, and start and end times. Have you checked that there will be no other major events or occurances that will prevent people attending?
  8. When do they want access to the venue beforehand?
  9. Who will invite people? How? If you are to do it, then you will need their mailing list.
  10. Are any meetings confidential? Will you need a fairly soundproof room with a door that shuts tight?
  11. What data needs to be returned to the client afterwards? (E.g. guest registation lists, financial information)
  12. Explain what insurance cover you provide. Does the client need any other insurance?
  13. Decide how you will keep in contact. Is there anyone else you will need to liaise with?
  14. The conditions: Breakages, damage, cancellations, late notification of changes, etc.

 

Planning

Booking fees for a venue

Your role as the event manager will depend on your particular role:

  1. You could work for the venue (e.g. a hotel or restaurant). In this case, the organization holding the conference is your client.
  2. You could work for the organization holding the conference. In this case, the venue is your supplier.
  3. You could work as an independent event manager. In this case, the organization holding the conference is your client and the venue is your supplier.

If you work for the venue, it would be ideal if you can show the prospective client the shedule of fees, confirm the booking and the terms of payment in writing, and get a holding deposit. Some venues have very clear conference packages and schedules of fees so that it is very easy to calculate fees and make a decision.

Costing and pricing many conferences, however, is more complex when clients want services that need to be individually costed. Consequently, the shedule of fees doesn't necessarily give an accurate picture of costs, or at least accurate enough to decide whether or not to make a booking. The service provider will usually have to do a full costing and get back to the client with a quote. Besides, the organization holding the conference will want time to consider the quote before it makes a decision. The difficulty with this is that the serice provider will spend time and effort doing an accurate costing with no client commitment to make a booking.

If you don't work for the venue, you will either have to calculate a quote from the schedule of fees and make an offer, or wait for them to get back to you with a quote. If you can fill the whole venue or do a bulk booking, the chances are good that you will get a better rate. If you can trust the venue management, you can also avoid any price rises by making a confirmed booking with a deposit at current rates and paying the balance at the beginning of the conference.

You will also have to answer:

  1. What is the minimum number of participants needed to break even?
  2. By what date do you need to reach this number for the conference to go ahead?
  3. What is the the maximum number of participants that can be comfortable at the venue?

 

Theme and format

Develop a theme to complement conference objectives. Are you or your clients free to determine a theme based on trends and needs as you see them? Or are there any overriding themes within the context of that year, for example, from a parent body or government?

What could be the WOW! factor? What will create a strong, positive impression?

 

Activities and schedule

  1. How will you get speakers?* Consider the different kinds of guest speakers and their varying impacts and contributions. Who will be the keynote speaker? How many other speakers? How many sessions?
  2. Are speakers available? How much lead time will they need?
  3. Do you expect speakers to stay the whole conference?
  4. How many sessions?
  5. How long will sessions be?
  6. What kinds of sessions will you run? E.g. plenary, small groups (break-out sessions) held in other rooms, a networking room
  7. Who will facilitate small groups?
  8. What sponsorship opportunities could you find?
  9. Plan the following as appropriate:
    1. times of breaks and free time
    2. availability of tea/coffee/water during meetings
    3. food and menus
    4. social program
    5. pre or post tours
    6. Do any attenders have special needs? (E.g. disability access/ equipment, interpreters, dietary requirements)
    7. thanks and drawing to a close
    8. venue access and parking details
    9. accommodation details
    10. payment details.

* There are two main ways to get speakers: You can send out a call for speakers, or invite specific individuals. At least the keynote speaker is always a special invitation to someone who can set the tone for the conference, but you will need to decide how you get other speakers.

Hint: A local bookshop may like to have a stand to sell materials related to your organization's activities or the conference theme.

Check that you have incorporated an appropriate range of activities. If it looks good, prepare program details:

Then get a firm catering quote based on minimum/maximum numbers and tell them you will contact them again with exact numbers nearer the day.

 

Contingencies

Make contingency arrangements to ensure the conference runs smoothly, for example:

 

Approval

Write out the conference plan or proposal. Check the draft with your colleagues that there is nothing that you have missed out or needs changing. Revise your plan if necessary. Then write your event-specific checklists. (This might be quite simple if your organization already has a template or form.)

Check: Are your notes good enough for someone else to use? (There is a risk that key people might drop out.)

Present the proposed conference program to your supervisor or the client. You must get your supervisor's approval for your plan and budget before you sign any agreements or send out any advertizing.

 

Preparation

Organize speakers

Decide how you will select workshop speakers. Then call for them, explain the theme and purpose, and give a deadline and a way to contact you. When they get back to you and you have selected them, respond politley to those whom you did not select.

Hints
If you do not know respondents, ask independently for references.
You might want to have some in reserve in case someone else cannot attend.

Invite the selected speakers and brief them:

  1. Theme of conference
  2. Date, venue of conference
  3. Equipment available
  4. Nature of audience
  5. Topic of speech/session to be delivered
  6. Other speakers
  7. Ask for a CV, and/or ask how they want to be described in the program
  8. Ask how do they want their sessions described in the program
  9. Check what equipment they will need (e.g. data projector)
  10. Submission guidleines for conference papers
  11. Submission guidleines for AV presentations (e.g. PowerPoints)

You can also ask them in advance to write up their sessions for future newsletters.

 

Publisize the conference

Your publicty will work better if people already know the organization running the conference and have attended in previous years. Growth of a recurring event tends to be incremental, so you should be aiming for a good percentage increase on the previous conference.

You will need to decide:

  1. A timeline for publicity
  2. How much time applicants have to reply
  3. How you will disseminate information and publicity (see below)
  4. Invitation content including time, date, name of event, how to RSVP, directions and parking (see below)
  5. How will you handle or refer questions and enquiries by email, phone, personal visit, letter, etc.
  6. What other promotional material may be included with invitations (e.g sponsors, venue brochures)

So far, the invitation is usually a brochure, which might be accompanied by a letter. It is now quite normal to produce a website version, often with a webform for registration and a credit card payment option. This automates the compilation of a database, payment, and some of the bookkeeping.

Decide how you will disseminate information and publicity on the conference program. Your main options are:

Paper brochures are still in demand, even though people people treat them as disposable no matter how good they are. It is now quite normal to produce a website version with the same graphics and branding, often with a webform for registration and a credit card payment option. This automates the compilation of payment and some of the bookkeeping.

Publicity materials, the website, and the invitations need to look impressive, so you will usually need a graphic designer to give them a high quality, innovative design.

Whichever kinds of dissemination you use, you need to provide the following:

  1. Clearly identify exactly who is holding the conference and their contact details
  2. Provide information on:
    1. Theme
    2. Speakers
    3. Workshop topics
    4. Starting and finishing times
    5. Accommodation details
    6. Member and non-member fees
    7. The price and what it covers
    8. Venue address, access, and parking details
    9. Maps indicating surroundings, building, rooms
    10. Travel information
    11. Payment details
    12. Any conditions for tax-deductibility
  3. A registration form.

 

Conference papers

Conference papers will usually come from conference speakers, but could also be research papers, brochures on the organization's aims and objectives, etc. In decision-making conferences, they could also include meeting agendas, minutes of previous meetings, proposals and discussion papers, and voting slips.

Find out what conference papers you will need to distribute, how you will get them, and the deadline by which they must arrive on your desk. For example, you might decide that for papers to be included in the conference binder, you need to have them in hand by a particular date. After that, they will only be handed out in sessions if you have them two days before the conference begins.

You also need to decide how to handle late submissions. Some speakers who will give you the final version of their paper only a few hours before their session starts and expect you to rush around and photocopy it for distribution. If you have an announced policy in place, you could save yourself considerable difficulty.

Find out how they will be disseminated, for example:

Collect conference papers and prepare them for use, usually by producing enough copies for every registered attender, with a few extra copies to spare.

 

Other preparation

What other preparation do you need to do? Which of the following are relevant?

  1. Confirm venues and times
  2. Establish registration procedures and set up the registration desk
  3. Confirm transport and accommodation requirements
  4. Give a briefing to staff and contractors. Clarify roles and responsibilities, and answer questions.
  5. Participants' special needs
  6. Prepare sponsorship proposals and present to potential sponsors
  7. VIPs
    1. Meeting the VIPs
    2. Separate areas and facilities
    3. Special communication - signage, information desk
  8. Gifts, souvenirs and merchandise (e.g. programs, pins, T-shirts, CDs, posters, bags, books)
  9. Room set ups
  10. Staging and technical equipment
  11. Display and signage
  12. Drug testing procedures (for sport)

 

Setting up: Check final arrangements

  1. Check that everything for the event is set up as planned and fix any problems straight away: equipment is available and working correctly, room set ups, staging, display and signage, food and beverage arrangements, registration areas.
  2. Check materials, for example:
    • running sheets
    • copies of agreements with clients
    • briefing papers
    • papers for attenders
  3. Check that all venue spaces and any equipment allow for easy access, especially for those with disabilities, and avoid risk of injury.
  4. Brief on-site staff on their roles, and answer questions.
    1. reporting lines during the event
    2. specific performance indicators
    3. potential problems and contingency plans
    4. availability of materials and equipment

 

Oversee arrivals

Set your timing so that attenders arrive at the best moment. This will give you time to process registrations without creating a rush where people have to wait a long time.

  1. Parking
  2. Meeting and greeting: have someone to welcome people to the event
  3. Reduce all waiting times, for example, give people a welcome drink while they wait to be booked into accommodation
  4. Manage access for participants, support personnel, emergency services, media
  5. Inform people of any changes to the published agenda. You could do this though one or more of the following: a note in conference kits, an announcement in a meeting, and or a written notice displayed prominently.

 

Coordinate the conference

During the meeting, your role is to monitor the whole operation. If you have delegated all tasks and everybody knows how to to them, you should be able to walk around and check with your staff and colleagues that it's all going okay. Trust the people to whom you delegated tasks. (Some of them will not want you to look over their shoulders all the time.)

Check with the client and venue manager that the meeting is progressing to their satisfaction. You should observe meeting sessions occasionally to see that all is going well. You can also ask people how their sessions went.

In practice, you will probably be busy solving any unanticipated problems that only you can solve, or doing any tasks that fell between the cracks in your planning. As you go, you should notice any additional requirements and promptly organize them. This includes providing any extra incidental services such as adding a personal touch, paying attention to details, being thoughtful and considerate, and doing the little bit extra.

Hints:
Personally greet speakers and hosts throughout the conference.
Don't panic. If you've prepared well, you'll probably enjoy it.

 

Closure

Oversee bump out:

  1. Plan how you will pack it all up. If necessary, make a diagram and timeline, and decide how you will roster staff.
  2. Check the venue to ensure that no items and belongings are left behind.
  3. Coordinate the packing and removal of materials and equipment.
  4. Organize the clearance and cleaning of the venue, including security, storage and disposal.
  5. Check whether any repairs or maintenance are needed and delegate it.
  6. Dispose of rubbish.
  7. Replenish stocks of consumables.
  8. Debrief with contractors if it is necessary to discuss any difficulties or suggestions for future improvements.
  9. Note anything else that will need your attention after the conference.

Follow up conference outcomes:

  1. Prepare conference papers for publication
  2. Debrief speakers/participants
  3. Thank speakers for participating
  4. Contact new members or the organization
  5. Consider adding to or maintaining list of possible speakers for future events

 

Evaluation and reporting

Quality management and continual improvement are now standard industry requirements. To do so, you will need feedback from all stakeholders. You have several main ways of getting it:

Based on your feedback:

  1. Did the event achieve its purpose and goals effectively and efficiently?
  2. Did you define the objectives accurately?
  3. Were the original needs met well?
  4. Did the budget work? What improvements would you suggest?
  5. What changes do you need to make to your master checklist?
  6. What other changes do you suggest?

Prepare the financial report and your evaluation containing recommendations for improvement, and submit them to your supervisor.

 

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