ValleyView Conference Planning - Case Study Example

PLANNING A CONFERENCE Introduction The success of an annual professional conference depends on a number of factors such as time and the location of the meeting, the attraction of the local area and the local arrangements, the ability of the conference organiser and the planning committee to attract and select a program participants and to organise technical sessions. The chair is also responsible for planning on the cost of attending the meeting and the travel funds available for the attendees; the quality of the technical programme, the number of the program participants and also the number of meeting attendees. Conference organization structure varies according to conference circumstances. Usually, the hosts of the conference choose the structure according to the needs of the committee. Some of the conference structure depends on whether the organizer of the conference is an employed. This paper describes an assessment of how to plan and manage a conference. ValleyView Company was selected to organize the annual conference for the Australian Operators Association, and this is the third time the company is organising. Norta Dissen who is an employee of ValleyView has been given the responsibility of organising the conference since Allison who used to organise was promoted to another department. The annual tourism conference sponsored by Australian Tourism Operators Association Conference (ATOA) is scheduled to take place 24 to 26 weeks from now, and the responsibility of organising and coordinating the conference is given to ValleyView. Norta Dissen will be coordinating the organization and Angus Simissen will be assisting him needed. The title of the conference is known as Access to All, and it will be held in Melbourne for a day only. About 100 participants are expected to attend the conference, and the budget is estimated to be about $ 30,000. The conference committee will invite high profile guest speakers from various sectors of the industry. Conference planning Making preliminary analyses and assessments This is the first step in conference planning, and it is completed by conference planning committee, lounge committee, and the executive committee. In this step, conference objectives are established, analyzing the target audience and determining implementation methods. Setting the objectives The setting of the meeting objectives is one of the most crucial considerations. For the annual Tourism Conference, the focus of this conference is for tourists with disabilities and there are two objectives of the conference. One of them is to support tour operators and wholesalers in promoting and marketing their products. The other objective is to promote tour operators who provide leisure options for people with all types of disabilities. These objectives are set according to the needs of the target audience (people with disabilities). The conference attendees will include those from other sectors of the tourism industry. There will be workshops also during the conference Determining the implementation methods Once the objectives are formulated, the conference format must be selected and the implementation methods considered. To determine the implementation methods, a number of questions are considered; should the conference be held in a conjunction with another meeting or as an independent event? For the annual tourism conference, there will be a conference, and later there will be workshops as part of the conference which will cover new products and initiatives. The other question which used when determining the implementation methods is whether to invite to invite a cosponsor to participate or cooperate in the meeting. The annual tourism committee intends to invite high profile speakers from different tourism sectors and other interested groups. The other area of interest is to identify the duration of the conference. This is important because it helps in drafting the budget for the conference. The committee of the Annual meeting which is organised by ValleyView estimated the budget to be about $ 30,000, and the conference shall last only for a week. The conference is organised to happen in about 24 months. Obtaining the agreement of cosponsors This is important for conferences which are to be sponsored jointly with another professional society. Cosponsorship implies significant involvement in the technical, financial and administrative areas of the conference. Decisions must be made about the exact nature of involvement. The main sponsor of the Annual Tourism Conference of Australia is Australian Tourism Operators Association (ATOA) and has been sponsoring the programme for the last five years. Selecting conference manager This is the third stage in planning a conference. The manager will be responsible for making all the conference arrangement such as the registration and staffing registration, information needed for the conference. Conference arrangements must be handled by a skilful, knowledgeable and a willing person who is capable of negotiating to make the best arrangements for the meeting. A knowledgeable person is beneficial to the society because such a person brings the knowledge of logistics and expertise to the negotiation process. The ATOA conference appointed Norta to be the manager of the conference because she has sufficient time, has the ability to with professionals and non-professionals, delegating authority, coordinating activities and following up details. The person should also access the documents for the past meetings, and these are available because Alison, former organiser of the event, has been filing the records for the previous five years. Organizing the conference committees This is the fourth major step in planning a conference. The committee defines responsibility, guide activities of the working committees and serves as the policy making a body for the conference. The chairperson should organize competent planning committee early enough to ensure that the conference is successful. The committee selected should be given different responsibilities. These responsibilities are determined by the scope of the conference activities and the structure of the conference. The criteria used in selecting the committee should include features such as the ability to possess stature in the society’s discipline, familiarity with the conference format, demonstrates leadership ability, a reputation for accomplishing tasks on time and expertise and interest in the tasks assigned. For example, the committee for the ATOA conference should include persons from Tourism Victoria because the company has organised several conferences and therefore they have experience. Program The role of the program is to provide guidance and to help the program chairperson to create successful sessions. Once the chairperson access papers from the secretary regarding the conference, then he or she evaluates proposed sessions and papers critically and should also be an innovator and this will enable him or her to adopt new program format that will improve communication. The proposed program for the Australian tourism Operators Association is as follows; 8:00 am to 9:00 am – registration of the guests, check-in as they grab some coffee from the barista team, and interactions to form new relationships as they prepare for the big day. 9:00 am to 9:10 am – welcoming of the guests by the master of the ceremony Norta Dissen, followed by a welcome from ValleyView team who are the organisers of the event. 9:10 am to 9:20 am- led by Angus Simissen, the day key focus areas for the Annual Tourism Conference. 9:20 am to 10:00 am – since the focus is a disabled traveller, Eric who is a representative from Disability Services Inc Will be given a chance to talk on behalf of the disable people. 10:00 am to 10:30 am – marketing foundations. McColl Jones from Victorian Tourism is a successful marketer and will share on how to have a successful future in the tourism industry. He will also talk bout the rapidly changing business environment and how to cope with the changes. This session will act as a remainder of the conference to as we delve the concept of experience evolution. 10:30 am to 11:00 am – question and answer session basing on the presentations done in the earlier sessions. This session is open, and it is facilitated by the master of the ceremony Norta Dissen. 11:00 am to 11:20 am – morning tea break where the participants get a chance to grab a bite and sensational coffee. 11:30 am to 12:00 noon- changing consumer experience and this will be led by Dougal McKenzie who is the head of the travel industry. He will take more on what the disabled traveller should expect from the industry. 12:30 pm to 1 pm- finding out the latest trends in the travel and finding out what experiences the next customers are looking for. 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm – lunch break. The participants take this chance to something new and share with others as they take something. 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm – workshop Read More