The conference budget is the financial roadmap for planning any event. Establishing alignment between Organizers and Sponsors is one of the most important financial planning tasks in the event lifecycle. Spending a little extra time at the start of the budgeting process to establish agreement among Organizers and Sponsors can strengthen partnerships and avoid conflicts down the road.

The MCE Team can help facilitate a meeting with your key stakeholders at the beginning of the budget planning process. This will give Sponsors a better understanding of the Organizers’ proposed budget and underlying thought process. Organizers will also gain a firm understanding of Sponsors’ expectations and the reasons behind them. The group can also identify checkpoints and timing for changing course if it becomes necessary in the future.

The MCE Team is here to help facilitate discussions and find solutions in the best interest of all conference stakeholders to support a prosperous event.

IEEE Corporate Contract Deadlines: Important 2022 Year-End Dates to Know

It is that time again when IEEE Finance begins to close up the fiscal year. As a result, and as part of IEEE’s regular annual process, all contracts that require a signature by 31 December 2022, and subsequent purchase orders (if applicable), must be submitted to the IEEE Legal and Compliance (L&C) Department by Tuesday, 1 November to meet the deadline.

To allow for the pre-work that is typical, all event-related contracts should be submitted for review by Monday, 24 October.

MCE will make every effort to ensure that contracts submitted on or before this date are shared with the L&C team by their deadline, sent for signature, and then submitted to Strategic Sourcing before the Finance end-of-year processing deadline, to be announced shortly. Contracts submitted after these dates continue to be processed as quickly as possible in the order in which they are received.

Partner with MCE for a Smooth Conference Closing

An efficient financial closing is the best way to conclude a successful conference. The IEEE Meetings, Conferences & Events (MCE) Contracts Team is introducing new processes to support your closing by collecting required data from vendors after your event. 

The contracts for goods and services negotiated with the support of the MCE Contracts Team typically require vendors to provide essential information, including but not limited to final reports detailing room pick-up and registration following the completion of the event. Moving forward, the Team will ensure this information has been provided on behalf of IEEE conference organizers. 

When working with your vendors during the planning phase, please remind them to provide these post-event reports within 30 days after the conclusion of the event. Keeping your vendors informed will prevent delays in acquiring the requisite information needed to close your conference. 

If you have any questions about these updated conference data collection processes, MCE is here to help.

Having a well-thought-out and detailed plan is an important part of emergency preparation. The IEEE Event Emergency Action Plan Template provides a framework for developing an emergency response plan for your event. 

Additionally, the document includes helpful information about incident levels, EERT response, notification protocols, crisis scenarios, information gathering and reporting processes, and the IEEE Volunteer Global Travel Accident Medical Plan.