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Thread: Conference Organization Question
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11-23-2019, 10:21 PM #13Legendary RSR Poster
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11-25-2019, 11:21 AM #14
Re: Conference Organization Question
Let me know if you have questions Wicked.
I've planned the content for two large conferences. I had a team under me doing the logistics, but I know most of the inner workings."Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with being mediocre, and ain’t no man in here okay with just basic.”
- Ray Lewis
https://www.baltimoreravens.com/author/cole-jackson
Twitter: @ColeJacksonFB
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Re: Conference Organization Question
Disclaimer: The content posted is of my own opinion.
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Re: Conference Organization Question
Good news, I just randomly posted something on LinkedIn and already have two speakers interested and a company willing to sponsor a post-conference happy hour.
I might actually be able to swing this.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkDisclaimer: The content posted is of my own opinion.
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11-28-2019, 11:24 AM #17
Re: Conference Organization Question
Most expensive aspect was the venue, but that also included the food which is insanely expensive. The last one I planned was only 250 people which is smallish depending on the content (US conferences I assume are way bigger than Canadian). We booked the big conference centre in Ottawa down near Parliament so ti was pretty pricey.
Travel paid for speakers was also quite expensive. A lto of the time you get requests that theyll come speak if you pay their travel. If its domestic its not too bad, but international speakers are expensive (most demand first class airfare).
Contigency plans are funny. 2 years ago I planned one the 1st week fo December and sure enough we have a snowstorm. it still went on but the attendance was brutal. So scheduling to accomodate for weather is important (Spring and fall are my favourites - October and April specifically because they're lower vacation times).
As for contingencies on the day - the big thing is backup moderators and speakers. Backup speakers are hard, but if you're doing pannells and don't have a backup for the mod you're screwed. Funny enough the one I planned last November was when Scar was born. So me as the organizer had to have a backup because she was born 12 days before the event and we were in the NICU so I was unable to physically be there.
So focus on backup speakers and alternatives in case people drop out. People will drop out and its annoying as hell to adjust!
The most time spent was recruiting speakers and organizing panels. For one panel of 4 speakers + 1 MOD it was 5 1-hour meetings individually to talk about their content and how it should be framed. And then a 1 hour call with everyone to go through flow, discussion questions, broader themes and to basically make sure no one is repeating points.
My last conference had 8 panels over 2 days so that's 8 panels x 5 hours of prep just with speaking, so that doesn't include recruiting speakers, sending emails and going back and forward.
This is the agenda for the conference I did last November:
http://cfrconference.ipac.ca/agenda
So my approach was actually realyl interesting. We focused on 2 major themes over 2 days. Then within those 2 I pulled out 4 key areas that are considered emerging priorities in the regulatory space. So that gave the 8 panels.
Instead of doing just talking I tried to do a 'filter down' approach.
The morning started with a very 'pie in the sky' conversation and was inspirational. I then brought in someone to set the context that got slightly more into the weeds that would resonate with people.
From there we did case studies of each emerging area to show how these are actually being used or practiced in real life.
Then we did a workshop to let people work with the content to better understand it and reflect on how they can use it in their own work.
Then there was a wrap up. Because participants only picked 1/4 streams they would go to the wrap up and hear a debrief from the others to at least get a taste of it.
Then back to inspiration to end the day highlighting on why its important to understand emerging practices.
So it was:
1) inspirational keynote speaker
2) context setting keynote spekaer
3) panel case studies
4) hands on workshop
5) wrap up
6) Inspirational keynote end."Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with being mediocre, and ain’t no man in here okay with just basic.”
- Ray Lewis
https://www.baltimoreravens.com/author/cole-jackson
Twitter: @ColeJacksonFB
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11-28-2019, 02:31 PM #19
Re: Conference Organization Question
If you need help along the way let me know!
Even if you want to brainstorm some approaches (panels vs workshops vs keynotes), I'm happy to help!
Working in government leads to a lot of your work not being very tangible (i.e. you make recommendations that go...somewhere but you dont know where they went or what the decision was). Working on this kind of stuff was tangible because it had an end product so I always really enjoyed it!
The content is also really cool!
Something to consider is having a Virtual conference approach - there's a ton of tools to do this now, but it is a massive extension of your reach and can allow you to rent a smaller space, but actually increase the reach
-"Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with being mediocre, and ain’t no man in here okay with just basic.”
- Ray Lewis
https://www.baltimoreravens.com/author/cole-jackson
Twitter: @ColeJacksonFB
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