Organising a Symposium

TrinityPhD

Hey

Used to post on boards a long time ago, but my username disappeared in the great usernames disappearance episode, so I've started again with a new username.

Currently at the start of year two of a PhD in Trinity, and I've been asked to help organise a symposium. The basics are done - venue, website, keynote speakers, dates.

Does anyone here have any experience with organising symposiums?
What do you recommend? What would you have done differently?

And for everyone else, what do you expect to see at a symposium?
What makes them excellent versus average or useless?

Basically I'm looking for hints, tips and tricks to make this thing a success.

baby and crumble

Well, I think the main things you need to be aware of are now the people who are coming- to make their day great.

1) Delegate packs- pens, paper, good maps, decent conference program, lunch vouchers, etc

2) Accessibility- will you have people there with multiple accessibility needs a la wheelchair access, vision impairments etc?

3) I was involved in a summer school that was HUGE a couple of years ago and we had a team of volunteers that helped things run smoothly- we all wore tee shirts that were the same but had our logo on them- meant people could quickly and easily see who was around to help them.

4) Also start to look at different types of marketing- not just a website but a youtube vid (easy to put together in imovie or movie maker), fb page, etc.

Ostrom

TrinityPhD wrote: »

Hey

Used to post on boards a long time ago, but my username disappeared in the great usernames disappearance episode, so I've started again with a new username.

Currently at the start of year two of a PhD in Trinity, and I've been asked to help organise a symposium. The basics are done - venue, website, keynote speakers, dates.

Does anyone here have any experience with organising symposiums?
What do you recommend? What would you have done differently?

And for everyone else, what do you expect to see at a symposium?
What makes them excellent versus average or useless?

Basically I'm looking for hints, tips and tricks to make this thing a success.

Just went through this a few months ago...

The little things are usually worst. Confirm catering appointments if you have made bookings, have receipt books handy in case travelling postgrads need to claim expenses, appoint chairs if necessary, keep a good mailing list as people will want to follow up / exchange works in progress with other attendees.

The one thing that consistently pisses me off about these are people who show up, give their talk then f**k off without contributing anything else to the discussion - I still dont know how to avoid this, maybe a gentle reminder at the opening to discourage?

And buy extra biscuits.