Partner Article

Top Tips: Planning a successful conference

As many businesses are now planning for the final quarter and pencilling in dates for future events, its always worth a recap on your planning strategy. I have put together some top tips that I am sure you will find useful, on how to plan a successful conference.

Content After helping to plan 100s of conferences at The Leeds Club, in my experience, the quality of the speakers can make or break a conference. It’s one thing worth investing in (or pulling a few strings, if you can!) to make sure your delegates are captivated. Hire experienced, reputable speakers and you’re onto a winner. Name badges Make sure your attendees, event organisers and speakers wear name badges so that they can easily be identified. It’s also a great way for people to get to know each other. One conference that I went to, made every delegate complete the sentence ‘I like…’ upon registration, which then got printed under their name on the badge. It was a great ice-breaker, you could just go up to someone and say, ‘Hi John, so…you like fishing?’ Social Media A fantastic – and free – way to promote your event to the masses. Not only that but you can use the Advanced Search tool in LinkedIn to find and target the right sort of people – whether it be by job title, industry or location. If you’re clever, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are all great ways to raise awareness of your event – and it won’t cost you a penny. Parking Often many people attending conferences in the city centre will get the train in if they commute into work anyway, but many people also want to drive so there needs to be parking available nearby. Check if your chosen venue can help you out with that! Good food Pick somewhere that has good food – it will make everybody happy! Pricing The price that you pitch your conference at will be a key to success in terms of numbers attending. Too high and it will be difficult for companies to justify sending employees – too low and the quality will be questioned. It may be a good idea to offer a group discount too. Venues often charge different rates depending on the day of the week and time of year, so to get the best deal, ask your venue for advice. Accessibility How easy is it for attendees to find? Is it close to the train station? The last thing you want is for your guests to be wondering around lost and missing the start of the conference – so its always best to pick somewhere that’s easy to find - and send your delegates a map! Have a plan B No matter how well you plan something, there’s always scope for something to go wrong. Make sure you plan for this too. If you are willing to adapt, if your car breaks down on the way to setting up or a speaker cancels at the last minute, you will be able to avoid going into panic mode and everything will go smoothly.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Leeds Club .