What’s involved when organising events

If you have ever organised a conference, summit or major meeting - whether it is online or in-person - you know that it takes a lot of hard work before, during, and afterwards.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown this applies as much - if not more - to shorter online meetings, as longer in-person and onsite events.

There are all sorts of things to consider;

Goals:

• The purpose of the event, and main objectives

• Whether it’s a one-off, or part of a series

And then there are the things you have to do beforehand;

Agenda:

• Set the formal theme

• Identify topics, presenters and their parts in the event

• Liaise with co-organisers and sponsors, and incorporate their skills and objectives as appropriate

• Marketing and communication: Defining key messages, creating the content and then sharing it

• Manage and facilitate the event

Autumn is always busy

When to do it

• Consider the timing, such as:

  • Season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

  • Month, week, and day: Is a Monday better or worse than a Friday - what are the pros and cons of different days of the week?

  • Is an early in the day better or worse?

  • Domestic or Global: Consider local time across timezones

  • Does your preferred date clash with any other events you or your delegates will be committed to

  • Duration: How long to allow for the event - how long is it reasonable to expect people to remain focused - and whether and when to have breaks

Attendees / participants / delegates

• Is the event public, private, internal, or mixed?

• What size audience are you aiming for

• Registration - where / how will attendees sign up

Communications

• Is there a common language - if not, do you need interpreters, or a technology solution

• Marketing and awareness, including email campaigns, social media & #hashtag

• If you have third party partners - agree way(s) of keeping in touch with each other and others

Technology

• Hosting platform: Zoom, Teams, Skype for Business, bespoke etc

• Video and audio (quality, reliability etc)

• The tech (computers, phones, comms) that presenters and participants have access to

• Back channel for the organising team and presenters (WhatsApp, Slack etc)

Planning for problems

• What to do if problems occur e.g.

  • Technology failure

  • No shows

  • Spammers

There is a lot to do in the big yellow box in the Drawnalism below.

And there’s more.

Session formats:

• To what extent is the event participatory?

• is it highly interactive, or instructional for the attendees?

• Accessibility - how to accommodate different access requirements

• Etiquette - Do’s and Don’ts / Code of Practice

Presenters, panellists, facilitators

• Who to approach, and how to contact them

• Diversity - the era of all white, middle-aged male panels is over

• Biographies, titles, and contact details

• Do they have any audio / visual or other requirements

• Common use of branding & templates

• Pre-event introductions, testing and / or rehearsal

Funding

• What’s the budget

• Are you charging for tickets

• Fees for speakers, equipment etc

• Are there going to be sponsors

Put it all together

And what have you got?
A lot.

In the next post we will explore some of these points in more detail.