Scheduling The Event

Twelve weeks can normally be considered an adequate lead-time for events. This allows satisfactory time for preparation, and for press releases to be received and published in the relevant monthly journals. Prior to the 12-week countdown to the event you will have:

• set the budget
• researched and booked the venue
• decided on the content of your programme and copy for the brochure
• booked the speakers
• and be ready to mail out the printed programmes.

Scheduling The Event

Twelve weeks can normally be considered an adequate lead-time for events. This allows satisfactory time for preparation, and for press releases to be received and published in the relevant monthly journals. Prior to the 12-week countdown to the event you will have:

• set the budget
• researched and booked the venue
• decided on the content of your programme and copy for the brochure
• booked the speakers
• and be ready to mail out the printed programmes.

When To Send The Brochure

Events, organisations and budgets will combine to dictate what is and what is not possible. Presuming the initial mailshot is sent 12 weeks in advance of the event it could be followed by a written or telephone reminder to those who have not yet booked at eight weeks, and then again four weeks out.

Although requiring longer notice of events, there is a tendency for delegates to book their place as late as possible, especially if purchase orders have to be passed through accounting departments. Although to be expected, this can be frustrating for the organiser who needs to be able to anticipate delegate attendance numbers as early as possible. It can be useful to offer an ‘early bird’ price to encourage early bookings.

The resulting increase in early registrations will provide an indication of how the event is being received by potential delegates. This can be useful to help you plan and implement your promotional activity.

Finding Other Targets

By analysing delegate details as they book you can target other potential delegates. For instance, if you find that the conference is attracting a large number of people in a particular job function, or in similar demographic groups, you could direct-mail other people in similar positions.

Creating A Plan

Time is a valuable resource of which few of us seem to have enough. Once time has passed it cannot be replaced, so use it wisely. Whether it is your free time or your work time it is difficult to place an exact figure on the cost of you performing a given task.

Benefits Of Using A Time Plan

• You will be able to identify tasks and allocate staff/ resources/your own time as required to deal with them.

 

• You will be able to organise your normal work-load around the event and the organisation.

 

• By their very nature some tasks must be done at the last minute, e.g. preparation of badges and stuffing delegate packs. Others need to be carried out some time in advance, such as finding sponsors and distributing programmes. A visual plan will help you to put the pieces together in the correct order and fill any gaps with tasks that, within reason, have no time requirements, like choosing menus. See Figures 7 and 8, which indicate key elements that must be addressed and can be used as a basis for your own plan.

Scheduling The Programme

Your brief will dictate the duration of the event – a day, evening or two days perhaps. The programme has to fill that space adequately, ensuring delegates have time to absorb what they’re hearing, but not get bored. Remember that we all have relatively short concentration spans, so shorter bursts of information interspersed with lighter input are most likely to be retained.

Timing It Right

The Right Time To Start

Consider how the majority of delegates are likely to travel to the venue. By car? By train? By tube? Avoiding the necessity for travel in peak times if at all possible will help ensure delegates arrive in a good frame of mind.