Module 4. Oral communication and organizational skills
Lesson 17
ORGANIZING SEMINARS & CONFERENCES
17.1 Introduction
The popularity of conferences and seminars results from the distinct benefits they offer. Attendees pre-qualify themselves as prospects; if they weren't interested in the issue being discussed, they wouldn't come. You get to talk with them face-to-face, both formally during presentations and informally during breaks, meals, and receptions. As a speaker, you are automatically classified as an expert. Outside speakers can add credibility and drawing power. Because seminars can run from a few hours to several days, they can be adapted to a wide array of subject matter and contexts. In combination with outbound telemarketing, the offer of a quality seminar is an effective tool for multiplying the number of qualified prospects for your products and services.
17.2 Benefits of Seminar/Conference
It is better to address the benefits of a seminar/conference before going through the first steps of conference organization. A conference is the broadest of the three kinds of meetings (Seminar, Workshop, and Conference) can provide, among others, the opportunity to:
17.2.1 Seminars can be of the following types
Each of these programs will result in new business for the sponsor or for the speakers. Unlike most forms of marketing, you can sometimes charge for seminars, covering your marketing costs and even making a profit. However, with these benefits come associated risks and costs, especially if you plan a large conference for which you will charge a fee. If it is a one-time event, a conference is a high-fixed-cost, low variable cost enterprise. The time speakers must invest to prepare remains constant regardless of audience size. Marketing costs are also usually fixed, consisting of a large mailing. This leaves the duplication of handouts as the major variable cost. A two-day conference can cost you a bundle if too few participants attend to defray the hotel charges. By forecasting your costs, you can easily run a breakeven analysis to calculate how many participants you need at a given price to recoup your costs. The fee from every additional attendee is almost all profit.
A small seminar, over a breakfast or at the end of the day, can be set up and run by one person if time is available over an extended period, but it is a method that lends itself more to an organization. A large conference requires many hours of preparation from many people. This differs from many of the other marketing techniques that can be done by a single individual.
17.2.2 Optimizing the seminar’s success
The subject for a business conference must:
17.2.2.1 Be educational
People come to conferences to learn. Entertainment is a plus, but promotion of your business is acceptable only if it is heavily disguised. There has to be something worth learning.
17.2.2.2 Be urgent
There must be a need to know now. A conference on "New Genomic Tools" is not likely to draw as many people as one entitled “Speeding Your Drugs to Market”. The term "urgent" here means that there is value to learning something now rather than later.
17.2.2.3 Provide solutions
The conference must offer attendees solutions or progress toward solutions, because people attend conferences in order to solve problems better.
You should test seminar content against these criteria. A brainstorming session with your staff can usually provide you with a good assortment of subjects to pick from that will ensure good attendance.
17.2.3 Length
Next you must decide on the conference's length. You can determine length by asking yourself the following questions:
a) How much time and support do I have to set it up? A two-day conference requires much more work than a half day seminar. You must adjust the length to the level of effort you can put into setting it up.
b) How much content do I have to offer? There is simply not enough material for a lengthy conference on some subjects.
c) Is my audience willing to pay? A two-day conference gets expensive, and most firms expect to be paid for them. The audience, in turn, is faced with not just a fee but a substantial opportunity cost in time invested away from other duties. A longer conference must therefore deal with a particularly weighty, urgent, or complicated subject. Generally you must also have a longer mailing list to find people with budgets and schedules that will allow them to attend.
d) How many speakers can I attract? Many conferences use only one speaker, but the speaker had better be good. Using three or four speakers a day diversifies your risk. Some of the time the audience will be listening to some exceptional speakers, even if not all are of equal quality.
e) How geographically scattered is my market? Few people will drive more than an hour to attend a half day seminar. Assuming that very few of the intended clientele respond to your invitations (an optimistic target, unless outbound telemarketing is utilized), you will need to invite two hundred prospective buyers of your services to attract a twenty-person audience. Identifying so many prospects within a one hour travel time is easy in some businesses but impossible in others, even when more than one person is invited from the same organization. The wider the geographic area you need to draw people from, the longer your conference will have to be to justify longer travel times. Alternatively, you need to repeat your half day seminar in several locations to meet the travel time criterion.
17.2.4 Timing
Timing will also affect attendance. Most are scheduled to avoid summer vacations and end-of-the-year holidays. Longer conferences tend to be scheduled for either the beginning or end of the week, allowing participants to travel on the weekend and perhaps enjoy a short vacation at the city where the conference is being held. In the suburbs, short seminars should run in the late afternoon, allowing attendees to leave work a little early and avoid rush-hour traffic. Center-city seminars often fare better over breakfast or lunch, allowing attendees to leave before rush-hour. If charging a fee, don’t schedule late in the year, as most travel budgets are already used up.
17.2.5 Location
Possible locations for your seminar or conference include your own offices, a hotel, a corporate or privately operated conference center, or space borrowed or leased from another organization. If your office has adequate meeting space and is close to the market you are trying to reach, holding the conference there provides you the opportunity to show the place off and introduce other members of the firm. The location serves as a subtle advertisement for your firm.
Hotels and conference centers offer logistical support unavailable at many offices for conferences of a day or more, including full audio visual support, eating space separate from meeting space, and almost enough telephones for everyone to use during breaks. Most hotels will provide meeting spaces free if you guarantee a minimum number of room rentals. Room rates are negotiable if you expect a large number of participants. More importantly, you will want to negotiate the cost of meals and break-time refreshments. This is because participants pay for rooms themselves, while you pay for meals and refreshments either out of conference fees or out of your own budget. Talk to several hotels, see the space they plan to give you, look at rooms, taste the food, check out logistical support such as photocopying and audio visual equipment, request rates, and ask for references from others who have held meetings there. You will then be in a position to negotiate with several hotels to get the mix of service and cost that suits your needs.
17.2.6 Seminar marketing
Most seminars are marketed by direct mail. The longer the seminar and the more you plan to charge for it, the longer the list will have to be to identify an adequate number of candidates. A breakfast or evening seminar can get by with a much shorter list.
Seminar attendance can be increased dramatically through effective telemarketing. Scripts and training are the key, and only qualified professionals that can represent you effectively should be used. Telemarketing should be coordinated with mail drops, timed so the prospect has the invitation on their desk no more than a week. Outbound scripts should include topic and product interest and referral questions. Interviewees can also be asked if they would post invitations on bulletin boards, or e-mail the announcement to their colleagues. An e-mail version should be available to facilitate this.
You should also consider having the seminar announcement and registration form on your website. We don’t recommend advertising in journals, due to the high cost and relatively low coverage.
17.2.7 The invitation
Because the quality of your invitation or flyer greatly influences attendance, it deserves special attention. For a one- or two-day conference, the flyer should include seven things:
• The conference theme - The reader should be able to determine almost instantaneously what the conference is about. The wording should be as compelling as possible.
• A concise description stressing benefits - Don't leave it to the readers to figure out what they will get out of attending. If you tone down your flyer, be sure you don't obscure the benefits in the process.
• A description of who should attend - This inclusive list indicates who the conference is designed for and allows the reader to say, "This is meant for me!"
• A review of the schedule and content - In this portion, list what will occur: From the morning through the afternoon of each day, noting speakers and subjects followed by two or three bullets stressing the benefits of each.
• A concise speaker description. Include credentials, background and experience.
• Logistics of time, place, fee, payment, registration, and accommodations. This should include directions to the site, if not included with confirmation letters.
• A sign-up sheet. This can be a tear sheet or a response card to fax or mail in. Make sure to ask qualifying questions, including seminar topic interest, and product interest and timing.
17.2.8 The speakers
People who organize seminars for the first time often see themselves or others in their firm as primary speakers. You can often do better by including outsiders and sometimes by using them exclusively. Doing this will make the seminar seem less self-serving, which frequently results in higher attendance. Prospective customers will shun a seminar if they sense they may be submitted to an hour-long advertisement. When selecting a speaker or speakers for a seminar, one should consider the following points:
1. Drawing power- Some names attract more attendees than others. A client with stature in his industry will often attract his competitors, who are probably good prospective clients for you.
2. Availability- One of the most onerous tasks in organizing a conference or seminar is lining up speakers. This needs to be done early in the process, because everything else hinges on it.
3. Knowledge- The speaker must know the subject matter. Firms that use only their own employees as speakers often can do so because they are presenting highly technical material that is little understood by outsiders.
4. Speaking ability- The quality of the speaking will determine the success of the seminar. Don't subject your audience to the expert bore. Rehearse the speakers.
5. Balance - If you have several speakers, make sure they present different points of view. Otherwise you will get a me-too presentation.
6. Price- Most firms want to avoid paying speakers, other than for travel expenses.
If you do decide to speak yourself or to use others in your firm as speakers exclusively, you must stress the content and benefits in your flyer. The more people understand about what they will learn, the less they are likely to fear an advertisement. Remember that people attend a seminar to learn, not to be sold!
17.2.9 Chance to talk
People attend seminars and conferences not only to hear the speakers but also to talk to their peers at other companies. They want to compare notes, empathize, look for jobs, and relax with others who understand their problems. These periods of informal interaction also offer you the best opportunities for building relationships and generating leads. Arrangements for this activity deserve careful attention. You need to block appropriate time for it-before a breakfast or dinner seminar, after an afternoon seminar, and at several convenient times during a conference. You will need space that encourages interaction. That means open space out of traffic flow where people can stand and talk to each other without interruption. Comfortable sitting space in small clusters helps too. During this time you and others from your firm should play host, circulating to make sure you meet everyone, making introductions, and absorbing those at the fringes of the conversations into the center. Above all, you should get others to talk. They have had a chance to hear you during the presentation. Now it is your turn to listen and learn. Learn names, learn personal interests, and learn business responsibilities and concerns. This information will allow you to follow up later with a personal note to each individual.
Have a few stock questions to get others talking, like, "What is your specific interest in coming to this conference?" or "What do you think of the seminar so far?" Also, have questions that will draw out the silent individuals in a group. If one individual dominates the discussion with his reason for attending, wait for a pause and say, "That's interesting." Turn to someone else and say, "Did you come for the same reasons or different ones?" Using your networking skills, you should be listening for ways you can help those you talk with. An obligation to call a participant with information he is looking for creates a means of keeping the relationship alive later. Create a list of these obligations for use after the conference. The opportunity to establish a relationship with your audience is one of the primary benefits of running a seminar or conference. The chance to do so is largely restricted to informal interaction periods. Work hard during these periods and you greatly increase your chances of obtaining business later.
17.2.10 Money
Few firms charge for seminars running less than a full day. A multi-track or two-day conference, however, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on. Because of the substantial educational benefits they provide, attendees are willing to pay for them, and most, though not all, firms charge a fee. You should consider doing so.
The more your conference looks like one run by a trade association or other third-party conference operator, the more you can charge attendees. This usually means several presenters from a variety of organizations, high quality audiovisual materials, a binder full of training materials, and good quality conferencing space. Individuals with unusually strong credentials as experts and trainers do present alone for two days and charge, but they are in the minority. For prevailing fee structures, review fliers for conferences that you receive by mail. Charging a fee can enhance the credibility of your seminar. It shows that people will pay to hear what you say and is an indicator that you intend to educate, not advertise.
17.2.11 Something to take home
For-profit conferences universally provide participants with printed material summarizing what they have learned. If your event is free, you must decide whether to do so. Materials you can use for this purpose include copies of exhibits used by speakers, white papers or reprints of articles on the subject, and speaker bios.
A high quality package of materials adds to the professional appearance of a seminar and gives those who attend something they can save with your name on it.
17.2.12 Post-Seminar Follow -up
Within a week of a conference's completion you should follow up with letters to everyone you have met, thanking them for attending. If you have promised someone information, you can put it in the letter, or, if appropriate, call. As in all forms of marketing, follow-up has a major impact on lead generation and separates the serious marketer from the casual one.
Attendees should be contacted after the seminar by a centralized telemarketing effort or one closely managed with Field Sales. Immediate prospects for your services are quickly forwarded to Field Sales, and Field Sales should receive a list of those with longer term buying plans. There should be managed follow-up of prospects who express product interest every six months.
17.3 Guidelines for Writing/Formulating a Proposal for Organizing International Conferences/Workshops/Seminars for Approval by the Higher Authority
1. Title of the Seminar/Conference/Workshop/Forum
2. Purpose: The purpose of the proposal is to seek the consideration and approval of the Higher Authority to organize the International Conference
3. Background: Background of the Seminar/Conference/Workshop.
4. Organizing Committee
5. Objective of the Seminar/Conference/Workshop
6. Basis For Consideration: Justification of the need to hold the conference.
7. Details of the Seminar/Conference/Workshop:
-Date, Time and Venue
-Participants:- Specify total number of local and participants and list out their names. State and list the countries that will be expected to participate in the conference.
-Paper presentation: State the working papers for presentation. State and list the paper presenters and their countries of origin
-Programme (Brochure): Please attach conference brochure
8. Financial Implications:
Specify source of income and expected expenditure
Specify whether this involves budget allocation from the government or any central agency
9. Security Implications:
Specify whether the seminars/conferences, workshops/forum held have implications on security and national policies
10. Recommendations:
The approving authorities are kindly requested to consider and approve the proposal to organize the International Conference on “Towards Better (Trust) Management & Development”
11. Report on the implementation of the Seminar/Conference/Workshop/Forum
Report of the conference should be forwarded to the concerned higher authority as soon as possible, through proper channel.
17.3.1 The idea
The idea of organizing a conference without any specific details is usually generated by one person and that person needs to spread his idea within his department and see who is willing to help. Once he has a team with at least two-three members he can start preparing.
17.3.2 Pre-preparation
A group of two-three persons will not be enough for the organization of a conference, so there is a need to recruit more students in the group. The department should be informed about the idea and the goals and should give their approval before inviting more people to help.
17.3.3 Call for volunteers
Usually postgraduate student conference organizing committees are created by Post-graduate students who volunteer to help and thus are small in number. If it is a small team (2-3 persons), then call for volunteers so as to expand your team. A “call for volunteers” should outline the purpose of the team (now be called a committee) and provide a general description of what the new members will do. Also give a ‘response deadline’ for those who would like to volunteer. Conduct an interview before admitting anyone in the committee.
17.3.4 The interview
Allocate a time and place for the interview. Before having the interview make sure you have a list of all the questions you and your colleagues would like to ask as well as what it is that you are looking for from the new members. What you are looking for should be determined by the list of duties in the sections 3 and 4 below. The most important restriction for a person to become a member of the committee should be to be available during the conference preparation period.
Have in mind that a conference organizing team will surely need among others a:
• Head of the conference/team, who will be responsible for keeping the agenda and organizing all other members;
• Head of finance: the person, who will know exactly how much money you have and what you spent the rest of the money on;
• Head of the programme: To know what the programme would be like, getting in touch with lectures, students, etc.
• Head of accommodation: the person who will organize all the accommodation facilities and offers provided for the conference, as well as inform the participants or attendees about all the tourist information needed
• Head of technical support & webmaster: the person(s) who will know how to handle audio-visual equipment as well as support the organization and maintenance of the webpage. Therefore the students admitted in the committee should abide with the above requirements.
17.3.5 Specifying the Nature of the Conference:
Once having a team you need to specify the actual nature of the conference. Try to provide answers to the following questions in order to determine the nature of the conference:
• To whom the conference is going to address?
• Who are the people most likely to attend it?
• Which area of importance will be covered?
• Will it have a specific theme within the area?
• Is it going to be a Local, Regional, National or International Conference?
• Where will it be held?
• How long should it last?
• What is the scope of the conference?
In order to be able to answer these afore-stated questions, you should draw some information from previous conferences of the same nature. Learn as much as possible about other conferences, seminars and workshops, so as to be acquainted with many hints and procedures.
17.3.6 Preparation / Time-table
When having a team and the approval of your department as well as being able to answer the questions above then you can continue with administering to each member of the committee what they are suppose to do. Firstly, you should plan the timetable for preparation, execution and follow-up. The timetable should be divided into three sections with respect to the remaining months until the conference is held. The first step should involve preparations made for 5-6 months before the event, the second for the preparations made for 3-4 months before the conference; and lastly, 1-2 months before the conference.
17.3.6.1 First Step: 5-6 months before the event
When planning the timetable you should consider that you should provide at least 5-6 months for preparation. This is vital for both you as organizers and the presenters.
a) Secure a day
In order to be able to secure a day for the conference you should search at some linguistics pages and find all conferences held during the academic year you are interested in organizing your conference. Make sure that you choose a day that it is at least 5-6 months away and there is no other conference on that day in the same area as the one where you are thinking of having the conference.
b) Room-bookings
Once you decide on the day you need to allocate room bookings (committee-style or lecture style). When making room bookings you should think about how many parallel or net sessions you are going to have. The more parallel sessions the more rooms you will need. Also consider the fact that depending on the length of the conference the attendance will vary. Therefore, you need more rooms that you may use at the end which are good sized rooms where your participants will not seem to be too few or too many. Also consider that the rooms you book have the appropriate requirements; for example audiovisual (AV) equipment. In a conference you always serve coffee and sometimes lunch or dinner depending on the nature of the conference. This is something that should also be considered since you need the lecture rooms to be close to a coffee room where the coffee will be served; either by a university catering or any other catering service which is approved.
c) Catering
If you are organizing the conference in your university then you should ask for the approval by the university catering services available in your area. That is, universities tend to have some approved services which can be given to students so as to follow among others safety regulations. Once having the list you can start contacting the catering services and choose the one which suites your requirements. Consider that when being asked to give the catering service the program of the conference you should tell them to bring everything 10-15 minutes earlier so as to avoid any delays and be able to have a backup plan in case that something goes wrong; with respect to catering services.
d) Funding
In order to be able to pay for all your expenses you will need a sponsor. First you should address your department to see whether they could fund your conference. You could also apply to other organizations, which may be scientific, financial/banking,donor/sponsoring in nature.
e) Plenary Speakers
All conferences tend to have two or three plenary speakers who are reputed ones (in their area of specialization) from all over the world. As a conference organizer, you should have decided whether the conference you are organizing will be of a specific subject or not. If the conference covers a specific area of linguistics then you should choose the leading linguists in that field and invite them to become the plenary speakers. However, if the conference you are organizing is a general one, without having a focus on any specific area/field, then you should be cautious when choosing who to invite as plenary speakers.
f) Advertising the Event
When confirming your plenary speakers then you can advertise the event. Initially the event should be advertised to your audience, depending on the nature of the conference; whether it is a regional, International, etc.
g) Call for Abstracts
The ‘call for abstracts’ should include information such as:
• Time and place of the conference
• Names of the plenary speakers
• Which departments / associations support the event
• Deadline for abstract submission
• Description of the abstract format required; named, word count etc.
You should make sure that you have a reasonable deadline for abstract submission and that you sent at least three invitations to your prospective audience with a short interval in between. Be prepared when setting the deadline that you may have to extend the deadline, since for uncountable reasons you may not have enough abstracts to complete the slots you want
h) Registration Form
The form should include among others:
• Name and affiliation details
• Information about registration packs/fees
• Information regarding dietary requirements or any other individual needs
• A check-list to indicate whether they are presenting or just attending the conference
• Information about accommodation packs
Advise all presenters to register, since information about dietary and accommodation requirements is not obtained through an abstract submission.
i) Webpage Design
You should try to either form a webpage through your department’s server or through one of your own; this depends on the status of your conference and whether it is approved by your department. The actual webpage should include:
• Information about the nature of the event
• Information about the place and the surrounding area of where the event is taking place
• Travel information / time tables redarding bus, trains, Metro etc.
• Hotel lists
• Contact details of all committee members
• Information about the committee members
• Abstract guidelines
• Fares for registration/ packs available for students
• Mode(s) of payment
• Registration form
17.3.6.2 Second Step: 3-4 months before the event
(a) Receiving the Abstracts
Once receiving the abstracts you should make sure that they follow the format you requested. Those that abide to the guidelines can be categorized depending on their field.
(b) Reviewing the Abstracts
You should decide on whether you would like postgraduate students or teaching staff to review the abstracts submitted. Once you decide on this then you can distribute a call for reviewers.
(c) Call for Reviewers
The ‘call for reviewers’ should include information about possible areas of linguistics which will be addressed by the abstracts as well as a deadline for notification of interest. This should also include a deadline for when the abstract reviewing is due. You should also include a note as to which area the volunteered reviewers would feel more positive to review. This, you should have in mind when distributing the abstracts received. When sending the abstracts to reviewers you should give the reviewers an anonymous copy of the abstract so as to avoid any biased answers. You should also provide the reviewers with reviewing guidelines, in order to obtain clear comments and avoid more subjective recommendations.
(d) Acceptance/ Rejection of Abstracts
When receiving reviewers’ comments and their suggestion for accepting or declining the abstract you should inform the presenters. Before that you should try to crosscheck reviewers’ comments so as to make sure that you also agree with their comments. The abstracts that were rejected could be accepted as a poster presentation or nothing at all.
e) Conference Programme
When creating the program there are several factors you should consider, such as:
• Enough time for registration in the morning
• Include a 15 minute slot in the first session for the opening of the conference which should be made by a member of your sponsoring organization and the chair of your committee
• Adequate breaks between sessions
• Tea/Coffee breaks should last for at least 17 minutes
• Lunch breaks should last for at least 1 hour
• Have enough time for poster presentations
• Allow for a five-minute break between presentations, so that attendees can choose to leave or change the lecture room
• Try to have presentations in each session and same lecture room that cover the same or similar area of linguistics. That is, have syntax presentations on one session and morphology on another
• Have both the name of the presentation and the presenter on the program. You may also want to include affiliation details
• Also, try to have two-three last minute backup presentations (if you can) in case that there is a last minute cancellation
f) Advertising about the Conference Programme
Once you have created the program you should send it to all departments and your audience. When sending the program also include in the email a second/third call for attendees along with all information needed; do not forget the registration form..
17.3.6.3 Third Step: 2-1 month(s) before the event
• Arrange facilities for collection and banking, cancellation and upload them on the webpage.
• Ask the presenters whether they would require any special equipment
• Book AV equipment etc., finalizing room allocation.
• Create an abstract booklet for both oral and poster presentation (or even workshops) and sent it to the printing services.
• Create conference posters and use them to advertise your conference around your Department and University.
a) One week before the event
Make the conference packs for the event. This should include the following:
• Abstract booklet
• Conference time-table
• Information about local events and the area, which you can get from the tourism office from your town/city
• Any advertising leaflets given by your department or any other funding body
• Taxis’ telephone numbers, Train, metro, bus time-tables, etc.
• Name-Tags (make sure that committee’s name-tags differ in color or layout to the ones given to presenters and attendees)
• Food-vouchers (if any)
• Area- maps
• Delegate-lists
• Feedback- form
• Make preparations in case that the event has to be cancelled. That is, you may need to have a cancellation notice ready which you could distribute to everyone who was registered as well as to any mailing lists.
• Ask your plenary speakers, attendees and presenters whether they would require any extra help with their arrival at the place of the event.
• You should printout some extra taxi numbers and bus, train, metro timetables, area maps for the registration desk.
• Briefing session with helpers.
• Check & re-check the room- bookings, speakers, refreshment/catering arrangements, room layout and AV provision.
b) One day before the event
• Make sure there are enough signs for speakers and attendees to find the room where the event will take place. If not create some yourself.
• Re-confirm: room bookings, catering.
• Arrange room layout for both poster and oral presentations.
• Make sure the whole committee is on call in case that something goes wrong.
• Confirm that the folders etc are ready.
• Confirm you have a printout of the lists of presenters and attendees.
• Confirm you have a list of any economic arrangements that need to be settled on the day.
• Have a list of all the telephone numbers for all possible services needed. That is, catering, safety services as well as hospital telephone numbers.
• Check that you have done the name tag and food vouchers etc.
• Make sure you have a money box for the day of the event.
• Arrange which members of the committee are going to be at the registration desk, who is going to welcome guests and who is going to assist presenters test their presentation on your AV equipment.
• Make sure you have at least two extra laptops for the day of the event, in case that a computer or the AV equipment in any of the rooms is not working properly.
• Have an announcement advising attendees to enter/leave the lecture room if they are late by the emergency exits not the front doors so as not to interrupt the presenter.
c) On the day
• Arrive early
• Prepare the registration desk and make sure that everybody is on their position
• Check on room layout, provision for speakers (AV, water in the lecture rooms)
• Advise the presenters as soon as they register to check their presentation with the person who has been allocated for this job.
• Before the beginning of the first presentation thank everyone for coming and also make sure you acquaint them with safety and room evacuation procedures. When organizing a conference or any other event you are responsible for guiding people in case of an emergency event. Therefore, make sure that you have been informed about all the safety procedures and that at least one member of the committee knows first aid in case that you might need to act accordingly.
d) Afterwards
• Record who actually attends
• ‘Thank You’ letters to speakers
• General report to all delegates
• Settle the account
17.3.7 Conference & seminar organizer's outline
17.3.7.1 Outline of the specific tasks you must complete to run a conference
I. Determine Goals & Target Audience
a. Select general subject(s)
b. Determine length (half day, one day, two days, multiple tracks)
c. Brainstorm regarding alternative venues & topics
d. Review for feasibility
1. Is it educational?
2. Is it important?
3. Will it provide solutions?
4. Do we have the resources/knowledge to handle it?
II. Determine Seminar Marketing Plan
A. Mailing List/Logistics
B. Advertising
C. Website
D. Outbound telemarketing
1. Pre-mailing qualification & referral
2. Post-mailing qualification, referral & registration
E. Registration options
III. Establish schedule
1. Set date(s)
2. Set completion dates for key tasks
3. Monitor and revise periodically
IV. Select speakers
A. Brainstorm alternatives
1. Internal
2. External
3. Current users
4. Other experts
B. Review for suitability
1. Knowledge
2. Drawing power of name
3. Speaking ability
C. Invite speakers
1. Invite and confirm availability
2. Invite fallback speakers, as needed
V. Select site
A. Review alternatives
1. Internal
2. Hotel
3. Conference center
B. Inspect site alternatives
1. Meeting space
2. Breakout space
3. Socializing space
4. Sleeping accommodations
5. Food service
6. Logistical support
7. Photocopying
8. Audiovisual equipment
9. Telephones
10. Message service
11. Rest rooms
12. Financial terms
13. Larger space for overcapacity
C. Negotiate terms and reserve space
VI. Mail invitations
A. Create invitation list
1. Brainstorm alternatives with planning team
a) Internal
b) Purchased
c)Provided by speakers
2. Set targets, filter & combine databases
B. Determine registration sources
1. mail
2. fax
3. web
4. inbound phone center
5. outbound telemarketing center
C. Produce invitations
1. Draft copy
a) Describe theme
b) Describe benefits
c) Note who should attend
d) Describe schedule and content
e) Describe speakers
f) Describe logistics
(1) Time
(2) Place
(3) Fee and payment
(4) Registration/response form, including qualification questions
(5) Accommodations
(6) Directions
Design, print and mail invitations and confirmation packages
g) Staged mail drops (as needed)
h) Fax and e-mail versions for follow-up
VII. Registration & confirmation
A. Monitor incoming registration
1. Ask qualification questions on all incoming telephone calls
2. Provide lists of registrants to sales reps weekly
3. Monitor registration for room capacity
B. Conduct outbound telemarketing
1. Ask qualification questions
2. Ask for referrals
3. Invitation ready to Fax or e-mail to referrals or if misplaced
C. Send Confirmation Packages
1. Include schedule, speakers bios, directions, mass transit, parking info
2. Sending options (mail, fax, e-mail)
D. Conduct outbound reminder calls
1. 24 to 48 hours prior to the event
2. Voicemail messages are OK
VIII. Order refreshments/meals
A. Select caterer/provider
B. Select menu
C. Place order
IX. Rehearse speakers
A. Schedule rehearsal
B. Coach speakers
C. Determine need and arrange for audiovisual equipment
X. Prepare materials
A. Collect copies of speakers' exhibits
B. Collect speakers' bios
C. Collect white papers/article reprints
D. Prepare title page and table of contents
E. Duplicate and bind
F. Prepare seminar evaluation form, including qualification questions
XI. Arrange and check seminar logistics
A. Reception
B. Registration
C. Name tags
D. Coat room
E. Speaker introductions
F. Writing materials for attendees
G. Materials delivery
H. Seating arrangement
I. Water for speakers
J. Podium and lighting for speakers
K. Audiovisual equipment
L. Heating and air conditioning
M. Hosts and helpers from firm
XII. Conduct event
A. Set up “Welcome Centre” to speed up registration & seating
B. Offer reward for turning in completed evaluation and qualification form
XIII. Post-event follow-up
A. ‘Thank You’ letters to attendees
B. ‘Thank You’ letters to speakers
C. Post-seminar telemarketing
D. Follow-up to harvest immediate prospects.