Summary of steps to organize a conference to make it a perfect success
You are planning to prepare for an important company conference and don’t know how to arrange it smoothly. Join HoaBinh Group to learn the full steps of organizing a conference below, which will help you have a perfectly successful event.
1. Understand clearly the requirements for conferences and seminars from superiors
Your first job is to understand the event requirements from the management board. Please determine for what purpose this event was opened? And what benefits does it bring to the company? Based on that, you can determine the goal of the event, thereby making it easier to plan and prepare well for it.
Some questions for you to better understand the requirements from management can be mentioned as follows:
- Who are the guests and target customers of the conference?
- When will the event take place?
- How many guests are expected to attend the conference?
- How much does it cost to organize the conference?
2. Determine the topic and content of the seminar
Once you’ve mastered the requirements of the conference, determine the specific topic the conference wants to cover. Refer to as many sources as possible, including search engines and social networks, to get better ideas.
Some common conference topics include:
- Customer Appreciation Ceremony
- Product launch ceremony
- Year-end ceremony
- Award ceremony
- Honor ceremony
- Scientific conference
- Year-end company conference
- Seminar summarizing business situation
- Customer Conference,…
After determining the direction of the event, it is time to create specific content for the conference.
3. Define the workshop concept
Once you have the specific purpose, content, and theme of the event, choose organizational concepts that suit the style and wishes of the company. And don’t think that conferences are boring because you can absolutely make them interesting if you know how to choose the concept.
For example: If you need to organize a seminar to launch a new product, you can combine the conference concept with a product exhibition. During the exhibition, you can not only introduce new products that are about to be launched but also display previous products. From there, create attraction for customers, and if you are lucky, you can close sales of both new and old products. Through that, your values and business journey can be widely promoted to guests.
In addition, you can also come up with the idea of combining conferences with parties such as:
- Year-end party combination conference
- Year End Party combined conference
- New Year Party combined conference
- Conference to combine the company’s birthday
- Conference combined with an Appreciation Ceremony
- Conference combining Christmas Party.
- Conference combined with Teambuilding
- Conference with Company Trip
- Gala Dinner and combined conference
- Conference combined with an employee appreciation ceremony
Although this step requires a lot of time and research, if you have good seminar organization ideas, your event will have many chances of success.
4. Plan your event
The specific plan and process for your event are key to the smooth running of the following stages. In the event plan, you need to mention the purpose, goals, topics, content, and concept of the conference. Then, list all the things you need to do to have the desired conference. The more specifically the tasks are listed, the easier and more timely their implementation will be.
In addition, in the plan, you should divide tasks into time periods to complete them better.
5. Make a contingency plan
No matter how perfect an event is, it can encounter errors or unexpected situations. At that time, you need backup plans to solve problems that arise as smoothly as possible.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you’ve been working on a backup plan, take the time to review both progress and cost issues to adjust accordingly.
6. Determine the total event budget
Even though the company has allocated a budget for you to organize the event perfectly, if you don’t know how to balance costs and divide them well, you can have a budget deficit problem. In addition, there is always a reserve for unexpected events. This contingency can range from 5% -10% of the total event budget.
7. Choose a conference location
For the conference to take place perfectly, you need to choose the perfect organization space. Not to mention, this conference venue must also be located in a beautiful location, convenient for guests’ travel.
8. Choose professional conference services
Accompanying perfect program scripts is a dedicated organizing team. For businesses, you can take advantage of your employees to organize the program if the company already has experience in this area. But if not, you can choose a conference or seminar organization service to do it for you.
9. Prepare backdrops, banners, and standees for the event
Depending on each program or event and their scale, you can choose whether to use a backdrop, banner, or standee. Below, we will briefly outline their uses so you can have a clearer view!
– Backdrop: The backdrop is placed on the stage. Sometimes you can also put a backdrop at the entrance or reception hall so that guests can easily check in at the event.
– Banner: Banners are images and information that businesses want to convey to customers, they can be hung or placed around your event place. A standee is also a type of banner often placed at the entrance, containing all the information about the event.
10. Prepare relevant documents for the conference
Some conferences and seminars will be held to discuss a certain issue or to promote a newly launched product. Therefore, it is essential to prepare the discussed documents as well as the product documents. importance power. After the business has agreed on the set of documents to be used in the conference, please review them for the last time and take them to check that the print quality is satisfactory for timely correction.
11. Work with speakers, experts and MCs
Speakers, experts, and MCs play an important role in the success of the event. Therefore, choosing speakers, experts, and MCs requires an investment of time and effort. Above all, carefully discuss the issues that will arise in the seminar to make sure no mistakes occur. In addition, carefully negotiate the salary as well as regularly contact speakers and MCs to ensure they do not use rubber hours during your event.
12. Prepare souvenirs for guests
For every event, large and small, the most successful part of the party is making guests have a deep impression of the program. One of the ways to make customers remember the event is to prepare small gifts to show hospitality. You can use this opportunity to make a good impression on customers and make them remember you. Many businesses also invest in printing their brand names on the gifts they give to guests.
Here are some gifts that Riverside Palace restaurant suggests for you: Souvenir notebooks, water bottles, water cups, fountain pens, handbags, candies, vouchers for purchases from famous brands, shopping bags,…
13. Arrange entertainment for the event
To add more atmosphere to the conference, in addition to discussing the main issues, you can arrange some performances for the program. These performances can be dancing, singing, comedy, magic, etc. If you invest in them to link with the topics of the conference, these performances will certainly create a deep impression with guests.
In addition, if appropriate, you can organize some games in the middle of the session so that guests can get a little active and refresh their spirits before focusing on the seminar.
14. A mid-time party will make the conference more light
Usually, with seminars lasting from 4 to 5 hours, guests will tend to be hungry and want to have a snack. To show the company’s sophistication, prepare a few small teabreak tables in case customers are hungry!
If the event does not have a mid-hour teabreak, be sure to let guests rest for 10 to 15 minutes so they can focus more on the conference!
15. Treat guests to a party
Depending on the nature of the party, you can decide whether to book a conference party or treat guests or not. However, for events that last all day, this is a must.
You should choose dishes that are appropriate for the age, regional characteristics, or general preferences of your customers. In addition, you should also choose a place with good reviews for quality and taste.
Speaking of banquet menus, Riverside Palace is also proud to be one of the favorite restaurants for its diverse food flavors. Not only that, we also pay attention to the appearance and flavor of the food, because Riverside understands that delicious dishes need to meet all three criteria of Beauty – Fragrant and satisfaction of Taste. Crossing between multi-regional and multi-national cuisine to bring customers delicious dishes, satisfy the hunger of guests, and score points for the conference.
16. Prepare invitations
Previously, conferences and seminars would prepare invitations and send those invitations to customers. However, with the current development of technology, sending invitations is also done online. This is a method favored by many businesses; companies only need to design a few invitation cards and then email them to the guests. This is also a cost-effective way to organize a useful conference for businesses.
17. Media for the event
An event may not be known to many people without communication. You do not need to invest in mass media to make the event known to many people; you just need to focus on communicating with the guests who are likely to become guests of the party.
Take a clearer example: Your seminar introduces a new business course; you only need to focus on communicating with people who are doing business and who have a need to do business in the future.
In addition, you should also consider the time to run the media for the event in a reasonable way. Do not let the water reach your feet as you jump.
18. Don’t forget to ensure the safety of conference guests
In order for the conference to run to its fullest, you need to check the equipment as well as the exits at the event venue. In addition, the organization of conferences during the New Normal also needs to ensure the health and safety of the guests.
19. Hire a professional photographer
To save memories or to take advantage of event moments for your company’s marketing communication campaign, you need a flexible and professional photographer. They will help you record the memorable moments of the party. So pay attention and hire a professional photographer. In addition, if your company has a camera available, you can take pictures yourself to save on this cost.
20. Prepare a guest survey if needed
Organizing a conference has a lot of benefits for businesses. One of them is being able to consult customers about the business and their experience with the conference. Their valuable contributions are the foundation for you to organize better customer and guest conferences in the future.
21. Check all services again
After a long time of preparing for the conference, everything was considered to be arranged. However, don’t be subjective and skip the inspection stage; it will help you avoid many risks while the event is taking place. A week before the conference, contact all service parties to ensure the event goes well!
22. Don’t forget to inform your guests about the conference
Many guests often forget about the conference or event they have signed up for. So your job is to remind them so they remember your event. Closer to the event date, you can use email or text to remind them not to forget to leave time to come to your conference.
23. Need an event coordinator?
On the day of the event, the coordinator will act as a guide for guests to settle in. Normally, the conference MC will act as a coordinator and talk about some information as well as help guests pay more attention to the ceremony. However, before the ceremony, guests need a guide to take them into the conference hall or guide them to the information counter, restroom, etc. to help them quickly settle into their seats before the ceremony. The ceremony started.
24. Script to interact with the guests in the conference
With all programs, seminars, conferences, lectures, and art exchanges, one-way interaction often creates a feeling of boredom for guests. Therefore, for guests to really listen and pay attention to the conference, you need to create two-way interaction with them. Plan your interactions with the conference guests ahead of time.
Script content can include questions to interact with customers, simple minigames, and simple events to invite them to interact on stage. In addition, you can also organize online surveys that customers can do quickly and get immediate results from. From there, get information visually and realistically for the seminar.
25. Send thank you letters and give souvenirs to the guests
After the conference is over, don’t forget to thank the customers who attended the party. Give them souvenirs to remind them of your business.
26. Settlement of expenses after the event ends
Normally, the cost of organizing the event will be partially deposited in advance for the organization service side. This ensures the rights of both parties—the organization and the company. After the event or conference ends, arrange and pay the remaining fees.
27. Evaluate the success of the conference
Finally, after each conference, you need to evaluate whether your event was successful or not. First, compare the goals you initially set to see which items did well and which did not. Next, look at customer surveys about the conference to see how they rate it. At this stage, you need to accept it most openly and learn from your experience in future events.
With the 27 steps to organizing a conference from A-Z that HoaBinh Group shares above, hopefully you know how to create the perfect event for your company. If you need any information, please contact the hotline: 0913.311.911 – 0939.311.911 for 24/7 support.