Nowadays, information flows not only on the Internet but also on the gathering of people such as conferences, roundtables and networking events. It gives you the opportunities to catch up with the latest trends in the industry and get acquainted with the specialists that you wanted to get to know or have never heard before. What if you would like to organize something on your own? That would be great, but the question arises “What to do?” Don`t worry, as we decided to give you seven steps to writing success resources and conference planning, so you can arrange the venue on your own.
- Start with the theme
It seems to be the easiest task, but in reality, it is not. Choosing the topic of your conference might be a very tricky thing to do. If the theme is not “wide” there might be too many people coming to it or in reverse – nobody will come. Decide what aspects you want to cover on this event; what are the most important issues for the discussion and which of them will be interesting to the public at the current moment. Try to trigger the emotions of the participants. Make topic sound like a good catchy phrase that stays in their minds and touches hearts of the audience. Do not make it long, as when it comes to social media promotion, you will need to use hashtags and logos with the name of the conference, and it might cause troubles if it is too big.
If you have several subtopics in the main theme – divide them by sections and arrange the tickets accordingly. Each subtopic may have separate stages, time and speakers which must be reflected in the conference program template. Make it clear to your guests which platform is doing what and which speaker is present there.
- Create your A-team
Nobody can do everything on his/her own. This refers to organizing the conference as well. For effective functioning of the event, you will need the list of the people, who will be responsible for the administrative part.
First of all, arrange your planning team. These people should create the whole schedule of the conference, make preliminary arrangements with the speakers, talk to other teams about their roles and supervise them constantly; they are also responsible for catering, accommodation, decorations, and guests.
Secondly, choose your marketing team. Good marketing strategy should boost the interest to your conference and make your tickets be sold out before it starts. These specialists should choose channels of communication that will grow the number of potential visitors and also be responsible for the whole commercial side of the venue, including sales of the merchandise.
Thirdly, gather your administration team, which will be responsible for budgeting, registration, helping during the event and all the technical aspects of it.
One of the essential parts is the sponsorship team, which deals with the investors and persons, interested in funding you. They should find the lacking money for you.
Volunteers are inevitable parts of each conference. You can find those who are eager to help you almost everywhere if you offer them free tickets. Try to talk to students – they are always fond of that. You can motivate them that they can learn how to write a conference paper, without the use of any fast essay writing service. You will see that there are many of those, who are willing to help.
- Prepare a business plan
A good and detailed business plan is the key to success. Do your budgeting right. One of the main aims of the conference is to bring you some profit, for that you need to count your fixed and variable costs. For, an example to the fixed cost of the event you can refer: rent; merchandise cost; salaries and compensations of the speakers, etc. To the variable costs, you can add transportation; marketing campaign costs; catering etc.
When planning the budget be realistic. Try to take into account what are the prices and what you can negotiate. Remember that all of the contracts can be discussed. Also if you have a decent business plan – you can see how much of the investment you will need.
- Find sponsors and grants
If you need additional resourcing, you can search for the potential investors, who can benefit from you. Think about most known players in the sphere or industry that might be interested in your topic. Do the conference presentation to them and highlight the pros of participating in it. Maybe, they could pay you for the stand at the conference hall or share the profits from it with you once they put their money to it.
Remember, it is very important that you save the balance between your main theme and the investors` interests.
- Book the place
The location of the conference is very important. Sure thing, the better the location – the higher is the possibility that all of the participants will come. Depending on the number of people and theme you can rent: hotels, student campuses; conference halls, etc. Take into the account: transportation, facilities, size, and accommodation. Make the place comfortable and cozy.
- Arrange catering
Food and lunch breaks are essential for the informal talk. Especially, when the conference lasts for the whole day or several days. If you do not want them to leave early and miss a thing – think of the decent catering that will leave their stomach full and satisfied. What is more, do not include alcohol until the informal part or the end of the venue.
- Line up your speakers
Each presenter should know the schedule and stick to it. Give the speaker precise knowledge of topic and questions to cover and give them a certain amount of time. Nobody should meddle into the order of the event or violate the time frames. Also, ask each of them what kind of compensation they want and what technical support they would need from you. Maybe there will be some need for additional equipment after all.