If yours is a booming business with a growing customer base, then it is not a surprise that at one point of time or the other you will be asked to host a customer or client conference.
A conference offers chances to talk about the important trends and issues on your respective vertical and take opinions of the customers and the clients about achieving the most technological solutions.
Bringing together thousands of users can have one of the 2 consequences. Either it can be a great way to strengthen your client base or it can be a complete failure with no apparent ROI.
Planning successful conference calls for a subtle balance among offering the right mixture of services, entertainment and venue while sticking to the budget.
So if you are planning to host a conference here are some critical tips that will help you organize a successful one without making a dent in the pocket.
Just take a look.
- Look for Venue – You should take time in looking for the right venue for hosting the conference. You should opt for the local venues first as that will save you lots of money on the travel. Don’t go for the nicest hotel in town. You can be pleasantly surprised at what the venues that do not come with big names or brands can bring to the table. You should keep your options open and look for a plenitude of spaces and not just the hotels.
- Set the Budget – The greatest constraint at the time of organising the conference is financial. The ideal way is to understand what will make the conference successful – is it the location, entertainment or speakers! All these can contribute to making a conference successful. But your costs can also be affected by them. You can plan two to four different budget plans and opt for the one that is most likely to make the conference successful.
- Find Sponsors – Sponsorships happen to be an affordable and effective way in order to market your services and products. It puts money in your pocket and the sponsor also has a built-in buzz around. But you should always think small. The smaller businesses are hungry for exposures while the larger ones do not require them much. You should narrow down the list to companies that are marketing to same types of consumers as your business does. After that, craft a proposal that lets them use all the perks that your inexpensive opportunity is offering and reach out.
- Choose the Speakers – The speakers can eat up considerable portion of the budget and they won’t reduce their personal asking price. But you can, at least, reduce the overall cost of bringing them to your conference. You should plan for the time when they are already within a significantly short distance that can minimise the travel costs. Once you are done with that, look for low-cost accommodations that meet the needs. For a package deal you can also consider choosing the accommodations and venue together at a convention centre or hotel.
- Assemble Your Team – At the time of organising a conference you will need a dedicated team of people to implement their responsibilities. So you need to assemble people for the –
- Administration Team who take care of the attendee registration, budgeting and ticket sales. This team will be the first point of contact for questions related to the conference.
- Planning Team who are in charge of the accommodation, conference venue, catering and activities.
- Marketing Team who are in charge of contacting the media, managing the blog, website and the social media activities and creating promotional materials.
- Volunteers for assisting with all the activities on-site on the day of conference that include the ticket scanning, management of the door, management of the wardrobe, tracking the guest list, guiding people, crowd management and much more.
Keep the team members limited and ask for volunteers who are willing to conduct the duties just for experience and not for monetary gain. This will help to get the tasks done without digging a hole in your pocket.
- Finetune the Foods – There have been various social studies that discern the fact that humans place a tremendous amount of importance on food. It is something that the event-attendees will be talking about much after the conference is wrapped up. But that does not mean that you have to spend all you have for that. Just keep the below points in mind –
- Limit or Eliminate the Open Bars – Limit the free beverages to non-alcoholic ones or offer cash bars or limit the alcoholic drinks to a limited selection
- Shun the Table Service – Limit the choices and go for buffets that minimise staff and offer easier clean-up
- Keep the Menu Short – You don’t need a plethora of things for impressing and just a handful of quality choices is all that matters
- Save on the Setting – Opt for the less-expensive cutlery, linens and instead spend the money on quality food
- Trade Marketing for Food – Use the public exposure for enticing the start-up catering services for decreasing the bid process
Apart from the above, you should also opt for conference furniture hire for achieving the right décor and providing the right seating and presentation arrangements for your conference. If you keep the above in mind you will be able to organise a successful conference that won’t cost you massively and yet achieve all your desired goals.