Every 4 years the opportunity comes for a unique fun conference activity! Link your conference with the largest sporting event on earth, The World Cup of Soccer.

I took part in this activity at a conference organised by the brilliant conference organisers Conference Images .
A mini World Cup was run with the delegates representing each of the countries in the competition. T Shirts, Prizes,Refs etc etc.   But the BIG twist … children from the local area were asked to come in and be on the teams as well as the delegates. As the conference I was acting as MC at was in Cape Town South Africa, we travelled out to one of the townships and held the event there.

It was a sensational event. You can see quite a few images of the event on the www.cimages.com.au website.

OK, there are a number of outfits who provide this amazing Team Building or Conference activity. I don’t want to get into a discussion about who was first, what the copyright is or who owns the intellectual property.

Small teams compete in a number of activities or exercises and on completion of each they earn parts of a bicycle. At a certain time they return to a central location and assemble the bikes. Often there are limited amount of tools or expert help so teams then start working together.

The kicker of the exercise is that then the eventual recipients of the bikes come into the space to meet the teams and get their bikes. Warm fuzzies all around. The children do not have to be there at the end, but the impact is far greater if they are.

I’m sure you will be able to find someone to pull it together for you. It is a major logistics job so make sure they have done it before and are up to speed with the numbers in your group. It’s ideal for large resort type properties where the activities can be fairly widespread and the appearance of the children can be somewhat of a secret.
Build a Bike, Bikes for Tykes, Bikes 4 Little Tykes,
Socially responsible teambuilding at it’s best. You probably need at least 3 – 4 hours.

The choice of venue for a Conference is so important but a lot of people never think outside the square when considering alternatives. Sticking to the same venue you have used in the past may be a safe approach but can lead to a feeling of the “same old same old” amongst delegates.

Many smaller associations are looking to Regional Venues as an interesting and often cheaper alternative. You’ll find great support from local Government & Tourism authorities for the event with many incentives to get events into their reqion.

Travel to the venue is a little more complicated than big city events, but a fun approach is to provide a bus service from a major airport or city hub. If you treat this as part of the event, with entertainment, networking and perhaps some fun stops along the way it can really work towards a great fun atmosphere.

Allowing the delegates to largely set the agenda for conferences and conventions is a common trend these days. Going well beyond a Feedback form distributed at the previous years conclusion, there are ways to really involve the delegates into content, topics, speakers and activities.

Interactive websites and discussion boards can easily be used to collect ideas on Topics and Areas of Interest.
Delegates who then register early for the event are then enabled to influence the final choice of agenda.
Not only does this give more ownership of the content but also is an incentive to book early.

A search of UnConference, Open Space and BarCamps will reveal many approaches to this.

Here are a few links to get you started

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/05/technology/business2_unconference0606/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference
http://www.unconference.net/

Most Conferences and Events give out a range of gifts at some point.
A small gift to each speaker or a thankyou to key players like the committee and organising team.

I would guess that 90% of the time Speaker Gifts tend to be bottles of wine. I guess it’s easy to organise and they have become the default gift. But are there alternatives?

Gift Vouchers are great. Either for Books, CD’s Itune or other items.
Small hampers of gourmet food and treats.
Gift box of beauty or grooming products.
A donation to a Charity in the name of the Speaker.
Useful items – USB Thumb Drives, Pocket Timers, Audio recorder.

Remember, it’s nice to get a sponsor for the Speaker Gifts if possible.

An entertaining content rich Professional Speaker can be a highlight of any conference or convention. But how do you source the correct one?

The first strategy is to ask around. Ask your committee or members if they have heard anyone or if there is anyone in particular they would like to have.
A query in each years Conference Feedback Forms can generate ideas for the next event.

A search on Google will result in an abundance of speakers. Narrowing your search criteria to industry or topic will result in better results.
Most professional speakers will have an informative website with video, topics, bio, testimonials and client lists.

Alternatively you can get a Speaker Bureau to source a range of speakers for you. There is no charge for this, the Bureaus make their money
from the Speakers they book.  If you are booking a few speakers/entertainers it is probably worthwhile engaging a Bureau.

Alternatively, you can go to the large Speaker Associations. These have online directories of their professional members and an accreditation system
that ensures quality and experience.

The Global Speakers Federation is an umbrella organisation linking 11 individual Speaker Associations and a quick way to access their own websites.

This page takes you to a listing of the different Associations http://www.globalspeakers.net/federation/associations

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I’ve done it twice before and am fully committed to it again this year.
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Highly recommended!

A fun activity for any conference is to let delegates design and construct their own table centerpieces.

I’ve seen this done at the end of the first day and also as a great ice breaker at the start.
Leaving it till later in the conference enables table teams to tie conference themes into their constructions. Either way, it is a lot of creative fun.

Art supply stores, party stores and discount shops should provide enough material that will enable the delegates to create their own masterpiece.

You can offer prizes for- best, largest, best captures the conference theme/spirit etc.

Sponsors are the life blood of many Conferences, without them the events would just not happen. In return for their money they obviously need exposure and a common benefit is to get some time onstage in front of the delegates.

These segments can be very uninteresting and seem like a sales pitch. Often delegates will leave the room to avoid the segment. Can we make them more interesting?

Get your MC to interview each of the sponsors onstage! Not only will this control the time better but it will provide a much better segment. They can do a quick preparation before the segment and find out what are the main points the sponsor would like to get across in his segment. The MC can add in a bit of fun and life to what otherwise can be a dull few minutes.

Keynote Interviews!

It’s nice to have a few surprises at a conference, but it also helps to know what is coming up. Delegates need to be pre-sold on What Who & Why they should attend. What will they gain from attending the event? When they know that before the event and then you deliver it, they relax, feel comfortable and are glad they made the effort. They will have a better experience.

One idea that really helps this process is to conduct audio or video interviews with the main presenters for the conference and have these available online prior to the event. They can describe what will be covered in heir segments and how the delegates will benefit. This will also help boost numbers attending and also serve to keep the speakers focused on delivering what they promise.

It’s a simple process to get these interviews, I suggest you ask your MC to help co ordinate them.