Important steps when planning a conference

Planning a conference has many important steps that must be taken care of to ensure the success of your conference.

Pre-conference planning stage

Ideally, now you’ll want to start planning your conference a year in advance. With a full team of experienced employees and a suitable budget. Most likely, this is not a reasonable expectation. But don’t panic.

How to plan a conference

The first step in creating a great conference is setting a clear goal.

If you’re going through all the hassle of hosting a conference, it’s safe to say that you’re not just doing it for fun — you have some sort of goal in mind. However, you will be surprised to hear that often people do not create a document that outlines the ultimate goal of the conference.

Are you using this as an opportunity to increase sales, train your team, and build your brand or are you doing something else entirely? Regardless of your goal, the first thing you want to do is to define on paper what you want to achieve so that all subsequent work you do goes into pursuing that goal and making your conference a success.

How do you know if you have succeeded?

Feeling like your conference was a success is a good thing, but the second thing you should do after setting your goal is to design a measurable way to know whether your conference was a success. This step is often skipped, yet it is extremely important when you are talking about measuring the business impact of your conference.

However, all conferences are different and you may not have a specific goal in mind, and that’s totally okay. You still have to do some brainstorming about it. If not just to plan ahead what types of techniques or practices you will need to implement to measure your results after the conference. You’ll want to do this because, in an ideal world, every step you take should move you toward the goal in the first step.

Who is the target audience?

Think about the audience that will be at your conference, and be sure to plan an event that meets their needs!

It would not be an exaggeration to say that finding a good definition of your target audience before planning the conference is the key to everything running smoothly in the future. Once you’ve defined your goal and figured out how to know if you’ve succeeded, you need to make sure you start thinking from the participants’ perspective. Will your conference plan meet their needs and ensure they have an enjoyable and productive time?

Considering the needs of attendees will impact everything from the number of breaks to the quality and quantity of food (if any) to entertainment, and even the choice of venue. You wouldn’t want to cram your company’s senior managers into the same space as your younger tech talent – the needs of both groups are often very different!

Plan your conference step by step

Now that you’ve got your basics fixed and you’re in the right frame of mind, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to the real work – actually assembling all the separate parts you’ll need to make your conference a reality. In general, you don’t need to follow these steps in the order we suggest, but it can be a helpful outline to stick to. You may also want to go a few steps deeper, placing these ideas as headings in a larger document and adding substeps to make each part of the planning process easier to manage. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

Step 1 – Settle on the topic

This step should be a natural progression from choosing the target as mentioned in the first part of this guide. Your theme should be the goal through which both your team and participants arrange the event in their minds.

This usually means making your topic snappy, memorable and inspiring – stick to keeping it no more than one sentence.

If you want to add more information, add a topic banner as subtext (usually a little longer and helps set the scene if the topic itself is esoteric). Examples include “Innovate as a Team” as a theme and “Work Together to Start Improving” as a slogan.

Step 2 – Design the attendees’ journey

The next natural step after settling on your topic is to envision the journey your conference attendees will experience. Ensuring your attendees have a comfortable, efficient and memorable experience is an essential part of the overall event journey you want your attendees to take. So what does attendee journey design mean?

Although a long conference may not seem like it, it’s actually just a collection of a few different touchpoints – small moments of truth that can make or break the overall event experience for attendees. Touchpoints include everything from the first point of contact to food, accommodation, transportation, technology, signage, and technology (to name a few). Basically, show yourself as a completely normal person and try to navigate the event journey. What will make the biggest impression on you?

Your touchpoints and every step along the journey should reinforce your theme and the overall goal of your event. This interaction doesn’t need to be overt, but it should exist at least in the background of every aspect of your event.

However, here’s a quick and easy checklist of questions to ask yourself as you design your attendee journey:

• Do all touchpoints move attendees toward the overall conference goal?
• Do I have the bigger picture in mind as I design each step?
• Do I put myself in the place of the random present?
• Are all touchpoints effective or are some unnecessary?
• Is the end of the journey on target to the goal?

Step 3 – Define your team and define roles

The right team can make conference planning a breeze!

No conference of any size or impact is planned in a vacuum or by one person – you will need to work with your organization and put together a team of people who will be able to contribute to the success of your event. Typically this means you need the following groups of people:

• Physical Planning: A few assistants to handle routine parts like space booking, accommodation, travel, etc.
• Marketing and Communications: Even if this is an internal event and you’re not doing anything like trying to entice participants and sell tickets, you’ll still need a few people in charge of creating some promotional materials and sending out messages to generate hype.
• Management: This is basically the main point of contact for people who have questions, and these people must be in touch with everything related to the event at some level.
• Facilitators: Feet on the ground, making sure everyone gets where they want to go, and that everything is set up the way you want it. They are willing to handle any and all odd jobs that come up.

Step 4 – Determine the date, location, and budget

Determining the date, location, and budget is an important step in conference planning.

Although you may be tempted to do these things simultaneously, in general, it’s best to plan them simultaneously or at least as close to each other as possible. This way, you can avoid any last-second variables such as locking in the budget for the desired date. Then find out the booking date and even if the date suddenly becomes more expensive. Keep in mind the total cost of renting a conference space while determining your budget, this will be the largest item, so plan accordingly.

A good pro tip would be to keep a list of some potential locations in mind when planning, to make sure you’re covered even if there’s a change in plans. When choosing a date and location, be sure to avoid holidays, local festivals, and sporting events. The most popular days usually include Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, so you’ll need to follow suit unless you have something specific in mind. We can help you just contact us.

In fact, securing a budget can be very easy (if you have some provision from your organization) or very difficult. If there is no budget for your conference, you will need to consider conference sponsorship to make it happen. This means that you will need to be more careful about defining the purpose of the event, the value it will bring, the interests of your attendees, and how sponsors can benefit from you. Essentially, you are creating an offer to attract sponsors to your side. Finding a sponsor to pitch your ideas can also be challenging, as it depends on your industry, geography, goals, etc.

Step 5 – Book the right place

The right conference venue can help you provide a great experience for your attendees.

Unless you are lucky enough to have your own space that can host all of your conference attendees, you will need to find the right venue for your needs. Generally, this means looking at local hotels, universities, or other venues that are capable of hosting larger events, or using a platform to find venues online. While you do this, keep the following in mind:

• Size and Seating: Does your choice of venue fit everyone without them having to squeeze in too much, or on the flip side, having them need to shout out to be a part of things? You’ll need to take your time and find a temperate area, especially if you need specific seating arrangements to get things done.
• Location: Depending on your needs, you may want something secluded or connected to the city. Either way, think about public transportation, easy access by taxi, proximity to the airport for your out-of-town guests, and local amenities for those who stay overnight.
• Technology: Do you need information technology, audio and video, or other types of technology to deliver your conference? If so, check if it’s available on site or if you’ll need to bring it with you (as you’ll often need to make sure it can be delivered at your place).
• Ambiance and Amenities: Reserve a space that matches the theme of your event. You’ll want to avoid something like hosting an IT conference in the library, for example. Venues are often customizable, so it doesn’t hurt to call the venue in advance to see if you can take a test tour or at least see the venue with your own eyes.
• Deadline: As mentioned earlier, the earlier you book your spot, the better.

Step 6 – Select the appropriate conference technology

These days, you have a wide range of options when it comes to choosing your conference technology starting from the very necessary technologies such as event apps, social media walls, live streaming, guest facial recognition, and AI chatbots to answer customer queries.

Although not every conference needs to have a heavy focus on technology, a great, streamlined technology experience can often influence the overall experience of attendees in a positive. Read on for some technology trends to explore and use at your next conference.

Step 7 – Arrange people and services

Do you need speakers, caterers, builders or professionals of any other kind? If so, try to book them as far in advance as possible and then keep them updated on your needs as they change (which they will, if you do the smart thing and book at least a few months in advance). This is the key to getting the most out of your money and avoiding any last minute surprises for anyone.

Step 8 – Choose speakers

It’s important to choose your conference speakers wisely – this will impact your attendees’ experience and reputation.

If you are planning a keynote speaker for your event, and you likely are, you need to be very careful in your choice. A good speaker is often the highlight of the event, while a bad speaker can be just as memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Selection of a speaker for your event should take place about six months after the event to avoid issues with logistics and you will need to ask yourself the following questions before making your selection:

• What is the primary objective of your event? Does this person fit in with that?
• Who is your audience? Will this person resonate with them?
• What is your budget? Can you afford them?
• What is the speaker’s purpose? Can they achieve this?
• What is its availability? Can they make your event a success?

After you have an idea of these points, you’ll need to begin the process of actually finding someone to fill the role you’ve just created. This can be done through referrals from people working in the same field as your conference, checking out keynote speakers at similar conferences, searching the pages of organizations or clubs in your field, TED talks on related topics or even going through an agency that handles this.

Step 9 – Plan your agenda

This can be a very simple or very complex part of the conference planning process, depending on how long the conference will last, the amount of content you are packing in time, and the number of people attending.

• Opening Speech: You will need to start with an opening speech to set the scene, welcome the participants, and get some of the main points of the event out in the open. This is also the time when you will need to confirm any logistics and provide the agenda.
• Communicate the agenda: The agenda should be well designed and easy to follow on paper (or digitally) and should also be sent to participants before attendance if possible. For those of you who are planning a multi-day conference. The agenda is much more important than the agenda for a one-day event. You’ll need to include start and end times, meal times, and a schedule for general breaks. As well as the times of any transportation you have arranged for your guests. In addition, it would be wise to plan some type of entertainment (perhaps a social evening of some sort) to keep energy levels high and participants engaged.
• Plan your time in chunks: Beyond that, it’s generally a good idea to plan your time in one- or two-hour chunks of time rather than anything much smaller or larger. The reason for this is that you want enough time on a particular topic to make some progress. But not to the extent that it distracts attention. For this same reason, you’ll want to avoid scheduling anything particularly important right before or after lunch (it’s hard to continue working on an empty stomach or when you’re in a food coma).
• Decide on an early start or late finish: You’ll also need to determine the benefits of an early start or late evening when it comes to fitting all of your content in. On paper, starting at eight may seem like a good idea, but this means that many participants will need to wake up two or three hours earlier and alertness levels will be low. Starting later and finishing later can be a bit tricky, so you’ll need to experiment with your schedule to find the right mix for you.

Step 10 – Promotion

Now that you have some of your plans in place, it’s time to look at another topic that can either be very simple or the most difficult part of the conference planning process – pitching.

Internal events:

First, if the event is internal, you have a relatively simple task in front of you. Create a communications plan covering a few months of messages to generate hype and provide all relevant registration links to participants. This can usually be done via the office’s Outlook network or other internal messaging tools such as Slack. This usually involves saving the date a month or two in advance, an informative message a few weeks in advance with links to sign up for the event, and then a reminder a few days in advance to make sure everyone manages to keep their schedules clear.

External events:

If your conference will be attended mostly by outside visitors and you need to generate interest, you have a more complex task ahead. Settle on the ticket price (if your conference isn’t free) and stay consistent as you prepare to push your event on every channel relevant to your target market. If you have a high-traffic workplace, putting up some offline materials like a well-designed brochure or poster can go a long way. However, most of your promotions will likely focus on the digital. Unless you have a lot of budget to spend on a professional promotion company, it is best to do something relatively inexpensive like advertising on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram if you have channels on all of them), forums for your industry, customer lists, etc. You can also go as far as writing a press release if your company has a decent media presence.

Choice of brand champions:

Moreover, one thing that is always a good idea regardless of whether your audience is mostly internal or external is to pick some Brand Champions. This means finding and engaging a small group of influencers with a wide reach to your target market. You will need to work with them, share your vision of the event, and help them come up with some connections that they can share with their own networks. This approach is often more effective than cold messaging on social media or email, so give it some thought if possible.

Step 11 – Prepare the place

As the day approaches, you’ll need to increase the amount of back and forth between you and your chosen location. Organizers often assume that because the necessary procedures have been discussed with the venue one month in advance, the venue will follow them to the letter. This is often true. But you don’t want to get caught with your pants down on the rare occasion that this doesn’t happen. It may be a bit annoying, but staying on top of the venue in the days leading up to your event is a good idea to make sure everything is ready.

Staging is key: Creating the physical environment can be the difference between a lifeless event fading from memory once people walk out the door. Between something they talk about with their friends and colleagues, put it on social media, and are proud of it. attended it. And that means finding creative ways to make the most of your space. So here are some general tips that you should follow:

Be standard:

You should try to avoid making your stage show an “all or nothing” situation. Instead choose to have pieces that can be moved and configured in different ways to meet any new and unexpected challenges.

Brand Opportunity Planning:

Think about how people will interact with your content, and where they will search. And where they are likely to want to take pictures. Nothing beats a little free publicity for you and any potential sponsors.

Step 12 – Stay on time

Respect those present by sticking to the agenda and not allowing for overreach.

You will need to take the time to ensure that your team understands the plan for each day. So holding some last-minute planning meetings a few days in advance is a must. In fact, it’s generally a good idea to plan a walk-through the morning before your event starts to handle any last-minute details.

Have a map, an agenda, and a timer that will keep everything moving on schedule. Being a timekeeper is often one of the most difficult parts of a conference. It can be very difficult to interrupt people’s attention if they are working overtime. Some tips to make this part easier include:

Time cards:

This is even more important when you have a dedicated speaker for a specific period of time. Carrying time cards that tell them when they have 20 minutes left, 10 minutes left, etc. It can be helpful in letting them know when to speed things up and when to wrap things up.

Senior timekeeper:

Often times you will see temporary employees or volunteers working as time organizers. This is a bad idea because it means they are often ignored and don’t have the metaphorical heft to keep things on schedule.

Prepare attendees/speakers in advance:

A few quick words at the beginning of a speech or activity. It can go a long way toward avoiding things dragging on longer than they need to, so plan ahead.

Post-conference follow-up:

The steps you take after the successful conclusion of your conference are often just as important, if not more so, than the conference itself.

Step 13 – Gather Feedback

Gathering feedback is an important part of determining whether or not your conference can be considered a success. In general, you’ll want to wait until the conference is over but before your guests leave to collect feedback. Although sometimes it may be useful to collect some feedback after key sessions in particular. While the information is still clear in the minds of your employees or participants.

Feedback can be as in-depth as a full survey emailed to participants. Or as simple as tapping a smiley or frowny face on their iPad on their way out the door. So it will be up to you to plan how much detail you are looking to get. A good place to start is at least the following:

Like and Dislike:

Place the different aspects of your event on a scale of 1 to 5 and ask participants to rate how much they liked each part.

general opinion:

Again, put the overall impression of the event on a sliding scale and ask participants to give you a rating. Follow this up with a bit of qualitative information by placing a “Why” field directly after this question.

Changes or improvements:

Good idea if you plan to hold this conference again. or other conferences in the future, An empty field of some comments is often where you get the most honest feedback about the event.

It’s also important to get feedback from your team, not just the participants. The opinion of the people who formed the backbone of your conference is of great importance. Especially since they will often notice things you miss and will have good ideas for the future if you work with them again.

Step 14 – Follow up on conference topics or promises

Don’t let the conference be your last word – follow up with attendees after the event.

Going back to your conference goal, first of all, you’ll need to strike while the iron is hot to ensure the goals are met. This means hiding information from participants and other interested parties. and follow up on any newly established relationship/business, etc. depending on the nature of your event.

The key is not to wait too long, as the effectiveness of follow-up communications declines very quickly. in general. It takes about a day to a week to wait before participants become less responsive.

It is worth devoting a few people to this step only and having them organize large-scale communications. They work more with the “champions” we discussed earlier, and generally keep the discussion moving forward and not stalling.

Step 15 – Track future interested parties

It is often a good idea to keep a list of your participants and identify which parts of the conference they found most interesting. These are usually the first people you target for future events. So it’s helpful to know who they are and what type of event they want to attend.

A good way to manage this part of the process is to have the option to sign up for a feedback survey. Which will allow people to sign up to hear news about future events in certain categories. If you’re planning another event, starting to build your database early is often worth its weight in gold.