Planning to Succeed
- By Marie Hunter, Head of IEEE Global Meetings, Conferences and Events
Stay in the Know
- Explore New COVID-19 Travel Guidance
Organize Like a Pro
- Know Your Roles: Assembling Your Virtual Event Team
- Renegotiate Contracts Ahead of Force Majeure
- Planning Your Hybrid Event: Tips for Organizers
- Trendspotting: Attendee Matchmaking
Meet the MCE Team
- Steve Torpie, Senior Data Analyst for Business Operations
Available Resources
- Share Your Virtual Event Platform Ratings!
- Featured Course: NextGen Banking for Conferences
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Your website is the front door of your conference and represents the organizing committee, the sponsors, and IEEE. Here are some tips to create a successful conference website:
- Have consistent branding from year to year to create a memorable brand. One or more components can change to reflect locale or theme – but don’t re-create the brand each time.
- Make sure you have permission to use all names and likenesses of speakers, honorary team members, and other individuals you present on your website.
- Did you know that IEEE offers free web hosting? This can help on many levels, but particularly with archiving and accessing prior-year content.
- Think about how your website will interact with the rest of your digital framework including your registration, call for papers, virtual sessions, and apps!
If you have questions or want to talk it over, please reach out to MCE.
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Explore New COVID-19 Travel Guidance |
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With the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and transportation companies are frequently revising policies and operations; so, travelers may need to adapt quickly. Each country has its own public health challenges and related requirements such as social distancing, quarantine, proof of vaccination, etc.
Organizers need to be up to date on the conditions and respond accordingly. Each traveler is responsible for their own health and safety; however, it is helpful to share information to support decision-making. Organizers need to remind participants not to travel to the event if they feel unwell, have recently tested positive for COVID-19, or have been exposed to a person with COVID-19.
When planning for any group transfers or field trips, remember to observe all relevant government guidelines in your location and adjust your event budget accordingly.
To help make informed travel decisions, we’ve assembled industry-leading resources as you begin to plan for the return to travel. You should always re-check the specific requirements of the destination you are traveling to 48 hours prior to travel, to make sure you have the latest information before your trip.
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Know Your Roles: Assembling Your Virtual Event Team |
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Behind every great virtual or hybrid event is a great team. For your event to come together seamlessly, you need the right players with the right skills. A solid understanding of virtual events, technical know-how, and creativity can take your event to new heights.
Here are just a few of the key roles involved in developing your virtual event experience:
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Virtual Event Roles and Responsibilities |
Engagement Manager
Your Engagement Manager (EM) creates the roadmap for realizing your virtual event. The EM helps you achieve your vision by turning your ideas into actionable strategies.
Producer
Virtual event producers bring your event’s unique personality to life. They ensure that your event runs seamlessly from the participants’ first log-in through your closing remarks.
Host
A great host can transform your event experience. As the face of your event, your host creates a positive atmosphere, makes participants feel welcome, and builds a sense of community among your audience.
Technical Producer/Engineer
It is important to have someone on board with the technical know-how to ensure that your event goes off without a hitch. This is where your technical producer comes into play.
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To learn about additional virtual event roles and responsibilities, visit the MCE website, and shift your team into high gear. |
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Renegotiate Contracts Ahead of Force Majeure |
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As we have learned over the past year and a half, situations can arise that pose challenges for conference organizers and vendors alike. When contracts are in place, and Force Majeure is not yet documentable, it may feel like there aren’t many options. However, it is possible to work with your vendors to turn a losing proposition into a mutually beneficial arrangement.
After years of planning their events, most organizers understandably view cancellation as a last resort. Cancellation may bring revenue loss, penalties, and loss of time and energy spent. It also deprives authors and participants of the opportunity to present, collaborate, and network. Likewise, vendors and venues also want to avoid the inevitable losses associated with cancellation at all costs.
So what is an organizer to do? In this case, you may consider working with your vendor to create a new agreement that supersedes your original contract and is beneficial to both parties. The new agreement may include changes like food and beverage reductions, fewer room numbers or nights, or smaller/fewer meeting spaces.
Renegotiating with your vendors affords you the opportunity to adjust your agreements to meet the changing needs of your event. By working together, you can maintain positive relationships with your vendors and mitigate losses on all sides. It will also enable you to hold a smaller-scale in-person event augmented with virtual participation, which will ultimately benefit your community. If you need assistance with contract renegotiation, please reach out to the MCE Team.
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Planning Your Hybrid Event: Tips for Organizers |
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As IEEE events move to hybrid formats, there are a few things organizers should keep in mind as they plan. Knowing what to anticipate can help you avoid any unexpected issues during your event.
Visit our new hybrid event planning guide for tips on how to reframe your hybrid event strategy. As always, if you have questions about organizing your hybrid event, please reach out to the MCE team.
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Considerations When Going Hybrid |
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MCE Trendspotting: Attendee Matchmaking
Check out our latest blog post to learn how you can leverage tools to match your conference participants with colleagues, content, and exhibitors.
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Steve Torpie, Senior Data Analyst for Business Operations |
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As a Senior Data Analyst for Business Operations, Steve supports various projects, initiatives, and reporting requests. One such project that Steve contributed to, was a review of IEEE’s event metadata ensuring that all conferences are properly gathered together, allowing the content to be more discoverable when accessed on the IEEE Xplore® platform. Other initiatives Steve has supported include Hotel Contract Analysis; VAT research; COVID emergency response; and NextGen user acceptance testing.
Steve also provides Tableau and Excel reporting services to colleagues inside and outside MCE. This includes creating both scheduled reports and one-time analyses.
Steve is also a key member of the support team serving our volunteer leadership, contributing to information and analysis for inclusion in various presentations and Committee reports. This includes the Conference Proceedings Review Committee, which helps Society and Council leadership improve conference performance and identify conference portfolio process successes and challenges.
Steve assists the group by providing reports and analysis of key areas in event management, including planning, siting, budgeting, engaging members, paper quality, sponsorships, and expanding attendance. This information is also used to help a Society or Council with the completion of the required SCRC Review Form.
Steve has 37 years of experience in the publishing and data-processing industries. This includes working for such companies as R. R. Bowker; Matthew Bender; Reed-Elsevier; Martindale-Hubbell; and LexisNexis. He has seen these data industries periodically disrupted and reinvented by new technologies, such as modem-based research services, the CD-ROM, and of course, the Internet.
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Share Your Virtual Event Platform Ratings! |
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We want to hear your thoughts on virtual event platforms you have used at your IEEE Event. Visit our website to rate platforms you have tried to help fellow organizers in their decision-making. |
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Rate virtual event platforms by: |
- Overall Experience
- Attendee Experience
- Presenter Experience
- Sponsor & Exhibitor Experience
- Organizer Admin Experience
- Networking & Interactivity
- Event/Sponsor Branding
- Platform Integrations
- Reliability
- Customer Service
- Platform Analytics
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Share your experiences to benefit our IEEE Conferences Community. Don’t see your platform? Drop us a line to help us expand our selections: [email protected].
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Featured Course: NextGen Banking for Conferences |
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Suzanne Stiles, IEEE - Senior Director Financial Services conducts training for current users of Conference Concentration Banking which has now migrated to NextGen Banking. Suzanne provides an overview, notes the benefits, features, and walks you through how to use NextGen Banking for Conferences in a live demonstration. Suzanne points out similarities and changes in the new user experience. |
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What You'll Learn
- NextGen Banking Highlights
- Access
- NextGen User Experience Dashboard
- Completing Banking Tasks
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IEEE Meetings, Conferences & Events (MCE)
445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
Phone: +1 855 340 4333 (Toll-free US & Canada)
+1 732 562 3878 (Worldwide)
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