Are you planning a technology conference? You have to get your act together or things will fall apart. Check out this conference planning checklist.
Around half of the meetings that are organized end up being a waste of time.
You don’t want anyone to leave your conference thinking that they could have spent their time more efficiently. Innovating entrepreneurs and tech start-ups are driving growth in the economy. These people don’t have time for time-wasting. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure you get your act together to prevent everything from falling apart.
Check out our conference planning checklist below!
1. Establish What You Want to Achieve
When you’re planning your technology conference, you need to make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve.
Talking about your goals for the conference with your team is crucial to ensuring everything goes well.
You may simply want to raise awareness of your brand within the industry. Perhaps you’re eager to expand your network of connections.
Whatever your goal, keeping this in mind at all times is essential if you want to make sure you stay on the right track.
2. Put Together Your Conference Wishlist
When you’re brainstorming your conference, you can afford to dream about your fantasy. What would be your perfect conference?
You may not be able to get everything you ever wanted for your conference. But, you can probably get pretty close.
The most important considerations include your speakers, the location of the event, and the number of attendees to the conference.
And yet, nothing is too small either. Talk about everything from whether to serve locally produced plant-based dishes or stage a barbecue in the warm outdoors.
3. Calculate Your Budget for the Event
Up to 85 percent of projects go over budget to some extent. You need to ensure that your conference isn’t over budget. Working out how much you have to spend early on is essential.
Then, you need to calculate how much everything is going to cost you. You may be able to get some things free of charge.
Your budget may also determine whether you can afford to cover the costs yourself, or whether you need to charge guests to attend as well.
Again, nothing is too small to be overlooked. Everything that costs money needs to be accounted for if you’re going to avoid going into the red.
4. Be Realistic About What You Can Do
Don’t get carried away by your hopes and dreams for your conference.
You would probably love to welcome tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk and the head of Apple, Tim Cook at your conference.
But, it’s unlikely that you can find the money to pay them to attend your event. That’s why you need to stay more modest in your ambitions.
However, being realistic doesn’t mean that you have to set low expectations. Youn can certainly still ensure that your conference is the talk of the town.
5. Reach out to Speakers
If you want to get as many speakers as possible from your wishlist to your conference, then you need to throw everything you’ve got at it.
Make the most of your network. You may be surprised that your buddy’s friend was the best man at an amazing speaker’s wedding.
Evaluating which speakers would work for your conference is easy nowadays. Simply check out previous talks they have performed on YouTube.
When you initially reach out to a speaker, provide as much information as possible. You need to come across as professional and in the know.
6. Draft Your Conference Schedule
Every minute in your technology conference needs to be organized. Your conference schedule needs to run like clockwork.
What time does everyone arrive at the start of the day? How long does each speaker talk for? What time is left for workshops?
If anything falls behind the time, you’ll struggle to be able to catch up. This can turn your whole conference event upside down.
Make sure you cover all the relevant topics. How you covered the importance of security management? Have you dealt with the issue of electric vehicles?
7. Promote Your Conference Everywhere
You could have organized an excellent conference with star speakers and delicious food. And yet, if you haven’t promoted the event, you might not have an audience.
Selling your conference everywhere is essential if you’re going to make the event a success. You need to get your marketing team together.
Spreading the word about your conference happens on social media, via email and through word of mouth.
If you have a bigger budget, you may want to pay for ads online or leaflets to send out to your target audience.
8. Reflect on What Happened
After the conference is over, you need to reflect on everything that happened. Get your team of organizers together to evaluate what went right and what could have been better.
What can you pay yourselves on the back for? The food may have been fabulous and the workshops went really well.
But, could your speakers have been a little better? You may work harder next time to get speakers that are more relevant to your audience’s interests.
Learning from your past mistakes is important if you want to continue to organize technology conferences for your audience.
What Is on Your Conference Planning Checklist?
There are so many things to consider about what you’re organizing a technology conference. It can quickly get overwhelming with so many things to keep in mind.
But, with our conference planning checklist, you can ensure that you remember everything important to ensure your event is successful.
Do you want to read more tech news and advice? Check out our blog for much more!
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