Five Convention Planning Mistakes to Avoid

Convention planning for businesses can be a battle. But you’ll always win the battle if you know how to take control of the most important things. Once you have those down, everything else runs like a machine. Many people lose the opportunity of a successful convention because they lack the organizational skills. Think of a convention like a big old party. In essence, it is – you need to get the venue, organize the guest list, manage the attractions, and all while making it seem effortless. However, there are a few things that you should probably avoid.

5 Things To Avoid During Your Planning:

1. 1. Don’t Procrastinate – Depending on the size of the convention, most big venues book months – sometimes years – in advance. Be sure not to wait. Know when the date is, the approximate number of guests, and decide on the location. Then you can move forward with booking the venue.

   When you wait too long, caterers, venues, and hotels can get a little impatient. This is something that should be avoided at all times, because if it turns out to be a great convention, you want them to have a good impression of your work ethic. Most importantly, you don’t want guests to be surprised with certain consequences that came from late bookings.

    

2. 2. Don’t Do This Alone – Sure you can do the small birthday parties alone, but big conventions require teamwork. Assign someone to communicate with the venue, another to communicate with guests, another to communicate with hotels, and another for side perks like caterers, entertainment, or booth vendors. This will take a tremendous load off your shoulders.

   Stay in command of the agenda in regards to workshops and guest speakers. This is the biggest experience of any convention; the rest of the planning includes merely deadlines and bookings. Delegate to your team and be the final say. Trust the people will do their jobs, but you must give them a very thorough set of instructions.

    

3. 3.  Avoid Planning Bogus Workshops – Depending on the type of convention, you must veer the experience towards helping the guests in their business somehow. If you are planning an entrepreneurship type convention, don’t invite a business man to talk about how he grew in his company. Invite someone that built their business from the floor-up. Make sure your workshops address the subject matter most relevant to the topic of the convention. Don’t give your attendees something useless. Refer to the convention topic when thinking of workshop titles, as well.

    

4. 4. Don’t Wait To Start Advertising – The greatest thing about starting to plan extremely early is that once you are ready to advertise and market the convention, you have all the information at hand. Phone numbers, venue, location, hotels, etc. A lot of business owners are extremely busy, and have a date planner filled with dates. The earlier you start advertising and sending out invites, the better chance you have at getting them there.

    

5. 5. Don’t Ignore The Details – If you are having a convention out of the state, be sure you double check the laws. Sometimes, law enforcements will surprise you and say that there are too many people or that you need a permit. There’s nothing worse than having all your hard work mean nothing when the convention gets canceled. Touch ALL areas.

    

Let It Run And Go

Once the major planning, scheduling, and booking is finished, the best part is relaxing and watching it run itself. The planning is the key to running a smooth operation. With all the details already thought out, there will be much less confusion when the day arrives. Be sure you hold a meeting the day before for all workers and volunteers to touch base on the flow of events and their duties. Answer all questions before the day of the event to prevent last minute confusion.