Symposium Committee Roles & Responsibilities Host Committee Professional Conference Manager (over time)

A brief history: The way that we manage the annual symposium is changing.

Issues & trends: Some host chapters were burned-out: post-event decline in chapter health Hosting is by multiple chapters, chapter plus affiliate, or entire region Financial performance not consistentin the black, break even, in the red Increasing importanceso reduce risk through more use of professional conf managers Desire increased technical excellence to provide more value to delegates More complex technical program with innovative new elements each year ISSUETREND

Some lessons learned: Contracting, administrative, logistical items are most efficiently handled by a professional conference mgmt firmalso facilitates re-use from year to year Host committee members should be INCOSE members who have attended at least one and preferably more symposia Non-US events need a professional conference mgmt firm from within the host country for some tasks Delegates expect a standard look and feel and expect something new also, with an emphasis on technical content Competition for delegates is increasingother organizations and our own regional eventshost committees need to focus on technical excellence

Major Tasks Overall Symposium Planning & Management –Technical Program –Finance Marketing, Communications & Publications Sponsor & Exhibitor Arrangements Facility & AV / IT Needs Symposium Registration

Overall Symposium Planning & Management ? Should this be standardized and the responsibility of the symp manager? What about the Logo?

Technical Program Early host committees did not have a Tech Board to help them - bigger effort! Did not have on line paper review - bigger effort!

Finance SympC determines Budget Break even points for planning

Marketing, Communications & Publications

Sponsor & Exhibitor Arrangements Slow transfer to Symp Manager: early 90s host committee did all tasks Patron Program introduced 1997 by LA;

Facility & AV / IT Needs IT support responsibility of the host committee until about 99

Symposium Registration

Focus Areas Host committee –Technical Program –Contacts for Exhibits & Sponsors Symp Manager –Logistics –Financials –Contracting –Administration –(All the things that need to be done consistently & on time)

Symposium Committee Insure consistency from year to year Insure lessons are learned and communicated to the later host committees Therefore, The way that we manage the annual symposium keeps changing.