5 Logistic Concerns to Remember When Planning a Business Conference

[This article was written by Anita Ginsburg.]

Planning a business conference takes a lot of work, to say the least. There are many factors that you’ll need to consider along your planning route. Below are five factors that you should plan to address regarding your logistic needs for the event.

Transportation

If you plan on hosting your business conference at a facility that doesn’t have a hotel on-site, you may want to consider bus rental. This will give your conference-goers the ability to get transported from the business conference venue to the hotel where they’re staying. You can also use this for transportation to and from the airport if guests are flying in or as transportation to any other location groups might be visiting as part of the conference. Don’t leave transportation up to the conference-goers as traffic, confusion, and varying arrival times can create unnecessary chaos at the event.

Venue Location

Before you really get into planning out your entire conference, you’ll want to get a venue picked out. Remember that you want to make your conference one that will stick in the minds of the professionals that decided to attend. So, opt for an out of the box event venue, such as an airplane hangar. It will be sure to catch the attention of conference attendees.

Plan for Entry and Exit Flows

If you’ve ever been to an event that wasn’t properly planned, you’ve likely had a difficult time entering and exiting the event. When people aren’t instructed on what to do, you’ll have many people doing different things. You should have a clearly laid out plan for entry and exit flows into the event. Hire helpers to direct people and ensure there is proper signage to alert people of how to move through the venue.

Have a Point of Contact for Every Area

The business conference will likely have a few different areas that will need to be taken care of. These include things like ticketing, audio, and video. You should have a clear point of contact for each one of these areas. This way, if the staff members working in these areas have a problem, they know exactly who to get a hold of.

Identify Your Space Needs

It’s never a good idea to just assume you’ll have the space you need to handle all the items before, during, and after the conference. Rather, you should be making a list of spaces that you’ll need to designate for specific tasks for the conference. These can include things like a green room, storage space for audio equipment, and coat checks. Doing this before picking the venue will ensure that you have a venue that will meet your spacing requirements.

As you can see, these five logistic concerns need to be addressed prior to your conference. The sooner that you address the issues, the easier it will be to continue to plan your event. Remember that planning is most of the battle.

Author Bio:

Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.