I recently attended a planning meeting for a large conference to be run by a national charity. In addition to the national conference in which I was to be involved, each of the regional managers was also to organise a smaller conference in their own region. The questions they asked me in relation to their individual events were ones commonly asked by people in similar positions, i.e. those required to organise a conference for which they have little or no experience.
This guide is written with those people in mind. It may be that having read it you become aware of how much work is involved and either decide that you do have the time, ability and resources available to do it yourself, or identify it as a project to be out-sourced. A common result is for a combination of these two outcomes, where some elements of the organisational task are handled in-house, whilst others are out-sourced to professionals.
Of course, all organisers have their own way of doing things and the message must be to find what works for you and to learn by all of your experiences, be they as a delegate or as an organiser.
In earlier editions I acknowledged the help and advice of the following: Monica Allen, Jayne Buckland, Caroline Hannon, Deborah Delord, Tracy Johnson, Malcolm Thompson (MC Productions) and Peter Worger (ACE).
For this third edition I would like to add to that list all of the Health Links team and Tom Ashton.
Lastly, not only do I hope you will find this guide useful, but also that you enjoy what you do.