Planning a Successful Business Conference
Organizing an entire business conference from scratch may seem daunting at first. After all, there is so much to do, and planning has to start so far in advance. However, it is possible to run a successful conference.
Indeed, if you carefully consider and plan the following four critical elements, your conference should run smoothly and successfully.
Set definite aims
Before you do any other work on your conference you must sit down and work out the reasons why you are running it. Indeed, without clear aims, you can end up wasting a great deal of money on an event that doesn’t serve your purposes.
With that in mind, be sure to identify the reasons for holding the conference in the first place, and use these to guide your actions.
For example, if you are looking to launch new product sessions on its development, production, and providing possible customers the opportunity to see it in action will be required.
However, if you are looking to improve company morale and motivate your sales force, awards, prizes and entertainment may be much more suitable.
Consider your dates
Choosing the dates for your conference is one of the most important tasks there is. This is because you need to make sure that the people you invite will be able to attend, that your venue is free, and that your event doesn’t clash with any other important events or stressful periods (like Christmas) in your field.
It can be helpful to work with a few dates initially, brainstorming anything that could be a problem and then following up on this to confirm. However, for maximum attendance, you will need to set a firm date as soon as possible, and no less than a whole year before your conference will run.
Choose you venue
After the date your conference will run, choosing the right venue is vital. Indeed, there are many factors to consider here from location, to cost and the facilities that they offer.
For example, picking an inner-city local may be ideal because of good travel links and when most people already work within that area.
Although, it’s worth remembering that many conferences encourage attendance by combining the work that goes on in the day with fun and a pleasant overall experience.
For this reason, a more rural venue that offers unique meeting space, as well as retreat-like facilities may be more conducive to success.
Indeed, as many will base both their decision to attend and their feedback on their overall experience, choosing a venue that can make this as positive as possible, is a smart idea.
Confirm the schedule
Once you have chosen and booked your venue, it’s time to confirm your schedule. This means deciding what events will run, how long the sessions will be, and who will lead them.
At this stage, it is particularly important to confirm any keynote speakers. This is because they get booked up well in advance and you could run into a lot of problems if you advertise an appearance that doesn’t end up happening.
