Table of Contents
Conference Planning packet for Evergreen International Conference
This website will attempt to compile information from the past years of planning the Evergreen International Conference so that it is available to the current local planning committee.
The 2012 EG International Conference Planning team created a collection of google documents which were shared with the 2013 team. The goal would be that each local planning committee will utilize and add to the collection and then pass them onto the next group. These documents include 2011 budget, 2012 budget, list of potential vendors, list of potential keynote speakers, planning schedule, and 2012 final report.
Registration
Eventbrite was used for the 2012 Conference and the reporting function and usability of the system were rated very highly. If you allow payment in Google Checkout and PayPal, make sure you understand the reimbursement process for cancellations. Decide whether there will be a discount for presenters or in-consortium attendees and whether there will be a one-day fee.
The following items were included in the tote bags:
Program Committee
In planning for the 2012 conference, the Program Committee was the only committee to have members of the international community. It’s not a bad idea to try to include members of the international community on the sponsorship and marketing committees as well.
Beginning in August, the program committee sent out a prospective attendee survey to open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org, open-ils-documentation@list.georgialibraries.org, open-ils-dev@list.georgialibraries.org to gauge what the prospective audience was interested in for the 2012 conference:
“Hello everyone! The 2012 EG International Conference program committee has created a planning survey for the 2012 conference. All prospective attendees are invited to fill out the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KJG3WSM The goal of this survey is to gather information on what prospective attendees would like to see at the 2012 conference in terms of programs, after conference events, etc. We hope to get responses from across our diverse user group: developers, trainers, administrators and front-line users. Please feel free to share the survey link with colleagues. The survey will close on August 31, 2011. Thank you for your cooperation!”
Results of 2012 Prospective Attendees Survey here
Results of 2011 Attendee Satisfaction Survey here
Using the results from the 2011 Attendee Satisfaction Survey and the 2012 Prospective Attendee Survey, the Program Committee crafted a list of suggested programs for attendees and sent out an email to the open-ils listservs soliciting programs.
The 2012 Planning committee made a word document program application PDF and word document available but in the future, I would suggest using an online form or Survey Monkey.
Reminders were sent out each Friday to the open-ils listservs and the conference fb and twitter pages were updated each week to remind potential presenters to turn in their programs. In 2012, we received 41 programs and had room for 37. The Program Committee was pleased with the programs submitted so we didn’t worry about begging for programs but in the future, you may try different avenues to solicit a larger response.
The Program Committee had several conference calls to organize programs into user tracks (General, Administrative, End User and Technical) and to decide which programs wouldn’t be accepted.
The span of their activity lasted about 5 months and included 4 conference calls.
After the conference was finished, a satisfaction survey was sent out to the community and is compiled here.
Sponsorship Committee
The budget must be in place before setting each of the sponsorship levels and opportunities can be started. We worked off of the 2011 sponsorship documents and created an introductory letter, a manual and an application. Software Freedom Conservancy suggested creating an email which will be received by both them and the local planning committee if a vendor turns in an application.
Vendors that sponsored and exhibited in 2011 were contacted two weeks before everyone else and told that they were the preferred vendors and were being given early bird notice. After two weeks, everyone that was contacted the year before was emailed again.
During the conference, sponsorship signs were posted at each break station. See a sample sponsorship poster here.
Local Attractions committee
We worked with the local convention center to get discounts on group events and restaurants. We planned the following outings: basketball game, group dining, downtown walking tour, pub crawl and play at a local theater. See the schedule for more details on local events.
Marketing committee
The marketing committee managed the fb and twitter pages throughout the conference planning. If a notice was sent to open-ils listservs, it was also posted on those feeds. Fb and twitter pages were also used to reach out to potential vendors and potential attendees. Marketing committee also analyzed who was registered and reached out to those who hadn’t registered for the conference yet. We passed along our fb and twitter pages to the next group of organizers so that they could benefit from all of the set-up and investment in those profiles.