CONFERENCES ARE A FANTASTIC MEMBER BENEFIT
Conferences are particularly beneficial for membership organisations and professional bodies as they are a great opportunity for your members to benefit from networking and educational opportunities as well as the formal updates in the Annual General Meeting. While your actual AGM must be free for members to attend an associated conference can produce additional income which helps to keep the annual membership fee low.
You will often also see an associated exhibition which gives your members an opportunity to speak with industry relevant suppliers while the exhibition income can be used to offset costs to your members.
SEMINARS ARE A GREAT SOURCE OF ADDITIONAL INCOME
Seminars are a great way of providing updates or lectures to a large number of people in a short space of time. They are very cost effective to run and can provide a useful source of additional income throughout the year. Unlike training courses, which are usually an introduction to new ideas and concepts and require the trainer to spend time ensuring individuals fully understand the material, seminars are generally used to provide updates on subjects the audience is already familiar with.
Whether you choose to schedule a half or full day event there is usually the opportunity to allow networking between attendees and speakers during refreshment breaks which adds more value to the event.
You can either restrict attendance to your membership as a specific benefit or you can use the seminar to showcase your organisation and allow attendance by individuals who are considering joining so they can see the benefits themselves while networking with current members (who should be your greatest ambassadors).
WE CAN HANDLE EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR EVENT
We can help with every aspect of the event, from sourcing a suitable venue and pitching to potential exhibitors to supporting you in welcoming your delegates on the day while keeping a tight rein on expenses to ensure you deliver on budget.
Before the conference we can help you set your budget, choose the venue and finalise your AV and staging requirements, advertise your event, source and book speakers, sell places to delegates and exhibitors, co-ordinate guest requirements and rooming lists and put together delegate packs and educational material.
WE ACT AS THE FIRST POINT OF CONTACT THROUGHOUT THE EVENT
We attend your event and act as receptionists and first point of contact with the venue and your guests throughout the event, including helping to host drinks receptions or formal dinners where we can break the ice and make introductions between delegates. We have a vast amount of experience of dealing with the diversity of issues that can arise during events of all kinds and while we are more than happy to give you an amusing update over a coffee after the event we usually find that you don’t need to know the minutiae just before you go on stage to give your welcome address.
Obviously we never exceed our delegated authority and will raise any material or financial issues with you immediately but you really don’t need to know that Joe Bloggs is upset he has been served the vegetarian option he specifically requested on booking because he prefers the look of his colleague’s meal, or that we have had a delegate arrive who hasn’t booked and we need to find overflow accommodation and catering for her.
OUR WORK DOESN’T STOP WHEN THE LAST DELEGATE LEAVES
Once we have waved goodbye to the final delegate we will have a ‘wash up’ meeting with the venue to discuss any issues that arose and give any compliments that are due before heading back to the office to arrange ‘thank you’ letters for you to send to your guest speakers. We will also circulate a survey to attendees so we can capture what went well and what might be improved in future.
As soon as we receive the final invoice from the venue we check it thoroughly before asking you to agree the payment and update actual costs against your budget, as well as ensuring all income has been received and invoices settled. After this we will be able to prepare a report on the event for you so that you can start planning for another successful event the following year.