Lesson $17$ Assignment

Sample Project

Project: annual conference event

You are wrapping up this year$$s annual conference event with your team to collect their impressions and suggestions for next year$$s conference. To facilitate this session, you$$ve asked the team to focus on the following areas:

$$ Registration: both pre$-$registration online and at the registration$/$welcome desk when attendees signed in$.$ The team is asked to look at the process effectiveness, preparation of the sign$-$in materials and attendee bags and name badges, and the website portal third party used to include reports generated.

$$ Venue: the size and layout of the venue and the various session rooms; the food catering, parking, and other areas used by team and attendees; the contracting process and venue staff support

$$ Speakers$/$speaker management: the selection, quality, and variety of speakers $($presenters$)$; the keynote speaker presentation and topic; the popularity and attendee feedback on the presentation and speakers; coordination logistics associated with out$-$of$-$town speakers $($travel$,$ hotel, getting to conference venue$)$

$$ Attendee experience: What casual feedback was received from attendees? Feedback collected from the formal electronic survey sent to all attendees?

$$ Project management: How effective was the planning and execution of the project? Did we have enough staff$/$volunteers for the pre$-$planning and onsite?

Here are some of the project team$$s comments. What are lessons learned from these comments?

$$ Registration: We had more walk$-$ins $($showed up without prior registration$)$ than anticipated. We ran out of name badges and attendee bags.

$$ Registration$/$Venue: the venue WIFI access wasn$$t wonderful. It made it difficult to register walk$-$ins at registration desk or confirm a late registration online.

$$ Speaker management: A couple of the speakers showed up late to their sessions. We had volunteers looking for them. But when we found them, it wasn$$t clear what the volunteer was to do with them. In addition, the project team didn$$t have a good way of communicating with each other when there was an issue related to a speaker.

$$ Speaker Management: Some sessions were packed full and other sessions had very low attendance. The survey results were interesting. Some people signed up for certain sessions because of the speaker $($saw them at last year$$s conference and really liked them$).$ Others indicated they signed up because of the topic and$/$or session description. Ironically, the attendees thought that overall, session descriptions did not accurately reflect the actual presentation. Some sessions were $$sold out$$ and attendees were disappointed they could not attend their chosen sessions.

$$ Venue: Attendees didn$$t seem to get as lost this year, and one reason was improved signage around the venue. Another possible reason was the floating volunteers around the venue who could direct people if asked. However, the blue shirts worn by the volunteers didn$$t stand out as much as we$$d hoped. The changing of the location of registration so that it was easily visible if the attendee entered through the main front doors or the underground parking garage was deemed a success. However, the new location was very noisy, and it was sometimes hard to communicate with the attendee when registering them or answering their questions.

$$ Venue: The venue staff were very helpful. The IT team made sure all the audio$-$visual equipment and connections were in place and were available if there were issues. One speaker brought their own $($older$)$ PC$,$ and we didn$$t have the right connector. We were able to switch out computers, but it did cause a delay. We didn$$t have enough microphones for every session room. There were some comments that it was hard to hear some speakers.

$$ Venue: Attendees really enjoyed the afternoon ice cream snack. So refreshing on a hot summer day. But the morning coffee was either cold or empty. It was difficult for the staff to keep the coffee bar refreshed.

$$ Attendee experience: Several people mentioned that once again the session rooms were uncomfortably cold; several liked the option of underground parking at this venue better than the last venue. Especially with the rain we had that morning when people were arriving. There were some negative comments regarding the early start time but positive comments about finishing early. The $75-$minute sessions seemed to be perceived favorably. $($Not too long and not too short$).$

$$ Attendee experience: Guests seemed to like the wide variety of topics the five session tracks provided. However, there were some time slots when an attendee had to choose between two $($sessions$)$ they wanted to go to$,$ and they were disappointed when these schedule conflicts occurred.

$$ Attendee experience: Attendees$$ feedback on lunch was mixed. Some people liked the build$-$your$-$own$-$pasta bar concept, but others would have preferred plated rather than buffet lines. The vegetari$\backslash$