Monthly Archives: February 2012

5 Do’s When Running a Nonprofit Conference

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Planning Your Next Nonprofit Conference

On Wednesday, Nonprofit Gold explored some of the things not to do when planning and running a nonprofit conference.  The following are five things which can enhance your conference.

Invite the Participants to Be Presenters

If your conference is a three day conference, what better place to find experts and people wanting to share their knowledge than some of the participants.  By having your presenters also be participants, there are many benefits including an increase in the number of participants in the weekend, making the presenters feel “real and tangible,” allowing professionals a forum to share their knowledge and many more.

The last three conferences I attended, participants were invited to be presenters (ask them a couple of months in advance) and I had the chance to sit with the presenters in other sessions and learn next to them.  These presenters aren’t seen as coming in and just presenting and leaving but really wanting to be a part of the conference.  Many of these presenters also do not expect to get paid and want to continue giving back to the professional community.

Plan Networking Time

Th most successful conferences allow time for the professionals to get to know each other personally and build in network time for people to find out about other organizations.  Conferences are a great place to network for an organization looking for a  qualified employee and for job seekers to find a new place of employment.  Rather than taking away from planned sessions or having people not go to sessions to network, as a conference planner adding in a couple of times to network will benefit the whole conference.

Have Snacks

If your conference is a three day event and starts on a Friday afternoon, have snacks for the participants.  As some conferences draw people from all over the country be aware many of them may be coming directly from the airport and will want something to tide them over for the first session.  If you have an open plenary and people are complaining of hunger, they will choose to eat over the first session.

Food in general is a great way for people to socialize and mingle and can serve as a great mixer during the conference.  By including food, the participants also feel there is an added benefit to coming to the conference or learning opportunity.

Use Social Media to Continue the Conversations 

The power of social media is helping continue and strengthen the conversations at nonprofit conferences around the world.  In real time, participants are writing notes, blogs, tweets and Facebook messages and posting it around the world.  If someone couldn’t attend your conference but you have established a Twitter hashtag (a way for people to follow the conference), people can still be a part of the conversations happening at the conference.  By establishing these early and promoting your social media for the conference, your organization and conference show you are with the current technology trends.  Social media is also a way which you can brand your conference and should be used on all marketing materials for the conference.

Be Aware Problems Will Happen

While you can plan for everything to go right, inevitably there will be items which go wrong.  Whether you test every projector and they work fine or if you ordered enough food for 150 people but have 180 people, things will happen.  Be aware and calm when these issues arise and be able to move forward without showing the participants that things aren’t going as planned.  If you go in and are aware that things might happen, you will be better prepared if things really do happen.

If you are looking for help planning an upcoming conference or looking for a way to get volunteers to help with the conference, contact Nonprofit Gold today.

5 Don’ts When Running a Nonprofit Conference

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Image via www.biometrics.org

One of the best ways to learn and grow as a professional is to attend professional conferences and this is no different in the nonprofit world.   While attending these conferences and summits can be very rewarding, there are also many downfalls which impact a conference run by a nonprofit organization, its staff and its volunteers.  Over the last three months, I have had the opportunity to attend three conferences where I have witnessed strengths and weaknesses.

In this post, we will explore five don’ts when planning a nonprofit conference and how to avoid these pitfalls when your organization puts on a professional conference.

Don’t Plan the Keynote Address at the End of Your Conference

The timing of your keynote address can make or break your conference.  Just because you have a great keynote speaker coming to the conference doesn’t mean that the other sessions scheduled for that day aren’t important.  If you have a celebrity or politician as the keynote and security is going to take over an hour to get to the keynote address, look at the impact on the rest of the program for the day.  Also scheduling the keynote on the last day of a conference means many of the participants will be heading back home.

Don’t Forget About the Technology

With all of the new technology with Twitter, Facebook, Prezi (the “new” slide show presentation), YouTube and more, you need to make sure all technology needs are met for your conference.  Make sure you have all the projectors, laptops, microphones and speakers needed for each session.  At many of these conferences there are five to six different sessions going on at the same time and you need to make sure all presenters have what they need.  Find out before hand what your location provides and see if this can be included in the cost of the rental.  Also, if you have a keynote speaker, make sure you have a hands free microphone so they can move around while they talk.

Don’t Have Volunteers Run Everything

Yes, your organization might be tight on cash (all organizations are) but utilize the staff available to you where your conference is being held.  Just because you have a technology expert on your board doesn’t mean they know all the technology at the hotel or conference center you are using.  Volunteers can be great in directing traffic, helping with the registration table and working the information table but if you are trying to make everything seem professional then use the professionals.

Don’t Hand Write Signs or Nametags

If you are trying to showcase your organization as being professional, handwriting signs for sessions brings down the quality of the conference.  All conferences will have participants who sign up late or show up without having a reservation but bringing a laptop and a printer to print name tags makes these participants feel valued rather than a quickly written name tag which is hard to read.

Don’t Ask for Money at the End

A professional conference isn’t the time to make an ask or serve as another fundraiser.  Yes, you want to make sure you can put on this conference in the future but asking conference participants who just paid for the entire weekend (hotel, registration and travel) to give can be a huge put off.  Know your audience and wait for the ask.

These five don’ts can be easily avoided and addressed early in the planning process.  Remember each program and conference your organization puts on will have hiccups along the way but try and plan for the unexpected.