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Hosting a One-Day Conference by Marc Levenson (President of DFWMAS)

Creating a full day event for your club benefits the members in many ways. It is different than the normal meeting, in that everyone has all day long to mill about and get to know each other better. Multiple presentations can help educate both newer hobbyists as well as those with more experience. Local vendors can promote some of their products, and livestock can be on display all day for the attendees to enjoy. I recommend concluding with a raffle, which allows many to go home with something new and generates income for the club.

The first thing you've got to do is set a specific date. Without a date, nothing can move forward. Try to pick a time that will work best for your entire membership, and avoid a holiday weekend when families tend to spend time together. Once the date has been set, you can immediately seek out speakers to do presentations. If you have some qualified people within the club, all the better. Flying in speakers will be expensive, and the club has to absorb these costs. Since our conference was on a Saturday, we flew in the speakers on Friday, and their return flights were booked on Sunday. They will also need rooming for Friday and Saturday night, either in a hotel or in guest rooms provided by club members.

While this is being handled, a suitable location is the next step. It needs to be large enough to hold your audience, provide adequate seating, have an area where each presentation will be offered such as a stage or podium, and it needs to be climate controlled. Many speakers use Powerpoint presentations, and may only bring a CD with them. Getting all the audio-visual equipment lined up in advance is vital. When seeking a suitable location, ask your membership if they have any suggestions. Talk to your local fish stores as well. Some restaurants provide meeting rooms that may work, or you may find something better at a library, a church, or a museum. If livestock will be on hand, make sure you clear it with the management of the location that water will be brought in as there is always the element of risk that there may be spills.

Food is another factor that must be considered. Hiring a caterer is really the best option, but if your budget is tight it may be necessary to keep things as simple as possible. Sandwiches, chips, cookies and drinks may suffice. Avoid making things overly complicated, as lunch should just be the interlude between the speakers. Everyone should be able to get their food quickly and it should be something easy to eat. Things you may consider is whether you should serve a hot meal or a box lunch. Our club had a few vegans attend, so we had something specific to their needs. Coffee was available, as were canned drinks. The caterer can go over all of these details, and offer up suggestions.

At this point, you may be asking yourself "How much is all of this going to cost?!" Putting on a one day event like this will incur substantial expenses. Some things can be anticipated: the cost of a hotel room, per night, per person; the cost of the food served to each attendee for lunch; the cost of the raffle prizes; the cost of the room being utilized; the cost of advertising the event; the cost of the flights to bring in speakers plus their meals and honorarium. Once these numbers have been estimated, a entry fee can be determined to attend the conference. Everyone attending needs to pay, including the club's Board of Directors. Only the caterer and the speakers should get in for free. Next, establish how many people must attend to break even on the conference. Armed with these numbers, you have created an attainable goal to aim for which is very important. It would be nice if the club earned some income as a result of the conference for future needs, but honestly if you break even, you did a good job. The whole point isn't about money; it is about educating the hobbyist and putting on an enjoyable event.

Turn to your club members for any help you can get. Many talented people are within your group, just waiting to be asked. Some are artists and can create a nice logo or banner, others can create flyers. Make these available via your club's website, so each member can download and print them out on their personal printers. They can hand them out to interested people, and go to their local fish stores and ask to put the flyer up for others to see. Promote your event from the club's website, and ask everyone to spread the word. Encourage people to prepay in advance, possibly through the club's website, to build up the capital needed to pay for the conference. You may offer a lower price at first to motivate people to pay. Also, keep in mind that if the price is too high, a smaller group will attend. Lower prices typically result in higher attendence. When we put on our conference, we charged $35 to club members and $45 to visitors. $35 is about the price of one coral, right? For that money, each person could listen to four qualified speakers, enjoy a hot lunch and have the opportunity to win some really cool raflle prizes. Many people that had not decided to join the club suddenly saw the motivation to join as well as sign up for the event. You may also see a membership increase. The example price isn't a guideline - it is just what worked for us. Other clubs may have to charge much more due to the expenses associated with a conference. That is why it is very important to determine all the expenses in advance.

Contact various online vendors, wholesalers and local fish stores to see what they may be willing to donate to the event for the raffle. Raffle prizes are really key to attendence, as everyone wants to win something for their tank. In addition to the items donated, our club also purchased a wholesale shipment of corals and clams to raffle off. Yes, this was an additional expense. Other expenses will be name badges, taking the speakers out to dinner on Friday and Saturday night, printing up programs, etc... Be sure to meet with the Board of Directors at least once as a group a couple of weeks before the conference to discuss all plans and to make sure nothing has been overlooked.

If you have problems locating enough speakers for your event, consider doing something else like a demonstration or workshop where people can learn how to frag and propagate corals. By pursuing this course, extra attention will be necessary to have all the proper tools on hand and a way for all attendees to observe comfortably. Don't forget to have plenty of towels for cleaning up; be sure to encourage all attendees to help pick up at the end of the day so that your club will leave a good impression with the management. You may want to use that location again one day.

I do hope this information has helped give you the general overview of what is entailed, and that it motivates your club to try putting together a one-day conference too. If done successfully a few times, your club may decide to host a future MACNA one day. Here are some images from our 2005 Next Wave conference.

Happy reefing!

 

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