Planning a business conference is a big responsibility. If your boss or manager has delegated you the job of organising your company’s business conference, then you have lots to think about and even more to organise.
As you are in charge of the event, you need to make sure that every part of the conference goes according to plan. Think of this as a chance to showcase your skills and impress your boss.
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It is important that you make sure that the conference is memorable for the people who attend. Planning a simple run-of-the-mill business conference is easy to do, but you need to make your event stand-out.
There is a lot to think about but don’t panic. Stay calm and have a read of our guide below for our guide to hosting a fantastic business conference.
Book a meeting with your boss to discuss the conference
Sit down and have a meeting with your boss to make sure that you completely understand the purpose of the conference. Is it to build up relationships between staff members? Or to introduce a new type of technology to the business? You need to ensure that you understand what your boss wants from the event, before beginning to organize it.
Choose a suitable venue
You need to find and book a venue that is appropriate for the conference. You need to consider whether you will need one large space or a few smaller spaces for different talks and training seminars to take place. Make sure you choose a venue that is large enough to accommodate the needs of the conference as well as the amount of people attending. Use the internet and other resources to have a look around and choose the best venue at the lowest price. Before booking your venue it is important to visit it and double check whether it is suitable.
If the conference will be an all-day event, make sure that you consider your catering options.
Some venues will include catering in the venue hire price, whilst others will not have any catering facilities available. If this is the case, it might be a good idea to look into the cost of hiring temporary kitchens or other catering options.
Plan a schedule
It is important to plan the conference’s schedule and activities in advance. This will help to ensure that the event runs smoothly.
Organize the times and locations of each talk or activity as soon as possible. You might want to split the day in half, using the morning for activity workshops and the afternoon for talks and speakers.
Make sure to fit in some time for team building activities. Fun group activities will help attendees to bond over your event. If you work for a large company, you may not know many of your colleagues. Use team building activities to get everyone talking to each other and building up working relationships.
To make your event more memorable, choose interesting people to talk at the conference. Don’t just choose the company manager. Choose people who your company’s employees don’t get to hear from every day. Choose a speaker who is not part of your company, perhaps someone who built a successful business from the ground up, for example. Make sure you explain to the speaker what you want them to focus on and how long you would like them to talk for. You want your guest speakers to make an impact and make your event memorable, but not over talk and bore your attendees.
