CONFERENCES By Nathaniel Whittemore

When young people think of conferences, they tend to have one of two gut reactions. First, there is the conferences are frustrating and silly group. These are the people for whom conferences represent either people with shared objectives battling over minutiae or people who wholeheartedly agree both that the world is screwed up and that someone else is to blame. To these individuals, conferences mean no real dialogue, no real learning, and no real conversation, just missed opportunities and another line on a resume. The second group is the conferences are inspiring and reenergizing group. These are the people for whom conferences represent another chance to come together with similarly-passionate people, another chance to engage in meaningful conversations and dialogue. To them, conferences afford the opportunity to review and reflect on the goals and objectives of their organizations and to be introduced to the new skills and approaches that can help them achieve these goals! I am not a conference person, by disposition. In fact, if asked my view of conferences, more often than not, I would place myself in the conferences are silly and frustrating category. That said, when a conference is done wellwhen it understands its mission and objectives, who its trying to benefit and how to do so, and when it has studied the normal traps that conferences can fall into and works to avoid them it can be one of the most powerful tools for bringing people together to inspire individual and collective action. A conference, when done well, can create a learning environment in which the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. This is the type of conference this chapter will help you plan. As you use this guide, keep in mind that a conference brings together a unique group of people for a specific reason, and while this reality means youll have an incredible amount of creative freedom to create a unique and powerful event, it also means that any planning guide will be limited with regard to how much it reflects your specific situation. That said, no matter what type of event you produce, the information presented below will help you identify your audience, set goals, and ensure your conference inspires and excites. OBJECTIVES, CONFERENCE TYPES, AND CONTENT STRUCTURES Every good conference has a set of objectives that reflect the interests of the people it is intended to benefit. Many conferences overshoot, attempting to take on more than they can handle. This is evident when a conferences objectives are unfocused or simply too numerous. The better you understand your objectives and the better you focus your content to effectively achieve these objectives, the more powerful your event will be. This section will help you identify your objectives as well as the conference structures that will best help you realize them. Conference Types

A good starting exercise is to break conferences apart into a few common types. These types tend to refer to the overarching objectives of the event. Awareness-Building Probably the most common type of event at the college level, awareness-building conferences teach participants about a new topic or introduce them to an issue or challenge to which they likely have little exposure. These conferences tend to utilize lectures and panel discussions by experts to advance their awareness-building objectives. A great example is the Americans for Informed Democracy conference program, which features topics ranging from Global Partnership to Reform, Security, and Media. Capacity-Building Capacity-building conferences teach participants skills and capacities they didnt have before arriving. In this way, these conferences function much like training sessions. They also tend to utilize interactive, hands-on content structures like workshops and small discussions to achieve their capacity-building objectives. The Global Engagement Summit (see inset box) is an example of a capacity-building conference. Network-Building

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT SUMMIT (formerly International Youth Volunteerism Summit) The Global Engagement Summit (GES) is an annual capacity-building event for student project leaders from around the globe. Each year, we bring together 50-60 students from the US and abroad to develop their global problem solving initiatives and personal leadership capacities through workshops and discussions focused on a variety of topics ranging from approaches to engagement (such as Asset-Based Community Development) to skills like fundraising and strategic planning. The training sessions are facilitated by nonprofit leaders from all over the world and provide a basis for both individual student development and collective action inspired by the unique combination of young global leaders. To find out more about GES, check out www.engagementsummit.org

Whether its within a community, like a national network of affiliate student groups, or between communities, like a set of nonprofits, the fundamental component of any conference is bringing together a set of people. A network-building conference is an event that makes this its primary purpose. These conferences tend to emphasize participant interaction (by hosting cocktail parties or scheduling networking hours, for example) to achieve their networking objectives. The best place to see examples of network building conferences are business schools around the country. For business students, connections matter almost as much, if not as much, as their educations, so these conferences are very networking-oriented. Information-Sharing Less common in the undergraduate world but quite prevalent in the professional world are conferences that primarily serve to share best practices and new information within a specific field or discipline. These conferences tend to emphasis short presentations from field experts as well as poster sessions to achieve their objectives. An example would be a cancer research conference at which scientists present their work in poster or lecture form. Keep an eye out at your university and youre likely to a number of these types of conferences in any given year.

These types are certainly not exhaustive there are conferences that do not fall into any of these categories, just as there are conferences that fall into several of them. In fact, most conferences fall into two or more of the above categories. The Anatomy of a Conference Now that youve begun to think about your objectives and youve had a chance to reflect on different conference types, its important to think about what content you might utilize to best reach your objectives. The better you align your content with your objectives, the more successful your event will be. Content: Keynotes Description: Keynotes usually open or close conferences, and provide people with a chance to learn from and be inspired by a leader in the field. Youll find them at almost every conference type, but they are particularly common at awareness-building conferences. Content: Panel/Plenary Discussions Description: Panel or plenary discussions bring together 3-5 experts to discuss a specific topic and answer questions. Youll find them at awareness-building or information-sharing conferences. Content: Workshops Description: In a workshop, an expert instructs a group of participants in a skill or technique. Youll find them at many conferences, but especially capacity-building conferences. Content: Small Group Discussions Description: Small group discussions a place for participants to reflect upon the material thats been presented to them at keynotes, panels, and workshops. They also provide an opportunity for participants to share their personal experiences and perspectives with other attendees. Youll find them at capacity-building conferences. Content: Poster Sessions Description: Poster sessions are an efficient way to share a large volume of specialized information. Hundreds of posters can be setup in a relatively small place. More important, This allow a huge number of people and organizations to present information about their work in exhibition halls that conference attendees or members of the public can walk through. Youll find them at information-sharing conferences. Content: Networking sessions Description: Often organized around meal times, networking sessions are time explicitly set aside for participants to meet one another. Youll find them at almost all conferences, but always at network-building conferences! PLANNING YOUR CONFERENCE No matter how well you set and prioritize goals, your event will change throughout the planning and execution phases. Your job is to build the structures, timelines, and teams necessary to make sure that the event will fulfill its mission. NOTE: Throughout this section, keep in mind that Ive presented the planning steps in a logical order, but this wont necessarily represent the linear order of your tasks.

The Basics The first step in planning your event is to determine what type of event you want, for whom, what you want them to get out of it, and how long you have to achieve that. Audience At the core of your planning is identifying who youre designing your conference for. For some, this step is easy. If youre planning the national conference of a specific student group, your audience is clearly defined. For others, the audience may be a bit more nebulous. With the International Youth Volunteerism Summit (now the Global Engagement Summit), we had to decide who we really meant by youth, finally settling on undergraduates. Objectives and Conference Types With your audience in mind, you can outline your specific objectives. What is it they need that you can give them with this event? Is it a better capacity to do a specific type of work? Is it new knowledge about a specific topic? Is it the chance to build community and new contacts? With your objectives in mind, you can reference the above types to help you determine which types of content can help you best achieve your goals. CONFERENCE PRE-PLANNING WORKSHEET Conference __________________________________________________________________________ Who is your audience? What are your objectives? What are the ways in which you hope to benefit your audience? What are the conference types that best fit your event? Rank them from 1-4, with 1 being most relevant and 4 being least relevant. Jot down a short explanation for each ranking. __ __ __ __ Awareness-building: Capacity-building: Network-building: Information-sharing: Title:

Time With your audience identified and your objectives set, you must determine how long your conference will last. Will your event be a day long? A weekend? A week? How much time do you need to achieve your objectives? Building Support

No matter how good your plan is, if you dont have the people to make it a reality, you wont achieve your objectives. With the basics ironed out, its now time to build the critical support youll need to make your conference happen. Assembling a Staff As a young person with limited time and resources, youre going to need a support team to back you up. Building a staff is an exciting but sometimes daunting process. Most likely, your staff will consist of your friends and the people youve worked with in other groups. And given your staffs composition, there are three specific principles you should follow in order to build and maintain a happy and successful team. 1. Understand Motives In almost any environment youre working in, but especially on a college campus, the people whose time youre asking for will be busy with commitments to other people and projects. This makes it especially important to understand why people are getting involved with your group. More likely than not, its a combination of: The topic is interesting to them The topic relates to something they know or care about They have experience with similar planning/leadership They see that this is something personally valuable for future leadership or career goals They are a member of the group planning the event They care about you and the things that are important to you As a leader, understanding peoples motivations enables you to work diligently to nurture their personal investment and make sure that they are getting something meaningful from the experience. Your community is your greatest asset, and both your experience planning the event and the event itself rest on your ability to keep others engaged, committed, and excited. 2. Assign Specific Jobs The reality of planning something big and new is that you need structure to foster creativity. People

FROM THE TRENCHES --THE BASICS OF THE GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT SUMMIT-The Global Engagement Summit started for a very specific reason: we didnt (and still dont) think that there were quality educational resources for young people who seek to go abroad and make change. This identification of a problem led us directly to both our audience and how we wanted to benefit them. Audience: We knew we wanted to benefit young global change makers, and through an extensive set of discussions, we chose to focus even more directly on American undergraduates. This doesnt mean that our programming doesnt benefit our graduate student or international participants, but we make strategic and curricular decisions with them as secondary considerations. Our benefit: We knew we wanted to provide a practical education, so we decided that for us, capacity building included conceptual knowledge (gender and development), applied skills (strategic planning, legal organization) and approaches to engagement (asset-based thinking, participatory methods in development). Our types: While capacity building was the primary objective, we recognized that building a community of engaged global leaders was a close second. Content: To achieve our capacity building and network building objectives, we have emphasized workshops, which serve as the basis for reflective small group discussions. These small group discussions not only further learning, but also provide groups within the larger program the

need to be given agency over their position, but they also need a clear definition of that position as well as well-outlined objectives and goals. Once they have gained confidence in their roles, they can start to take ownership of their assigned tasks and implement their own ideas. 3. Invest in Relationships No matter how pressing your planning feels, take the time to invest in the people who are planning the event with you. Invite people to hang out. Find movies related to what youre doing and plan movie nights. Send random emails asking people how theyre doing. This will pay off in dividends in terms of your staffs investment in the planning process as well as in terms of everyones enjoyment! Building Administrative Support Just as much as you need a staff willing to put in the time to do the work, youre going to need high-level support that results in funding, space, and other support services. As a university student, youre ideally positioned to build this support within your extended campus network. 1. Make a list of key allies Sit down and map out who on your campus is a likely ally and write down what they can offer your organization (financial resources, knowledge, connections). Here are some key allies commonly found on college campuses: Office of the Provost: the chief academic officer of the university, the Provost sets academic priorities, oversees and facilitates new initiatives, and sets university policy Community Service Offices: home base for service-based student organizations as well as students who volunteer both on and off campus International or Study Abroad Offices: coordinate international fellowships and study abroad opportunities Related academic departments 2. Focus on your approach No matter how many good potential allies you have, youre operating in an environment where people already have commitments, INCREASING YOUR ODDS: RECRUITING FACULTY One of the things administrators look for when evaluating student proposals is faculty involvement. Remember, if administrators are investing in your program, theyll want to know whether or not it will continue after you leave. One of the best ways to ensure your organizations long-term sustainability is to recruit faculty members who will help future students take over where youve left off. As you begin the planning process, think about how faculty can be involved. Can they host workshops, facilitate discussions, help link you to experts? Obtaining faculty support will impress the administration and increase the overall quality of your event. DONT: Believe your cause is so morally compelling that everyone will want to support it As a passionate young person, it can be easy to get so caught up in your mission that you forget that other people need to be convinced to care about what you care about, no matter how morally or ethically compelling you think it may be. Far too often in activism, people lose the chance to form partnerships and friendships because they take an anyone who doesnt support my issue is crazy attitude. As you approach potential allies particularly university administration remember that its important to think about how your interests overlap with theirs so you can express a compelling reason for them to care about your mission. For example, the university may agree that genocide is awful, but youll be far more successful in liberating resources if you demonstrate that you are teaching students about the dynamics of the conflict, rather than just buying placards

responsibilities, and priorities, and you will have to convince them to carve out additional time and resources for you. When Approaching Administrators University

UNIVERSITY STRATEGIC PLANS Every university writes a strategic plan. At Northwestern University, its called the Highest Order of Excellence and is published every 5 years. It is a document in which the trustees and administration set future priorities for the university. When I discussed the Global Engagement Summit and later, the Center for Global Engagement, with the administration, I knew from reading Northwesterns most recent strategic plan that the university hoped to implement more interdisciplinary approaches, increase immersion experiences, and augment the campus global appeal. . With this knowledge, I was able to link our mission to the universitys priorities, helping secure resources that might not otherwise have been forthcoming. Tip: Almost EVERY campus is interested in internationalizing. If your conference has an international element, you need to check out your

1. Align Your Request with the Universitys Mission Remember that the university is an academic institution charged with the task of fostering the creation and exchange of knowledge. Use this to your advantage! How does your co-curricular work align with curricular offerings at the university? How have you gotten faculty advisors involved and excited? How does the program meet objectives stated by the university in its public strategic plans? Be able to answer these questions and youll be better able to generate support. 2. Leave Written Proposals Its essential to have documents that speak for you in your absence. By leaving a written proposal or summary of your work with an administrator, your message, your ideas, your proposed event, and your pitch will stay intact as your request is passed on from one person to another. 3. Be Clear About What You Want

Administrators will appreciate it if you are up front about what just what it is youre asking of them. Before meeting with your universitys administration, determine what type of support youll need and how much. Though it can be intimidating to ask for money, youre much more likely to garner support if you can clearly articulate how much support you really need. Here are some of the things you might ask for: Funding Space Advertising in university publications Help with recruiting famous keynote speakers

Budgeting The budget of each event will vary considerably but there are a few tips that you can use, no matter what your bottom line looks like: 1. HAVE A BUDGET! No university administrator, grant committee, or private donor will take you seriously if you do not have a detailed budget in hand. Before approaching any funding source, you must have at least a rough idea of what you will need, how much of it you will need, where you will purchase/obtain it, and how much it will cost. 2. Align your budget priorities with your objectives

As you think about how much to allocate for different activities, keep in mind the objectives youve prioritized. This doesnt mean that you must spend the majority of your money on your top objective, but it does mean you should consider relative priorities when making tough decisions. For example, the single biggest cost of GES is flying in delegates from the developing world. This is something we feel is vital to the event because it exposes American undergraduates to new ideas and perspectives. However, the quality of our workshops is our most important priority and as a result, we would reduce the number of international participants before we reduced the quality of the workshops. 3. Aim High but Stay Realistic As you budget for your event, dont be afraid to include the big-budget items just be aware that you may not receive funding for them. Remember, as long as you can raise the bare minimum needed to make your conference a reality, youve succeeded. Any funds over that are youll need to hold your event. Any funds over that may increase the quality of the event, but are really an added bonus. For example, when we were planning the first GES, we knew that we could still hold the event without the $20,000 it would cost to fly in delegates from the developing world, but we decided to include it in the budget anyway. Supporters appreciated our idealism and our realism and we were able to raise the extra cash. 4. Align budget requests with university priorities One thing most students neglect to do is frame their initiative in terms of their universitys mission and funding priorities. Universities fund: curricular programs, student support programs, intellectual exchanges, and research. Universities do not always fund straight service work. As much as you can, frame your activity in terms of the things your university routinely supports. GES has been able to fundraise successfully largely because we can break apart the different component costs of the event and concentrate university funding on those elements that are intrinsically linked to the universitys mission, while securing external funding for other elements (such as outcome project support grants). 5. Diversify! Everyone who reviews your funding request will look for evidence that you are actively seeking financial support from other sources. This demonstrates your groups commitment to the event as well as your realism you certainly wont receive funds from every source you petition. Counter intuitively, the more funding sources you list (particularly those sources who have already pledged support), the more money you are likely to receive from any one source. Get the Team Moving At this point, youve got your basic objectives, structure, team, and supporters identified. Now its time to get your team moving and actually plan your event. This section is brief, because the steps you will take when planning your conference are specifically tied to the type of content youre presenting. That said, there are a few common lessons applicable to all conference planning: Lesson 1: Budget Time for Conference Components Your most important planning task is to identify how much time to budget for each conference component (lecture, workshop, etc.). Take into account the minimum time needed for the activity to be productive, the fact that speakers can arrive late, and the virtual certainty that hot topics or popular speakers will run over the allotted time. See the

sidebar for some examples of common conference components. Lesson 2: Create Timeline an Event-Planning

TIMELINE RESOURCES There are a variety of free or cheap digitals tools available to help you manage your team and the planning process. For a variety of functions, the set of Google tools that come free with any Google account are invaluable. With a set of Gmail accounts and a GoogleGroup, you can share maps and calendars, collaborate on documents and spreadsheets, store 100MB of files, and more. If youre looking for a more dynamic shared calendar, try Trumba.com. For more storage space, check out Box.net. Finally, if you want a comprehensive planning and task management system, check out Basecamp.

Your best planning tool is the timeline. It will help you set priorities, pace yourself, and most importantly, realize when you are behind schedule. Lesson 3: Meet Regularly Even if youve properly delegated all tasks, set reasonable deadlines, and established open lines of communication, nothing can replace face-to-face meetings as a way to ensure that everything is proceeding as planned. Find a time to meet each week and stick to it. Planning Tasks

While every conference is different, all conferences share a common set of planning tasks. The following list is designed to help you categorize the elements of planning into a more manageable framework that can help you delegate tasks and run a successful event. Participants At the core of your event are the people youre bringing together and to whom you hope to provide some benefit. Whether theyre from your university, another university across town, or half-way across the world, youll need to recruit, select, and then bring together this group. Planning Tasks: Make an application: this wont apply for all events, but if you have limited space, youll want an application to help you narrow down the attendees. For example, the core of the GES application is a project proposal. This ensures that our participants are thinking in terms of solutions rather than just problems, and that they have a particular reference point for each of their workshops and small group discussions. Spread the word: recruit participants using emails, flyers, facebook.com, advertisements, etc. Selection: if you DO require an application, youll need to select your attendees. MAKING IT UNFORGETTABLE Once youve got the core of your content planned and you know youre well positioned to achieve your objectives, you can start to think about content that isnt necessarily vital or directly related, but which can make your event more memorable than your average conference. At the same time that I was starting the Global Engagement Summit, I was also designing a collaborative media initiative called the OpenShutter Project, designed to teach students to think about responsible media creation, and then bring together responsible, impactful media to create exhibits that better connect awareness with action. Each year, GES features a different OpenShutter exhibit, and this has become one of the most memorable features of the event. Whether its something like an art exhibit, a movie screening, or a volunteer opportunity, spend some time thinking about how you can really give your event that last 5% from memorable to unforgetable.

Content What is the substance of your event? Panelists, keynotes, workshops? Content means conceptualizing, planning for, and then implementing all of the events people at your conference will attend. Refer back to the section about content structures to get a better idea of the different components you can use in your conference. Some of the content planning will include: Recruiting facilitators or speakers for keynotes, panels, and workshops Designing small group discussion sessions Planning networking events

Logistics What are the tasks that need to be accomplished to ensure that everyone involved has a meaningful experience? The logistics of a conference involve: Arranging transportation and accommodation for all participants Planning meals Finding, reserving, and preparing space for different events WEBSITES Every project or initiative has a website these days, but as you set out, its worth thinking about the roles the web can play beyond simply housing static information. At the Global Engagement Summit, we have two different websites, one that we use for the 6 months of the year when were looking for participants and need to share a lot of information quickly and easily with thousands of potential delegates and facilitators around the world. As the Summit approaches, however, we switch to a user driven site driven by Wiki technology (think wikipedia) and blog software. This allows us to interact with our participants before, during and after the event in ways that would be impossible without the web, including posting notes from workshops, providing our delegates with space to create profiles, and NON-MONETARY DONATIONS You will often run across people or organizations inside and outside your university who want to support you but cant contribute cash. Think about how to utilize in-kind donations to take care of some of your logistical needs. If the French department doesnt have discretionary money, might they waive the usual rental fee for their large seminar room? Can Brueggers Bagels donate some bagels for breakfasts? Get creative!

Marketing, Publicity, and Press Who are the people you want to hear about your event and what do you want them to know about it? Marketing refers to the way you pitch your event. How will you sell it to the public? Publicity refers to the way you get your message out. How will you reach your audience so that your marketing will be most effective? How will you get your materials into the hands of potential staff, delegates, keynote speakers, sponsors, etc. Press is the media coverage that helps confer legitimacy upon, and spreads awareness of, the event youve worked so hard to put together. Some of the tasks will include: Creating a logo and visual scheme for your project Designing brochures, flyers, a website, etc. Disseminating publicity materials Generating a list of press contacts in your local area (or, depending on the scope of your event, nationally, or globally) Writing press releases Funding No conference is free. You will need to find money to pay for food, housing, transportation, honorariums, marketing materials, space, etc. As a young person, you will likely employ a

variety of strategies, ranging from soliciting university administrators to grassroots strategies like carwashes. Here are some ideas for funding sources: Administration Academic departments Family and friends Sponsor a delegate programs Fundraisers like carwashes, parties, etc.

EXECUTION Finally, the moment is at hand. Youve done the planning, gathered the support, and built the momentum. Its all done and ready to come together. While the execution will differ with each conference, there are a few things you can anticipate: 1. Get ready for a grueling three weeks The last few weeks before a conference are going to be hectic. As more and more people (participants, speakers, etc) become part of your planning equation, youll have to field more and more questions. Youll recognize a number of things you havent been done yet. There is no amount of planning that can change this. Prepare yourself and your staff for this reality. Remind yourself why youre excited about your event, grit your teeth, and get to work. 2. Understand and plan for changing roles During this last phase of planning and implementation, your staff will undergo a few important changes. First, some people will drop the ball when you expect them to come through, and some people who havent been as involved will pick up the slack. Second, and more controllably, you will need to transition your planning staff into an implementation staff that will make sure that all the tasks of implementing the event from walking speakers to the lecture hall to registering delegates whove just arrived are completed. 3. Create a master event guide Just as the planning timeline is your best friend during the planning phases, the master event guide is your best friend during the event itself. A good planning guide will include: Comprehensive event task lists, organized by time Location guide showing where each task is to be performed Hour-by-hour staff availability and task assignments IMPLEMENTATION STAFF As your event approaches, youll want to put someone in charge of identifying all the tasks and to dos of the actual event. He or she should then identify all the times your staff is available to work and assign jobs for those times. In some cases, someones planning job may transition naturally into his or her implementation job during the conference (for example, the person who has been the primary contact for your keynote speaker will likely help that person register, find their hotel, etc), but this wont always be the case. Having a fully equipped and prepared implementation staff will help your event run more smoothly and feel more professional.

Step Five: Follow-up

The best conferences are those that plan ways to keep people engaged when they return home and put to use their new awareness, skills, or relationships. There are a few ways you can help ensure your event is one of these rare gems: Distribute Informational Materials

MASTER EVENT GUIDE This is a sample of a master event guide from the first Global Engagement Summit STAFF PLAN 1. Event Coordinator (Head Troubleshooter) Steve Jens: (555) 683-1243 Job: Steve will be in charge of GES Headquarters on the second floor of the McCormick Student Center throughout the conference. 2. Section Coordinators (Minor Troubleshooters, responsible for their sections) Hannah Jefferson: (555) 068-9316 Hannah will coordinate the Friday morning panels as well as the opening and closing keynote addresses. She will also welcome workshop facilitators. Margaret Roberts: (555) 778-8718 Margaret will coordinate meals and housing throughout the conference. 3. Emergency Coordinators (only available for major disasters like a keynote canceling) Nathaniel Whittemore: (555) 781-0070 Jonathan Marino: (555) 755-1808 EVENT PLAN Thursday, February 23 11:00-5:00: Airport Transportation Point personStephanie Maple Drivers: o Name, phone 11:00-conference end: Registration at Headquarters Point personDanny Smith Staffers: o Name, time, phone Friday, February 24 9:00-10:15: Social Entrepreneurship Panel at Student Center Point personHannah Jefferson (welcomes panelists, ensures room is set-up and questions are ready) Staffers: o Name, phone o Name, phone o Name, phone o Name, phone

Make sure you give your attendees materials that help frame their experiences. Reiterate what you wanted them to gain from their participation in the conference. This helps your participants mentally summarize and re-live their experience, decreasing the likelihood that memory will reframe the experience as just another event. Network Make sure youve setup a structure or set of structures to keep your participants in communication with you and with one another. This could be as simple as a blog or as time-intensive as a weekly newsletter. But with the new generation of social networking services, utilizing change.org or facebook to keep your participants talking makes a lot of sense. Provide New Opportunities One of the best ways to keep your alumni engaged is to provide them with new opportunities for funding, internships, volunteer opportunities, anything that will be of value to them. Youre in a good position to help reinforce your mission and objectives by connecting them to relevant opportunities that they will appreciate. CONCLUSION Our experience with the Global Engagement Summit has been that by setting clear goals and by aligning our conference structure and management tasks with our mission, weve been able to provide participants with an incredibly powerful experience. As you begin planning your event, remember to take the time to set your objectives, build your team, and solicit supporters. Remember to invest in peoples creativity, but give them structure. Remember that there is a reason for your event and that your objectives and mission can and should guide your planning and strategic decisions. Whatever the goals of the event youre planning, stick with them and make sure that your conference does what it set out to do. Finally, remember to invest in the community you build and give them something that will stay with them. Do these things, and youre sure to have an incredibly successful program! THE GES OUTCOME MODEL From the beginning, outcome support for our delegates has been one of our most important objective. While there is an inevitable dip in the participation of delegates after an event, we wanted to provide real structures by which our community could communicate and collaborate. Moreover, we believe that our mission to build capacity doesnt end when our delegates leave, and weve therefore endeavored to continue to provide real resources and opportunities to alumni even long after theyve participated. This has included continued consulting, volunteer placement, and connections to financial resources such as our Project Challenge competition through which we helped 13 GES projects (alumni of both years) raise more than $25,000 together. LESSON: MAKE SURE YOU GO TO THEM No matter how cool your social networking or blog offerings are, these are structures that require participants to go to you. Its important to make sure that, especially in the immediate aftermath of the event, you go to them with email and snail mail messages that keep the event prescient and contemporary for them.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of the Global Engagement Summit, which, in its third year has provided training for global change leadership and project development to more than 100 young leaders from around the world. His success with GES paved the way for him to develop and lead the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University to improve young peoples ability to cross borders and create change.