5 Ways to Avoid Meeting ChaosAre you having nightmares about your next meeting, conference, or convention? Are the logistics keeping you up at night? Here are some great tips to avoid chaos at your next event and keep everything running smoothly.

#1: Look at Every Aspect of Your Location

Is the event city easy to find? What about the venue? Does the location come up on GPS or Google Maps? What about parking? When attendees are in the meeting facility, can they easily find your location? Can attendees easily find restaurants and other attractions within the city?

If the venue is difficult to find, doesn’t register on a GPS, and parking is a hassle, consider a different location. One way to eliminate confusion with on-site logistics, is to incorporate kiosk rentals into your event budget. Touch panel kiosks can serve as digital signage to direct attendees to the various breakout sessions, provide a map of the venue and surrounding areas, and serve as a digital concierge, providing information about local eateries and entertainment.

#2: Use Technology to Simplify Your Event

Technology is becoming easier to use and renting equipment simplifies your event planning. Consider the following ideas to make your life easier:
  • Eliminate all paper and binders by renting iPads or Tablet PCs and giving them to your attendees. No shipping of paper, tracking it down, and assembling binders at the last minute. Everything can be preloaded ahead of time.
  • Eliminate more paper and time by using Audience Response System rentals to tally attendee evaluations.
  • Hire a qualified AV company to set-up your presentation services audio visual equipment and stay on site with an experience AV technician. Have the AV tech work directly with your presenter to set up everything well in advance.

#3: Have a Backup Plan

Have the audiovisual technicians on-site so they can easily swap out failed equipment. Worse case, make certain all your speakers have a hard copy of their presentation with them.

 

If a speaker cancels unexpectantly or something more severe happens, such as a loss of electricity or weather related crisis, make certain you have a crisis plan.

#4: Go the Extra Mile

Get everything in writing and then check and double check your details. Have others check everything as well, especially collateral items that go out to attendees. If an attendee has a question or concern, address it right away. Don’t put it off or minimize it.

#5: Hire Really Good Project Managers

 

An overall event project manager is like gold. They will make certain a detailed task list is created with task, responsible party, and date to be completed. They may even create a Gannt Chart, so you know which items are dependent on others. Good project managers are also excellent communicators and will let you know if something is not on target and why it isn’t.

In addition, you may wish to hire specifically targeted project managers, such as an AV project manager. These managers are very instrumental during the pre-planning stage, as well as, during the event. They can:

  • Act as a liaison between the technical staff and the planner
  • Be the go-to-person during the event
  • Offer technical expertise and
  • Advise you on possible budget run-ups with technology and labor
AV Event Solutions can make certain your next event come off without a hitch. They provide computer kiosks, iPads, Tablet PCs, wireless audience response systems, and highly experience project managers. Give them a call today!