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You don’t have to look very far to find a conference planning checklist. And when you Google the term, there certainly is no shortages of websites where you can get conference planning checklist ideas. So they must be important then, right? Well, of course the answer is yes (with some caution). I do have to say, that a good conference planning checklist is only as good as the thought that was put into making the checklist itself. Which started me thinking about which items would be considered crucial for a conference planning checklist.
Items That Should Be Included on Your Conference Planning Checklist
1) Location. This item should be first and foremost, obviously. After all you can’t do much planning, or rather logistics, until you know where it is the conference will be held. Most conference planners will begin to scout locations well in advance of their conference to make sure that they can pick dates, hotels and venues which would be suitable for their conference.
2) Dates. The dates of your conference are almost equally as important as the location of your conference. Of course depending on where your conference will be held, the dates may be dependent on factors such as temperature and other citywide activities occurring in the location over the dates that you are considering.
3) Budget. Before you can begin promoting, and then executing a conference, you will need to determine what your budget is for the conference itself. Sometimes a budget is set by the conference’s committee members ahead of time and then handed to the conference planner for execution. Other conferences may need to determine what their conferences itinerary will be in order to determine what the budget is. Whichever is your case, budgets are a crucial part of a conference planning checklist as it will have a direct impact on your conferences registration.
4) Registration. Of course the success of your conference will be judged by how many people attend. A good conference planning checklist will address registration at the onset. It is crucial today that you have a good registration marketing plan in place. There are many registration software services available to help conference planners in this area.
5) Program/Itinerary. A good conference planning checklist is all about planning for the various elements, or itinerary, of your conference. It should be well thought out in advance and then assigned due dates based on which items need to be decided and secured first. The itinerary is also key when it comes to the conferences budgets. It is vital for a conference planner to know how much money they have to spend on the various components to their conference.
