Conferences comprise many moving parts – event planning, promotion, securing a keynote speaker – which can soon become overwhelming. Having a solid conference planning checklist, however, can help alleviate some of the stress and keep you on track towards executing the perfect event.
Events are at the heart of what we do at Congress Centre. Since our doors first opened in 1958, we’ve adapted to the evolving conferencing landscape and been involved in a wide range of events. From fashion shows and product launches to training events and speaker sessions, our team knows what it takes to get an event off the ground and running successfully.
We’ve combined our team’s events knowledge to create an essential conference planning guide from pre-event right through to post-conference.
The first step to executing a successful event starts with the event planning stage. Without a clear vision or goal in place, it’s hard to start planning a successful conference that resonates with your attendees. Therefore, consider:
Once you’ve established your goals, put them in writing. This is an often overlooked step, but seeing your objectives on paper can help you visualise everything more clearly and hone your focus.
As part of the planning process, you’ll need to establish the key concept of your event – one that speaks to your target audience and their needs. This is a crucial piece of the event planning puzzle as it will ultimately shape how attendees experience your conference. Sit down with your senior management team and discuss the journey you want your visitors to take. How do you want them to feel? How do you want them to interact with your brand? What do you want them to tell people about your event in the weeks that follow?
Once you’ve come up with a concept, you’ll need to make sure your brand’s messaging around the event is consistent (through content marketing, social media, word of mouth etc) and that you weave your tone of voice and style into the concept throughout.
Providing a suitable event format – one that resonates with your concept, content topics, and audience – is a key component to planning a successful conference. Popular examples include roundtables, trade shows, seminars, Q&As, and workshops.
Once you’ve decided on a concept and format, you’ll need to establish an event budget – start planning for this as soon as possible. A crucial part of pre-event planning, a budget will help guide your decisions on recruiting speakers, hiring vendors, and the kind of venue that you’ll pick out.
When establishing a budget, you’ll need to consider a variety of different expenses, including:
Wherever possible, make sure you’re aware of which of these costs might vary during the planning process and which are fixed. Then amend your budget sheet accordingly. Your venue should be able to help put you in touch with recommended suppliers and to offer you advice on any variables of which you might not yet be aware. We’ve also put together a blog about how to save money on your event, which will help you if your budget’s a bit tight, or simply to help you get the biggest bang for your buck.
Don’t forget to plan for contingency costs too – just in case problems crop up that you weren’t expecting.
When it comes to choosing a venue, the sooner the better, as it will have an impact on several other factors, for instance, budget and format. Nearly all venues will provisionally hold the date for you for a certain period while you secure speakers etc, so don’t be afraid to book your venue as soon as you have a date in mind.
When selecting a venue, you’ll need to consider your format, and overall concept (see 2 and 3 above). If you’re not sure where to start, ask around and get advice from other event planners and organisers – particularly those who have specialist experience in your industry.
Selecting speakers and vendors is a key part of planning your conference. Make sure you take the time to filter out and secure a great keynote speaker – it’s really important you choose someone who aligns with your event concept. This can be the difference between a successful event (especially if the speaker is widely known within the industry), or a flop.
Your business will have a Corporate and Social Responsibility policy, as will your venue and potentially your suppliers (depending on their size). Before you commit to working with anybody, it’s important that you understand their values and that you’re comfortable that they fit with yours. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their sustainability policies – your attendees will be interested, so make sure you have all the answers and that they’re ones you can be proud of.
You’ll also want to secure vendors – food, drinks, management software, and other technology – for the event. Again, the sooner you do this the better, to get the best choice and secure the best deals.
Another core component of a successful conference is the journey that your delegates go through – from initial awareness, to booking and attending your event. You want to make the experience as smooth and memorable as possible, so make sure you consider:
Gathering all this information can be overwhelming, so you might find it helpful to use management software to speed up the process and provide a central source of truth for information and version control.
Your team is the glue that holds your conference together. Without them, the entire planning process can quickly unravel. As the event manager, it’s your duty to delegate the right tasks to the right people – so make sure everyone on the team knows exactly what they’re doing, when and why.
Some of the areas you could delegate out include:
As part of planning your conference, think about the kind of technology you might need (project management software, live streaming technology, point-of-sale technology). Most conferences have opened up new networking opportunities by incorporating tech into their event, for instance using an app – such as Phoneshake – that enables attendees to connect and access contact details quicker by shaking their phones.
Having the most up-to-date technology not only makes your event easier to navigate, analyse and run, but it’s also the most sustainable option. Also, a truly paper-free event is something to shout about and may well be the tipping factor for any environmentally-minded, on-the-fence delegates.
This wouldn’t be a conference planning checklist without… an agenda! When writing up your agenda, include:
Planning a successful conference means nothing if you’re unable to actually drive people to sign up for your event. You also need to craft a solid marketing plan that gets your conference out into the limelight. Think about your target audience. What platforms do they use? What are their pain points – and how can your event solve their problems?
Once you’ve discovered these insights, create promotional content across a mix of channels, including:
Once you’ve told people why they should sign up for your event, it’s imperative that you get them engaged in your pre-event build-up. This could be done by encouraging them to pose questions for your speakers, fill out a survey on your industry’s hot topic or even enter a competition with the winner announced at your after-show drinks. Similar tactics can be applied throughout the conference, too. In order to maximise your attendees’ commitment to your event on the day, a clever curation of your schedule can go a long way towards managing fatigue and regular refreshment breaks – with carefully chosen dishes – will help fuel and energise.
Don’t forget to send reminders to your attendees a few days before the event. You’ll also need to keep your keynote speaker and other vendors in the loop, informing them of any changes to the schedule.
Post-conference, don’t forget to collect feedback from your attendees via a form or anonymous online survey – these insights will help you make future events ten times better.
One of the most important things you can do post-conference is to share any follow-up resources – via social media or email – that were promised on the day. Sharing photos or quotes from the day can serve as promotional material for future events, too.
Download your Conference Planning Guide
With a wealth of experience in event planning, Congress Centre is the ideal venue for both small- and large-scale conferences. Alongside AV facilities, we also offer 16 different event spaces with room for 10-500 guests – so you can choose a space that fits your event budget and needs. Want to see how we’ve planned successful conferences and corporate events before? Read our case studies.
Situated just a moment’s walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station, Congress Centre is convenient for all local transport links. Whether you’re an event manager or event planner, or need help planning your next conference, contact our team today at congress.centre@tuc.org.uk or call 0207 467 1318.
