How to organize a conference to resolve an environmental issue?

Many countries and societies face an environmental issue that needs to be resolved with the agreement of all people directly or indirectly related to it. An environmental issue arises when there is a difference of opinion on method to solve an environmental problem or to pick a solution to address any green problem. In both the cases two or more than two groups in a government, civil society, country or world has different points of view to resolve that issue. For this purpose a conference is organized to pick the best solution or method to solve a problem related to environment.

Definition of conference

The practical definition of conference is: a congregation of people from related fields or different

fields to sort the best solution or method or strategy or procedure to solve a collective problem that needs combined solution for the betterment of the society, country, province, group, company, industry, sector or any collective unit of same nature

Objective of conference

The main objective of a conference is to reach on consensus on an issue to resolve it with full agreement of all the concerned parties. For this purpose the objective of conference is defined clearly and it is conveyed to all the participants to later on reach to the conclusion.

Planning a conference

To plan a conference following points are considered:

Budget: First and foremost thing in planning a conference is to see:

• How much funds you have?
• How much funds you can generate?

On the basis of these two points you allocate an amount to meet entire expenses of the conference. If you put participation fees of the conference then you don’t have to pay much and most of the expenses are covered by the fee. You can also get advertisement and sponsorship from companies to hold the conference. How much ads or sponsorship you can get, it depends upon the subject of your conference. If subject is of vital interest to a specific sector of the economy then obviously you can get handsome funding if you launch your fund-raising campaign effectively. After allocating the exact amount to hold the conference you can plan further steps to be taken for the conference.

Venue of conference: It must be convenient to all the likely participants and must be under the access of media, civic administration and all the guests to attend and cover it without paying much as transportation fare. Depending upon the duration of the conference it is also planned to offer tea, meal or both to the participants. The venue must have ample space to adjust accessories of conference like multimedia, screen, demo for any model etc.

Date and time: Date and time are finalized by the key stakeholders of the environmental issue to get time for the implementation of the recommendations made in the conference. On the basis of the subject, the time duration is set either it would be of full day, half day or four hour conference etc.

Title of conference: Title of conference means the exactly defined environmental issue for that it is being organized. For example a title of conference may be “Setting Priorities for Vital Issues of Environment” or “Investment priorities in green technology”. You can also put a tag title to simplify the main title like: “Challenges and problems to enhance investment in green technology”.

List of invitees: The development of list of invitees is also part of planning a conference. It includes:

• List of speakers
• List of participants
• List of media including print, electronic and bloggers
• Anchorperson(s)

Development of agenda: It mentions point by point activity of conference. Who will welcome the participants, who will speak first and who will pay vote of thanks. Also timing of start and end of each one’s speech is mentioned in the agenda and is strictly followed to stay within schedule.

Implementing a conference plan

Booking of venue: The first step of implementing a conference plan is to book the venue and get permission from the local authorities to hold your event to resolve an environmental issue.

Printing & mailing of invitation cards: After booking of venue you need to print invitation cards to send them to all people who you want attend the conference. You mail them cards according to your list of invitees which was planned earlier. You also invite speakers to address the conference and tell them their topics to make speech on them.

Confirmation of invitees: After that you need to confirm the participation of speakers and guests to make their final sitting arrangements and place order for tea and meal according to the numbers of confirmed participants. You also need to hire and confirm an anchorperson to run the agenda of the conference if anyone within your organization is not a good anchor to conduct the event.

Spot arrangements: You should develop and design backdrop of the conference to be placed on the backstage. Title of the conference, name of the host(s) of the conference, date and logo of the host(s) should be clearly written on backdrop in visible colors. Besides you have to place a welcome banner outside venue to let the participants know exact location of the venue.

Conducting a conference

You need to reach at venue quite earlier than the timing of the conference. You should do following tasks urgently:

• Put a reception table at the entrance of the conference hall
• Allocate columns and rows for participants according to sector and industry
• Decide how to inaugurate the conference according to your cultural traditions
• Get ready an attendance sheet to let participants write their name, contact Nos and sign it
• To handover agenda to anchor to conduct the proceedings of the conference
• Assign a person from organizers to jot down the proceeding of the conference and also record it

Post-conference actions

Conference Report: You need to develop complete report of the proceedings of the conference including:

• Preamble by the head of the host organization narrating aims and objectives of holding the conference to resolve an environmental issue
• Detailed report of the proceedings of the conference
• Important photographs
• Recommendations by the participants
• Required actions to follow the recommendations and resolve the environmental issue

Thanks letter: Apart from conference report, you need to send letter of thanks to all the participants and speakers who spared their valuable time to attend the conference.