Corporate Event Planning|Event Management|Event Planner

You've scored tickets on the fifty yard line for your favorite team, and you're excited to go, when it hits you: who's going to drive? You have to get to the stadium somehow, but what about tailgating? What about celebrating the win afterwards? You can't drink and drive, so what can you do? Why not hired a limousine to take you and your friends to the big game without worrying about how you are getting down there? Limousines can be a great way to take an entire group to a football game and still be able to enjoy the evening.

Let Someone Else Drive

Hiring a limousine means you don't have to worry about driving yourself and your friends to the big football game. Let's face it; it's not a football game unless you tailgate, and you can't tailgate if you're the one driving. A limousine can allow you to tailgate from the backseat, all the way to the stadium. In a limousine, you can entertain fifteen of your football fanatic friends with televisions, mini bars, refrigerators and much more. Stock up on all the food and beverage essentials and you're ready to go! Your driver can get you to the game and drop you off at the stadium door in style, while you party in the backseat. You don't have to worry about traffic, parking or not be able to partake in any festivities. You've got a driver to handle it for you!

Not only that, but it allows you to enjoy the evening with your entire group in one single limousine, instead of trying to coordinate several cars meeting up at one single place. With a limousine, everyone can start and end the evening together. There is no hassle. You are free to enjoy the evening as you see fit. Limousine drivers also know the best places to eat and drink, if you want to partake before or after the game. Often they are aware of off-the-wall spots that fit your group's personality.

So if you are planning to watch your favorite team play some ball, why not consider a limousine? However, not all limousine companies are reputable, so ask around. What company has the best reputation around town? Whoever has the best word-of-mouth advertisements would be your best bet. Research the limousine companies to find a reputable, professional driving service to get you there and back. But do call early! With the holidays rolling around, limousine companies book up quickly, so be sure to book a limousine as soon as possible. You don't want to be left in the driver's seat for your night out at the stadium.

Are you responsible for planning the annual sales meeting?

If you're responsible with planning and executing a great meeting for your sales team, there are a few things you need to know in order to ensure it is successful.

Fortunately, the secret to a great sales meeting isn't complicated, nor is it labor intensive. Rather, holding a great sales meeting requires knowing a few key points and fulfilling those pre-requisites.

First, know that you have got to keep your audience interested and engaged. If they are off distracted, they won't remember any of the vital information being conveyed.

Second, your meeting has got to be fun. No one has left an incredibly dull and boring sales meeting and found it to be fantastic. No one has left an uninteresting meeting and put the information to good use

Finally, you've got to lay down a concrete roadmap for success that your employees can act upon after leaving the meeting.

Now you may be wondering, "Okay, that sounds great, but, how do I actually accomplish these things?"

Fortunately, there is a simple and effective solution: Hiring a Professional Comedian.

A comedian will focus your audiences' attention, keep them interested and keep them engaged. Furthermore, a comedian will definitely make your sales meeting fun.

But just don't book any comedian you come across. To host a great sales meeting, you need to hire a comedian with a good reputation. That's where a professional comedy booking agency can help you.

They work with the best performing comedians nationwide. A comedy booking agency also knows which comedian would best fit your business purpose and perform the best.

Now that you know the secret to great sales meetings, will you act upon it?

Well, many a times, you might face the situation when you need to organize a meeting within an extremely short time. For example, you just can't help it when your boss calls up on a Friday and tells you to fix a meeting on Monday! To worsen your condition, you find the guests' list really long, consisting at least of a hundred or more invitees.

I know how difficult it is to arrange a meeting at such a short notice. You have to quickly send invitations to all your guests, requesting them to attend the event. In case, your boss wants you to host a public event, for example a fundraising concert where anyone and everyone can participate, you have to promote the same in various ways to sell all your tickets and gain higher attendance.

However, you can always come out of this situation in a triumphant way, if you resort to an online solution. These web-based solutions will help you meet all your needs in a beautiful manner. Online solutions have gained tremendous popularity because of the following reasons.

Easy Registration

Online event management solution does wonder in beautifully managing both private as well as public events. Especially, public events can be organized in a very successful way using an online event management solution. All the year round, different small and large organizations keep on hosting fundraisers to support a cause. In case you happen to own an organization or are working for a nonprofit, you can get hold of a web-based event management service to raise money through easy registration and payment transferring facilities. You can collect money on any day from any person residing at any location of the world once you start using the Cloud-based registration and management solutions.

Collect Money Easily

One of the prime reasons for organizing these fundraising concerts is to collect as much funds as possible. Online fundraising tools help you raise lump sum amount at no extra cost! Your donors can easily pay through a simplified process of submitting donations and pledges. You can seamlessly handle your donor database through an online member management application. Moreover, many online solutions come with a private community management system that allows you to share fundraising information and interact with persons by setting up a secured private community only for the members.

Provides Powerful Communication and Marketing Tools

Online event management solutions also offer communication tools in the form of emails, invitations, and RSVPs. You can send invitations to your target audience asking them to be present on the event day. You can use the marketing module to offer special discounts, promo codes, and gift cards to visitors who wish to attend your occasion.

As with any organised event which involves schedules and deadlines, the planning and execution of an exhibition takes a lot of coordination and dedication in order for it to be successful. There are various steps that need to be completed in order for the exhibition to run smoothly, the majority of which are based around the exhibition planning team and coordinator. Exhibitions are primarily aimed at sharing something with a wider community, be it art, motor vehicles, music technology or lingerie. It is therefore essential that the aim and vision of the exhibition be clear and precise, in order to reach the target audience with full effect.

Steps in the preliminary planning of an exhibition should include:

* Setting up of an Exhibition Planning Committee.

* Accurate Budget Planning.

* Selection of an appropriate site venue.

* Negotiating agreements and contracts with all the necessary parties.

* Sourcing exhibitors and/or speakers relevant to the theme of the exhibition.

* Planning the program

* Executing the exhibition plan

The first and most logical step in exhibition planning is assembling a team of people who have the necessary skills and experience. Optimally these people should all be great team players, who can work responsibly and on their own initiative, whilst also carrying other people's interests at heart. It is good practice to make the size of your planning committee relevant to the scale of your exhibition. Having an understaffed committee can lead to stress and half completed work, while an oversized committee will lead to a lack of organisation and indecisiveness.

Once you have assembled your team, the next step is to appoint an exhibition coordinator. This role requires a great amount of responsibility, as most of the executive decisions will come down to the coordinator's discretion. You will need somebody with good organisational skills, is a good communicator of ideas, has a great eye for detail and can function well under stressful situations. Depending on the size of your exhibition, it might be necessary for the coordinator to appoint administrative staff or a secretary to deal with the extra administrative and clerical tasks.

An exhibition budget should be prepared through a thoughtful process involving the sponsor, planning committee and coordinator. The coordinator should be in full control of the budget, for if payments are approved by someone other than the coordinator, it will be difficult to hold him/her accountable for expenditures. A budget should not be seen as a financial document, but rather as a planning and management control document. It is a listing of all anticipated expenses, funding sources and projected revenue. Part of preparing a conference budget requires compiling a split folio. This is a division of expenses which lists the charges covered by the conference master account and individual guest charges, if there are to be any.

One of the most important aspects in planning an exhibition is choosing a suitable venue. This should be arranged as early in the planning process as possible in order to avoid any last minute nightmares. The more time you give yourself to choose a site, the better your options will be. Your site should be located as centrally as possible with regards to your target audience. It is pointless having a textiles exhibition in the central business district, just is it is pointless having a technology fair in the countryside. Choosing the appropriate venue also has an influence on the overall theme and furnishings which you might use in your exhibition, so an early decision will make consequent planning more streamlined.

It is generally regarded good practice to enter into a formal contract agreement with the venue. The process of reaching this agreement may take time, but it will ensure that both parties will be protected against any unexpected changes in plan. It would be dreadful to be notified one week before the exhibition that you have been double booked because no formal documents were signed and the venue manager completely forgot about the conversation you had over the specified dates. It is also important to remember that negotiations should be handled professionally, as both parties want to gain maximum benefit from any arrangement.

Setting an appropriate theme for the show is very important, as it will eventually determine what image the public have of the exhibition. Choose one that is in line with the material you are exhibiting. An 'under the sea' experience will not bode well with potential invitees to a car show, but will perhaps draw more attention if used to market an exhibition on new children's toys or a pet show.

Next in the planning process is finding potential exhibitors to take part in your show. Sending out personal invitations is probably the most effective way to go. You can also advertise your intention to hold an exhibition in the early planning months, but this needs to be done amongst the social or industry circles relevant to your kind of exhibition. As an exhibition is primarily about marketing, finding willing participants should not be too much of a problem if the proper methods are used. In addition, in fields such as music or art, where there is an abundance of people jostling to display there works, you might need to do a certain amount of vetting in order to make sure your exhibitors meet the exact criteria for your exhibition.

Ultimately you want to draw as many people to your exhibition as possible, and a sure-fire way of increasing the amount of interest in your show is to offer a diverse range of activities. Offering seminars or interactive workshops is a great marketing technique to involve people who would normally be put off by the prospect of just going to an exhibition to look at stuff. Be sure to source speakers who will be able to deliver dynamic presentations on the relevant topics.

Publicity is of utmost importance in the planning of an exhibition. Use as many channels as are accessible to you. The internet is a very powerful marketing tool, and should be exploited to its maximum. Make sure you have an up to date website which is instantly identifiable with your theme and purpose. Furthermore, make use of show invites and advertisements, promotional gifts, flyers, brochures, visitor and press packs, staff badges, stand backdrops and signage, and internal documents and communications. Ensure that your supporting web pages and email address are listed on every single communication item used for the show. If possible, advertise the exhibition in local magazines and newspapers, as well as radio.

Once you have done all your preparation of advertising, budgeting and sourcing participants, it is time to plan the actual show and execute it. Planning of the show plays an important role, and should be coordinated carefully, because once a schedule is formed, great confusion can result if it is not adhered to. You might plan certain talks or workshops to coincide with specific days of the exhibition, and if these are unclear or mixed up, they might completely lose there desired effect, and end up just being a waste of time and money. Changes are sometimes unavoidable, but make sure that if a change has to be made to the schedule, that it is well publicised. During the exhibition it is important to make good use of signs; this ensures that visitors and exhibitors never become disorientated with their surroundings. During the exhibition, the coordinator's time is in great demand. Delegation plays a key role in the smooth running of an exhibition, but is worth nothing without a well trained and informed group of staff members.

Once the show is complete, conducting some kind of evaluation will be very valuable in giving you an idea of what can be improved on in future events. The most common type of evaluation is to create a survey form. This can consist of yes/no questions, or wherein the various levels of satisfaction can be indicated, from low to high. It is worth noting that two separate evaluation forms can be set up, one to delve the interests of the exhibitors, and the other that of the visitors.
And with that you have completed your exhibition! With the correct planning and dedication it can be an informative and exciting experience for all those concerned, and with the steps set out above you should have no problem achieving this.

Event planning is not as simple as it seems. Or it is not everybody's cup of tea. You need to have some knowledge about the event planning which you can get through event planning certification. The qualified event planners are trained to create a magical ambiance in the event by their professional skills. They learn the latest trends, fashions and where to find the best bargains in the market. They have contacts with the relevant people to have contract with. They know that what kind of music is liked by different age groups. Apparently you might know all these things, but handling all these things at the same time when the event is near, believe me it's really not easy.

If you want to become an event planner then you must go for event planning certification. There are several institutions that give you training in event planning with exciting offers but I suggest you should go for the online ones as they offer the best there is around the world. But make sure you get to the right one! There are plenty of online event planning certification courses on the internet. You can search out a few and have a clear idea about what they are offering before you make your final selection.

Before getting admission in any school of learning event planning choose your direction that which kind of events you are really interested in. there are many events which are arranged by the event planners like wedding ceremonies, birthday parties, seminars, corporate events, conferences and official meetings. Because every event is different from the other, and the way of arrangement and management will also not be the same.

To become an event planner keen observation is very important, because observing is one of the best methods to learn. To learn you have to observe when you attend any function, just look around and see the decor, take different ideas and note them down. You can implement them later with a little variation in the event that you get to manage, even if it is your own home event. Note down the event step by step, try and calculate how much time is required for preparation and conduct of each event. When you will go for professional training for event planning certification, you will be taught about things in detail for any event. The most important aspects are time management, budget, theme, planning and preparation. You can't miss out any of them because these together give your client what they need for their occasion.

So when you plan to get education to become an event planner search for a good institution so you know the reputation of the place. And try to learn from your experiences, be vigilant where ever you go and get practical education to groom yourself for this profession. The best way to lean anything is with enthusiasm.

Shortly after 5 AM on the morning of April 18, 1906 San Francisco was struck by a major earthquake estimated to have been between magnitude 7.7 and 8.3. The series of shocks lasted between 45-60 seconds and produced considerable structural damage.

Small fires broke out immediately after the event but since the temblor had destroyed the central fire dispatch station ruptured water mains, there was little that firefighters could do. The many small blazes coalesced into a series of larger fires that would burn for three days and destroy much of the city.

The San Francisco earthquake is an extreme example of a cascading event. This is where an initial triggering event serves as the catalyst for a series of often unforeseen events. In this case, an earthquake on the San Andreas Fault created the conditions for a second catastrophe - the series of firestorms that followed.

Had the earthquake occurred in isolation it would have been remembered as one of the worst disasters in US history. However, the subsequent fires abetted by the heavy damage to the City's infrastructure created a second event that exceeded the first in catastrophic consequences.

Cascade Events

However, there was also a human element involved. San Francisco for years had neglected its firefighting infrastructure, allowing cisterns to fill with debris, neglecting water line improvements, and refusing training for firefighters. San Francisco was a city of densely packed wooden structures, ripe for conflagration and, indeed, had experienced several major fires in its history that destroyed much of the City.

Human involvement was not limited to neglect prior to the disaster. One of the most destructive of the series of fires in the disaster was caused by a woman cooking breakfast for her family. The use of low explosives by inexperienced soldiers helped spread the fires and even caused a major fire that destroyed a section of the City that might have survived the conflagration.

We need look no further than the recent earthquake in Japan to see another example of a cascading event. The earthquake was larger than anything predicted by geologist and spawned a tsunami that exceeded the planning parameters used by the local communities in constructing seawalls.

Added to the earthquake and tsunami was the failure of the protective systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plants. One can argue that such a failure was foreseeable. The tsunami on March 11th was estimated as high as 70 feet. However, the tsunami generated by the Meiji-Sanriku earthquake in 1876 of the northeast coast of Japan was estimated at 125 feet. The Sanriku earthquake in 1933 generated a tsunami of 94 feet.

One-dimensional Planning

Despite the evidence to the contrary, we still tend to think in one-dimensional terms when we prepare emergency plans. We define plans on the basis of the event itself rather than in terms of potential impacts.

Despite historical events like the 1906 earthquake, many fire districts still think in terms of fighting individual fires. The San Francisco Earthquake Annex assumes that as many as 130 fires could break out following an earthquake. However, the plan does not seem to consider that these fires could unite to form a conflagration as happened in 1906. A fire of this type is fought very differently from a series of structural fires.

Where does this type of one-dimensional thinking come from? It comes from an over-reliance on scenarios developed by experts. Don't misunderstand me - basing planning on credible evidence and sound scientific studies is absolutely essential. However, one has to understand that these scenarios are at best educated guesses based on the best available evidence. This does not mean that an event will unfold exactly as predicted. We are constantly learning from new events and rethinking previous conclusions.

Avoiding One-dimensional Planning

Planning for disasters, particularly in terms of mitigation, is always a tradeoff between available resources and risk. We can never make our critical infrastructure safe from all events nor can we provide training to our responders for every eventuality. However, we do need to take our heads out of the sand and consider the lessons of history: if it's happened once, it can happen again.

First, we need to stop using expert predictions as a means to limit costs and instead treat them as the valuable planning tools they are. We need to understand that these do not really represent the "maximum credible threat". Instead, they are what we think might be the maximum credible threat and as such represent a minimum planning threshold.

Secondly, we need to consider our infrastructure and ask some of those embarrassing "what if?' questions. Not all mitigation proposals lend themselves to a cost-benefit analysis. There are some things, like oil wells and nuclear power plants that, to borrow and overworked phrase for the financial industry, are just big to fail.

Strategic planning is important for any successful organization. Almost every company I have come in contact with has done some form of strategic planning. The formats can vary, but most planning sessions involve bringing in key personnel to help formulate company goals and strategies. Quite often strategic planning becomes an annual event in which managers get together off site and come up with mission statements, long term goals, and strategies to help them get there. They can spend several days coming up with these plans and may even write everything down in notebooks that everyone can leave with and use the rest of the year. The problem that I have seen is that most of these books stay on a shelve all year and when they get back together the next year they find that they are still dealing with the same issues they were the year before.

So what is missing from these plans? Companies do not spend the time and money on these planning sessions with the intention of having them be ineffective. The problem with most of these plans is that they do not leave with any specific actions for people to do now.

Company leaders need to realize that planning is not an event, it is a process. If it is an event, everyone gets fired up over two to three days, but after they are back in the real world they are not doing anything different. In a month or two they cannot even remember what came out of the event.

Strategic planning is not a futile effort; it is just that in most cases companies are neglecting a crucial element. Once companies have developed their goals and strategies they must come up with specific actions that specific people are responsible for within the next thirty days. People commit to completing their assigned tasks before the initial planning session is completed.

Once this is done the other important key in making planning a process is to have scheduled follow up meetings after the initial session. Follow up meetings should be held monthly and consist of reporting on the status of actions committed to in the previous month. Corrective action is agreed upon for actions not completed, and where actions have been completed, new action items are committed to. Experience has shown that the first follow up meeting is a little awkward, but by the second or third follow up everyone gets used to the process.

The result is that things start getting accomplished. People get used to the fact that everyone will be held accountable for the actions that they have committed to. Meetings that used to take several hours with little to show for the time spent are now taking less time with results being seen by all participants. More critical actions are being accomplished and the company is accomplishing their goals.

I have seen companies go from being frustrated that they continually wrestle with the same issues where nothing seems to be getting accomplished to becoming a company that is energized by the fact that they are seeing themselves getting results every month.

Has your company realized that planning is not an event, it is a process?

Searching for a few outstanding company picnic ideas for your company's annual celebration?

Imagine standing at your company's gathering, your hands resting on your waist. It's a beautiful summer day, a day that's almost out of a movie or a dream.

While gazing around the picnic grounds, you notice that your employees and their families are having a genuinely good time. People are smiling, laughing and engaging in casual conversation.

This year is a whole lot better than last year, and as your mind tracks back, the difference between the two is astounding: last year people barely stayed. They came to just show up, and then quickly left, all because the activities for that day weren't all that compelling.

Point being, you need some fun company picnic ideas for your annual celebration. If you spend money on activities that aren't fun and that people don't stick around for, you might just as well rolled-up that money and flushed it down the drain!

When you're thinking of company picnic ideas, you've got to think of activities that your employees will really enjoy doing. Not only do you have to think of your employees, you have to think of their children and families as well.

A company picnic can be more than just a small, informal gathering for your employees. With a big vision and a few creative ideas, you can transform this re-occurring meeting into a hallmark of the year. This is a time when your company and employees are more like a giant family gathering to celebrate a year of hard work and common purpose.

I've been a part of planning and booking company picnics for years. I have seen what kind of entertainment has really involved people and their families. I have also talked with plenty of people about what kind of ideas has worked for them and which ideas have failed miserably.

Here's a short-hand list of the most tried-and-true, people-proven ideas:

• Carnival Ride Rentals


• Inflatable Rentals


• Live Music


• Caricature & Tattoo Artists


• High-Tech Games and Rides

These entertainment options can be mixed and matched and weighed one way or another depending on price range and preference. What matters is fitting entertainment that works for your employees and their families and that's within their price range.

Fortunately, all these top-rated company picnic ideas can be customized and rearranged to fit nicely into your budget. I hope this year makes your company picnic the best yet!

In recent years the increase of events and festivals has given rise to a number of event management companies that help in the undertaking of the laborious work of planning and managing the procedural aspects before, during and in some cases after any event. Event management companies are able to plan for events that will host from as little as ten business people to events that attract millions of people with great success. The benefits of hiring an event company far out ways the advantages- if any- of doing without one.

When you hire a company you have more time to yourself to do what is important to you as the management company does the "running up and down" that is necessary in the planning of the event. This means you will not have to spend your precious time trying to secure a venue, make the necessary calls, acquire the necessary permits as the event company assumes these responsibilities on your behalf and to your satisfaction.

A company may also specialise in a particular field making them better suited to provide excellent services in that particular area. Some specialise in various fields of activities such as entertainment, team building, catering etc. The hiring of such event management companies ensures that you tap into a wealth of experience that can only guarantee the success for your event as you get value for your money.

The companies have an extensive resource base that they have acquired over the years of offering event management that you as an individual can take advantage of. They have certain relationships and contacts of organizations and people who can best supply that which is needed in making an event successful which you may not know of. Event management companies can open doors and opportunities like private clubs that you may ordinarily not have access to. Various discount volume pricing is also available to them which you can take advantage of when you hire their services.

Event management companies are able to give guidance and advice during the initial conception and planning of any event that will greatly increase the success of that event. The reason for this is because they have employees who have graduated from universities, associations and societies that provide teachings on various aspects that related to event planning such as organisational skills, P.R, risk management, catering and such like studies that are vital for the successful planning of events.

Remember the story of Icarus? He was the character in Greek mythology that escaped his imprisonment by fashioning wings of feathers and wax, and almost made it but for flying too close to the sun which melted the wax and plunged him into the sea. What's this story got to to with events and apps? The analogy is quite startling when you consider that an Event like Icarus has the potential to escape the bounds of its venue but if it uses limiting technology will probably sink into the sea... in today's world an event based iPhone app is the means to have your event outreach and viraly continue to soar ever higher.

Use the empowering aspects of an iPhone app to enhance your event promotion, support your event's management, and most importantly, extend your event into the digital world such as through viral sharing with social networks, monetizations through on-platform advertising, and contributions through in-app donations. Examples included the following:

Promote Your Event - iPhone Apps are hot! Simple association with release of an app and availability of an app for your event offers parasitic benefits associated with this medium's popularity. Positive public relations opportunities abound, with as above the app's release and availability, but also with content that can be released and accessed through your app.

Manage Your Event - Laptops aren't truly portable... it's not like you or your patrons are going to be carrying laptops while attending the event. On the other hand, an iPhone app is truly portable and with the user everywhere, all the time. The implication is that the app can deliver to your patrons the static data present on your website, but in a useful format, when and where they can use it. Schedules, itineraries, maps, all available when they're most useful, thereby increasing consumer convenience and app commitment. Consequentially, the app is also a green solution saving on printing, costs as well as associated garbage and cleanup costs. Now for the best part... unlike the PC web, an iPhone app offers the potential for dynamic, realtime event content deliveries - alerts or notifications as to what's on where, offers from event participants, and information updates of event occurrences & changes.

Digitally Extend Your Event - In app connectivity to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allow for immediate sharing of your and your patron's content, for potential viral distribution. What better way to publicize your event. Similarly, in-app monetization functions permit in-app advertising by way of banner ads with click through capabilities. Donation functionality is also possible such as through embedding sms text to donate initiation or integration with mobile merchanting alternatives.

So use an iPhone app to promote, manage and extend your event - engaging today's event patron and their means of direct communications. Bring your event into today's digital world, your patrons are there and so should you be.

Corporate functions are held with special purposes and involve various events at one go. The intensity level tends to be fairly high, as the event is supposed to see the arrival of high-profile guests. A professional planner or event management firm comprises ideas to make such events a super success with the help of one's years' long experience and creative knack for event management.

Product launches feature among the premier corporate events, and need special attention. There are set audience that has to be reached and stroked properly to solve the purpose. In product launches, the planner does try ultimate to gain consumer conviction at any cost, which is not that easy. There is an attempt to create brand value through use of innovative ideas, presentations and charms. Usually, a meeting or gathering is set up to launch the product with the best selection of graphic artists, writers and printers.

The planner consequently looks out to pick a perfect location for the convention besides arranging for food and entertainment. A step-by-step and tough regime is followed to make the event an overall success. Right from start to finish, there will be a fine tuning in activities to perk-up the attractions.

Being large affairs, there remains no margin for error in these events. Planning and execution will be spot-on to gain the set target. Even the minute details like lighting rental, staging rental, video production and lighting hire and rental are kept in full sight to strike the right chord.

The best event management planners even supply the staff to manage the activities related with product launches. Outsourcing the technical staffing needs turns out quite easier with such event organizers. Stages are ornamented and set to give you your launching pad for products. Audio or visual equipments are put in places to make ambience filled with professionalism and fun.

It's not easy to match up the standards of industry analysts, customers, partners and even reporters all at the same time, but planners make it possible with an ease. Local or national media do the task they are meant to do, and that's why the success of the event makes you happy.

To sum up, it's all about value creation through such corporate functions, and when there is something at stake, avoiding mistakes is good. Don't put you future in peril and hire professional event management planners to make things sparkle for your firm and product.

Introduction

If you know that business travel is not without its risk and the potential for crisis, then you need to read this article. In this article we are going to talk about the management and containment of crisis as it relates to travellers and travel managers. The objective of this article is to share with you the collective knowledge on managing crisis and significantly improve your ability to identify and manage a crisis but also improve your business travel efficiency.

During this article I am going to discuss travel risk myths, crisis management, plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department.

Crisis by definition is something you didn't have a plan for or something in which you are unprepared. Additionally, it can be a series of events that in concert create a crisis. Events or issues that occur, to which you have a plan and strategy, is merely an incident.

Crisis Management/Leadership

The first thing is to clarify what is the difference between crisis management and leadership. More importantly, which one is the more important?

Crisis management relates to the response to event/s that threaten your business, travellers or travel activity. The event leads and you follow with plans, decisions and actions.

Crisis leadership, on the other hand, is more about getting ahead of the events and issues to prevent, management and even contain the impact to your business or business travel activities. While management is a portion of the leadership demand, your actions and involvement lead the outcomes rather than a more passive wait and act approach with pure crisis management.

Crisis leadership is the less practiced of the two, but the most significant in terms of results and reduction in risk and impact. If you take nothing else away from this session, it should be that your focus should always be on Crisis Leadership, not crisis management.

Myths

There are many myths and half-truths about crisis, disruption and threats within the travel management sector. Much of this misinformation has originated from travellers themselves, media, travel managers, friends and family or so called "experts".

For example, many travellers and planners are focused on terrorism. The reality is, you have a very, very small chance of being exposed or affected directly by a terrorist act. It doesn't mean you should discount it as a threat altogether but it shouldn't dominate your plans or processes if not a proportional threat to you and your travellers. Conversely, almost everyone overlooks motor vehicle accidents. Yet, they happen far more frequently, can have devastating affect on travellers and are the least common plan contained within company travel management departments.

Travellers and travel managers must be prepared, educated and have supporting plans for any event that has the potential to delay, disrupt or harm the traveller or the business.

The most common events include:

• Motor vehicle accidents


• Airline delays or cancellations


• Airport closures or disruptions


• Transport delays


• Bad weather


• Sickness and illness


• Petty crimes


• Hotel fires


• Political disputes


• Demonstrations and gatherings

Motor vehicle accidents within your own country can be stressful and dangerous but on an overseas business trip they can be 100 times more challenging and dangerous. Consider language, local authorities, first responder, standard of healthcare, families and support in your plans and initial response.

Airline delays and cancelations. They happen all the time but they are not just an administrative response. You may need to consider safety, transport, quarantines, security threats, government response and wide spread suspension of services to overcome the issue and maintain safety of your travellers.

Airport closures or disruptions. Failed systems, electrical problems, threats, weather, construction and so on can prevent you even getting to your flight. Consider the impact this has on your plans and how your traveller will need to possibly extend stay, move to alternate airport or find accommodation.

All other transport delays and disruptions can create crisis when everyone no longer has access to trains, buses, key roads or even water transport. Have a plan and add it to your immediate decision making process.

2010 and the commencement of 2011 has seen travel of all kind affected by natural disasters and weather. Weather and natural forces have and always will impact travellers. It does and will continue to occur. It is highly concerning how unprepared travellers and companies are for volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, earthquakes and general bad weather.

People get sick or feel unwell all the time. This is compounded significantly when travelling. Standard of care, language, access, cost, complications, choice and numerous other location based concerns will determine just how at risk your traveller will be. A single, "one-size-fits-all" plan or solution will fail and you need to be aware of these issues immediately with the onset of an affected traveller.

Crimes are a reality of any city in the world. However, travellers seldom know the risks and may be preyed upon by thieves and criminals. The loss of phones, money, and other items may seem less likely to constitute a crisis but when overseas, injured or not able to speak the local language, all these simple events can create a major concern for your business travellers. This can be amplified if you have a senior executive or a group of executives affected.

Hotel fires and emergencies are more common than most people think. The immediate threat to an individual is fairly obvious but the impact that the lack of accommodation choices can create from the temporary or permanent closure of a hotel is a much bigger concern. This was graphically displayed during the Mumbai terror attacks (as extra ordinary as the event was) when most of the best/preferred hotels were now unavailable in a key part of the city. This removed thousands of rooms for business travellers and forced many to cancel or significantly alter travel plans just because there were a lack of suitable accommodation options, whether affected by the events or not.

Any event that alters the political stability of a location or region or results in thousands of people out on the streets constitutes a risk to your business travel plans and travellers. They can happen spontaneously or take time to develop. The immediate dangers and the ongoing disruption can have a major impact on your business or traveller.

Again, plans, preparation and thought to these issues will greatly reduce the impact and improve your business too.

Now that we have removed the most common misconceptions, let's focus on the management and containment of a crisis.

Crisis management

The key to successful crisis management is planning, training, plans, decision-making and adaptability.

Planning

Given the issues previously covered, you now have a better insight into how and why planning is important to remove the more emotive issues from the realities of real business threats and events.

Planning needs to include multiple departments and perspectives to be truly effective. One of the greatest weaknesses I see regularly is that departments continue to manage the risk of travel through multiple departments with multiple plans. The input and plan needs to be unified. Depending on the company, it may include travel managers, security, HR, finance, marketing, C-suite and operations.

All plans need to be continuously updated, location specific, aide in the decision-making process and modular enough have elements extracted quickly and effectively. Modern, effective plans embrace technology. Rapid, efficient access to information, along with running updates is the hallmarks of a modern sustainable plan, regardless of the size of the issue or the company.

Training

No plan is effective without training and rehearsal. Training, whether through simulations, drills or live, full-scale exercises are vital to the success of any crisis situation. Such sessions don't need to be boring or overly complicated but must include travel managers and planners along with the more common crisis and emergency managers.

Increasingly, training is becoming a mandatory requirement for key positions and roles. It can be linked to internal HR processes but must support the business objectives and measurable on how it reduces the risk to people, business, brand and travel demands.

While the plan creates the framework for crisis decision-making, teams can learn a lot from training on how and when to adapt their plans. How the team interacts, strength, weakness, leaders, followers, limitations, tools and many more planned and surprise outcomes are possible with effective training.

Adaptations

No plan will completely script all the events, issues and options available for every plausible travel delay, disruption or crisis. You need to be able to adapt and evolve from the original plan and intention. This can only be achieved with planning, plans and training.

Solutions So what do I need in my plan?

Here is the best travel risk management content for your plan:

• Objective(the single most important part of any travel policy)


• References


• Scope


• Legal


• Insurance


• Finance


• Reimbursements


• Limits


• Priority/precedence


• Management Authority/ies


• Situations

Procedure will likely cover:

• Planning


• Resources


• Tools


• Authority


• Executive Decision making


• Limits


• Budgets


• Training


• Compliance


• Pre-trip admin


• Providers


• Booking


• Accommodation


• Airlines


• Ground Transport


• Safety and Security


• Health and wellness


• Emergency


• SOP/Actions on


• Insurance


• Travel Monitoring /tracking


• Reporting


• HR


• Entitlements


• Threat/risk levels


• Shelter in Place


• Relocations/evacuations


• Management Authority


• Review

Don't forget your risk assessment will need to include the key elements:

• Traveller


• Location


• Activity


• Support/Resources


• Response

Conclusion

There you have it. Now you know what is required, how do you rate your current plans and preparedness?

You now have the most relevant issues and areas to focus upon that will reduce or contain the majority of incidents you may face your travellers will be safer, your business more profitable and your costs will be contained by reducing your exposure to expensive crisis events.

We have debunked popular travel threat myths, identified the difference between crisis management and leadership, outlined plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department. Review your plans and make the immediate improvements.

You will know when you have an effective crisis management system for your travel risk management strategy when you have little to no crisis.

You may have numerous events or incidents but you have a plan, you're prepared and your decision making is fast and consistent. If not, you have failed and you will run from crisis to crisis on a regular basis.

Planning an event could be a hectic job for many and people may find difficult to coordinate everything to manage a single event. Some people are perfectionist that they demand everything up to the mark and require experts to manage their big events. The event planning industry has become the perfect solution for such people. As many people are busy with their jobs and can not take out time for arrangements of their personal events or may be because of the race and competition people prefer to seek help from professional event planners to make their event successful.

This is the reason the industry of event planning is flourishing a lot and many people have chosen this field as their profession. Because of this booming industry, many schools are offering event planning courses for upcoming people in this field.

If you ask what are these courses? Actually event planning courses are the training programs that cover all about arrangement of any event. These courses are available through different programs in event management, event planning and meeting planning. There are different levels of the courses available. You can take them from the certificate to degree level.

The basic object for these courses is to make the student learn to organize and plan all the aspects of different types of events including food, d矇cor and location. There are different types of courses available in event planning; some courses cover all the basics, some focus on specific events.

There are different types of course for example meeting planning basics, event promotion and marketing and event design and production. Another course is about catering and some courses are about wedding and social events.

Where there are many schools available for event planning or training there are many online courses available for those students who can not attend the classes because of some reason. The online courses provide you with informative lectures and classes; students just need to go for once or twice to the school for the tests which can not be taken online.

These courses are a good way to learn more about managing different events. Students are trained to handle the event in a perfect manner and get success in their professional life.

It is a fact that many people who are related to this field have not done any course for event management and planning before setting their profession. But I think it is better to learn some basic skills from an institution to work in a perfect manner and many people who are already working in this field prefer to take some short courses to learn more.

The wedding planning industry is growing by leaps and bounds. In all regions of the United States more brides than ever before are hiring wedding planners to assist with the thousands of details that go into planning their wedding. If you are considering a career as a wedding planner it is imperative that you gain proper training before taking your first client. The industry looks very glamorous (and it can be) however, the job requires patience, persistence, long hours, attention to detail and several other skills that will take years to develop. In short, it is not an industry for the faint of heart. If you feel that a career in wedding planning could be right for you or you are already working in the hospitality industry and you would like to gain your wedding planning certification then there are several resources available to make sure you receive the training you need to be successful.

In this article we will explore online programs, event planning courses at universities or community colleges, and Wedding Planning Certification programs offered by independent certification organizations.

A simple internet search will reveal a list of hundreds of online or correspondence programs available for wedding planning certification. To receive your certification through an online course you are required to pay a fee for each section of information which is typically sent to you in electronic format or mailed to you in a booklet. You review each section at your own pace and are given open book quizzes along the way. After completing the quizzes based on the information in the booklet and completing other course assignments you are awarded your wedding planning certification. Receiving the information in this format means that you can complete the program at your own pace. This process can take between six weeks to over a year depending on your study habits. Online or correspondence programs typically cost between $1,000.00 to $1,500.00. Some may charge additional fees to have your certificate printed and mailed. Others require you to pay a yearly fee to maintain your certification.

Some colleges and universities offer event planning courses in conjunction with their hospitality or business management programs or as independent certificates. An event planning course at a college or university will typically focus on the planning of corporate and social events from the perspective of the hotel, resort, or other facility that is hosting the event. The instruction received in this type of course is ideal for an individual who plans to work in the hospitality industry as an employee of a hotel or resort. The course may briefly cover weddings or other social events but the majority of the material will tend to focus on events as they relate to hotel and resort operations. Many hotels, resorts and other venues who host weddings are now requiring that at least one staff member per property receive specialized training and certification in wedding planning.

There are a few independent organizations across the United States and Canada that offer Wedding Planning Certification courses in a classroom setting. Some of these programs can be completed in just one weekend, others can take up to 6 weeks to complete. Any organization offering Wedding Planning Certification does so based on their own criteria and designation and the course material can vary widely. The cost of these types of programs can range between $395.00 to $2,000.00. Some of these organizations will require you to pass a test in order for you to receive your certification. Some also require that you participate in ongoing education in order to maintain your certification. This can end up costing thousands of dollars throughout your career. There are programs available that do not require you to pay for ongoing education to maintain your certification.

Make sure you read reviews from students who have gained their certification from any organization before making a commitment. Also find out who the instructor for your class will be and research the kind of experience they have as a wedding planner. You will want to consider the initial cost of the program and the ongoing cost of maintaining your certification if any. Try to find an organization that offers ongoing education but does not require you to keep paying them year after year in order to maintain your certification. Look for a program that will give you a complete picture of the wedding industry from the perspective of every vendor who is involved in a wedding. In the end you will want to choose a program that best fits your budget and time constraints.

Compared to conventional dating, speed dating is a concept that is relatively more recent. However, despite the fact that this form of dating is fairly new, it is quickly catching on, especially among single individuals that just do not have enough time to test the waters through conventional dating. This new concept of dating allows an individual just a few minutes to introduce himself, which makes first impressions more essential than ever. Although participating in a speed date event is fun, planning and organizing them is enjoyable as well. It does not matter if you plan and organize a speed date event for plenty of people or a smaller crowd, the fun level would still be quite high.

The first step, and probably one of the most important steps in any form of event, in planning and organizing a speed date event is finding a suitable venue. To get an idea of how big or how small the ideal venue should be, you need to determine how many people you would want to include in your event. This is essential because there is no other way to know how much space you will need for the said event. You may also want to canvass several potential venues to get a feel of the cost or expenses. Unless you own the place, you need to find a location that is not too expensive and is big enough for your guests. Just keep in mind that a neutral venue for the event is always better than having it in someone's home, for security and safety reasons obviously.

If this is your first time planning and organizing a speed date event, perhaps it is better if you start small when determining the number of people you want to participate in the event. A good number of people to start with are probably twelve individuals comprising of six men and six women. This way, keeping track of the paper work and the logistics would be much easier. A successful event does have to have a lot of people participating, what is important is the end result. You can start adding more people later on, when you get a better sense of the important factors which are involved in these types of events. Keep in mind that you want to have fun in organizing this event, and having too many people participating could be quite stressful, especially for a novice such as you.

The ground rules is another element in speed dating events that should be established ahead of time. Make sure that all the participants are aware of the ground rules to avoid any confusing and to keep the flow of the event as smooth as possible. Limit the interactions between couples to an exact amount of time. It should be no more than five to ten minutes. Make sure that you are firm with implementing the ground rules. One tip that works wonders is inviting more women than men in your speed date events. This is because more men usually show up than women, when it comes to this form of event. Finally, before starting, make sure that everyone knows what the rules are and that they understand them perfectly.

It often requires many people with expertise in the field to plan an event. Often when you think of people working in event jobs you may think of the wedding planner or event coordinator. However, there are actually many positions available within this career field and finding your niche best begins with knowing what's available.

Event planners actually have various titles when it comes to the corporate world. Though it may not be apparent in the business world seminars, trade shows, conferences, appreciation events, and much more can fall under this umbrella. This requires people with expertise in various aspects of this position to ensure it comes together on the day of the event.

For those interested in working in the meeting management department of a corporation a job as a meeting planner, travel coordinator, or meeting assistant may be options. These positions require excellent communication skills as well as training in the foundational structure of corporations. It will require the ability to contract outside services, manage expenses such as lodging, beverages, food, transportation, audio-visual equipment, and much more.

Another department which has a big impact on the outcome of an event is administrative support. Positions within this field will be found throughout a corporation and often serve in the capacity of event planning within the corporate structure. This might include such events as department meetings, making travel arrangements, client-specific meetings, as well as coordinating the services of outside vendors. This position requires strong organizational skills and is often the starting place for many who would like to become corporate-level event planners.

Another area in high demand is in the marketing and sales department. This is a key position within any corporation since the livelihood of the business often depends on the success of this department. For those working in this field, the coordination of face-to-face activities by planning conferences, client seminars, appreciation events, and much more will ensure that marketing is effective and sales are high. Positions within this department might include marketing coordinator, marketing specialist, meeting and event manager, or product specialist. Often these key players work together to pull off the perfect event.

Another department integral to the success of a corporation is communication. Turning a company into a "brand name" is difficult and this department is responsible for ensuring the company name becomes a household word. This may be through business communications, advertising, community relations, sponsorships, internal communications, media relations, or much more. Although this department rarely plans an event themselves, those working therein are essential to ensuring a successful outcome. Communications specialists, advertising coordinators, promotions assistants, and public relations specialists all fall within this department.

These and other options are available for those planning a career working in event jobs. The educational criteria will vary depending on the position sought so researching the many options prior to beginning an educational plan will ensure you end up right where you want to be once on the job.

Event planning certification can teach you control, quality management and improvement in the field of event planning. When these three elements are added together; you can provide the best result to your customers. Your customers demand high quality for their money and you need to satisfy their demand. Event planning is all about meeting customer demands and event planning certification provides you with the appropriate information on the subject of satisfying your customer.

Control and improvement are a part of quality management; quality control is the effort made by you to control the quality of the event you are managing and providing your consumer with a qualitative product. On the other hand quality improvement is the effort made by you to improve the quality of the service you are already providing to your consumers. Assurance is another aspect of quality management. According to this aspect you assure your customer with high level of quality. You set a benchmark of quality and you try to achieve more than the benchmark to satisfy your customer's needs and wants.

Quality management is a significant part of your event planning work and it is needed in every area of the event. As an event planner; you need to manage the quality of the setting, the lighting, the food, the beverages, and the quality of visitors comfort. If you are able to maintain quality in all area; your efforts will be appreciated and you will gain free advertisements. Your clients will spread your name among their friends and family members. Quality management can only be learned through event planning certification courses. Management of quality is done through pre set benchmarks and to achieve those benchmarks you have to enroll in event planning certification courses.

Event planners should set a standard of quality in every area of the event and then he should follow those standards and try to achieve their goals. You are only able to get permanent customers if the quality level of your service is high. They will always expect good quality service and if you fail then you can lose special customers. This is why management of value is very important and you should try to maintain good value at all times.

People are ready to pay high if the quality of your work is good. They want the quality factor to be maintained because they know that they can only satisfy their visitors with quality.

If you are interested in planning events for a living, whether it is an entertainment, culinary or major sporting event and even a recreational event or festival, you might want to consider the employment advantage you get with an management certificate. Those that want to be experts in catering meals, planning functions like weddings or any other kind of group convention, need to learn the skills necessary to properly plan events for others. You can learn how to add diversity and proper management to ensure that every detail turns out better than expected. This is an important part of being an event manager, no matter what kind of event it might be.

The course content for your qualification will include the important areas of event planning, marketing, budgeting, licensing, operational and technical considerations, staffing, health and safety issues that include the ability to assess risk and contracts. Learning event administration involves many details that most people take for granted when they are attending an event, but these are things that are addressed when you are in event management. The difference in a good and a spectacular event is the manager that planned and oversees the event through completion and payment of the bill.

When it comes to the management of events, there are many areas that you can consider for employment, whether you are planning recreational events like festivals and dog shows, or a life event like a wedding reception or large anniversary party for a major hotel. Many people that are in the field of event management should take the course and go through the evaluation and review that is part of the qualification. Not only can it mean an increase in your salary for event planning, but also you will be among the experts in the field and you can learn many ideas to make your events more interesting.

If you are interested in the more advanced certifications, those are available under certificate programs, as well. Many event planners will seek the advanced certifications, especially those that are in tourism. When it comes to planning large events on a world stage, you will need the most advanced certifications to become involved and the salaries in this range of event planning can be substantial. When you consider the metropolitan festivals and celebrations, major sporting events and fundraisers, there are many options that require more advanced expertise than you will learn in college. Often, real-life experience is required to fully understand the importance of the more detailed knowledge you get from the courses that are the most comprehensive, in event planning.

The field of event management is very interesting and rewarding. If you like planning events and you are detail-oriented you can put your talents to use in event management. Getting the certification is important to many employers that plan the larger events, so your chances of employment are much better, once you have achieved a certificate in event management.

You could have pointed out that over roughly the last eight years there's been a rise in the buzz regarding personalized wristbands. You can use them for a great deal of functions for numerous market sectors to reduce costs of function planning throughout the world.

Personalised wristbands are already utilized to bring help regarding diseases, racism & the environment. They've had a massive influence in many different places for quite a while and have altered the methods charitable groups & causes market themselves for the larger community.

Wristband Materials & Types

How versatile wristbands really are, is well known, it's this kind of adaptability that makes them such an accessible item. You will find myriad of personalised bracelets & a huge selection of internet vendors, with a lot of them supplying people & organizations.

Customized wrist bands are generally created from extremely light & tough components including plastic, neoprene & silicone but are also created from papers, faux leather and also cloth. They feel good are available in plenty of shades and styles.

This extraordinary array of types, components and colours has aided personalised wristbands into the category of worldwide fashion trend.

Personalized wristbands are fantastic for charitable use

When Lance Armstrong employed the particular 'Live Strong' cancer support bracelet, customized wristbands became incredibly well-liked by charitable which use them to improve funds and also attention to causes. Folks can get the particular bracelet and wear it every day to demonstrate their particular support for your cause.

In many cases folks might possibly not have significant amounts of funds to give to your cause so buying a relatively inexpensive customized wristband won't hurt their wallet. And also this tends to make an offering to a charitable organisation far easier to each day people.

The price is kept low as a result of many personalised wristbands getting made out of moulded plastic or silicone which keeps the unit price for every product surprisingly low. Additionally, there are huge special discounts being created for firms that choose to buy wristbands in big amounts.

Examples of Charity wristband uses:

• Diabetes British (white)


• Multiple sclerosis (fruit)


• Epilepsy (50 percent blue, 50 percent red)


• Hurricane Katrina (marine blue blended with white)


• Pancreatic cancer (pink)


• Cystic fibrosis (pink)


• AIDS (red)

Personalized Wristbands used for Events & Security

Additional utilities regarding personalised wrist bands are within event management. Deciding on the proper wristband for your function may be influenced by way of a great deal of aspects. Coloured wristbands enable you to recognize accessibility membership to specific zones or services.

They could be used to market other events or services by having advertising messages printed on them. Virtually every part of the wristband can easily be personalised.

A number of uses customized wrist bands may have at your function.

• General Entry


• Access & Constraints


• Promotions & advertising and marketing


• Staff Recognition


• Multi-day Access


• Sponsorship

As you can see, there are an incredibly wide range of uses for personalised wristbands. Over the years they have amassed a huge amount of marketing leverage for charities & event management. This globally popular item is now worn by people all over the world.

It can be a great challenge to organize a seminar or conference, but for many people who are given this duty to do, it can be a matter of maintaining their job or it may lead to getting a coveted promotion. To plan a successful conference or seminar, an event planner needs a few tools and a fair amount of insight into what is needed.

A timeline needs to be created and the first plan of the event nutted out fully so that the purpose of the event is clearly understood. Do you need new clients, do you need to brand your company, do you need to spread the word about something new? A company wants an event created that will achieve their purpose, as well as being fun for the participants.

The creation of a conference planning checklist is like the building of a train track.

You start with a map of the terrain, discover where you need to place the track and where to place the resources to overcome obstacles and then you create a timeline for the event. Along the timeline, you will need a range of conference planning checklists, in place ready to check off at various important stages along the timeline.

It can be very difficult to try and balance organization duties with the responsibilities of a current job. That is why it is important to have a team (or two or more teams ) of helpers that can have jobs delegated to them. To keep track of what each delegated job is and which team are working on it, you need a good schedule system and this information about "which team - what job" also needs to placed on the conference planning checklist.

Each grouping of jobs needs to noted on the various different conference planning checklist and linked back to the timeline. Separating starting jobs from completed jobs helps as well.

Below are ten steps that might be added  to a conference planning checklist when you are engaging speakers for a conference. A similar event planning checklist needs to be constructed for the caterer, or for the DJ. These steps are only guidelines, because each conference or seminar will have a specific agenda particular to your company. That said, most events have some specifics common to all, whether the event is a special event party, a destination wedding, a convention, a conference or a seminar.

The conference planning checklist (or event planning checklist, or seminar planning checklist) is an essential tool to any event co-coordinator and the more detailed the check list is, the better - as much can go wrong by simply assuming it will all just work out.

When you invite people to an event, their comfort and enjoyment is of prime importance. Anything that needs booking needs booking months in advance. Timing is essential to get everything right. The greater percentage of frequently asked questions need to be considered and answered before they are asked, because during the hectic day when the event is taking place, people are far too busy with other things to make decisions on the fly. 

Conference Planning Checklist - 10 Essentials For Speakers  

So here are 10 examples to consider placing on your conference planning checklist when you are engaging speakers for a seminar or conference.

• 1. List and make the final confirmation of selected speakers with the committee.


• 2. Contact the chosen speakers to request their participation.


• 3. Send follow-up letters to confirm the speakers commitment, their program agenda, its title and a description of their session.


• 4. Request the speakers biographies or profile and a photograph.


• 5. Prepare the descriptions of the speakers profiles for your program and promotional material.


• 6. Send a letter to confirm the exact wording that will appear in the program description for each speaker.


• 7. Request or prepare photocopies of all handout or promotional materials. 


• 8. Book the required audio visual equipment, and check the venue room setup.


• 9. Plan travel and accommodations for the speakers.


• 10. Maintain contact with the resource person just prior to the conference for last-minute arrangements.

And 5 More Essentials for the Conference Planning Checklist For On the Evening of the Event:

• 1. Inspect the room arrangements, the equipment, and the handouts.


• 2. Meet with the speakers to introduce fellow committee members or resource people.


• 3. Escort the speakers to their rooms and inform them about meals, etc.


• 4. Be available to facilitate speakers' requests at all times.


• 5. Thank them for their participation before they leave.

The average conference or seminar is generally planned and coordinated by a busy person trying to balance the hosting of the conference or seminar with their regular jobs. That can be a very taxing thing to try to do especially if that person has never done it before. Write up detailed checklists and check everything off and you won't end up with a train wreck. In fact you'll probably get that promotion.