If you want to organize your congresses and conventions, you will see that the task is difficult and the road full of pitfalls. Fortunately, we have made a small summary of the elements not to be neglected!

Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?

The first thing to do will be to answer the following questions: Who? Who? When? Where? How? Why?

 

• Who is it for? Be sure to define the target audience you wish to invite to your conference. Determine a maximum number of participants. Be careful not to choose a target that is too narrow or too broad. You must also determine who you are going to address: is it a professional audience or do you want to reach everyone?

 

• What is it? What theme do you want your conference to focus on? It is very important to have a title that makes people want to be interested in the event and that is in line with your target. Do you want this congress to be a discussion between all the participants or a conference? It will be up to you to explain clearly what you want to do in order to make your audience want to attend.

 

• Where? Defining the location in advance is essential. Ask yourself if the conference is in line with the values of the area where you want to hold it. If you want to attract a lot of people, you will have to set up in a big city with a lot of public transportation.

 

• When? The date. We can’t say this enough, but think more than once about the date of your conference. Make sure that there are no other events scheduled at the same time. Or that this date falls on a holiday for example (especially if you organize it in another country than France)

 

• How do you want to do it? What are the means you wish to implement? Often it is the budget that will answer this question. Plan it according to your ambitions.

 

• Why? The why is the reason to do. Why do you want to organize this conference? What message and values do you want to convey? Participants are sensitive to the reason for an event, so don’t neglect this aspect.

 

Communication not to be neglected

 

You may have impeccable specifications, with prestigious guests, but if you neglect communication, no one will come to your conference. Upstream, prepare a retroplanning to establish your strategy ? What are the channels to use? Specialized press? Television? Radio? Billboards? Each communication strategy is different, it must be adapted to your target!

Don’t hesitate to think big and send invitations to the leaders of the sector! It is by daring that we progress and that we assert ourselves.

 

Other things to keep in mind

 

Some elements to think about for your congress:

• Accommodation: if your conference is over several days, plan an accommodation solution for the participants.

 

• The meal: also plan a meal (buffet, sit-down meal, which caterer?) and an end cocktail to close your congress in beauty.

 

• Equipment: choose your equipment carefully. Get information about the sound and image providers to get the best quality.

 

• Security: mandatory in today’s climate, use an experienced contractor to secure your conference against any unexpected event.

 

• Anticipate unforeseen events: they are inevitable and will require a high level of responsiveness. Imagine unforeseen scenarios with your team and think about what solutions to implement. Also plan for spare equipment, a breakage happens so quickly.

There you have it, you now have a few keys in hand to prepare your conference at best!

Also, do not hesitate to use a group management software to in order to help you gather all the information.