First things first: what are you trying to do and why are you trying to do it? You may feel like this is obvious but mapping out the goals of your meeting, conference, or forum is a critical first step in the planing process. Learn more about the 5 questions you should ask yourself before starting your next conference here.
Next create your timeline and your budget. Why is this important? To start, your budget and timeline will inform your venue, stage set/AV, onsite experiences, and keynote speakers.
The standard conference process starts about 25 weeks before the event. This timeline allows for 8 weeks of active event planning and 17 weeks of promoting your event. If you are targeting attendees outside of your organization, you need at least 17 weeks to promote your full program. We've designed an Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Next Conference to help you organize yourself. But even if you're organizing an internal meeting, you want to give yourself and your attendees time to plan. Think about who you want to have speak. Certain government speakers or high level c-suite executives require more time to prepare. Others are able to move their schedules up to the last minute.
Budgets you need to prepare:
Remember how we started with outlining the goals of your meeting? Keep them in mind as you're developing your agenda. Talking to your target attendees is critical in this stage of your event planning process.
Remember:
For most conferences, your venue is going to be your biggest budget item. It's really important as you're thinking about your venue, that you are both looking for the best space to meet your need while also factoring in getting the most of your dollar.
As you think about your venue, some things to keep in mind:
Today's conference attendees have higher expectations than ever when it comes to their experience. Through social media and online communities, professionals have unprecedented ability to virtually network, engage with their peers, and access industry information. So when they come to conferences, they expect to have experiences that can not be replicated virtually. Pair that with the knowledge that adults learn best by working in groups and engaging with the content, and the old version of marathon solo presentations simply cannot sustain an audience used to seeking immediate gratification.
Some ways to create that experience you might consider:
With all the moving pieces of a conference, there are a lot of places where things can go wrong (don't worry! there are also a lot of places where they can go right). Here is a list of a few common mistakes we've seen over the years.
If you're new to the conference planning world, you might not have ever considered that there are Conference Producers out there who organize the professional grade conferences you've been attending. Sure, it makes sense once you think about it. Surely someone was behind the scenes writing that agenda, recruiting those speakers, working with the exhibitors. Conference production companies are here to help with those things and so much more!
Depending on the level of assistance and the management you're looking for, conference production organizations can do anything from consulting with you to help you build an effective strategy, all the way through to fully producing the entire event. Full production entails:
What production companies need from you will vary from company to company but most prefer to begin with 25 weeks lead time before an event, a set budget (though not necessarily itemized), and a clear understanding of the audience and goals of the meeting.
What to expect in the conference development process:
We're obsessed with healthcare conference planning. Connect with our team to hear about how to take your upcoming conference to the next level.