Conference Management And Notification System

Timing and location of the event

Discuss about the Conference Management and Notification System.

Event management is an essential part of today’s world for smooth running of official or personal events. Official events can include conferences, seminars and meetings whereas personal events can involve wedding, birthday or anniversary (Bramwell and Bill). There are ample event management companies under event managers who are hired by individuals or organization to conduct the specific event in a smooth way. An event manager needs to be extremely creative in terms of planning an event because that is the main thumb- rule to get contacts for the next event. Apart from being creative, the event manager will have to take care of the crisis issues and the necessary steps for the management. There should not be any loop hole in the hospitality and reception of the guest because it poses a negative impact on the company reputation. An event manager cannot afford to reflect a bad image which will make his business standstill (Bales et al.).

This particular report will analyze the event of an international conference held at the Geneva Business School. The senior students of the school have been assigned to arrange the 3- day long conference in an organized manner. The senior students have contacted a reputed event management company for conducting this particular event and making it a grand success. They were all the more cautious for the success of this event as it was their first opportunity to do something good for their school sake. They did not want to be blamed for any kind of mismanagement in the event.

The main purpose of the conference was to present an opportunity to the students for investigating the role played by new employees in the improvement of organizational performance. The topic was decided on the basis of the contemporary situation when most of the students find them drowning in mid- sea after getting placed in an organization. It is a common problem that is not only faced by the students of Geneva Business School but other business schools too. This international conference was aimed to improve the condition of the students in the nations of the European Continent. All the reputed B- schools of the particular continent were invited to attend the conference and the dignitaries included professors, lecturers, principals of institutions and managers and leaders of organizations. There were other officials and recruiters from different companies who delivered strategic advices for the budding managers. This international conference based on the roles played by new talents for the betterment of organizational performance was very appealing to the present audience as it was a demanding topic by the students (Brigham, Eugene and Ehrhardt).

The topic was aimed to benefit the students of the business schools in the European continent as they will be able to learn something apart from their theoretical curriculum. To get a first- hand training of the work atmosphere general reading of the textbooks and assessments are not sufficient. To bridge the gap in that definite area the students will need to look away from their textbooks and seek for practical knowledge. This international conference will help them to gather knowledge on the practical field by gaining insights from experts who have had many years of experience in the field of business management. Live examples from the workplace will enable the students to understand the situation in a better way. The lecture of the organizational managers will make the students realize the current market scenario and thus they will be able to groom themselves accordingly. The practical experience in the course of the event will provide a clear picture of the organizational performance and the required expectations from the new employees by the managers. The feedback session from the students will also help the officials, managers and recruiters to understand what the employees expect to get in return from the organization. The students must not keep anything confidential while providing feedback as it will help the professors to structure the course curriculum in a way which will benefit the students in their career. The honest feedback from the students will help the managers too for modifying the organizational structure to take into consideration employee motivation and satisfaction (Cserhati, Gabriella, and Szabo).

Timing and location is a very crucial factor in terms of managing an event. These are the two important factors which determine the success of an event. Attendance of people in an event is dependent a lot on the spatio temporal factors. The location and time of the event has to be chosen in such a way so that the place is accessible easily and the timing does not clash with any other event. For this particular international conference the event management company had to take into account a lot of things before selecting the venue of the event. They had to choose a location keeping in mind the accessibility and the convenience of the invitees to reach the place. Mandarin Oriental in Geneva was selected where the event was held as well as staying arrangements were made for the international students and guests. This particular hotel is situated in an amazing and serene location mixed with the spectacular view of mountains in the background along the gentle river Rhone vistas. This luxurious 5- star hotel has a traditional Swiss ambience blended with the style, comfort and remarkable service which makes it a perfect place to stay back. It is centrally located with a minimal distance of approximately 6 km from the Geneva airport thus making it easily accessible for the foreign guests. It was convenient from the train station too which is why this hotel was selected for the event.

Time is another critical factor which should be taken into consideration while managing an event. First and foremost, the even management company has to fix dates with the Geneva Business School and according to their convenience the selected dates were 4^th February 2018 to 6^th February 2018. These dates were suggested because the senior students will be relieved from the exam pressure by the end of December 2017 and will get time to prepare for the conference. These dates were also tallied with the hotel managers and the caterers and fortunately the rooms were free on those days. The host institution also booked the conference room for those three days and the hotel management gladly informed them that there is no rush in the first week of February as the peak season begins from the mid of the month. The students got divided into few teams to make the arrangements separately and easily. The inauguration of the event was scheduled at 9 am on 4^th Feb which was a convenient time as the guests were arriving the previous day.

The venue selected for the event was Mandarin Oriental in Geneva which was centrally situated and easily accessible both from the railway station as well as the Geneva airport (Catherwood et al.). The view from the hotel was extraordinary with a combination of gentle flowing river and the strong and sturdy mountain created an ambience of calmness and tranquility. This hotel was selected after a lot of confusion and the company was in a dilemma about the venue for a long time. There are not many options in Geneva when it comes to hotels for arranging such a grand event as international conference. The large parking facility in the basement of the hotel was really helpful for storing numerous cars and buses. The system of valet parking in the hotel is something worth praising as there are not many hotels in the area which provide this service. This fact was considered while making selection of the venue by the event manager because the guests would always feel laid back to find the parking area by themselves and keep their vehicles in a proper place. It is a complementary service that can be easily provided by the hotel management as well as make the guests happy.

Along with these basic facilities we had also considered the accommodation such as the required number of rooms and if that will be sufficient for all the guests or not. The Mandarin Oriental also passed the test in this category because they had ample airy rooms with air- conditioned facilities, large washrooms and every room and suites faced the mountain. The rooms were accommodated with the basic furniture such as sofa, cupboard, wardrobe, dining table and chair, rocking chair and a small study. There were room services available throughout the day with a simple phone call. The guests can even cook their favorite platter in the attached kitchen. The audio- visual systems provided in the rooms and suites can turn into a mini theatre. The beautiful décor of the rooms have the ability to impress even a pessimist.  The conference hall and the lawn were provided as a complement from the hotel authorizes as a gift to the Geneva Business School because their owner had been a student of the same school. It was an unexpected as well as overwhelming experience for the students to have in the conference the owner of the venue as an alumnus. The facilities available at the hotel were undoubtedly the best any event management company can arrange for and the extra perks that were provided along with had been icing on the cake.

The organizing committee included the senior students of Geneva Business School who are on the verge of getting placed in different organizations. To organize the event in a successful manner and keep up their reputation high the students had approached one of the popular event management groups in the region. XYZ EVENTS had been always a reputed event management group and with the new manager their success graph has become stagnant at the peak with no scope of going down. What can be better than approach such a famous organization to conduct such a prestigious event? In the beginning, the board of directors of the Geneva Business School had approached three students to organize the event. They were asked to form separate teams under their leadership which will make their task easy and doable. The brief profile of each of the members is given below in a tabular form.

Student	Responsibility
S1	Suggesting the venue and selecting dates
S2	Make a guest list
S3	Inviting the internal members of the institution

Thus S1, S2 and S3 had formed a group of 4 under their leadership thus the total strength became 12 all over to fulfill their responsibility properly. Following is a list of the strengths and weaknesses possessed by these 3 leaders.

Student	Strength	Weakness
S1	Loud Extrovert Communication expert Calm and cool	Has a dominating attitude Try to grab a control over others Tries to take advantage of the power and position
S2	A good manager Extremely friendly Has a good rapport with almost everyone inside the school	Not a good leader Cannot identify the qualities in other people Weak in managing external affairs
S3	Effective communication skills Hard working Responsible Competent	Easily loses temper Tries to do all work by himself and thus ruining it at the end

With this strengths and weaknesses of the members it can be mentioned that out of the three students no one is a perfect leader and actually needed guidance through this international conference which will help them to cope up with their weaknesses and make them a better leader.

To draw up a brief outline of the event management company it can be said that XYZ EVENTS is considered to be among the top event management companies in the region. In their 12 years of journey they have not faced with a single loss. They have the record of managing the top most and high class events in Switzerland and abroad with utmost success. XYZ EVENTS has committed to give their best performance for each task that they are hired and to achieve that 100% success they do not take the responsibility of more than 5 events each month.

Events (Category: General)	Time
Identifying the name and topic	2 hours
Identifying the location	3 days
Deciding the date	2 days
Set the daily starting and ending time	5 hours
Creating a primary budget	4 days
(Category: Location)
Contacting with the specific hotels for rooms, conference hall and free space	2 days
Arranging for site inspections to compare among different properties	7 days
Research on the facilities available at the hotels	5 days
Comparing the options regarding housing and banquet and prices of different hotels	5 days
Research and compare among the suppliers	4 days
Research on the availability of parking and transportation to the particular place	6 days
Confirmation of dates, time and price	2 days
Negotiation of contract	2 days
(Category: Speakers)
Apply the speakers bureau or the management experts for keynote speakers	3 days
Make a temporary list of the probable speakers	3 hours
Contact with the speakers	6 days
Research the terms of performance	3 days
Making a final list of speakers	1 day
Set a schedule for the speakers	2 hours
Tally the performance schedule with the speakers	2 days
Sending formal invitations	3 days
Negotiating contract with the speakers	3 hours
Booking of accommodation	1 day
Contacting the transport company	3 hours
Arranging of transport and hospitality services	5 hours
(Category: Marketing)
Writing a marketing plan for the international conference	3 hours
Making a list of the probable sponsors	1 day
Negotiating contract with the sponsors	4 hours
Creating a theme and logo for the conference	1 hour
Creating promotional plan such as the internet campaign, TV/ radio campaign and printed materials	1 day
Designing and printing of brochures, tickets, advertising materials and invitations	10 days
Arrange for advertising	7 days
(Category: Others)
Deciding on the required equipments for the event	3 days
The number of staffs required for conducting the event	2 days
Contacting with the catering management	3 hours
Deciding the food items	2 hours
Negotiating contract with the catering management	3 hours
Arranging waste disposal places	2 hours
Deciding on the details of the events such as what will be the program and the sequence	5 hours

Setting up a budget is a very important part of pre event planning. It requires both detailed attention and a complete scope of the event to decide where to spend the money by keeping within the limit of the allotted budget. The total budget for the international conference was 300K Egyptian Pound and there was no scope to exceed the budget. Within the given amount of money, the company had to keep in mind the requirement for contingence package to cover the incidentals. The following structure reflects the individual expenses in each category of the event.

Items	Amount
(Pre- conference expenses)
Transportation cost	10,000 EGP
Accommodation cost	25,000 EGP
Operating expenses	5000 EGP
Equipments and materials	12,000 EGP
Other supplying materials and services	20,000 EGP
(Main event expenses)
Food and catering	15,000 EGP
Rent of venue	30,000 EGP
(Post- conference expenses)
Preparing the report	12,000 EGP
Payment of the staff for doing overtime	10,000 EGP
Others	25,000 EGP
Total cost	164,000 EGP
Remaining balance	136,000 EGP

As it can be observed in the above structure of budget that, the total expense for the event was 164,000 EGP and the remaining balance was 136,000 EGP. This remaining balance was set aside for any kind of emergency crisis that will be needed to be mitigated immediately. This particular amount was kept on reserve and not allocated to any task but simply used for insuring against other costs. The categories in which the contingency budget can be utilized are given below in a pictorial form.

It can be reflected from the picture that there are almost equal chances of risk that can damage the event of Geneva Business School. The potential risk factors include unexpected accidents, sudden change in the itinerary, food crisis as in a definite item is not available on that particular day, increase in the number of guests, sudden change of venue or increase in fuel price resulting in the increase of transportation costs. All these factors had to be kept in mind and a contingency budget was set aside to facing these crises so that it will not be able to hamper the prestigious event in any way (Müller and Martin). It is very important to identify the probable risks that can hamper the event. Until and unless it is a major risk there is no need to change the venue. Preparing a contingency plan refers to preparing for the worst that might arise in the form of natural calamity or any man- made disaster. Planning and predetermination of the risks help in getting over the worst. One important factor that the event manager must consider is that even if his budget exceeds he should never cut on the contingency expenses. This will lead to using money from his pocket if the situation demands so. That is why it is necessary to reduce the contingency and one has to be extremely lucky if he does not need to use his contingency budget which means that his pre- event planning was successful and he could save money as in the case of this particular event. Keeping a lower contingency budget in the international conference of Geneva Business School showed that XYZ EVENTS are an adept in the art of event planning.

Sponsorship plays a pivotal role in the process of event management. Without the support of sponsors, an event cannot be successful. Sponsors help in creating brand awareness thus helping to generate preference of the consumer or audience and also responsible for brand loyalty. It is possible for a company to strengthen its brand awareness among the target public by sponsoring an event or organization that is associated with the similar kind of target group. Sponsorship should not be misunderstood as an act of charity; it is an act of contribution with the intention of positive return through ROI (Shone, Anton and Parry). On 4^th, 5^th and 6^th February 2017, Geneva Business School will be conducting an international conference on the topic ‘role of new employees in improving organizational performance’. This event will be held in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Geneva. Guests will come from distinguished B- schools and organizations from the European continent. The students who are going to be placed in different organizations will be guided by the eminent managers and leaders on the essential criteria required for working in a business organization.

This is the first time that the school is organizing this international conference and they are really looking forward to its grand success. The presence of the eminent lecturers and managers will make the event worthwhile to b attended.  This three-day long event will expose the students to the practical field of management which are absolutely different from their theoretical textbooks. This hand- on experience will help the novice in the field of management to overcome any kind of barriers that might come in their way in the course of working in a particular organization there will also be an interactive session which might give an opportunity of placement for the students.

We are inviting the companies to contribute money and free publicity which will create a positive image. We hope to have the opportunity of to share our total presentation of sponsorship benefits with your company in the coming days. I will contact you on the specific date and time to call for a meeting and please do not hesitate to call me in the given number or drop me a mail in the given email id. Your presence in the event will be gladly accepted.

Promotional strategies and marketing goes side by side when it comes to introduction or launching of new products or services. By promoting services or product, the owner or company can reach its target group using the media. Promotion of the product or services is the main element of success by interacting and engaging the target group (Uysal et al.).

For this particular event of international conference at the Geneva business School the XYZ EVENTS had thought of mind- breaking ideas for the publicity of the event as well as the institution. They had selected a theme for the event which was everyone had to wear shades of red, orange or yellow as they carry significant meanings in the business world. The décor of the venue was also kind of similar to these three colors to create a particular ambience. The content and details of the event was published in the form of brochure and pamphlets which was given as handouts to the internal and external publics. Digital hoardings were designed around the prominent places all over Europe. All small and large business schools were invited via mail and the media houses were sent press release. Advertisement was shown in the TV, in print media and also in the form of text messages in personal devices. The event management company had also developed an app for the ease of connecting to the interested individuals which not only gave details of the event but also allowed to register for the event. There were pop- ups shown in the social media to grab the attention of the students. Using these prominent media will be beneficial to publicize the event.

All the promotion will be started 3 months prior the event so that the interested candidates can make necessary arrangements. The message of the promotion was- ‘Get over it’. This simple message will be understood hen the audience will go through the whole advertisement which means that it is time for the youngsters to get over the mandatory fear of getting placed in an organization and his responsibility toward it.

Conclusion

Thus it can be summarized from this report that the students who were assigned the task of managing the event of international conference did their part accordingly from contacting the best event management company to participating in the event. The event management company had also put their utmost effort as always to make a glorious event by proper promotion through the effective media channels and keeping up to the budget.

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