conferences nathaniel whittemore final

8/6/2019 Conferences Nathaniel Whittemore FINAL

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CONFERENCES

By Nathaniel Whittemore

When young people think of conferences, they tend to have one of two gut reactions. First,there is the conferences are frustrating and silly group. These are the people for whomconferences represent either people with shared objectives battling over minutiae or peoplewho wholeheartedly agree both that the world is screwed up and that someone else is toblame. To these individuals, conferences mean no real dialogue, no real learning, and noreal conversation, just missed opportunities and another line on a resume. The second groupis the conferences are inspiring and reenergizing group. These are the people for whomconferences represent another chance to come together with similarly-passionate people,

another chance to engage in meaningful conversations and dialogue. To them, conferencesafford the opportunity to review and reflect on the goals and objectives of theirorganizations and to be introduced to the new skills and approaches that can help themachieve these goals!

I am not a conference person, by disposition. In fact, if asked my view of conferences, moreoften than not, I would place myself in the conferences are silly and frustrating category.

That said, when a conference is done wellwhen it understands its mission and objectives,who its trying to benefit and how to do so, and when it has studied the normal traps thatconferences can fall into and works to avoid them it can be one of the most powerful toolsfor bringing people together to inspire individual and collective action. A conference, whendone well, can create a learning environment in which the whole is much greater than thesum of its parts.

This is the type of conference this chapter will help you plan. As you use this guide, keep inmind that a conference brings together a unique group of people for a specific reason, andwhile this reality means youll have an incredible amount of creative freedom to create aunique and powerful event, it also means that any planning guide will be limited with regardto how much it reflects your specific situation. That said, no matter what type of event youproduce, the information presented below will help you identify your audience, set goals,and ensure your conference inspires and excites.

OBJECTIVES, CONFERENCE TYPES, AND CONTENT STRUCTURES

Every good conference has a set of objectives that reflect the interests of the people it isintended to benefit. Many conferences overshoot, attempting to take on more than they

can handle. This is evident when a conferences objectives are unfocused or simply toonumerous. The better you understand your objectives and the better you focus your contentto effectively achieve these objectives, the more powerful your event will be.

This section will help you identify your objectives as well as the conference structures thatwill best help you realize them.

Conference Types


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A good starting exercise is to break conferencesapart into a few common types. These typestend to refer to the overarching objectives of theevent.

Awareness-Building

Probably the most common type of event at thecollege level, awareness-building conferencesteach participants about a new topic or introducethem to an issue or challenge to which they likelyhave little exposure. These conferences tend toutilize lectures andpanel discussions by experts toadvance their awareness-building objectives. Agreat example is the Americans for InformedDemocracy conference program, which featurestopics ranging from Global Partnership toReform, Security, and Media.

Capacity-Building

Capacity-building conferences teach participantsskills and capacities they didnt have beforearriving. In this way, these conferences functionmuch like training sessions. They also tend toutilize interactive, hands-on content structures likeworkshops and small discussions to achieve theircapacity-building objectives. The GlobalEngagement Summit (see inset box) is an exampleof a capacity-building conference.

Network-Building

Whether its within a community, like a national network of affiliate student groups, orbetween communities, like a set of nonprofits, the fundamental component of anyconference is bringing together a set of people. A network-building conference is an eventthat makes this its primary purpose. These conferences tend to emphasize participantinteraction (by hosting cocktail parties or scheduling networking hours, for example) toachieve their networking objectives. The best place to see examples of network buildingconferences are business schools around the country. For business students, connectionsmatter almost as much, if not as much, as their educations, so these conferences are verynetworking-oriented.

Information-Sharing

Less common in the undergraduate world but quite prevalent in the professional world are

conferences that primarily serve to share best practices and new information within aspecific field or discipline. These conferences tend to emphasis short presentations fromfield experts as well as poster sessions to achieve their objectives. An example would be acancer research conference at which scientists present their work in poster or lecture form.Keep an eye out at your university and youre likely to a number of these types ofconferences in any given year.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT SUMMIT(formerly International Youth

Volunteerism Summit)

The Global Engagement Summit(GES) is an annual capacity-building

event for student project leadersfrom around the globe. Each year,we bring together 50-60 studentsfrom the US and abroad to developtheir global problem solvinginitiatives and personal leadershipcapacities through workshops anddiscussions focused on a variety oftopics ranging from approaches toengagement (such as Asset-BasedCommunity Development) to skillslike fundraising and strategicplanning. The training sessions are

facilitated by nonprofit leaders fromall over the world and provide abasis for both individual studentdevelopment and collective actioninspired by the unique combinationof young global leaders. To find outmore about GES, check outwww.engagementsummit.org


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These types are certainly not exhaustive there are conferences that do not fall into anyof these categories, just as there are conferences that fall into several of them. In fact, mostconferences fall into two or more of the above categories.

The Anatomy of a Conference

Now that youve begun to think about your objectives and youve had a chance to reflect ondifferent conference types, its important to think about what content you might utilize tobest reach your objectives. The better you align your content with your objectives, the moresuccessful your event will be.

Content: KeynotesDescription: Keynotes usually open or close conferences, and provide people with a chanceto learn from and be inspired by a leader in the field.

Youll find them at almost every conference type, but they are particularly common atawareness-building conferences.

Content: Panel/Plenary DiscussionsDescription: Panel or plenary discussions bring together 3-5 experts to discuss a specifictopic and answer questions.

Youll find them at awareness-building or information-sharing conferences.

Content: WorkshopsDescription: In a workshop, an expert instructs a group of participants in a skill ortechnique.

Youll find them at many conferences, but especially capacity-building conferences.

Content: Small Group DiscussionsDescription: Small group discussions a place for participants to reflect upon the materialthats been presented to them at keynotes, panels, and workshops. They also provide anopportunity for participants to share their personal experiences and perspectives with otherattendees.

Youll find them at capacity-building conferences.

Content: Poster SessionsDescription: Poster sessions are an efficient way to share a large volume of specializedinformation. Hundreds of posters can be setup in a relatively small place. More important,

This allow a huge number of people and organizations to present information about theirwork in exhibition halls that conference attendees or members of the public can walkthrough.

Youll find them at information-sharing conferences.

Content: Networking sessionsDescription: Often organized around meal times, networking sessions are time explicitlyset aside for participants to meet one another.

Youll find them at almost all conferences, but always at network-building conferences!

PLANNING YOUR CONFERENCE

No matter how well you set and prioritize goals, your event will change throughout theplanning and execution phases. Your job is to build the structures, timelines, and teamsnecessary to make sure that the event will fulfill its mission.

NOTE: Throughout this section, keep in mind that Ive presented the planning steps in alogical order, but this wont necessarily represent the linear order of your tasks.


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The Basics

The first step in planning your event is to determine what type of event you want, for whom,what you want them to get out of it, and how long you have to achieve that.

Audience

At the core of your planning is identifying who youre designing your conference for. Forsome, this step is easy. If youre planning the national conference of a specific studentgroup, your audience is clearly defined. For others, the audience may be a bit morenebulous. With the International Youth Volunteerism Summit (now the Global EngagementSummit), we had to decide who we really meant by youth, finally settling onundergraduates.

Objectives and Conference Types

With your audience in mind, you can outline your specific objectives.

What is it they need that you can give them with this event? Is it a better capacity to do aspecific type of work? Is it new knowledge about a specific topic? Is it the chance to buildcommunity and new contacts?

With your objectives in mind, you can reference the above types to help you determinewhich types of content can help you best achieve your goals.

Time

With your audience identified and your objectives set, you must determine how long yourconference will last. Will your event be a day long? A weekend? A week? How much time doyou need to achieve your objectives?

Building Support

CONFERENCE PRE-PLANNING WORKSHEET

Conference Title:__________________________________________________________________________

Who is your audience?

What are your objectives? What are the ways in which you hope to benefit youraudience?

What are the conference types that best fit your event? Rank them from 1-4, with 1being most relevant and 4 being least relevant. Jot down a short explanation for eachranking.

__ Awareness-building:__ Capacity-building:__ Network-building:


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No matter how good your plan is, if you dont havethe people to make it a reality, you wont achieveyour objectives. With the basics ironed out, its nowtime to build the critical support youll need tomake your conference happen.

Assembling a Staff

As a young person with limited time and resources,youre going to need a support team to back youup. Building a staff is an exciting but sometimesdaunting process. Most likely, your staff will consistof your friends and the people youve worked within other groups. And given your staffscomposition, there are three specific principles youshould follow in order to build and maintain ahappy and successful team.

1. Understand Motives

In almost any environment youre working in, butespecially on a college campus, the people whosetime youre asking for will be busy withcommitments to other people and projects. Thismakes it especially important to understand whypeople are getting involved with your group. Morelikely than not, its a combination of:

The topic is interesting to them

The topic relates to something theyknow or care about

They have experience with similar

planning/leadership They see that this is somethingpersonally valuable for future leadership orcareer goals

They are a member of the groupplanning the event

They care about you and the things thatare important to you

As a leader, understanding peoples motivationsenables you to work diligently to nurture theirpersonal investment and make sure that they aregetting something meaningful from the experience.

Your community is your greatest asset, and bothyour experience planning the event and the eventitself rest on your ability to keep others engaged,committed, and excited.

2. Assign Specific Jobs

The reality of planning something big and new isthat you need structure to foster creativity. People

FROM THE TRENCHES--THE BASICS OF THE GLOBAL

ENGAGEMENT SUMMIT--

The Global Engagement Summitstarted for a very specific reason:

we didnt (and still dont) think thatthere were quality educationalresources for young people whoseek to go abroad and makechange. This identification of aproblem led us directly to both ouraudience and how we wanted tobenefit them.

Audience: We knew we wanted tobenefit young global changemakers, and through an extensiveset of discussions, we chose to

focus even more directly onAmerican undergraduates. Thisdoesnt mean that ourprogramming doesnt benefit ourgraduate student or internationalparticipants, but we make strategicand curricular decisions with themas secondary considerations.

Our benefit: We knew we wantedto provide a practical education, sowe decided that for us, capacitybuilding included conceptual

knowledge (gender anddevelopment), applied skills(strategic planning, legalorganization) and approaches toengagement (asset-basedthinking, participatory methods indevelopment).

Our types: While capacity buildingwas the primary objective, werecognized that building acommunity of engaged globalleaders was a close second.

Content: To achieve our capacitybuilding and network buildingobjectives, we have emphasizedworkshops, which serve as thebasis for reflective small groupdiscussions. These small groupdiscussions not only furtherlearning, but also provide groupswithin the lar er ro ram the


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need to be given agency over their position, but they also need a clear definition of thatposition as well as well-outlined objectives and goals. Once they have gained confidence intheir roles, they can start to take ownership of their assigned tasks and implement their ownideas.

3. Invest in Relationships

No matter how pressing your planning feels,take the time to invest in the people who areplanning the event with you. Invite people tohang out. Find movies related to what youredoing and plan movie nights. Send randomemails asking people how theyre doing. Thiswill pay off in dividends in terms of yourstaffs investment in the planning process aswell as in terms of everyones enjoyment!

Building Administrative Support

Just as much as you need a staff willing to putin the time to do the work, youre going toneed high-level support that results infunding, space, and other support services. Asa university student, youre ideally positionedto build this support within your extendedcampus network.

1. Make a list of key allies

Sit down and map out who on your campus isa likely ally and write down what they canoffer your organization (financial resources,knowledge, connections). Here are some keyallies commonly found on college campuses:

Office of the Provost: the chiefacademic officer of the university, theProvost sets academic priorities, overseesand facilitates new initiatives, and setsuniversity policy

Community Service Offices: homebase for service-based studentorganizations as well as students whovolunteer both on and off campus

International or Study AbroadOffices: coordinate internationalfellowships and study abroadopportunities

Related academic departments

2. Focus on your approach

No matter how many good potential allies youhave, youre operating in an environmentwhere people already have commitments,

INCREASING YOUR ODDS:RECRUITING FACULTY

One of the things administrators look forwhen evaluating student proposals isfaculty involvement. Remember, ifadministrators are investing in yourprogram, theyll want to know whetheror not it will continue after you leave.One of the best ways to ensure yourorganizations long-term sustainability isto recruit faculty members who will helpfuture students take over where youveleft off. As you begin the planning

process, think about how faculty can beinvolved. Can they host workshops,facilitate discussions, help link you toexperts? Obtaining faculty support willimpress the administration and increase

DONT: Believe your cause is somorally compelling that everyone

will want to support it

As a passionate young person, it can be

easy to get so caught up in your missionthat you forget that other people need tobe convinced to care about what youcare about, no matter how morally orethically compelling you think it may be.Far too often in activism, people lose thechance to form partnerships andfriendships because they take ananyone who doesnt support my issue iscrazy attitude. As you approachpotential allies particularly universityadministration remember that itsimportant to think about how your

interests overlap with theirs so you canexpress a compelling reason for them tocare about your mission. For example,the university may agree that genocideis awful, but youll be far more successfulin liberating resources if youdemonstrate that you are teachingstudents about the dynamics of the


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As you think about how much to allocate for different activities, keep in mind the objectivesyouve prioritized. This doesnt mean that you must spend the majority of your money onyour top objective, but it does mean you should consider relative priorities when makingtough decisions. For example, the single biggest cost of GES is flying in delegates from thedeveloping world. This is something we feel is vital to the event because it exposes

American undergraduates to new ideas and perspectives. However, the quality of ourworkshops is our most important priority and as a result, we would reduce the number ofinternational participants before we reduced the quality of the workshops.

3. Aim High but Stay Realistic

As you budget for your event, dont be afraid to include the big-budget items just be awarethat you may not receive funding for them. Remember, as long as you can raise the bareminimum needed to make your conference a reality, youve succeeded. Any funds over thatare youll need to hold your event. Any funds over that may increase the quality of theevent, but are really an added bonus. For example, when we were planning the first GES, weknew that we could still hold the event without the $20,000 it would cost to fly in delegatesfrom the developing world, but we decided to include it in the budget anyway. Supportersappreciated our idealism and our realism and we were able to raise the extra cash.

4. Align budget requests with university priorities

One thing most students neglect to do is frame their initiative in terms of their universitysmission and funding priorities. Universities fund: curricular programs, student supportprograms, intellectual exchanges, and research. Universities do not always fund straightservice work. As much as you can, frame your activity in terms of the things your universityroutinely supports. GES has been able to fundraise successfully largely because we canbreak apart the different component costs of the event and concentrate university fundingon those elements that are intrinsically linked to the universitys mission, while securingexternal funding for other elements (such as outcome project support grants).

5. Diversify!

Everyone who reviews your funding request will look for evidence that you are activelyseeking financial support from other sources. This demonstrates your groups commitmentto the event as well as your realism you certainly wont receive funds from every sourceyou petition. Counter intuitively, the more funding sources you list (particularly thosesources who have already pledged support), the more money you are likely to receive fromany one source.

Get the Team Moving

At this point, youve got your basic objectives, structure, team, and supporters identified.Now its time to get your team moving and actually plan your event. This section is brief,because the steps you will take when planning your conference are specifically tied to the

type of content youre presenting. That said, there are a few common lessons applicable toall conference planning:

Lesson 1: Budget Time for Conference Components

Your most important planning task is to identify how much time to budget for eachconference component (lecture, workshop, etc.). Take into account the minimum timeneeded for the activity to be productive, the fact that speakers can arrive late, and thevirtual certainty that hot topics or popular speakers will run over the allotted time. See the


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Content

What is the substance of your event? Panelists, keynotes, workshops? Content meansconceptualizing, planning for, and then implementing all of the events people at yourconference will attend. Refer back to the section about content structures to get a better

idea of the different components you can use in your conference. Some of the contentplanning will include:

Recruiting facilitators or speakers for keynotes, panels, and workshops

Designing small group discussion sessions

Planning networking events

Logistics

What are the tasks that need to be accomplished to ensure that everyone involved has ameaningful experience? The logistics of a conference involve:

Arranging transportation and accommodation for all participants

Planning meals Finding, reserving, and preparing space for different events

Marketing, Publicity, and Press

Who are the people you want to hear aboutyour event and what do you want them to knowabout it? Marketing refers to the way youpitch your event. How will you sell it to thepublic? Publicity refers to the way you get yourmessage out. How will you reach your audienceso that your marketing will be most effective?How will you get your materials into the hands

of potential staff, delegates, keynote speakers,sponsors, etc. Press is the media coverage thathelps confer legitimacy upon, and spreadsawareness of, the event youve worked so hardto put together. Some of the tasks will include:

Creating a logo and visual scheme foryour project

Designing brochures, flyers, a website,etc.

Disseminating publicity materials

Generating a list of press contacts inyour local area (or, depending on the scope

of your event, nationally, or globally) Writing press releases

Funding

No conference is free. You will need to findmoney to pay for food, housing, transportation,honorariums, marketing materials, space, etc.As a young person, you will likely employ a

NON-MONETARY DONATIONS

You will often run across people ororganizations inside and outside youruniversity who want to support youbut cant contribute cash. Think abouthow to utilize in-kind donations to takecare of some of your logistical needs. Ifthe French department doesnt havediscretionary money, might they waivethe usual rental fee for their largeseminar room? Can Brueggers Bagels

donate some bagels for breakfasts?Get creative!

WEBSITES

Every project or initiative has a websitethese days, but as you set out, itsworth thinking about the roles the webcan play beyond simply housing staticinformation. At the Global EngagementSummit, we have two differentwebsites, one that we use for the 6months of the year when were lookingfor participants and need to share a lotof information quickly and easily withthousands of potential delegates andfacilitators around the world. As theSummit approaches, however, weswitch to a user driven site driven byWiki technology (think wikipedia) andblog software. This allows us to interactwith our participants before, duringand after the event in ways that wouldbe impossible without the web,including posting notes fromworkshops, providing our delegateswith space to create profiles, and


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variety of strategies, ranging from soliciting university administrators to grassrootsstrategies like carwashes. Here are some ideas for funding sources:

Administration

Academic departments

Family and friends

Sponsor a delegate programs Fundraisers like carwashes, parties, etc.

EXECUTION

Finally, the moment is at hand. Youve done the planning, gathered the support, and builtthe momentum. Its all done and ready to come together. While the execution will differ witheach conference, there are a few things you can anticipate:

1. Get ready for a grueling three weeks

The last few weeks before a conference are going tobe hectic. As more and more people (participants,

speakers, etc) become part of your planning equation,youll have to field more and more questions. Youllrecognize a number of things you havent been doneyet. There is no amount of planning that can changethis. Prepare yourself and your staff for this reality.Remind yourself why youre excited about your event,grit your teeth, and get to work.

2. Understand and plan for changing roles

During this last phase of planning and implementation,your staff will undergo a few important changes. First,some people will drop the ball when you expect them

to come through, and some people who havent beenas involved will pick up the slack. Second, and morecontrollably, you will need to transition yourplanning staff into an implementation staff thatwill make sure that all the tasks of implementing theevent from walking speakers to the lecture hall toregistering delegates whove just arrived arecompleted.

3. Create a master event guide

Just as the planning timeline is your best friend during the planning phases, the masterevent guide is your best friend during the event itself. A good planning guide will include:

Comprehensive event task lists, organized by time

Location guide showing where each task is to be performed

Hour-by-hour staff availability and task assignments

Step Five: Follow-up

IMPLEMENTATION STAFFAs your event approaches,youll want to put someone in

charge of identifying all thetasks and to dos of the actualevent. He or she should thenidentify all the times your staffis available to work and assign

jobs for those times. In somecases, someones planning

job may transition naturallyinto his or her implementation

job during the conference (forexample, the person who hasbeen the primary contact foryour keynote speaker will likelyhelp that person register, findtheir hotel, etc), but this wontalways be the case. Having afully equipped and preparedimplementation staff will helpyour event run more smoothly


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The best conferences are those that plan ways to keep people engaged when they returnhome and put to use their new awareness, skills, or relationships. There are a few ways youcan help ensure your event is one of these rare gems:

Distribute Informational Materials


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MASTER EVENT GUIDE

This is a sample of a master event guide from the first Global Engagement Summit

STAFF PLAN

1. Event Coordinator (Head Troubleshooter)

Steve Jens: (555) 683-1243Job: Steve will be in charge of GES Headquarters on the second floor of the McCormickStudent Center throughout the conference.

2. Section Coordinators (Minor Troubleshooters, responsible for their sections)

Hannah Jefferson: (555) 068-9316Hannah will coordinate the Friday morning panels as well as the opening and closingkeynote addresses. She will also welcome workshop facilitators.

Margaret Roberts: (555) 778-8718

Margaret will coordinate meals and housing throughout the conference.

3. Emergency Coordinators (only available for major disasters like a keynotecanceling)

Nathaniel Whittemore: (555) 781-0070Jonathan Marino: (555) 755-1808

EVENT PLAN

Thursday, February 23

11:00-5:00: Airport Transportation

Point personStephanie Maple Drivers:

o Name, phone

11:00-conference end: Registration at Headquarters

Point personDanny Smith

Staffers:o Name, time, phone

Friday, February 24

9:00-10:15: Social Entrepreneurship Panel at Student Center

Point personHannah Jefferson (welcomes panelists, ensures room is set-up andquestions are ready)

Staffers:o Name, phoneo Name, phoneo Name, phoneo Name, phone


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