When planning a conference, whether for your church, youth ministry or business organization, here are some things you will need to have in place:

• Have A Purpose

Why are you having the conference? Your purpose will be the guiding factor for every aspect of the event.  It will determine who to target, what promo-tional tools you use, and what artists to invite.  Take heed to Habakkuk 2:2, write your vision, and then run with it!

• Have A Budget

Knowing how much money you're working with before you begin planning is a top priority. Having a budget helps you decide on whether you can have the event at the Phillips Arena or if you need to have it at your church, whether you can have the hottest artists for entertainment or if you need to showcase the talent your church already has. 

• Set the Date

You will need to make sure the date of your event doesn't clash with any other events on your church calendar.  

• Organize a Committee

Planning a successful conference is not a job for a lone ranger! In order for this to be a huge success you will need to utilize your people resources. Don't forget to DELEGATE, DELEGATE, DELEGATE! What good is having a conference if you have to be hospitalized afterwards because you've burnt yourself out trying to do everything yourself.

• Have a Program

How do you want the conference to flow? Will the event start with a concert or maybe a night of teaching? What will the people do at down-time moments?   

• Promotion tools

Marketing your event will be 75% of your work. Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement. So hit up radio stations, television broadcasts, and internet sites to get the word out. Some people attend events because they kept hearing about it and their interest grew. Also, it would be wise to invest in some flyers. No, not something you designed and plan to print on some red paper you bought from Office Max. Your choice of advertisement will say a lot about your event. People see a cheap flyer, and they think low budget event. They see a hot flyer and will probably think "I'll go, because they care enough to have a tight flyer."   

• Lodging

You will need to determine a list of hotels within a reasonable radius of where the conference will be held. This will make travel and meeting time schedules easier.  Contact the hotels you have gathered and see what dis-counted group rates they can give you.

Also you will have to put your ministry guests up in a hotel, and you will have to make sure the hotel is top notch. Don't take the concierge' word for it. Go and actually see the room your ministry guests will be staying in. If your guests have to wake up to roaches and rats they may never do an event for you ever again. 

• Travel

Most artists require that the hosting organization cover travel expenses to and from the event. After the artists are set and confirmed, you will need to book flights immediately. The earlier you do, the less expensive it will be.  

• Food

Do you plan to have food? Will it be catered from an outside vendor or will it prepared by the church kitchen crew?  

• Vendor Displays

Conferences provide a great oppurtunity for vendors to promote their ministry and/or product.  If this will be the case for your event, make sure there is adequate spacing for vendor booth set ups.  Schedule times for set up and break down of the vendor booths.

• Conference Materials

It's always good that people leave not only with something in their heart, but in their hands as well. You will need to have materials printed. A conference handbook would be great. A handbook that lists the purpose, the program, seminar descriptions, artist bios and contact information, and probably somewhere people can take notes.  

• Decorations

The event decor will play a huge part in the conference atmosphere and making the attendees feel they have come to something mad nice.  Just like your promotional tools, the decor will tell alot about the conference.  How do I decorate?  Just a hint, most event decorations incorporate the name and purpose. 

Also, create a color scheme for the conference.  Allow the purpose God gave you to tell you how to decorate.  Hang some tight banners everywhere for example.  Finally, do some brainstorming with your committee and together you'll represent right!

• Name Tags/Badges

Name tags or badges worn by your commitee and all helping out is good.

• Equipment

Most music artists require that the host have good sound equipment. You will need to discuss the details of this with the artists.  Once you have the equipment details, make sure it is provided and set up in a timely manner for the conference.  Have an equipment sound check rehearsal with the artist(s) a few hours before the conference. Follow up with the equipment set up after the rehearsal is a must.

• Entertainment

Depending on the purpose of your conference and your budget, who do you want to perform? If your event is very grand, you may not want to have amatuer entertainment, especially if you're charging a fee to attend. 

• PRAY!

Every success is a prayer success and every failure is a result of a failure to pray, so pray continually for the conference.

We pray your conference is a huge success! If this information helped you, please let us know. We would love to hear about it.

ALCM Staff