Reflections on the Conference by the Organizer

[valuesystem]

The Conference on Michigan's Future just wrapped up a little more than 48 hours ago, and now it is time to start unpacking all the mental stuff upstairs. Being the organizer of an event like this can be rather stressful, while also very exciting and satisfying

Comments

[southhavenjen]

I think it's great you're doing comments to self but the conference really came off fabulously and I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. :)

If you need help in the future, I'd be happy to help. I do meeting planning for a living and could probably help out with some of the logistical details (I can print nametags in my sleep, for example).

[valuesystem]

Okay, thanks for the offer. We definitely need as much help as we can get, and logistics are one of those key areas.

[arualanne]

Just a thought about the notecards.... do they have to be in notecard form? Perhaps as a way to seem less scripted and therefore more accessible, yet still professional, would be to have a portfolio type book with the questions written in it that the speaker could reference when they felt that they were getting off topic or needed the mental reminder rather than having notecards in front of them the whole time, the portfolio could be closed unless it was needed, giving perhaps a good mix of notes and well rehearsed speaking?

Just a thought, feel free to ignore it. *grins*

[valuesystem]

For the Q&A panels, rather than having the questioners step up to a mike stand and pose questions, we asked them to write the questions down on note cards, and then those were collected, and read by the moderator.

It worked well to get in as many questions as possible, but as was pointed out, it made it a bit dry during the Q&A.