How to Build the Perfect Conference

Through our decades of experience, we have successfully planned and managed conferences across several industries around the country, so we understand the importance of planning well in advance to ensure an event runs smoothly. The last thing you want is for something to go awry in the midst of the event leaving your attendees confused and disgruntled. Not only is that frustrating for them, but it also puts you and your brand in the hot seat.

Organizing conference roles, the day of event schedule, and more is critical to figure out prior to the event. This way, when the day of the conference comes, all conference managers are confident that the event will run smoothly. Continue reading to learn the ins and outs of creating a conference plan to ensure an outstanding conference program that is trouble-free.

Create a Conference Plan in Advance

It’s essential to create a conference plan months before the actual conference. This is to ensure that the entire day is scheduled to perfection — down to the lunch breaks. Guests don’t want to feel rushed or as if the day is dragging. Working with a professional conference management team ensures that the schedule provides enough time for each speaker’s keynote, breaks, and more.

So how should you begin building your conference plan?

One of the most important aspects of creating a conference plan is to know exactly what your goals are for the event. Determining these goals will help you develop a more cohesive conference plan. So, when creating a conference plan well in advance, it’s important to answer the following questions:

What are your goals for this event?
Who is your target audience?
What will attendees gain from this conference?
What competitors are in the market?
When and where will the conference take place?
Is there an entrance fee or is it free of charge?
Do you have a budget for speaker fees?
What general sessions do you want to offer?
Do you want to develop an advisory board?
Is this a virtual or in-person gathering?
Who is going to speak at your event?
How will the schedule be organized?

Answering these questions is a great starting point. Once you have the background knowledge of your event, now it’s time to get a little more granular with the details.

Choose Your Speakers

Why do people come to conferences? Most people attend conferences to network and learn beyond their current skill set from experts in the industry. This is why it’s absolutely crucial to choose the most influential names among the industry to speak at your conference. Choosing your speakers is just one piece of the conference planning puzzle that needs to be carefully completed.

Basically, the speakers you choose for your conference become your brand ambassadors. They leverage their own credibility and reputation for your event. And likewise, your event becomes associated with their name — boosting your brand awareness and credibility amongst the speakers’ networks.

When scouting for speakers, consider the following qualities to be on the lookout for:

Relevance: Does this speaker have the capability and knowledge to discuss (in great depth) the overarching subject matter of the conference? You desperately want to avoid having your speaker’s background and goals misaligned with the main topic of the conference.
Experience: Has this person spoken at a conference before? You want to make sure that your speakers are engaging and entertaining the audience. This doesn’t suggest that you completely exclude speakers with little experience. If given the right platform, they may just knock it out of the park. However, knowing the person you chose to speak at your event has excelled at speaking before, is a surefire way to gain confidence in their ability to succeed.
Influence: Does your speaker have the credibility and following necessary to draw in an audience? It’s a simple fact — the greater the network of a speaker, the greater the conference attendance. To maximize your efforts, securing an influential speaker will undoubtedly attract a larger audience.

Gain Exposure with Public Relations

One thing you do not want to leave out of your conference plan is public relations. Maximizing public relations efforts to promote the education component of an event is crucial to gain greater event attendance, garner brand exposure, and boost brand credibility. Having an expert publicist understand the new digital media world where newspapers offer podcasts, TV news programs offer online articles, and radio stations offer video, can help to get the word out about your conference to mass audiences. Depending on what type of outreach you and your publicist decide is best — local, regional, national, international — media coverage can even attract a wide-ranging audience from locations all over the world.

Learn more about the power of public relations for your in-person event and read our blog, The Benefits of Public Relations Excellence for Your Event.

Hire a Conference Management Professional

Hosting and planning a conference is a big job. That’s why it’s critical to have the right expertise by your side every step of the way to help with building and executing your conference plan — saving you time, energy and stress.

Hiring a conference management professional can help with — but not limited to — the following:

Securing speakers, sessions, titles, and objectives
Overseeing contracts and honorariums
Handling speaker registration and travel
Managing schedules
Performing onsite management support as well as technical support
Working with the marketing team to provide updated information for session materials

An expert conference management professional will work closely with the industry to attract the best possible speakers and handle all of the logistics for a successful speaker program at any conference facility. So you can sit back and watch your plans unfold the way they should… perfectly.

Final Thoughts

In this day and age, people are eager to learn by attending virtual events, getting back to in-person meetings or participating in a hybrid model. Thinking about hosting a conference in the near future? Now is the best time to get started on your conference plan. And if needed, Riemer Communications is here to help you plan, manage, and execute it successfully.

Let’s get started — contact our team today.