Copyright © 2012 The Mezzanine Group. All rights reserved.

MANAGE YOUR CONFERENCE AS A STRATEGIC ASSET

Conferences are a significant opportunity for professionals in a range of fields to network with their peers, obtain continuing education, and learn about new developments in their industry. For many professional associations, conferences are a significant source of revenue, a major membership benefit, and a way to connect with their key stakeholders and bring their community together. Given the strategic importance of Canadian conferences – and the significant pressures they face – it is critical for a professional association to evaluate the quality, relevance, and sustainability of its conference to ensure it is strategically aligned with the needs of delegates, volunteers, sponsors, and exhibitors – as well as the needs of the association itself.

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Why do you hold a conference? To build your organization’s brand? To provide professional development for members? To increase media profile for your organization and its mission? To uphold tradition? To engage directly with members and the rest of your community? Or do you rely on its proceeds to fund other activities that your organization undertakes?

Conferences are under huge pressures. Online and mobile technologies are disrupting the relationship between physical proximity and activities like learning, networking, and collaborating. Many delegates find it increasingly difficult to secure the funding and time necessary to attend. Industry sponsors are questioning their return on investment, seeking to quantify and justify their marketing decisions. Conferences can be complex to manage, and costs difficult to contain.

At the same time, the surpluses generated by conferences are a revenue stream on which organizations may be strategically reliant.

Given these forces, it is important to take a clear look at your conference, to ensure that its potential is being maximized and that you are preparing it for the future.

This WhiTe PaPer is based on our Work WiTh a number of Professional associaTions, as Well as inTervieWs WiTh The execuTives of more Than 15 Professional conferences, ranging beTWeen 500 and 15,000 aTTendees from a varieTy of fields. iT Will be of inTeresT To The leaders of Professional associaTions and oTher noT-for-ProfiT organizaTions Who manage conferences.

INTROdUCTION

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process, and just as necessary. The need for ongoing communication is increasing, because the environment, needs, and expectations of stakeholders are constantly changing – and those stakeholders include non-member delegates and industry partners, who are not consulted in member-oriented processes.

While it may seem obvious for objectives to be intertwined in conference operations, this isn’t always the case. If you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish, how will you know if you achieve it?

A strategic review will provide insight to understand the root causes of this downward pressure and identify strategies to address them.

If a conference has used a similar format for a number of years, it’s important to understand what types of changes will renew and reinvigorate the program.

Many associations, if asked, will say they regard their conference as a strategically important part of their operations. Yet most do not regularly undertake a strategic review to understand its health and its contribution to the organization’s mission. Critical issues, such as decreasing relevance to delegates or shaky commitment by sponsors and exhibitors, can be easily overlooked without a periodic check-in. If an organization does not take the time to set and measure objectives and listen closely to sponsors, exhibitors, volunteers, and delegates, it may not realize there is a problem until delegates and sponsorship dollars are already in decline, which may be difficult to reverse.

Ultimately, a successful strategic assessment will give you a deep and rich 360 degree picture of your conference to support decision making. Through our work, we have seen conferences undertake this process and uncover key insights that enabled them to make strategic decisions based on clear evidence.

A strategic review should be considered if any of the following applies:

Many associations conduct a member needs assessment from time to time. Consulting with the stakeholders of a conference is a similar

WhY dO A REvIEW?

It has been 3 to 5 years since you 1. have consulted broadly with your stakeholders specifically about the conference.

2. You don’t have a clear and widely recognized set of conference objectives that guide decision making.

3. Delegate attendance and/or sponsorship revenue is flat or decreasing.

4. The program has become stale and needs to be refreshed.

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WhY dO A REvIEW?

This may be driven by organizational changes or cost pressures, and it’s a surprisingly key strategic decision with many ramifications for how the conference operates. It will depend on a variety of factors, including the strategic priorities of the conference, which therefore should be well-understood.

5. You have to make a decision about whether to insource or outsource your conference management.

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use The objecTives as a guide during Planning, managemenT, and evaluaTion of The conference. They should form The basis of your rePorTing To The board on The success of The evenT. resource Trade-offs should be made WiTh The objecTives in mind.

The objectives should be fairly simple and few in number (4-5 is usually sufficient) so that they can be easily remembered. They should concentrate on the core reasons for the conference to exist at all. Objectives should be written at a strategic level; resist the temptation to load all possible stakeholder expectations into them. Often it works well to have a consultation with a relatively broad group to understand what the objectives should, in their opinion, contain, but then a very small group should take those findings and draft the final objectives.

A note about including a financial objective: organizations are often reluctant to do this, but this represents a failure to make a decision at its appropriate level. Without explicit guidance, staff are left to make complex decisions on their own, trading off costs and revenues against delegate experience without knowledge of what they should be solving for. If the organization relies on conference net proceeds to fund other programs, the staff running the conference should be aware of this and manage purposefully to meet

1. Determine who will make decisions based on the outcome of the review.

For some organizations, this step is simple: a strategic review would report to the Board through the CEO or Executive Director. However, where the governance structure is more complex, it is important to clarify how the assessment itself is to be governed. Some organizations form working groups to address strategic issues, which can bring in key individuals with a diverse set of skills and also generate buy-in for the outputs of the process.

No matter how the process is managed and governed, it is important to ensure that engaging and briefing the decision makers is built into the approach and timeframes.

Objectives should be developed and validated by the key stakeholders involved in organizing the conference. Depending on the conference’s governance structure, this may be a fairly lengthy and complex process, or may be accomplished within a week via a couple of discussions and then approved by the Board.

hOW TO dO A REvIEW

2. Start with your objectives.

ShOULd YOU USE A ThIRd PARTY OR dO IT YOURSELF?

While a strategic review may be handled in-house, engaging a third party should be considered where feasible. an external individual or firm can provide the following advantages:

•

Objectivity: A third party can provide an impartial perspective to guard against

complacency and the use of potentially incorrect conventional wisdom. Because of their

objectivity, findings from a third party may also meet with a better reception inside the

organization, particularly if the issues identified are complex or politically sensitive.

Confidentiality: Stakeholders participating in interviews or focus groups will likely feel

more comfortable reporting potentially critical feedback to a third party, who can credibly

promise to keep specific comments confidential.

Expertise: For effective implementation of the strategic assessment, a third party

should be selected for their knowledge of best practices in qualitative interviewing and

survey development, skills that are likely not available in-house. They should also be

able to provide perspectives on best practices in conference management based on

their experience and work with other organizations.

Resources: An outside organization can bring in resources dedicated to the assessment,

so internal staff can focus on other priorities. However, it is still important to make internal

resources available for any assessment to provide data and insights and to evaluate the

findings.

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For delegates:

Why do delegates attend? Why don’t they? •

Are delegates getting what they want out of • the conference? Do they see value for their time and money?

What kinds of delegates might you be able to • attract to grow the conference?

What are their alternatives, both in terms of • other conferences as well as other educational and networking opportunities?

Are the educational and professional • development components of the conference meeting their needs?

- Are the topics well chosen and reflect their interests?

- Is the quality of the speakers and content meeting their needs?

- Is the schedule well designed so delegates can attend sessions of interest?

Do they come to the conference to network?•

- What do they mean by networking? How does this vary by type of delegate?

- Does the quality and quantity of networking opportunities meet their needs?

that objective. If the organization is happy to break even on the conference because of the membership benefit it provides, staff should understand that as well.

Most conferences conduct delegate satisfaction surveys, and some have methods of consulting with industry participants. However, these approaches are often quite tactical, focusing on delegates’ satisfaction with the food at a particular meal, or the logistics of booth setup.

iT’s rare for an organizaTion To sTeP back and ask iTs sTakeholders The kinds of sTraTegic quesTions ThaT really geT aT loyalTy and moTivaTion.

Conference organizers need to go beyond the simple percentage of satisfaction to understand what the event means to delegates and what value it really brings to industry participants. Without a deep and systematic understanding of stakeholder priorities, it’s very difficult to make good decisions.

The questions that should be focused on will depend on the type of stakeholder.

hOW TO dO A REvIEW

3. Understand the value proposition of the conference for stakeholders.

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It is important to note that sponsors almost always make at least some critique of the conference, so their evaluation may seem less than glowing. However, make sure to benchmark responses year over year to understand trends and identify any issues.

The following research techniques can be employed to help answer the questions listed above:

Delegate and sponsor surveys:

Provide quantitative data for organizations • to use for evaluation. This should be done regularly (at least after each conference) and consistently to track trends in year-over-year data.

In-depth, one-on-one qualitative interviews:

Offer richer and more nuanced insights than • surveys, by uncovering hidden or unrealized needs and expectations. They can be used both to improve the quality of surveys (such as developing new questions or wording questions more accurately) and to improve interpretation of the quantitative data.

Focus groups:

Can be conducted in situations where it is • easy to bring delegates together. They can be an efficient way of gathering many opinions. This technique should be a supplement to one-on-one interview research since people

Is the conference being managed in a way • that meets their expectations?

- Are they comfortable? Is there enough food? Is the conference centre designed and set up appropriately?

- Is there too much or too little communication before, during, and after the conference?

Would they recommend the conference to a • colleague?

If they are volunteers with the conference, • has that been a positive experience? What motivates them to volunteer?

For industry sponsors and trade show exhibitors:

What are their goals for their involvement with • the conference? Are they achieving them?

Are they coming to display their brand, or are • they interested in generating leads (or both)?

How do they measure their conference return • on investment?

- Is the conference meeting their financial expectations?

How easy was it to deal with the association • in the negotiation and planning process?

Is the timing aligned with the sponsors’ budget • cycles?

hOW TO dO A REvIEW

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Here are the key questions to ask based on the conference data:

Attendance:

What are the trends in attendance? Which • delegate segments are increasing and which aren’t?

- Data collected at registration should align with the key questions you are attempting to answer. For example, it should be possible to track delegates by type – member, non-member, industry, trainee, etc.

How many attend regularly versus • infrequently?

Does the attendance pattern match • membership patterns in your organization or growth in your field? If not, why not?

Finances:

What are the trends in revenue and expenses, • by category?

Do you accurately capture both direct and • indirect costs? For instance, perhaps you have a contract conference manager, which represents a direct cost, but if their supervisor is also spending 50% of their time on the conference, are you capturing that additional organizational investment in the event?

may express somewhat different opinions in a focus group than on their own, especially in groups that contain individuals from different professions or with status (e.g. senior and junior individuals together).

4. Crunch the numbers.

Having a clear picture of the conference’s performance over time is critical to effectively managing it. Because measurement should be driven by objectives, data is required to quantify achievement. Sometimes it takes a strategic assessment to identify gaps in the data currently being collected.

This quantitative analysis can point to previously hidden issues, such as unintended overinvestment in a conference. It can also challenge assumptions; it’s counterintuitive to think that an incremental delegate may cost you money, but this may be true if you are not charging enough to cover variable per-delegate costs, especially if you have tiered registration fees or revenue-sharing agreements with partners. It can also expose both unrealized opportunities for growth as well as long-term strategic risks, such as low attendance by younger members of the profession. Without adequate data, you are managing blind.

hOW TO dO A REvIEW

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What patterns do you see in revenue per • delegate and cost per delegate?

- Do you make money or lose money on each incremental delegate?

Where there are multiple organizations • involved, how are the revenues and costs distributed? (Who bears the financial risk, i.e. who signs the contracts?).

If you forecast financial trends for the next • few years, what are the results? What are the implications of the potential scenarios?

Reputation and leading indicators:

What media hits do you get from the • conference, and how is this changing over time?

For scientific conferences: are abstracts • going up or down over time?

Is the number of booths you need to sell to • fill the exhibit hall increasing? That is, do you need to sell to more exhibitors to make the same revenue?

What categories do exhibitors come from • (e.g. in a medical conference there may be pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and lifestyle or health promotion companies)?

are you innovaTing WiTh The conference – WheTher Through P r o g r a m m i n g , f a c i l i T a T i n g neTWorking, increasing access, leveraging Technology, or Trade shoW design – To increase The value for sTakeholders?

If you only evaluate the conference you held, you will not hear about opportunities for innovation. An open-ended question at the end of a delegate conference satisfaction survey won’t provide this information. Knowledgeable volunteers from the delegate communities typically help develop the program, but it is not reasonable to expect them to speak for all the delegates.

Information on best practices and ideas about potential innovation can be obtained through qualitative interviews with stakeholders and by reaching out to conferences in other industries and other geographies as well as through secondary research.

hOW TO dO A REvIEW

5. Identify best practices.

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hOW TO dO A REvIEW

Finally, review how your conference is managed and governed internally to ensure that it is set up to address the key challenges and opportunities that have been identified.

Do you have the right skill sets and adequate resources within your organization to effectively manage the conference and deliver on delegate needs and expectations?

Do you have appropriate external partners providing additional support to your internal resources?

Do you report regularly on the conference’s performance against objectives (financial and other) to senior management and the board?

If the conference is of strategic significance • to the organization, the board should be receiving annual reports on its performance, and senior management should be actively involved in setting its direction.

If the conference is jointly sponsored by more than one organization, is the current governance model appropriate?

Governance models for a multi-organization • conference can be challenging to manage, and require regular reviews to ensure all

partners are seeing the benefit from the arrangement.

The governance model should be aligned with • the distribution of risks and benefits (financial and other).

in a Well-execuTed assessmenT, dozens of PeoPle have been asked for Their inPuT.

If a survey was conducted, it was likely sent to hundreds or thousands of individuals. Once the assessment is done, it is easy to overlook the need to communicate the results to all those stakeholders, but this step must be built in. Communication of the results of the assessment can be integrated with existing opportunities, such as the conference itself (e.g. in marketing materials), or an association AGM. However it is important that the communication has the opportunity to reach all the conference stakeholders, whether they are internal or external to the organization, and whether or not they attend the next conference.

6. Assess resourcing, management, and governance.

7. Communicate the results of the assessment.

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In the past several years, a number of key themes and trends have emerged strongly in our research on professional association conferences in Canada and globally.

Networking is universally important to delegates and consistently emerges as a key reason to attend a conference. But what do your delegates mean by it? Some examples of what “networking” may mean:

For a premier scientific or academic • researcher: A chance to discuss collaboration on worldwide studies.

For a social worker in a community services • organization: Connecting with local peers who work with the same client groups to better coordinate services.

For an accountant: Meet sources of • referrals.

For a recent graduate: Get hired.•

For an industry product manager: Social • opportunities with key opinion leaders.

These varying definitions have very different implications for conference organizers in terms of program offerings, scheduling, venue, and even refreshments. If your event is multidisciplinary, that’s all the more reason to recognize the

diversity in delegate interests.

Regardless of the definition, face-to-face networking is particularly important now that technology, such as webinars, can handle many of the basic educational needs of delegates. A great networking component to the conference does not need to happen in formal settings. Networking can be achieved through appropriate breaks between sessions, over meals, in an engaging exhibit hall, at a wine and cheese scientific session, or at a social event.

conferences have a PleThora of oPPorTuniTies for neTWorking, and need To find Ways To fosTer These connecTions Wherever Possible To leverage The facT ThaT delegaTes are inTeracTing all TogeTher in one Place and aT one Time.

The extent of a conference’s management and logistics that should be in-house versus outsourced depends on the specific situation. Regardless, the level of commitment should be aligned with the size and complexity of the conference, taking into consideration whatever resources the rest of the organization might be able to provide (e.g. media relations or fund development capabilities). The key is to first assess what is required, and subsequently determine how that work should be done – whether in-house or elsewhere.

ThEMES ANd TRENdS

Networking

Strengthening Conference Management

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The key To excellenT conference managemenT is noT in The sPecific decision beTWeen insourcing or ouTsourcing, buT raTher in ensuring ThaT WhaTever you choose besT suPPorTs The sPonsor and delegaTe exPerience given your organizaTional siTuaTion.

If an association chooses to use a third party, it is critical that it makes the decision strategically and selects a partner not dependent entirely on cost, but also based upon their ability to provide the outcome the association is looking for, with the flexibility to meet needs as they arise.

It is possible to build a truly successful, long-term third party relationship that provides a conference with significant benefits. While a good contract is critically important, an initial learning process to interpret the contract and develop a working relationship will take place over the first year or two.

Insourcing can also be effective, but it requires that the association commit to having strong internal resources. The benefits of keeping conference logistics in-house can include greater control over the execution of the event and having event management expertise available for other events held by the organization. However, these capabilities need to be developed and maintained by a strong executive champion that can support

the staff through training and professional development as well as sustain a team that is appropriately sized for the scope and complexity of the conference.

The pressure to demonstrate a quantified return on marketing investment is intensifying for industry sponsors and exhibitors. If you don’t understand, intimately and concretely, what your event achieves for your industry partners – what motivates them to participate, what alternatives they have, and how strong their commitment is – then that portion of your revenue is at risk.

Sponsors and exhibitors have diverse reasons for participating in specific conferences. Whether they are attending to have their brand on display alongside their competition or to connect directly with people who are important decision makers within their industry, meeting their needs is critical for the future financial sustainability of conferences that rely on this type of revenue.

ThEMES ANd TRENdS

Innovations in helping sponsors and exhibitors realize their return on investment.

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Through our work, several key tactics have been identified to help ensure their needs are being met:

Engage with sponsors and exhibitors • over the course of the year, such as through the development of a sponsor advisory committee, and through informal discussions.

Pay special attention to the organization • of the schedule and the layout of the conference. The exhibit hall should be in a location that maximizes the potential for delegates to enter, and the environment should be conducive to staying, eating, and interacting. Even in the medical conference industry, where regulations can make it more challenging to deal with sponsors and exhibitors, the exhibit hall should still create an exciting and engaging environment. Make sure the schedule allows for adequate time for delegates to visit the exhibits.

Create ways for delegates to engage with • sponsors and exhibitors, such as through passport contests, interactive satellite symposia, poster sessions set up inside the exhibit hall, etc.

Provide timely and accurate data on what • type of delegates were at the conference and at specific sessions.

ThEMES ANd TRENdS

Audited delegate lists can be helpful • but require the ability to collect delegate information accurately.

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) on • delegate badges provides sponsors and exhibitors with a more exact way to measure their return on investment. RFID provides accurate information on exactly which types of delegates entered the exhibition hall or attended specific events. However, conferences using this method should also be prepared to manage any issues arising from attendance figures that do not turn out to be as expected.

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Conferences can be an irreplaceable way for associations to provide tangible value to their members, engage with industry, and generate revenue to support other programs and services. Over time, they tend to take on a life of their own, developing their own culture, history, and brand associations.

Ensuring the ongoing health of the event starts with a clear understanding of its performance, its relationship with its delegates and other stakeholders, and its potential for the future, in the context of a changing environment.

iT is easier To leT an evenT simPly conTinue along, year afTer year, buT a board or ceo WiTh a sTraTegic PersPecTive Will ProTecT This key asseT from risk, and maximize iTs value.

CONCLUSION

Copyright © 2012 The Mezzanine Group. All rights reserved.

The Mezzanine Group is a Toronto-based Business to Business strategy and marketing company.

For more than ten years, we’ve helped executives in small and mid-sized companies, large enterprises and professional associations achieve growth through effective strategic plans and marketing implementation.

We know growth - we were named one of the fastest growing companies in Canada for four years by PROFIT Magazine.

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