Good planning helps conferences succeed
By Deborah Willoughby
Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser
A good conference starts with a good planner: organized, unflappable, creative and detail-oriented.
Even the simplest daylong business meeting requires a facility, refreshments, an agenda and speakers. More ambitious gatherings, such as conventions, involve a multitude of details and, frequently, the help of professional planners.
Companies or organizations often rely on professional planners, especially if their event is in another state, to handle contacts with resorts, cruise lines, hotels, transportation, music and food.
Larry Vinson, president of Group Management Services, which manages seven associations, said cruises and more family-oriented events are among the trends he is seeing for conferences. His company arranges 20 to 25 meetings a year — ranging from board retreats for eight people to gatherings of 1,800 people.
No matter whether it's a straightforward business meeting or a weeklong convention, the job requires attention to detail.
"You get into kind of a routine," Vinson said, starting with the choice of a date and location, then deciding on speakers and getting their presentation materials, marketing the event and setting up a registration database.
"Really, the bulk of your work is done before you arrive at the facility," he said. "Once you get on site, you're just in damage-control mode."
The pros offer these tips for making an event a success:
• Be organized. "The key to planning is taking everything into consideration," said Debbie Szafran, meetings and incentive coordinator for Sutton & Associates. She creates checklists to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Consider your timing. If it's summer, participants are more likely to bring their families. If it's autumn, there's the football factor. The Alabama Optometric Association's fall meeting, for example, usually conflicts with college games. "And it's always a big game, like Auburn-Georgia," said Lori Moneyham, the association's spokeswoman.
As a result, the planners work around the time when the football game is being televised.
• Offer a range of activities. Increasingly, conferences include participants' families. "Younger people don't give you their weekends like the previous generation did," Vinson said. "They want to be with their families."
Many hotels and resorts offer supervised activities for children as part of a meeting package.
• Be sensitive about the menu. The issue is "trying to suit everybody's taste," Moneyham said. It's nice to try something new, especially if it's an annual meeting, but keep the group's preferences in mind, and always have something suitable for children.
• Watch the details. Don't forget photographers, awards, signs, name badges, pens, tote bags or similar expected items.
• Expect problems. Vinson said audiovisual equipment can be trouble. Many speakers bring laptops or CDs for their presentations but have trouble using the projectors or other equipment at the meeting facility. The problem was less common in the days of overhead projectors, he said.
"There's always some glitch. I prefer to have the hotel or convention center's audiovisual person on site," Vinson said.
