Hi all,
this week I have had my first experience with seeing how an international event is run. The FPC was hosting a Forest Genetics Conference with 200 guests from all over the world. The conference was an opportunity for international forestry's experts to speak about there research in a range of forestry's related topics. While the topic was way over my head I found the amount of planning and level of organisation required to run a conference such as this a real eye opener.
The conference lasted 3 days and for those 3 days to be successful required 18 months of planning! I never realised how much time goes into an event.
I even discovered that the FPC organised flights and accommodation for a number of international guests.
there was a folder full of material such as run sheets, the program, attendees and a variety of other details on hand on the day. Everything ran very well with a number of compliments on how smoothly the conference was running.
Looking back, I don't think I would have ever considered how much time goes into events in order for them to be successful. There are so many things that need to be considered besides the activities of the day such as organising for guests to get there. I also realised that thanks to the exceptional organisational skills of Samara at the FPC, there was little to be done while the conference was running as all the work really goes into the planning. At the conference the only real duties were setting up, checking the program was running on time and liaising with the catering to make sure lunch and morning/afternoon tea was on time.
So what have I taken away from this experience?
to be successful in event management the key is be organised. If you put in the work when planning the event, when the day comes you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor with minimal stress.
Rachael
2 comments:
Hi Rachael,
Thanks for your post. I am interested to find out more about the intranet and internet communications revamp at Forest Products Commission - are you able to be involved in writing any copy for the website? How is the web site revamped are they using a web content management system or does to pr department just communicate the changes to the IT department?
I am also very impressed that you have been involved in managing an international conference! I am looking forward to reading more about the events you are involved in.
Hi Annika,
The intranet revamp was more to do with the IT aspects which i dont fully understand. basically the way it was set up had to be changed as we had a vision impared receptionist starting with us and so the changes were initially made so it was easy for her to use.
in saying that, the internet site is also being updated so it is possible for us to manage the content better and more frequently put up media material and information. As yet I haven't written anything for the website but still got a few days left so we'll see what happens! Thanks for your interest. I hope you're also getting alot from your placement.
Best of luck, Rach
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