How to organize a conference in a professional way? Practical guide - Part I

Each conference must be carefully designed and budgeted. This usually starts with the choice of conference location, then goes on to the creation of a meeting agenda, prepares participant registration and provides professional service to all guests with regard to their accommodation.

This also includes transport and catering services. We should not forget about such issues as preparing conference materials, creating presentation CDs or appropriate films and promotional materials. Conference organisers for the first time may feel overwhelmed by all this and it is not an easy task, but you can cope with it all quite calmly.

Budget

The budget is a key issue. It is necessary to close the budget during the organisation. There is no fixed amount of money that will allow you to organize an event. Less money is simply less scale of operation and lower standard of the event. With more money you can afford accompanying events, better quality materials for guests or a higher standard of service offered by more people employed in the organization and execution of conferences. Many events can count on the support of various sponsors, who in return for the exhibition will improve the financial capabilities of the organizers. It is good to have a larger budget, for example, to be able to adjust the budget flexibly.

Communication - customer

After establishing the organisational basis, it is time to invite guests. You have to be in constant contact with them, which is quite simple today thanks to information technology. The basis is to create a website for the conference and include news about the event, registration form, payment details and all other important things. The most important participants should also be contacted in more traditional ways in order to avoid misunderstandings.

Promotion

The more prestigious the conference is, the better. It is necessary to provide the conference with publicity, advertising and partners. It is also worth talking to local authorities.

Registration of participants

It is important that the process is organised in a timely manner. It is necessary to indicate the time after which it will no longer be possible to register and resign from participation will be a problem. Usually, such matters are dealt with by setting higher rates for people who will register on the spot and offering significant discounts to those who will register well in advance, after which they will immediately pay the registration fee.

Catering

Meals are the time for networking. They must be pleasant, fairly simple and adapted to different tastes. The need for meals should be judiciously assessed, as there should not be too many of them, but they should also appear regularly during the conference.