Top tips for organising a conference

The event management team here at Nottingham Conference Centre have put together this post to offer some of their tips for organising a conference.

All successful conferences and events are the result of thorough planning. If you are tasked with organising a conference, no matter how small or large, then make sure you have a detailed plan in place.

Start by defining your aims, objectives and target audience for your conference. Once these are in place you can begin to draw up a budget and, if needed, identify sources of income. Don’t forget to include staffing costs for pre-conference administration work, making site visits, corresponding with delegates and coordinating registration. Also, build into the budget the accommodation and travel costs of those staff. Look at any previous conferences you or your company has organised. How many delegates attended? Are your number expectations for this conference realistic based on these figures? It’s important to calculate both the best and worst scenarios and have contingency plans and budgets in place.

Now you can begin to invite keynote speakers and other key individuals. Make sure your speakers are relevant and interesting to your target market. Don’t just book a celebrity speaker because you think the name will sell. Ensure you add the speakers’ travel and accommodation needs to your budget. The availability of your chosen keynote speakers may dictate the dates your conference can be held on, so plan ahead and be prepared to be flexible.

The next thing to think about is your venue. Do you want to hold your conference in your local area or further afield? Are you looking for a venue suitable for a day meeting or a full residential conference? What are your room and catering requirements? Draw up a shortlist of venues that fit your criteria and make sure you visit them. Once you have chosen your venue, book and confirm your date as soon as you can to ensure you get your first choice.

Finalise your agenda and think carefully about timings – is 10 minutes long enough for 100 delegates to get a coffee or is 20 minutes more realistic? In conjunction with your delegate agenda, put together a concise running order for your event so that you, your speakers and your venue know what is happening when, who is responsible and how to contact them on the day.

Start marketing your event to your target audience and open up registrations as early as possible. This leaves you with plenty of time to make any changes to numbers or rooms with your venue. There are several online registration tools available to conference organisers which can help take the hassle out of doing it all yourself. Make sure you have budgeted for the use of these.

At the end of it all make sure you ask for feedback from your delegates so you can improve your next conference or event. This can be done via the online registration tools, which allow easy collation of feedback and comments, or by traditional paper questionnaires. Oh, and don’t forget to smile!

If you’ve got any of your own tips for organising a conference that you’d like to share then please get in touch with us.