Note: I am on leave through the end of the month. If you have a comment or question, you might have to wait a little longer than usual for me to respond.

Congratulations! Your hard efforts to write a winning event proposal and present it to the appropriate authorities have been successful. You’ve been given authority to proceed and at least a preliminary budget to start executing your plans. What do you do now?

Do What You Said You Were Going to Do

This sounds straightforward, but occasionally a team will receive a budget and then use it for purposes other than what was intended. Don’t do that. It’s a great way to get fired, or even arrested for embezzlement.

Instead, take a look at the tasks you’ve set before yourself–getting the location approved, confirming hotel rooms (if needed), getting a contract signed with the convention center for chairs, tables, audio-visual equipment, and so forth, inviting your speakers, and so forth–and determine what you can and must do first.

• Celebrate (sensibly–there’s a lot of work to do)!
• Invite the speakers or other individuals providing “content”
• Recruit and assign work to the volunteers
• Set up a “kick-off” meeting with your organization’s management and the the event location’s management (could be divided into hotel and conference center meetings)
• If your group has content to develop, start creating that
• Start setting up invitations and marketing materials for attendees and sponsorship packets for organizations
• Establish a calendar and start taking on the big items first

May the force be with you.

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