If you are looking to host a conference that will win over your industry peers, follow the advice below.
The foundation of any conference is planning
To host a successful conference, the planning stages need to be done right. Indeed, there are three things that you must remember. The first is your budget, as you will need to know how much money you have on hand to invest in your event, and what you can get for this. To that end creating a detailed account of predicted/ quoted and actual costs will help you stay on top of things.
The next thing you will need to know is how many people you are looking to attract to your conference. This is crucial because it affects many other aspects such as the size of your venue, your budget, as well as the ROI you can expect.
Finally, you will also need to carefully plan your date. Be sure that there is nothing else important generally or within your industry happening at this time. Also where possible give yourself plenty of time to manage all the details of your conference. To make sure things run smoothly you may wish to employ an expert conference manager to help you with the planning stages. They will even help you manage your event on the big day!
Make sure you nourish your attendee’s bellies as well as their minds
Anyone who states the food they get at a conference is not an important part of the process is lying. Indeed, for most attendees, it is a vital part of the experience and certainly can impact how they feel about the event they are attending. With that in mind, making sure you feed your attendee’s bellies as well as their minds is crucial to success.
What this means is you will need to cater your event, providing at least lunch, every day, as well as appropriate snacks throughout the duration. For example, serving fruits and pastries along with coffee and tea first thing in the morning when attendees arrive. Bottles of water and other chilled drinks should be plentiful too, and in places where attendees can help themselves.
Your keynote speakers are everything
Lastly, booking the right key, not speakers is vital if you want your conference to be successful. After all, no one is going to miss one to three full days off work, if you haven’t booked someone with something interesting, and useful to say.
However, it is worth noting that keynote speakers tend to get booked up well in advance. We’re talking years in some cases, so leaving your keynote booking until the last minute is a big no-no. Indeed, your main speakers should be what you organise your whole conference around, including your marketing materials as they will be what brings in the biggest number of attendees.
Also, don’t forget to look after your key, not speakers well when they arrive at your venue too. It’s likely they will be used to the ‘star’ treatment and will want space away from the main thrust of the event to prepare for their presentation. Making sure they have plenty of refreshments, food, and the right equipment and technology are vital too. Otherwise, you risk not only upsetting them and not being able to secure them for your next event, but it could impact their performance and so the experience of all the attendees as well.
