Post 6 of 15

The scheduling process, in a nutshell

The process can be summarised as follows:

• Choosing a theme
• Call for presentations
• Estimate the number and types of presentations needed
• Select and reject presentations
• ‘Stranding’ presentations and workshops
• Communicate session titles with potential delegates
• Prepare a first draft, and communicate with presenters
• Prepare reviewed draft, and communicate with presenters
• Prepare final draft
• Perform final check with presenters
• Select software to present programme
• Communicate programme with delegates
• Constantly review programme based on cancellations and number of delegates
• Organise networking opportunities, including social events

Choosing a theme for the conference

The theme for the ECIS Technology Conference 2015 was ‘Building engagement’. We wanted teachers to focus on successful strategies used to get students engaged, and keep them engaged over a long period of time, using technology or design thinking. We wanted to avoid focusing on the ‘cool’ factor of tools, and instead focus on how those tools can be used to enhance teaching and learning.

Call for presentations

We opted to collect the following in our call for presentation form (click here to see a sample):

• Preference on day of session
• Name
• Email address
• Social network accounts
• Website(s)
• Session title
• Punchline
• Description
• Type of session (presentation, workshop, roundtable, hybrid, etc.)
• Target audience (admin, technicians, primary school, etc.)
• Proficiency level (beginner, advanced, etc.)
• Learning outcomes
• Equipment needed for presenter (cables, etc.)
• Equipment needed for participants (accounts, devices, etc.)
• Space for comments (e.g. cannot do a specific day due to plane ticket, etc.)

Estimating numbers

Estimating the necessary number of presentations and workshops can be tricky, as it is very likely the programme of presentations and workshops will be prepared before registrations open. Here are some of the variables we used for our estimate:

• Maximum number of delegates (dictated by fire code, size of largest room in the venue, size of catering area, etc.)
• Number of delegates for previous like-events
• Size of‘large’ rooms(in our case, auditorium with capacity of 250, and library with capacity of 50)
• Size of ‘regular’ rooms (in our case, classrooms with a maximum of 30 delegates per room)
• Potential interest in strands

Our calculations showed that we needed a minimum of 5 concurrent strands to ensure diversity and avoid overcrowding in the smaller rooms.

The selection process

We were pleasantly surprised with the number of presentations we received. We came up with a simple list of criteria to decide whether a proposal should be turned down:

• Does it fit the theme?
• Is there value for delegates?
• Is the session based on thepresenter’s experiences?
• The session is not simply a ‘sales pitch’.
• Is the submission on time?

In the end we did not need to reject any session proposal, aside from late submissions, which went into a ‘pending approval’ pile. We did however contact some presenters to adapt their proposal to fulfil the criteria listed above, as some of the presentation .

The drafting process

The drafting process is certainly challenging. Here are the variables we had to take into account:

• Will a presenter be running multiple sessions? (avoid back to back, concurrent sessions)
• Will a presenter arrive late to the event or leave early?
• Would delegates interested in a specific strand (e.g. iPads in education) be able to attend all sessions?
• Are all sessions ‘balanced’ in offering?
• Are potentially popular sessions scheduled concurrently? (they should not)

On paper the above does not seem very challenging. In practice it is very challenging, because a lot of the variables change while the drafting process is happening. For example, a presenter might have to cancel, or turn up a day late, etc. This can have a serious impact on your plans, due to a domino effect.

We ended up producing four drafts (three of which were communicated to presenters) before we reached our final programme. As the number of delegates increased, we were able to contact presenters whose proposals couldn’t be accepted (simply because they were sent after the deadline) and add those to the programme ad hoc.

Selecting the right software

We contacted the main providers of scheduling apps specifically for conferences, and we found that all were above our budget (or at least more expensive than we were willing to pay). This was a time consuming process, with scheduled demos (i.e. sales pitches) that provided little more information than what is available on the providers’ websites. In the end, we decided to use Sched.org, as it fulfilled all of our needs, for a reasonable fee. The system can actually be used for more than just scheduling, and could be used as the main website for an event. We didn’t go down that route and used the ’embed’ option offered by Sched, to show the programme in our own site. The schedule for the ECIS Technology Conference 2015 can be viewed at schedule.bis-school.com

Organising networking opportunities, including social events

Delegates attend conferences to learn new things, but also to build or reinforce a network of like-minded professionals. It is important to offer plenty of opportunities for networking. For example, we offered:

• Breakfast (can be casual)
• Tea and coffee stations for breaks
• Lunch
• Evening events (e.g. restaurant meal)
• Happy hour (e.g. free drinks and snacks)

Some venues can be booked months in advance, and request a deposit to secure bookings. This is worth keeping in mind.

In the next post, I will discuss securing sponsorship and exhibitors.

The full schedule can be seen below. You may also click here to download a PDF version.