Organising a customer conference / presentation

BnB

I will be organising a conference/presentation for about 20 people in Cork next month.

It is the first time I have ran something like this and I would appreciate a bit of help.

Basically I hope to get about 20 people into a hotel. Give them a presentation of about 90 minutes and then give them a bit of food. (I personally won't be giving the presentation, one of our consultants will)

The presentation we will be giving is on a new set of regulations and will be very relevant to the the attendees. Of course we are trying to drum up business, but the presentation itself will not be a sales pitch. It will be an educational presentation on the regulations. We have already given it as training in a number of companies and would normally charge a few hurndred euro to go in and give it, but we will be doing this for free.

The type of people we will be giving it to would be middle managers from large manufacturing/pharma type companies or managers/owners of smaller companies. Of the 20 attendees I would hope to get, I would expect them to be split about 50/50 between existing customers and potential new clients.

My main question, is what time of day to go for to get the best attendence. I am leaning towards evening time. Kick off at around 6:00. That would mean people would be able to come straight from work. The other option would be to leave it 'till around 8. But that would mean people would have to go home first and they may not want to bother coming back in (especially if they don't live in town).

My second question is what day of the week to go for. I am leaning towards a Tuesday.

And finally.... food. Should we go for the full whack of sit down dinner etc afterwards or should we go for some kind of a hot buffet. I don't think I would do just sandwiches as it might lok a bit scabby ?

All opinions welcome.

Eoineo

Go for a breakfast briefing. Start it at 8am and finish at 9.30 - 10am. Serve up continental breakfast from 7.30am as a buffet. Plenty of hot tea/coffee, croissants/danish, fresh fruit (apples, bananas, oranges) and fruit juices, scones - fruit & wholemeal.

Tuesday mornings and Thursday mornings seem to work best.

Pricewise there is little or no difference between a continental breakfast & a soup/sandwich lunch.

BnB

Eoineo wrote: »

Go for a breakfast briefing. Start it at 8am and finish at 9.30 - 10am. Serve up continental breakfast from 7.30am as a buffet. Plenty of hot tea/coffee, croissants/danish, fresh fruit (apples, bananas, oranges) and fruit juices, scones - fruit & wholemeal.

Tuesday mornings and Thursday mornings seem to work best.

Pricewise there is little or no difference between a continental breakfast & a soup/sandwich lunch.

Thanks Eoineo

I did consider morning and lunchtime as well. I have attended a few lunch sessions but never a morning one. I checked the cost of breakfast, and as you said, cost-wise, it will be the same.

Do mornings get good numbers. I just know for myself personally, I would find mornings the most difficult to make. Just with small kids, it is difficult enough to get out to be on time for work, let alone a few hours earlier.

sbms

I think your best option would be to go for start around 10/11 in the morning and have it finishing at lunchtime.Then you can provide lunch for everybody who attends and get in some crucial networking time.

This way you are not requiring any major change in terms of arriving earlier in the morning or tapping into evening time either.Most people prefer attending where not major hassles associated and traffic light at this stage.

Key to these events is to give lots of notice and a little reminder day before perhaps email or text message.All elements create impression of your business so start on time,give everybody copy of presentation with some promotional material for your own products-could describe as 'summary pack'.Allow time for questions which can sometimes be overlooked .

BnB

sbms wrote: »

I think your best option would be to go for start around 10/11 in the morning and have it finishing at lunchtime.Then you can provide lunch for everybody who attends and get in some crucial networking time.

This way you are not requiring any major change in terms of arriving earlier in the morning or tapping into evening time either.Most people prefer attending where not major hassles associated and traffic light at this stage.

Key to these events is to give lots of notice and a little reminder day before perhaps email or text message.All elements create impression of your business so start on time,give everybody copy of presentation with some promotional material for your own products-could describe as 'summary pack'.Allow time for questions which can sometimes be overlooked .

Very good point RE 11ish start. I had thought about lunchtime alright, but I was thinking of having lunch and then the presentation afterwards.

But, 11->1, followed by lunch is a very good idea.