May 21, 2008

Lessons Learned

GC’07 Conference Committee

General Chair: Jorome (Jerry) T. Gibbon, J&BG Consultants, USA

General Vice Chair:Karl Rauscher, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA

Technical Program Chair:Xuemin (Sherman) Shen, Univ. of Waterloo, Canada

Tutorial Co-Chairs:Thomas Hou, Virginia Tech., USA Qiang Zhang, Univ. of Sci. and Tech., HK, China

Workshop Co-Chairs:Ness B. Shroff, Purdue University, USA Xiaojun Lin, Purdue University, USA

EXPO Chair:Adam Drobot, Telcordia Technologies, USA

Design & Developers Forum Chair:Jeff Friedhoffer, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, USA

Access’07 Business Forum Co-Chairs:David Waring, Telcordia and WTC Liaison, USA Dilip Krishnaswamy, Qualcomm, USA

Student Travel Grant Chair:Lin Cai, Univ. of Victoria, USA

Nov. 30, 2007 2

GITC Advisor:Paul Hartmann

Local Arrangements Chair:Donald Rickerson, Personal Satellite Network, Inc., USA

Patronage Chairman:Tim Weil, Booz Allen Hamilton

Exposition Operations Manager:Stephanie Houck, Spargo

Exhibits Sales Representative:Connie Shaw, Spargo

Marketing Chair:Denny Moen

Finance Chair:Douglas H. Holly, JDSU, USA

Treasurer:Bruce Worthman, IEEE Communications Society

Conference Secretary and Local Administrative SupportDebra Meale, IEEE National Capital Area

Meetings Managers:June Leach-Barnaby, IEEE Communications SocietyGayle Weisman, IEEE Communications Society

Listen to and Utilize ComSoc Staff We started out wanting to do our own thing.

We lacked the experience We lacked the staff

About a year into the bid we changed and let ComSoc set the overall direction

They provided great advice They helped us avoid many pitfalls Their guidance provided great results

Marketing is a Good Investment

Patron program to secure investors Find a contact in a company Network at events Comsoc member connections

Targeted Advertising in the local Area to drive attendance Radio, Web, Papers Local companies

Coordinate and Clarify Expo

The role, The role, purpose and relationship and relationship of Expo was unclearof Expo was unclear

Patrons are a critical source of Patrons are a critical source of income (10% of GC07)income (10% of GC07)

Establishing ground rules and Establishing ground rules and coordinating Expo and Patron coordinating Expo and Patron programs is key to avoid confusionprograms is key to avoid confusion

Set-up a Volunteer Capture-Coordinator

Over the years we had many people volunteer that we did not effectively follow-up with.

We should have assigned someone to: Capture contact info and build a database Captured their interest for later reference Send out updates to let them know what was

happening Ask them to take specific roles

It Takes A Great Team

One Last Thought

The GLOBECOM 2007 Team would particularly like to thank:

June Leach-Barnaby Gayle Weisman Bruce Worthman

Although many people contributed it was their guidance, vision, hard work and faith in us that made this conference a success