FEATURE
CONFERENCING & EVENTS Organising a conference
Planning and hosting a conference can be a highly rewarding yet stressful task. There is a lot to manage, from organising the finances and selling tickets to booking speakers and finding the perfect venue, so a great attention to detail and good organisational skills are of the utmost importance.
THE EARLY PLANNING STAGE At a minimum, you need four to six months to plan a successful conference. Your first task should be to pinpoint your goals and objectives: what is your event’s purpose? What is your proposed date? How many people do you aim to invite? Next, put together a rough
budget (if you can, use budgetary information from past events to help you figure out cost estimations) determine the cost of tickets and select your optimal date, as well as a back-up date in case your preferred venue is
booked or your proposed speakers are otherwise engaged. Finally, begin to plan your theme,
always keeping your audience and goals in mind. This will include creating a shortlist of venues, reaching out to potential vendors, deciding if your event will be catered, narrowing down your list of ideal speakers and beginning your search for sponsors. When selecting a venue, you
need to consider geographical location, the size of the space, what equipment it can provide and how easy the venue is to navigate.
FINALISE YOUR BUDGET With your event sketched out and approved, you need to finalise your budget – and begin to allocate it. Your checklist should include: • Finalising your speakers and organising their travel and accommodation
• Setting your ticket prices, beginning your sales campaign and finalising sponsors
• Building your event website/social media platforms, organising your marketing streams and beginning to promote your event
• Considering the cost of promotional materials, such as banners and signage and delegate identification and packs
• Finalising your venue setup, including catering, seating, audio and visual technology, communication technology and reviewing necessary security/health and safety requirements
Once this is done, you will have a
clearer idea of your projected revenue.
IRON OUT THE DETAILS At this point, it’s time to finalise the details. You should by now have completed and confirmed the conference schedule and sent reminders to attendees, speakers, sponsors and vendors. In order to maximise revenue and meet your sales, you should also be looking to push promotions on your website, social media, via email and, if your budget allows it, via paid advertisements. All decorations, ID badges,
information packs and the like should be ordered and travel and accommodation booked.
‘Confirm the event schedule and your communication plan with all organisers and staff, ensuring they all know where they need to be and when’
ONE WEEK TO GO It’s time to tie up any and all loose ends and, with just a few days to go, it’s important to keep track of your to-do list. Make sure that every staff member has a clearly-defined role so that they know exactly what falls under their responsibility. Confirm the event schedule and your communication plan with all organisers and staff, ensuring they all know where they need to be and when – and who they should get in touch with, and how, in case of an emergency. On the subject of emergencies, it
may be prudent to put ‘emergency kits’ together for staff, which can include often overlooked but important items such as phone chargers, printed lists of contact numbers and bottled water. Additionally, you need to make sure that all speeches and addresses have been approved and timed to make sure they don’t run over length. Your floor plan and timeline, as
well as your final registration numbers, should be distributed to the venue owners, caterers, decorators, equipment technicians and clean up crew. Although the run-up to the big
day will no doubt be busy, you should also take the time (or delegate) to regularly promote the event on social media. This will be a handy way for delegates to get in touch and follow the action, while also maximising your sponsors’ profiles – as well, of course, as your own.
48 business network May 2018
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