2013-12-17
Part 5. Conference Day
Nothing will prepare you for the day of the event, especially if you’ve only organized local meetups. Having a team you can depend on is essential for your event to be successful. You’ll need a game plan. You’ll also need to accept that you won’t think of everything. You will make mistakes. Roll with it. React when necessary. Avoid freaking out. Chances are the audience won’t even realize a mistake has occurred.
- Speaker Meals — Because some of our speakers arrived later on Friday evening, we decided to have a Speaker’s Brunch in lieu of a Speaker’s Dinner. I wouldn’t recommend doing it again. Mornings are sacred for people. If we did have a breakfast thing again, I’d make it unofficial and probably just have it at the hotel. We ended up paying for 15 meals that weren’t eaten because we guaranteed a party size. (Related: Don’t guarantee a party size. And avoid buffets unless you are absolutely certain of your party size.)
- After Party — If you plan on having food, be very deliberate in letting everyone know it’ll be there. We had a 45-minute gap between the end of our event and the after party and didn’t communicate that there would be food available. The money we spent on food could have been saved or paid for an extra drink for attendees.
- Volunteers — It’s probably better to have too many versus not enough volunteers. Make sure you have plenty of people on-hand to help get things setup, run errands, etc. Being short-handed will put extra pressure on you and your co-organizers.
- Signage — Create signs you can reuse or repurpose. This will help keep costs down if you decide to do this again.
- Breaks — A 15-minute break every two hours will give attendees time to stretch their legs and mingle. Light snacks and canned drinks are good. And have plenty of water available. (Run out mid-event and you may find yourself making a snack run.)
- Lunch — You can save money by blocking out 1-1.5 hours for lunch and encouraging attendees to explore nearby eateries.
- Backstage Coordination — Doc Waller is an absolute pro and kept things in order both on and off-stage. Make sure you have someone you can rely on to make sure speakers are on stage when they need to be and that all of their technical needs are addressed well before they have to get in front of everyone.
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