11 Oct

Your 10-Point Conference Planning Checklist for 2023

To ensure that you get a perfect result as you prepare, you should develop a workable conference planning checklist. After all, this can be a significant undertaking with many moving parts, so the more focused you are, the better. With that in mind, here are 10 steps to help make the perfect checklist for conference organisers.

1. Begin by Choosing a Theme

Assuming you’ve already chosen your ultimate goal before you begin your conference planning checklist, pick a theme that will make the event stand out and be memorable for all participants. It also helps to come up with a tagline that sums up the goal and what you’re planning to get out of the conference.

2. Look at the Individual Journey Steps

You could also call this the delegate’s journey, and it helps put yourself in their shoes as you hammer out the individual steps. Tie everything into your goal and ensure that each step has an impact and contributes to the overall ambition.

3. Gather Your Team

Step 3 on your “planning a conference” checklist should be to pick your team. Typically, you will need individuals who can shine in certain areas and help you delegate successfully. These can include people to help with admin, marketing, travel, and facilitation.

4. Choose a Venue

Come up with a shortlist of venues and, if possible, have a range of potential dates. This planning will give you more flexibility and help you get somewhere that fits your budget and other parameters.

5. Zero In On the Budget

A client may have given you an overall budget, or you may be ready to fix one by yourself. You need to get important information from each venue in the previous phase, as you can compare crucial components like room hire, catering, discount hotel rates, AV, and other elements.

6. Choose Your Technology

Technology is front and centre these days, so choose a provider (or work with the venue if they can provide one). You probably need to develop an event app as part of your conference planning checklist and may need live streams to show the conference to remote attendees. Consider some of the latest technological trends today to see if they’ll work at your conference.

7. Line Up Your Contractors

While you will have chosen your in-house team during a previous step, you may still need to outsource certain tasks to other experts. Go through a process to select the right vendors and then book them as far in advance as possible.

8. Confirm the Speakers

You may need to bring in keynote speakers to make your conference successful, and your choice may undoubtedly make or break the project. Therefore, reach out as early as possible to ensure your ideal talent is available and discuss the budget and their requirements.

9. Get Down to Details

While you will have walked through the individual journey above as you developed your checklist for conference organisers, now is the time to narrow everything down. Outline your agenda carefully, typically in predictable time blocks, and don’t forget to give yourself some headway just in case something comes up. Plan your conference agenda meticulously. Don’t tire out your attendees, but make sure that they are happy with what they get.

10. Finally, Promote

Once you have your masterpiece in waiting, it’s time to promote it. Consider how you will do this and whether you need to promote internally (in your organisation), externally (to the wider world), or both. You may need to work with some influencers in your market to get the word out, advertise on social media, email a list, or write a press release. Here are some additional ideas to help you with conference marketing.

Getting Additional Support

You may need to reach outside your organisation to help with hosting staff and other key people. In this case, it’s good to work with experts like Eventeem, who can provide you with all your event staff and help answer any other questions as you develop your “planning a conference” checklist. Eventeem can also help you understand some corporate event trends to watch out for in 2023.