A Guide to Hosting a Successful Business Conference

A good conference is an excellent way to sharpen your business acumen and network with other industry professionals. It is recommended that to get the best from your staff you need not to hold them to the job all the time, but allow time for training, development and ruminating to encourage personal growth.

Holding your own conference allows you these opportunities, but also lends your business the prestige of hosting, which is especially useful if your business predominantly serves other businesses in your field. This can generate new clients and vastly increase your profit margins. Here is a guide to hosting a conference that will help lay the groundwork for success.

Ensure Returns

The first step in organising a successful conference is making sure you have the funds to do so. Conferences can be expensive enterprises, but, if you plan correctly, the returns will make up for the initial outlay.

It is imperative your conference stands out from that of your competitors. Think about the greatest resource your company must educate others in your field. If you have a recognisable CEO who is known for their ability spin thread into gold, make them the focus. If you have launched a new piece of software that you believe can revolutionise aspects of the industry, make that the centrepiece.

With so many conferences being held all the time, it is crucial that yours has both an original aim and that it benefits your business.

Treat the conference itself like a business. For people to reserve seats make sure they pay the fee upfront. This prevents you hiring a venue and booking it up, only for people to not arrive on the day, leaving you with empty seats and less capital.

Details Are Everything

Conferences need to be well produced. It is imperative to offer a streamlined experience to guarantee people will be both impressed and comfortable, that when they see you hosting another conference they will definitely attend.

A good way to ensure hospitality is seamless is by courting sponsorships from catering suppliers. This will give them an opportunity to reach new clients and will cut down your costs, while providing a professional service.

Don’t underestimate the difficulties in planning these types of events; it is recommended that, if you are planning to host conferences regularly, you get an event planner on your payroll. These people have experience in the industry and a good working knowledge of what makes an event great, and the subtleties of negotiating with venues, caterers, and other teams you need for a successful event.

Employ Cutting-Edge Technology

PowerPoint presentations are obviously de rigueur for business conferences, but resting on this ageing technology alone would be a mistake. Yes, a projector is key, but it is necessary to think about the screens you are projecting on.

A good idea is to employ a three-screen system, one for the PowerPoint presentation, and the other two which have transmit a live recording of the speaker enlarged. This makes the conference continuously visually engaging and offers an aspect which is both sleek and modern.

The acoustics of the space have to be perfect, and if the venue can’t guarantee that, it is necessary the conference speakers are fitted with microphones and a decent sound system is installed.  It’s not expensive to hire a sound system and it will impress your conference attendees, who are your potential clients, with the effort employed to make the conference extremely accessible.

An excellent technological feature for your conference would be a customised app for events. This new technology, which seems sure to become an ever-present feature of the conference landscape, allows you to engage your attendees in real time. Everyone has a smartphone and most people like playing with them and receiving notifications, so this will guarantee engagement. These allows for audience participation and gives a chance to gain that all-important audience feedback immediately and in real time.

Following this guide will help you both plan and deliver a successful conference. Remain fastidious and assured of your strengths, and your conference is guaranteed to be a success.

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