Top Tips for Hosting a Supply Chain Conference
If you are a seasoned Procurement professional, you’ve probably lost count of the number of Procurement and Supply Chain events you’ve attended over the years. There will have been good ones – great location and venue, good speakers, valuable networking – and bad ones – nothing right, from the depressing hotel conference room to seeing the same faces over and over, to the beige buffet. It may even have left you thinking, “Even I could do better than this.”
I freely admit that I have been in that position, questioning why people would want to spend time going to an event when they aren’t getting anything out of it. And yet, we continue to attend these events in the hope of uncovering the hidden gem or nugget of information to make it worthwhile.
Fortunately, in my current role, I have been able to put my money where my mouth is, organising and hosting two supply chain events in the North East of England and Cumbria. In the past, I had been part of teams that had run events, but this was the first time I had to deal with the nuts and bolts of event organisation.
So, with all my past comments about events ready to trip me up, I jumped out of my comfort zone to see if I could live up to my own expectations. And, based on my experience, here are my top tips for organising and hosting a Supply Chain event should you ever find yourself in the same position.
1. Make a List. Actually, Make Two
Let’s face it, you can’t organise a kid’s party (and I can say this from experience) without first making a list of all the things you need to organise, buy and arrange. Your Procurement or Supply Chain event is no different. And just because we know how useful a list can be, you should think about having two.
The first is a pre-event list, covering everything that to be arranged, organised, ordered and booked. This can include (but is certainly not limited to) confirming a budget with Senior Leaders and/or Finance, arranging a venue, confirming speakers, creating slides and breakout sessions, booking catering and, if your event covers this, sorting awards. Complete your list with required dates and you have a checklist to keep everything on track.
Your second list is one for the day itself. This can cover everything from what time people are due to arrive and what time you need to get set up, to the posters, banners, stands, name badges and registration sheets you need to take with you. This list should help you remember the various bits and pieces you need and mitigate the risk of you forgetting something critical (mine was pens, but at least I could borrow some!).
2. Put Together a Team
No person is an island and if you try to organise an event like this all on your own, it’s likely to end in disaster. There are too many tasks for you to do by yourself, so you need to put together a crack team, assign them tasks (with deadlines) and arrange meetings to ensure everyone understands what they need to do and when.
Tasks that you can delegate might include issuing of invites, dealing with booking forms and invoices for venues and catering, creating slide decks and content (after all, they are the subject matter experts) and getting people registered and booked in on the day. Depending on your venue, they may also have an event team that can help take care of room set-up and any location-specific requirements.
If you’re lucky enough to have people in your organisation who have organised events of their own before, speak to them and pick their brains. They’ll have plenty of ideas and experience on things to remember, what worked well and things to avoid.
3. Get Senior Leadership Buy-In (and Attendance and Participation)
Whether you need to secure a budget, get access to resources, or get the right people in the room on the day, getting buy-in from your Senior Leadership Team is key. From experience, having an engaged SLT is a gift for event organisation. They bring enthusiasm and ideas, have experience in dealing with senior leaders in other organisations, and add credibility to your event purely by being in the room.
Many people go to events to network and will be on the lookout for senior managers and leaders to connect with. Looking for a reason to justify time out of the office or travel expenses, seeking out these connections are what make events like these worthwhile.
Plus, while you are in the organisation stage, it never hurts to have someone in a position of authority to crack heads internally and make sure people are helping!
4. Understand Your Attendees
We’ve all had that ‘What’s In It For Me?’ question with suppliers in the past, and it’s something to bear in mind for your event. What are your attendees looking to get out of the event (versus what you think or hope they get out of it)? What do they want to see, who do they want to hear from, and what do they want to take away from the event to make their time worthwhile?
Different attendees will have different goals. Some may be looking for time with key stakeholders, others for information on future work and opportunities. It could be a conversation about how to actively engage as a member of the supply chain, or maybe they are looking to network with their peers, competitors, and friends and make some useful contacts.
Understand this early and then build your event around it.
5. Get Organised Early
This almost goes without saying, but it is worth emphasising. People are busy – sending out an invite for the first time 2 weeks before the event isn’t going to work. You need to make sure you tell people well in advance so they can respond and get time blocked out in their diary.
Give yourself enough time to do an initial invite and then at least 2 reminders to corral outstanding responses. This will allow you to identify key attendees who haven’t responded and follow up with them. Then, in the week of the event, you can share more detailed instructions and an agenda by way of a final reminder.
This also gives you a greater chance of getting the venue you want and allows you enough time to complete all your key tasks. For example, starting early allowed me to work on the logistics of the event and even change the format to add smaller group sessions based on feedback from speakers.
6. Take the Chance to Recognise Success
It’s important not to make the whole event about you and your organisation (see above on what your attendees want to get out of this). You’re not just there to talk about what you have accomplished, though this can certainly form part of it, but what you want to do with your supply chain going forward.
Take this as an opportunity to celebrate the success of your supply chain and call out best practice, great performance on projects, and setting an example when it comes to key factors such as Health & Safety. You may want to recognise this with certificates or awards, so dedicate a section in your agenda to this.
It’s great to show positive outcomes, but it should get the other attendees to sit up and take notice and consider what they need to do to get up on stage at the event next time. It’ll help to get their competitive juices flowing, which should benefit you in the long run.
7. Don’t Be Afraid of Feedback
Finally, after your event, don’t be afraid of asking for feedback from your attendees and your internal team. Online forms are a really useful tool for gathering this in a convenient and efficient fashion and it’ll mean you don’t have to chase people to complete a paper form on the day.
Get thoughts and input on slides, format, timings, venues and catering, and ask what they would like to see next time, so you can make improvements for the next event. All feedback (as long as it’s constructive) is good feedback, so make sure you ask.
So, Was it a Success?
So, were my events a success? That’s not completely down to me to say. Feedback has been good from both stakeholders and attendees, and there have been a number of ideas and suggestions that I’ll be taking on board to do things differently next time.
Remember, even if the event doesn’t go 100% smoothly on the day it doesn’t mean your event isn’t a success. Success is defined by people enjoying the event, but also wanting to come back in the future.
