Why Hold a Conference?

There are many good reasons to hold a conference; the sponsoring agency's desire to hold a conference is not necessarily one of them. The purpose of the conference should be clearly established before the planning process begins. Generally, a conference is initiated through the following steps:

1) An agency, board, or coalition is called on to serve as a conference sponsor.

2) A conference planning committee is appointed.

3) A conference coordinator is selected or appointed.

Before proceeding any further, the need for and purpose of the conference must be determined. The Conference Planning Committee can be a valuable asset in guiding and advising the sponsor on establishing the purpose of the conference. Remember, your planning committee is a broad representation of your target audience; don't underestimate the committee's value.

Following are tips to guide you in developing a statement of the conference's purpose:

* Establish a clear and emphatic purpose. Some conferences fail simply because their purpose was not fully addressed.

* Know what others are doing. For example, if your conference will address a specific discipline such as domestic violence, find out what domestic violence coalitions are doing in terms of training and education.

* Learn the needs of your target audience. Don't tell your target audience what information and training they need--let them tell you. Surveys are helpful to determine need.

Surveys usually will reveal that training, education, and the exchange of information are high priorities with members of crime victim services associations. Your challenge is to research the matter a little deeper to identify what topics are in demand and what systems are already in place to provide training and education. Then do an honest assessment. Is there a need for additional training and educational programs? Can you identify gaps in the current system? If so, you have identified the need for and purpose of your program.

Who is the Target Audience?

You can see that this topic is closely linked to defining your purpose, but the question of audience composition merits a separate answer. In the conference planning process, the purpose is determined first, then the appropriate participants are identified.

However, for a membership association conference these two factors, purpose and participants, are sometimes reversed. If the participants who are expected to attend a conference are known, the goal should be to determine what conference purpose will encourage them to attend and to ensure that conference topics will address their needs. Whichever comes first, it is important that the conference's purpose and participants are well matched.

Members of different associations or people from different professions will have different training and educational needs. Know the audience you want to attract and understand their conference needs.

A popular trend in large, multidisciplinary conferences is the development of "tracks" that target the needs of different groups. Tracks permit individuals to stay with one course of training throughout the conference or "cross train" by jumping tracks.

For example, a regional conference was presented with one track of training specific to the needs of compensation investigators, a second track for staff and volunteers in domestic violence shelters, and a third track for people who work in rape crisis centers. A workshop was offered on "contributory conduct" to help investigators deal with this tough issue in determining compensation claims. The workshop was attended by 24 compensation investigators and nine shelter and crisis center workers. The nine "outsiders" knew the workshop was designed for compensation staff but felt they would benefit in their work by gaining some insight into the issues facing compensation workers.

Number of Participants

Some conference planners believe that a large number of participants ensures a better conference; this is not necessarily true. The number of conferees must relate to other factors. Consider the following:

* Target audience. Don't plan on a conference of 500 when your pool of expected attendees numbers only 200.

* Conference budget. The financial resources available to spend on the conference will directly affect your program and may also affect the number of invited participants.

* Number of meeting rooms and room capacities. The number of available meeting rooms can limit the number of concurrent workshops you can hold. Total seating capacity limits the number of participants you can invite.

* Hotel accommodations. The number of sleeping rooms and hotel capacity are extremely important when an overnight stay is required for conference participants.

* Number of conference staff and volunteers. Although staffing is usually determined by the number of participants, this may be a factor if you have a limited number of conference staff available.

* Size of ballroom or banquet facility. When plenary sessions, meals, or other general sessions are part of your program, the number of participants is again limited by room capacity.

* Conference dates. Select dates that do not conflict with other events, including holidays or religious observances.

One professional meeting planner related a story of being called in to act as a consultant because of conflicts between the planning committee and the coordinator. The sponsor had confirmed conference registrations for 1,600 participants, but the site could accommodate only 850 persons. Three options were presented. The sponsor chose a costly option of renting a banquet room miles away from the conference hotels and assuming an additional cost for buses to transport conferees.

Conference Dates

Conference planners should consider a timetable of at least 12 months to organize a conference. This should provide all the time you will need to handle the planning and administrative tasks. Of course, these tasks can usually be accomplished in much less time, but the earlier you start, the easier your job will be.

When reviewing conference dates, consider that all hotels and meeting facilities have peak periods of high demand, "value" periods of low demand, and "shoulder" periods of variable demand. If you are considering dates during a peak period, you may need additional lead time to get the site you want, when you want it, at the price you want. These are three fundamental elements involved in site selection--location, dates, and price.

Some conference planners regard date and location as the most critical elements; others are most concerned with price. Realize that prioritizing any two of these scheduling elements strongly influences the third factor.

If you schedule the conference around a hotel's value or shoulder periods, you may be able to negotiate a lower cost for sleeping rooms. Meeting during or around holidays should allow you to obtain a lower rate as well. Also, many hotels like to split the week into three time slots: Sunday-Wednesday, Wednesday-Friday, and Friday-Sunday. Fitting nicely into one of the hotel's time slots may also enhance your ability to negotiate a greater value.

Before you contact convention bureaus or meeting facilities with your request for bids, establish first, second, and third date preferences. When you are identifying preferred dates, some thought should be given to:

* Dates of other conferences competing for your target audience.

* National and religious holidays and events.

* Expected weather conditions.

* Dates of school openings and closings.

* Peak convention seasons.

These factors have an impact on conference attendance by staff, speakers, and conferees. They also may affect the hotel rates you are quoted and your ability to negotiate certain items in your contract.

Conference Budget

A conference budget should be prepared through a thoughtful process involving the sponsor, the planning committee, and always the coordinator. The sponsor should be included in the process because the sponsoring agency is usually responsible for paying all conference expenses. The planning committee should be included, even if only to make recommendations, so the committee will understand the budget implications of its actions. The coordinator should control the budget--that is, all budget items should be initiated by or developed in conjunction with the coordinator. The coordinator should be the person who approves payment of budget expenses. If payments are approved by someone other than the coordinator, it will be difficult to hold the coordinator accountable for conference expenditures.

Because budgets deal with numbers and dollars, they are thought to be financial documents. Actually, a budget is a planning document and a management control document. It is a listing of all anticipated conference expenses followed by a listing of all conference funding sources and projected conference revenue. Among the budget development considerations are the pros and cons of charging registration fees and your potential advantages for encouraging early registration, such as conference room discounts.

In preparing the budget, conference planners need to prepare an extensive budget checklist, then determine which costs will be paid by the conference master account and which will be paid by persons attending the conference. This division of expenses is sometimes referred to as a split folio. There are many ways a folio can be split between master account charges and individual guest charges. Be sure to clearly communicate your split folio plan to the hotel, in writing, when your letter of agreement is prepared. (The letter of agreement is a written confirmation of agreements between you and the hotel that is sent our prior to the contract.) A budget planning checklist is provided in Appendix B.