These Are The 9 Things You Must Do To Host A Successful Business Conference

Tasked with hosting a business conference for your organization? Overwhelmed with how to start, and what to do to make sure it’s a roaring success? Then you have come to the right place because below you will find our amazing expert guide on how to throw a stellar conference. Read on to find out more. 

Know your audience.

The first thing you must do to host a successful business conference is to make sure you truly understand your audience. After all,  you wouldn’t try to sell a physical product to a customer without understanding exactly who they were, what their pain points were, and what they needed. The same applies to posting a successful conference where essentially the attendees oil customers and the information and education you’re providing is the product. 

It’s also important to pitch all conference elements at the right level. For example,  if your conference is for CEOs and managing directors then you will want the content of the lectures and keynote speeches to be at a very different level than if you are catering for everyday employees or middle managers. You’ll even need to think about finer details such as the food you serve. MDs and CEOs expect a much higher quality and level of food and service, usually table service whereas everyday employees and middle managers are more likely to accept canteen-style service without question. 

Lastly, you must be aware of the values of the companies sending people to your conference. Indeed, sustainability, social responsibility, and environmentally friendly practices are so crucial to the way that many businesses now operate, that it will be vital that you demonstrate, and draw attention to these in the running of your conference as well. 

Choosing the right venue.

There are so many considerations to make when choosing the right venue for a successful business conference.  First of all, you will need to consider the location.  The location you pick should be easy to get to via public transport such as trains and buses, as well as by car. This is because it will allow attendees a variety of travel choices when making the journey.

The venue itself is also very important because it can set the tone for the day and have a real impact on how people interact with one another. To that end, you must have a clear idea of the goals of your conference, and use this to choose the most suitable venue. 

For instance, if group work and breakout sessions are a vital element of the conference you plan on hosting, making sure that our venue has enough space and furniture to facilitate this is crucial.

Create a budget and stick to it. 

You already know that in the business world money matters and this means when hosting conferences you will set a budget.  You will also need to track any spending. The good news is that budgets for business conferences tend to be more generous than those run by educational or social institutions, which means you may have more resources to play with. 

The critical thing to consider here is that you not only calculate your budget but also the return on the original investment that you expect it to have. Remember, conferences can generate all sorts of benefits from direct sales, to brand awareness, to improving recruitment and retention, so make sure you factor all these in. Then you will be able to clearly show the value of the event you are holding. 

Set a schedule. 

Flying by the seat of your pants is not advisable when running a business conference. Instead, you need to make sure that there is a clear schedule, that is available to everyone. You’ll also need to make sure that have staff on hand to make sure things run on time. 

Remember people will not automatically know where to go or what to do unless they are directed and signposted to do these things.  What this means is as the conference host and organizer it is your responsibility to provide this direction and information. 

For example, one way of doing this is to print out the schedule of lectures, breakout sessions and keynote speeches on the back of the passes you hand out as people sign in. This means they will always have that information easily to hand, something that will help the flow of the event go much more easily.

Raise your production value.

If Apple and PlayStation have taught us anything about events, it’s that up in the production value can make a huge impact on the way that things are received.  Indeed these events are specifically designed to hype up the audience, helping to ensure a more positive reception to information that is released.

The good news is you can use these kinds of ideas in your conference to make it more effective and impactful.  First of all, make sure that any speakers are given microphones and properly lit.  Adding walk-on and off music is also a good idea. Just be sure that you have someone there to facilitate these for your speakers as they already have enough to focus on.

Get the branding right. 

If you want people to trust your authority as a conference leader as well as invest and attend then getting your branding right is another crucial element for success.  There are a wide range of considerations to make when it comes to branding your conference.  The first is to go back to your knowledge of those who will be attending and to use this to shape your brand approach. 

For example, certain colors are used within particular Industries like blue is used within finance. That means if your conference is focused on issues present in the finance industry, you may wish to incorporate this blue into your branding at the logo because it will encourage authority and trust. 

You’ll also want to make sure that you use a consistent font, additional color scheme and voice on any branding materials such as roller banners, flyers, and leaflets. By making sure you have all of this finalized before you send your proofs to the online printer for production, you will make the process faster, and cheaper too. Then all you’ll need to worry about is displaying these professionally branded items in your venue for your event. 

Create immersive and interactive experiences. 

While people may moan and grow at the thought of an interactive or immersive experience during a business conference, you can be sure they’ll never forget them. However, it is important to strike that very delicate balance between genuine enthusiasm for the task compared to forced participation.  With that in mind, it’s important to choose the experiences you provide carefully to match the needs and expectations of your audience.

For example, a sales conference, featuring dancers and a light show where all participants are encouraged to get out of their seats and dance along with the entertainers may be perfect for drumming up enthusiasm and inspiring the next quarter of work. However,  the same interactive experience provided for managing directors may fall much flatter and even be spoken of with derision, depending on the company culture and individuals involved. 

Include some outdoor space.

For many people conferences mean being stuck in a room or lecture hall for hours on end without any chance to move their body or access fresh air. You’ll already know that this is a recipe for disaster when it comes to focus and concentration, not to mention mood.  That is why it always pays to include access to some outdoor space wherever possible. 

One way to do this is to choose a venue that has grounds with seating that conference attendees can use during breaks, lunch and even breakout sessions.  Another option is to host your conference at least partially outside. However, your ability to do that will depend on the weather and if facilities of your conference venue.  After all, no one wants to sit in the pouring rain and listen to a lecture. 

Food matters.

Finally, let’s get to the reason why so many people look forward to events like business conferences, that is the food that is provided.  A good menu can make up for a great deal including less than dynamic speakers and materials so important is the food that is served. What this means is it’s something that you do not want to get wrong. 

With this in mind, it’s important to put on enough food including breakfast and coffee and tea for arrivals, coffee, tea, water and biscuits as snacks for both the morning and afternoon, as well as an impressive lunch. 

It can be somewhat tricky because you’ll want to provide enough delicious food to impress your conference attendees, as well as fill them up so they are focused for the afternoon session.  However, you won’t want to fill them up so much that they become sleepy during the afternoon and miss out on the great content you have provided. This means it’s a good idea to speak to your venue provider and see what lunch options they offer such as hot buffets as these can straddle this difficult balance. 

This is a contributed post.