Are you thinking of organizing a conference? Well take a few tips from me because I am in the midst of planning our first tribal database conference. The strategy involved in planning an event of this magnitude can feel daunting, however, don’t let that overwhelm you. Just take it step by step, and you will have your conference planned before you realize it.
The first question that comes into play is “What is it that we, as an organization, can help people solve? What are our objectives for hosting this conference?” That seems like a fairly simple question to answer, but it can become complex in no time. For Handel, I knew that we could help Native America tribes manage all their information from enrolling members to providing services for them to the organizational processes. This, of course, is too broad and needed to be narrowed down, but for now I left it.
Next, I needed to define who should attend this conference and how can we best reach those people? The solution seems simple enough, it’s a valuable message. “What is our message?" This message should be revisited often throughout the planning process to make sure it stays in sync with the way the conference sessions and speakers are developing their topics.
For example, we came up with a message (see the graphic on the left) at the beginning of our conference planning and as our sessions were developed farther and our speakers accepted, we realized that particular message wasn’t conveying accurately the value of the conference. So we changed it to this: “Does your database make your heart race? We have solutions for you.”
Check back with my next blog post to find the next step in planning a large event.