Easing Delegates Into The Event

Attending a major conference in a big city like London was a daunting prospect for Geri Hunter. She was always pretty nervous about these events anyway, although she realized the enormous benefit she received from networking and keeping up to date with the latest trends. The recent terrorist bombings didn't add much to her peace of mind either.

Because you won't know exactly what frame of mind your delegates are in as they await the beginning of the event, it is important that the presenters opening words orientate the audience to the reasons for holding the event. They should refer back to the original objective and should cover the following:

• Who are the people running the event?

• Why has it been organized?

• What should delegates expect to get from it?

• How will the event be run?

• Where in the venue will elements of the event be held?

• When will significant activities and breaks happen?

This welcome speech should be well rehearsed and word perfect, delivered in an up-beat tone to set the energy level for the day otherwise you may lose the audience before you have even begun.

Safety and comfort

As the event organizers you are responsible for ensuring that your audience understands the evacuation procedure in the event of fire, flood or any other emergency and for checking that everyone has been accounted for. Find a way of integrating this information into the beginning of the event and include information about smoking areas, toilets and also identify one of the administration staff as a key contact for any queries.

Some venues set the room temperature at the beginning of the day to a low level in full knowledge that it will rise naturally during the first hour. It pays to recognize this and to empathize with the audience, asking them to let you know if the room temperature becomes uncomfortably cold or hot so that you can do something about it. Say “Because we're not sitting still like you will be, it can be difficult for us to judge whether the room is comfortable.”

Timekeeping and flexibility

As the event moves on, you may find that the original timings were somewhat optimistic and you are not going to complete sections before the advertised break times. If this happens, be honest with the audience. They are probably more aware than you are that things are slipping. Whatever you do, keep religiously to the break times. They are important for boosting audience energy and, critically, the venue is already programmed to get hot beverages and food to you at these times. Changing the breaks on the run can cause far greater fall-out than changing the content of the event. Use the break time to take soundings from the audience about which material might be cut out and compensated for in other ways.

Above all be flexible in your event management and be prepared to do some emergency surgery to presentations later in the day.

Don't Neglect Those Seminar Rituals

Once everything is in place for your seminar, workshop, conference or other event and all of the finishing touches have been applied to the main venue room, make a point of testing the delegate experience. Run a presentation or a video on the screen and try out seats in all corners of the room to check for screen and text visibility. Test the sound level at the furthest point from the stage and remember to compensate for the deadening factor of the audience. You will also want to find areas that you feel may be problematic once the audience has arrived so that you can quickly make adjustments.

As you sit in various seats, pay attention to the overall feel of being there.

• Is it pleasant?
• Are there draughts from doors or air-conditioning units?
• Can you smell cooking from the kitchens?
• Does the room look clean and tidy from this angle?
• Are there distractions like activity outside a window that the presenters cannot see but the audience can?
• Does the view from the seat reflect the value of the ticket?

Remember that, for longer events, this seat may be home-for-a-day to your delegate and they will appreciate small touches like easily reachable water bottles and bowls of mints.
The arrival ritual

As on any other public occasion, people have certain expectations when they arrive at an event. It is a kind of ritual that must be undertaken to gain entry to the magic kingdom of information.

If a delegate has been invited or has been pre-registered, they should be able to arrive twenty minutes or more before the start time and find a table outside the event rooms covered in name badges neatly arranged in alphabetical order. This table will be managed by a smiling administrator ready to acknowledge them quickly, to welcome them and to provide them with their name badge and any supplementary information they will need. The additional information is usually contained in a professionally prepared folder.

The administrator will direct them from the reception table to a coffee area and will also provide them with information about the location of toilets, telephones and smoking areas.

Many will have come alone and may not be acquainted with other delegates. To ease any awkwardness, some quiet background music will disguise uncomfortable silences. The event team, especially the presenters are expected to mix with the guests and, as well as making small-talk and introducing one delegate to another, they should be continuing their information gathering task to ensure that the event resonates with relevance.

At the advertised start time a robust voice should invite the assembled delegates to enter the inner sanctum of the main event room. Upon which note there will be a surge of activity as delegates find their seats.

This approach is obviously tried and tested and it's what people expect but if you want to experiment with different techniques, this is your opportunity to stamp originality on your event.

Title: Do You Have The Right People To Organize Your Event Word Count: 851 Summary: Jenny Jones would never have considered she had any skill when it comes to running seminars. She was just quietly and competently doing her job when she was asked to organize an event to help promote the services that her company provides. Fortunately for her, she recognized instantly that she did not have all of the necessary skills herself and, by borrowing some tips from her recruitment experience, amongst other things, she saved herself from a great deal of stress and put... Keywords: online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration Article Body: Jenny Jones would never have considered she had any skill when it comes to running seminars. She was just quietly and competently doing her job when she was asked to organize an event to help promote the services that her company provides. Fortunately for her, she recognized instantly that she did not have all of the necessary skills herself and, by borrowing some tips from her recruitment experience, amongst other things, she saved herself from a great deal of stress and put together a team that delivered the goods, and more. Almost before doing anything else, she recognized that, as the event organizer she should draw up a list of the numbers and types of people she needed in order to deliver the seminar. Against each job, she noted the competencies that are important for success in that role and any other traits that she felt would enhance the potential for crowning glory. You'll note that Jenny did not produce a list of names. That can be an easy trap to fall into, especially if yours is a large organization. Instead of deciding what you need for success, you will be working out who not to offend by leaving them off the list. The formal process of defining people specifications, which is what Jenny was doing, actually gives you a viable and mostly acceptable reason for using only the most appropriate people. If yours is a small organization, like the one Jenny worked in, and you don't have the luxury of choice, specifying the people may actually highlight the need for outside help rather than muddling along with the skills that you have inside the business. Here are a few examples of people specifications: Presenter : Good communicator, good impact and influence, technically knowledgeable, acceptable to director level delegates, good attention to detail Course Administrator : Confident, excellent customer focus, good planning and organizing, good influencer, good initiative Booking Administrator : Good information gatherer, good organizer, excellent customer focus, good initiative Supplier Co-ordinator : Good planning and organizing, good influencing, good directiveness, good team worker Jenny chose what she believed to be the five most important characteristics in each job and checked with a few of her management colleagues whose opinion she respected to ensure that she hadn't missed anything critical. She explained what she expected the people to do and was open-minded to the feedback that she got. Selecting and briefing the event team If yours is a large organization, you may want to advertise formally to ensure that you get the best people on board. Many will see this type of project as an opportunity to pick up new skills and experience and will be willing to compete for a place on the team. The tougher your selection process is, the easier it is for rejected candidates to accept your decision. If you base your selection on a five minute chat in the company restaurant, you may be accused of nepotism and worst of all you may not end up with the best people to help you. Always insist on evidence of your candidate's skills and competencies. As a rule of thumb, the more recently they have done something similar, the better the chance that they will be able to do the same for you without climbing the learning curve again. If you have the time, it may be useful to set them a task that will demonstrate to you that they can fulfill the role. When you are faced with twenty people all claiming they are the best, this is a great way to compare their actual capabilities. If, like Jenny, you are unable to fill key roles from inside the organization, there are many consultancies and service organizations only too willing to help out for a fee. They are capable of doing everything from managing the entire event right down to administering your bookings or providing project co-ordination services. Some online booking organization can also manage telephone bookings on a 24 hour basis, will manage the payment process and can conduct post-event evaluation on your behalf. Arrange a time when you can get your team together to talk through the purpose of the event. Please DO NOT just hand them a copy of the purpose document and expect them to understand everything that you know about it. They will all have very pertinent questions to ask from their very different perspectives and they should all be keen to make sure that they understand what is expected from them. Brief job descriptions would not be out of place here as they will define boundaries of responsibility and accountability and will avoid unpleasant finger pointing if anything should go badly wrong at a later stage. Have them write their own job descriptions under the headings of: * Scope * Key Responsibilities * Measures of Success Not only will this give you a good idea of their understanding, it provides you with a motivational tool to recognize their excellence throughout the project. Jenny Jones used this approach; put together a highly skilled team to deliver her company seminar and added a new skill to her CV - Event Organization.

Jenny Jones would never have considered she had any skill when it comes to running seminars. She was just quietly and competently doing her job when she was asked to organize an event to help promote the services that her company provides. Fortunately for her, she recognized instantly that she did not have all of the necessary skills herself and, by borrowing some tips from her recruitment experience, amongst other things, she saved herself from a great deal of stress and put together a team that delivered the goods, and more.

Almost before doing anything else, she recognized that, as the event organizer she should draw up a list of the numbers and types of people she needed in order to deliver the seminar. Against each job, she noted the competencies that are important for success in that role and any other traits that she felt would enhance the potential for crowning glory.

You'll note that Jenny did not produce a list of names. That can be an easy trap to fall into, especially if yours is a large organization. Instead of deciding what you need for success, you will be working out who not to offend by leaving them off the list. The formal process of defining people specifications, which is what Jenny was doing, actually gives you a viable and mostly acceptable reason for using only the most appropriate people.

If yours is a small organization, like the one Jenny worked in, and you don't have the luxury of choice, specifying the people may actually highlight the need for outside help rather than muddling along with the skills that you have inside the business.

Here are a few examples of people specifications:

Presenter : Good communicator, good impact and influence, technically knowledgeable, acceptable to director level delegates, good attention to detail

Course Administrator : Confident, excellent customer focus, good planning and organizing, good influencer, good initiative

Booking Administrator : Good information gatherer, good organizer, excellent customer focus, good initiative

Supplier Co-ordinator : Good planning and organizing, good influencing, good directiveness, good team worker

Jenny chose what she believed to be the five most important characteristics in each job and checked with a few of her management colleagues whose opinion she respected to ensure that she hadn't missed anything critical. She explained what she expected the people to do and was open-minded to the feedback that she got.

Selecting and briefing the event team

If yours is a large organization, you may want to advertise formally to ensure that you get the best people on board. Many will see this type of project as an opportunity to pick up new skills and experience and will be willing to compete for a place on the team.

The tougher your selection process is, the easier it is for rejected candidates to accept your decision. If you base your selection on a five minute chat in the company restaurant, you may be accused of nepotism and worst of all you may not end up with the best people to help you.

Always insist on evidence of your candidate's skills and competencies. As a rule of thumb, the more recently they have done something similar, the better the chance that they will be able to do the same for you without climbing the learning curve again. If you have the time, it may be useful to set them a task that will demonstrate to you that they can fulfill the role. When you are faced with twenty people all claiming they are the best, this is a great way to compare their actual capabilities.

If, like Jenny, you are unable to fill key roles from inside the organization, there are many consultancies and service organizations only too willing to help out for a fee. They are capable of doing everything from managing the entire event right down to administering your bookings or providing project co-ordination services. Some online booking organization can also manage telephone bookings on a 24 hour basis, will manage the payment process and can conduct post-event evaluation on your behalf.

Arrange a time when you can get your team together to talk through the purpose of the event. Please DO NOT just hand them a copy of the purpose document and expect them to understand everything that you know about it. They will all have very pertinent questions to ask from their very different perspectives and they should all be keen to make sure that they understand what is expected from them.

Brief job descriptions would not be out of place here as they will define boundaries of responsibility and accountability and will avoid unpleasant finger pointing if anything should go badly wrong at a later stage. Have them write their own job descriptions under the headings of:

* Scope
* Key Responsibilities
* Measures of Success

Not only will this give you a good idea of their understanding, it provides you with a motivational tool to recognize their excellence throughout the project.

Jenny Jones used this approach; put together a highly skilled team to deliver her company seminar and added a new skill to her CV - Event Organization.

Event Management, Body Language And Qualified Release

Stuart Burns was having a bad day. Not only had he arrived late for the seminar because of the server problem at work last night, he was finding it difficult to concentrate because of the stream of text messages coming in to his cell phone. He couldn't bring himself to turn it off just in case something catastrophic was happening back at base so he set it to mute and tried to keep an eye on it while he listened to the presenters. Now the effects of his disturbed sleep were catching up on him and his extreme body language shouted that he was in the wrong place.

Audiences suffering from information overload will give very clear signals that they are ready for a break. Their eyes start to glaze over, they slump in their seats and when you ask them questions, it is as though you are rousing them from a deep sleep. Bladders may be straining, nicotine and caffeine cravings may be kicking in and vibrating text messages are surreptitiously being viewed. It's time to declare an unofficial break! If you push on regardless you may lose your audience completely.

This situation can often happen on hot, humid days when the air-conditioning is underperforming or in windowless rooms where the lack of outside views can have a profound psychological effect on your delegates.

A ten minute unscheduled break in these circumstances can make the difference between success and failure for your event.

Manage the coffee and meal breaks rigidly as a few 5 or 10 minute overruns can soon lose you half an hour from the program.

Managing early departures

It is a fairly frequent occurrence that a proportion of your audience will be unable to stay for the entire event. This is understandable in these times of full schedules and instant communication. The more polite amongst them will forewarn you of this and tender their apologies. Some will make a dash for the door with their heads down and others will mumble an excuse as they walk sideways past the presenter towards the exit.

If you have prior warning, try and sit your early leavers close to the exit even if they have been sitting elsewhere during the event. That way, when they have to take their leave, they can do it with minimum fuss and interruption.

Whichever exit routine your early leavers use, make sure that they have an opportunity to give you some instant feedback before they leave and take the time to thank them for however much time they have been able to spend with you. Their early exit is unlikely to be an insult to your organizational or presentational skills. More likely they have a plane or train to catch, so treat them respectfully.

Stuart was so relieved when one of the seminar administrators approached him during a coffee break to ask if there was a problem. She listened and, promising to book him on the next seminar, helped him organize a taxi.

Event Etiquette

The workshop was over. The delegates had long gone and Margaret Kerr was recovering with a cup of coffee. The room was strewn with sheets of flip chart paper, the debris of the buffet lunch and countless empty coffee cups covered every horizontal surface in the room. Margaret was drained. The workshop had been a tough one for a trainer; the delegates had all been sharp and smart; they had challenged her knowledge and demanded long explanations of the reasons behind the theories she was asking them to buy into. She looked at the bomb-site that was once an orderly training room and knew she didn't have the energy to do much more than crawl to her car. After all, she reasoned, the conference center cleaning staff would tidy up, wouldn't they.

Once the rooms are clear of delegates and you have bathed in the glory of a successful event, it is time to dismantle everything that you came with. As with the assembly process, it is useful to assign specific responsibilities to members of the event team and to manage the process as smoothly as possible. For larger events, keep a checklist of everything that needs to be done on a flip chart and, as items are completed, score them out. Using a clearly visible list like this gives everyone involved an easy reference and allows them to decide themselves how they can best help others once they have completed their own tasks.

If events are to be a frequent part of your life, you will want a venue to welcome you back with open arms. To make this a certainty, try as much as possible to leave the venue rooms as you found them, litter-free and ready for the cleaning staff to prepare them for the next users.

This may seem like common sense but you will be surprised how easy it is, at the end of a particularly stressful event, to follow the impulse to cut and run. Your reputation is worth more than a few sheets of paper.

Providing venue feedback

As you leave with the last load of equipment, make a point of contacting your conferencing contact at the venue. Show them your feedback from the evaluation forms; if they are worth their salt, they will be eager to read it. Add any feedback of your own, positive and negative but always leave a nice, juicy positive comment to the last and tell them you'll be back.

If you've had any particularly excellent service from the conferencing staff, make a point of following up your feedback with a thank you letter to the venue manager. A little careful attention to detail now will buy you royal treatment on your next visit.

Margaret was about to slide quietly away when her colleague Ben, walked in looking full of energy. “Where do you get the energy, Ben?” she asked. “I pace myself” he stated in a matter of fact way “the day ain't over till it's over”

Event Delegates Are Lifetime Friends

Customer relationships are meat and drink to Gary Chapman, he runs a consultancy company that trains and informs corporate organizations about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). His company runs public seminars around the country on a weekly basis, dealing with thousands of delegates every year; here is his advice to you if you are planning a similar event.

The registration process may be your first opportunity to connect personally with a customer and demonstrate to them what your values and standards are. Like all relationships, we generally judge what someone is like in the first 60 seconds and this is no different. You should consider each delegate as a potential lifetime friend who you are meeting for the first time and you should give them absolutely no cause to question your professionalism.

If this is the first time you have run an event and your admin staff have not yet cut their teeth either on delegates or on the product (the event), take plenty of time to script everything from the first telephone answer to the most awkward set of requests and questions you can think up. Give your people a chance to role-play those first 60 seconds until it becomes absolutely second nature.
Answer before the first ring

Consider what standards your admin team ought to be meeting. One organization demands that all of its telephones are answered “on or before the first ring” to demonstrate its urgency and alertness. “Hey! That's not physically possible”, I hear you say. Well, some telephone systems ring first at the receiving end before the caller hears the first ring in their ear, meaning that if you pick up after the first ring, the caller won't hear a ring. Although that can be a bit scary, you may want to set your standard around 3 rings and stick to it.

There are all sorts of other standards that are worth discussing with the admin team to ensure that your customers get a good standard of service:

• call-back within a promised timescale

• paperwork posted within 8 working hours

• emails sent within 4 working hours

• database up to date at the end of each working day

• payment reminders sent out 21 days, 28 days and 35 days after registration

Having set standards, make sure there is an easy way of checking that they are being adhered to. It is better that the admin team has their own monitoring system that you can check from time-to-time than to have big brother/sister keeping a permanent watchful eye on standards.

Gary Chapman also encourages his Admin Team to treat one another in the same way, using the same standards that they would use with an external customer. This way you actually remove stress and conflict as there is no potential to make a wrong decision. “What's the point of double standards?” asks Gary “Any reasoning person, given the choice, would choose the easier option. That's how standards slip. We don't give ourselves the choice!”

Evaluate Your Event To Accumulate Profit

If you are running workshops, seminars or conferences like Oslo , Norway based Ulrika Fredrikson you won't be doing it as a charitable act. Let's face it, even if you were a charity, you'd have to cover your costs somehow. Ulrika runs a combination of sponsored and paid-for events which improves the ticket price for delegates but increases the pressure on her to fill seats to satisfy the advertising benefit for her sponsors.

Whether your event cost $10 or $10,000 to stage, you should, for business reasons, calculate your return on investment. This is not as straightforward as making sure that the gate money covers your costs, although that is, in itself, important. To be rigorous you will be drawing information about all of the positive and negative effects the event has had on your bank account, your reputation and your graying hair both now and in the future and you will be making it available to whomever needs to know in a form that is easy to digest.
Compiling event information

To properly compile all of your event information you might want to put some time aside to revisit all of the details about the design, development, running and follow-up activities associated with the event.

Financial Information

Put together the financial information and split it down into:

• planned expenditure

• unplanned expenditure

• direct income

• indirect but related income

Planned expenditure is everything that you predicted you would spend on the project from the first including purchases, rentals, staff hours and expenses. Unplanned expenditure is anything else over and above what you originally thought was required. You are splitting this out, not because it is in some way wrong to incur unplanned expenditure but because it is part of the learning and self-training process. When you next run an event you will have a better idea of the contingency costs you ought to be planning.

Direct income comes from ticket sales and any other sales like promotional items, books or products associated with the event. Indirect income covers any additional products or services that have been purchased since the event and the sale of which can be attributed to running the event. This is where the water starts to get a little muddy, as it is highly likely that some of your delegates will have been approached by your company many times in the past and it may become difficult to attribute a sales success to this event alone. By far the best thing to do here is to count the sale, or a proportion of it, say, a quarter and highlight it as being influenced by a combination of marketing tactics including the event.

Ulrika has been in the conferencing business for around ten years and she knows that almost 50% of follow-through sales for her own company and for her sponsors can take twelve months or more to reveal themselves. Her advice is to acknowledge this but not count it as part of this event's income.