Kim Stevenson
TBE Director & Professional Conference Manager

Company Director Kim Stevenson has been in conferences and hospitality for more than 26 years and loves the diversity of conferences she gets to work on. She shares with us why attention to detail is so important in conference planning, the importance of getting along with your PCO and how technology has changed the process.

Hi Kim, as the Company Director and Conference Manager at Think Business Events what do you see yourself primarily responsible for?

I see my role as primarily focusing on the building of trusting relationships and the management of expectations with both clients and staff alike.  With clients it’s about building a relationship where they’re comfortable  to trust me and my staff to take them through the full end-to-end conference planning process.  With staff it’s about building internal knowledge, a motivating team environment and establishing a clear understanding of individual staff roles and the level of service expected.

When planning a conference what do you consider the most important aspects to consider?

Firstly, considering we’re dealing with committees over a long period of time, good open communication is fundamental.  You really need to get to a level where both parties can freely express concerns, debate decisions and most importantly listen to different opinions and needs.

Secondly, with the actual planning of a conference attention to detail is a very important component to remember.  A successful conference is the sum of many different parts and each aspect of a conference needs to be delivered at its most optimal to achieve positive success.

A successful conference is the sum of many different parts and each aspect of a conference needs to be delivered at its most optimal to achieve positive success.

What is generally a client’s biggest fear when they find themselves responsible for a conference? 

The two big fears which generally tie in one with one another is 1. not selling registration and 2. seeing a financial loss with the conference.

Once again this is solved by making sure that every aspect of the conference is well considered. To drive registrations you need an innovative and quality program that attracts attendees, a good marketing strategy to get the words out and an industry best registration process to ease the process of registering.

To see a positive fiscal outcome for your conference you need to set financial objectives from the outset, create a flexible budget that meets these needs and have the ability to negotiate with suppliers so you can remain within the set budget parameters.

What are the biggest mistakes most conference committees tend to make? 

Largely people really underestimate the amount of time it takes to properly plan a conference.   There are a number of outcomes that rely upon the response of others (i.e. call for submissions, booking available speakers, registrations) so you’ve got to account for this in your planning.   The other mistake is committees have champagne ideas on a beer budget – it’s really important to manage  such expectations so you can work within your budget.

Many of your clients often say both you and Denise both have a remarkable ability to stay calm under pressure, what’s the secret?

Our mentor instilled in us that there is a solution to every problem and you just need to calmly work through the situation to achieve a positive outcomes.  We both know that stressing in such situations will only make the problems worse and will not put our committees at ease.

To drive registrations you need an innovative and quality program that attracts attendees, a good marketing strategy to get the word out and an industry best registration system to ease the process of registering.

What do you love most about conference management?

I love the diversity of clients and conferences I get to work with. No conference is the same.  I also enjoy the challenge of working with associations on limited budgets and making things happening that the committee envisioned. It can be hard work but it’s so worth seeing a happy client at the end of the day. 

What would you say has been the biggest change in the industry?

Without a doubt technology and the speed at which new innovations are coming onto the market. It can be quite exciting, however, it also brings short falls such as emails where people expect replies fairly instantaneously.  This creates a lot of extra work for the team.

Hire a PCO who knows what they’re doing and can lead you along the right path. Make sure it’s someone you can get along with and trust as the planning process is often in excess of 12 months.

What would be your top tip to someone organising a conference for the first time?

Hire a PCO that knows what they are doing and can lead you along the right path. But most importantly, make sure it’s someone you can get along with and trust as the planning process is often in excess of 12 months.

And lastly, what do you do when you are not conferencing? 

You will be able to find me either sampling any of the new restaurants or cafes or planning my next holiday adventure.

Denise Broeren
TBE Director & Professional Conference Manager

Company Director Denise Broeren has been in conference management for more than 15 years.  Building professional relationships is her favourite part of being a PCO and  she loves getting her teeth into the adventure of a new conference.  She shares her tips and advice here on how to deliver a successful conference and tell us how technology has changed the conference landscape. 

Hi Denise, as the Company Director and Conference Manager at Think Business Events what are you responsible for?

I see my primary responsibility as creating and nurturing client relationships.  It’s a process of managing client visions of what they want out of their conference and delivering a successful working conference while building a strong ongoing partnership.

What do you consider the most important aspect when managing relationships and conferences?

For relationship success it’s about building trust and open communication.  It’s really important to us  we become trusted partners known to have their client’s best interests in mind in everything  we do for their conference.

For conference success it’s about identifying what is most important to the client. This involves identifying the objectives of the conference so we can best plan how to work with the committee to achieve their goals. 

It’s really important to us we become trusted partners known to have their client’s best interests in mind in everything we do.

What are client’s biggest fears when they find themselves responsible for a conference? 

The unknown!  How many people will come? Will the budget stretch to cover costs? Will there be a surplus?

Our forte is our experience. We  know how to make it work and bring all the ideas together to deliver a successful conference.  We aim to build confidence in the process through achieving milestones along the way that’ll point to ultimate positive outcomes.

What is the biggest mistake most conference committees  make? 

Not allowing enough time.

It takes time to prepare and plan a successful conference.  Booking a venue and organising the AV is not what takes the time, but rather human nature. It takes time for people to become aware of a conference, to think about submitting a paper, to get around to registering before their diary becomes too full.

Getting the word out there about your conference, reaching your audience and convincing them to participate has to be done in a timely, well planned and engaging process.

We were both taught that there is always a solution for every problem.  We constantly work under that premise, so when a curly one presents itself, we know we can find a solution that will avoid any issues. 

Many of your clients often say both you and Kim both have a remarkable ability to stay calm under pressure.  What’s the secret?

We’ve both been taught there is always a solution for every problem.  We constantly work under that premise, so when a curly one presents itself, we know we can find a solution that’ll minimise  any issues.

But most importantly we plan to not fail.  You don’t spend 6 months building a house to find the walls don’t support the ceiling!  We work on building a solid foundation, so that any issues that do occur will have minimal impact.

It’s also reassuring we work with trusted suppliers, so when we do need to pull a rabbit out of a hat, we have the means to do so.

What do you love most about conference management?

The dynamic nature of it.  Every client and every conference is different.

I love the challenge and change of it.  Even for clients for whom we’ve been working with for ten plus years – every year we look together at what we can do better, streamlining, introducing new technology, new ideas, responding to delegate feedback.

Recently at an initial meeting for a regular clients conference, we brainstormed the ‘desired outcomes’ for the conference, and one of them was implementing at least two new innovations for the program.  What a fun thing to get your teeth into – to get the mind exploring.  Every conference is an adventure.

What would you say has been the biggest change in the industry?

Introduction of technology.  I was in the industry when abstracts used to be submitted via fax, so you can image the arduous process of documenting, circulating hard copies to reviewers etc.  Everything is so much more streamlined these days.  Also technology is moving so fast, there are  many interesting ways to get delegate connecting and interacting more than ever.

 It can be such an exhilarating ride to organise and host a conference, as long as you have the right people riding with you.

What would be your top tip to someone organising a conference for the first time?

Appoint a PCO! You need someone to guide you through all the challenges, but also to show you ways to bring your conference alive with ideas, innovation and technology.  It can be such an exhilarating ride to organise and host a conference, as long as you have the right people riding with you.

And lastly, what do you do when you are not conferencing? 

Trekking by night.  It’s my favourite thing. Once a week, rain hail or shine, heading out into the bush by night to trek the tracks and leave the worries of the day behind