How to Organise a Successful Business Conference
Whilst the global economic climate may be far from secure, the international business conference and events market continues to thrive.
In fact, the number of business conferences booked in the UK alone peaked at 1.48 million last year, with this having increased significantly from the 1.29 million events that took place during the previous year.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of these conferences take place in London and similarly metropolitan cities across the globe, as organisers look to inspire their key stakeholders, celebrate company successes and lay out an optimistic vision further growth in the near-term.
In this post, we’ll ask how you can organise a successful business conference and provide your stakeholders with a clear sense of purpose for the future.
- Decide on a Theme
Let’s face facts; every great business conference requires a theme, as this will underpin the underlying and unifying messages that speakers are required to deliver to attendees.
You can also structure mini events around this universal theme, which help to engage attendees, encourage interaction and drive home the key takeaways.
Ultimately, the best and most effective themes are catchy and relatable, and capable of triggering an emotive response that helps to keep attendees engaged for the duration of the conference.
We’d also recommend that you promote your conference with a tagline that captures this theme in a concise and memorable way, as the repetition of this can help to create a sense of anticipation ahead of the event and serve as a key rallying call for all participants.
- Create an Organisational Team that Handles the Key Details
Whilst you and a select number of strategic staff members may take responsibility for creating a conference theme, you may want to delegate the responsibility for organising the event’s more intricate details.
This will require the attention of a dedicated team, who boast strong organisational skills and are capable of undertaking all planning, negotiational and promotional processes.
At the same time, you’ll want to retain an overview of the planning team, to ensure that your employees are adhering to the theme of the conference whilst also staying within the budgetary constraints that will have been laid out previously.
This is where the right choice of location can also prove crucial, as major cities boast superior accommodation and a wider range of amenities. If you’re planning an event in the UK capital, for example, you can identify the most competitively priced London corporate apartments in order to achieve genuine value for money.
- Determine Whether or Not Your Event Needs Sponsors
This issue of budget is an interesting one, as you may find it increasingly difficult to develop a viable event or themed conference experience as you progress through the planning process.
In this instance, you may want to consider sourcing sponsors to help fund the event, or at provide some tangible value that enhances the conference experience and engages attendees on a far greater level.
If you do pursue this course, however, there are a couple of steps to keep in mind. Firstly, it’s important to determine the precise role that sponsors will play in the event, and decide how the additional revenue should be spent (where applicable).
Secondly, make sure that your selected partners are aligned with the values of your brand and the overarching theme of the conference. You should also decide whether to target local or national sponsors, depending on the size of your firm and nature of the value that you’re looking to add.
