EVENT MATTERS NEW

matters event

ANDREW LANG INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

FIVE KEYS TO A GREAT EVENT Organising an event should be easy. Book a venue, create the agenda and invite people! Creating a great event that achieves your objectives, is value for money and doesn’t take forever to organise takes a lot more skill. Here are five ideas that will help improve your next event: PURPOSE – As Steven Covey once said, “Start with the end in mind.” Often when I ask a company their purpose I will hear, “It’s a planning session – we hold them every year”, or “A training workshop for our new products.” These certainly describe the process but not the purpose. I’m keen to understand what the planning is for – perhaps improve next year’s revenue by 10 per cent. What about the new product? Gain 23 per cent market share in 12 months. These start to describe the purpose and will drive your event – who you invite, the topics and the theme you need to communicate to your team. VENUE – The environment you choose has a great impact on your results. Offsite venues provide better reflection and fewer interruptions. A venue with all the equipment puts the attention on the content, not trying to get technology working. A well-catered event feeds your crew and adds to the enjoyment of the day. SESSION TIMES/BREAKOUTS – The best events have lots of group interaction. A mistake is to jam the agenda with presentations. Often I hear, “It’s the only time we have everyone together so we need to cover lots.” Sadly, people forget most presentations! As a rule, you should allow 50 per cent of the time for group interaction – casual chats during breaks or guided group exercises. Adults learn from participation. EQUIPMENT – I mentioned before that venue equipment is critical. Today the standard is high quality data projection and screen, flipcharts, power to desks, internet access, use of computers, tablets and variable lighting. I’m shocked when venues don’t have good internet access (or charge a premium). AGENDA AND CONTENT – Use your purpose and the ideas from above – lots of breakouts and group sessions. Use the internet in sessions for research or showing examples. As a guide, you should break the day into three sessions of two hours each and aim for one or two key topics in each session, remembering to keep lots of time for group work. This structure also leaves time at the end of the day for work catch-up or networking.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andrew Lang is the manager at The Institute of Professional Learning Centre, a purpose-built venue for business events on the Sunshine Coast. He has over 20 years experience in organising business events, especially for planning and training.

Where will you hold your next...

Conference? Workshop? Seminar? Mini Expo? Video Conference Call? Planning Day? Strategy Session? Webinar?

The Institute of Professional Learning Centre at the Sunshine Coast University is perfect for small groups of 10, workshops for 30, or even conferences of 150. The venue has five various sized rooms to choose from which are fully equipped and include: • • • • audio visual equipment flipcharts internet access and all included in the price • • • screens video conferencing use of up to 70 computers • • • whiteboards projectors anything you could need Your event can be fully catered with a variety of options. Come and visit us for a quick tour and a complimentary one hour event planning session. Call us to organise a visit or to go through your specific needs and pricing.