My employing firm has our annual Limited Partner’s meeting coming up within the next month and I have had to help plan many aspects of it. Sitting in a conference this past week made me contemplate some suggestions that I should make sure are implemented in our upcoming conference. Some of my suggestions would be (and note that this isn’t directed toward the conference I just attended, but merely my thoughts towards needed features):

• Provide internet access. Of course this depends on the type of conference and its setting. If it is a conference were people freely move around, internet access should definitely be provided. There was much talk at this past conference concerning the lack of Internet access, especially because many of the presentations needed to hop online for demos since it was a tech conference. In fact, I actually left the conference early, rather than staying through all the panels, because I had gone half a day without being able to check my emails and felt that I needed to see if there was anything pressing back in the office.
• The audio quality needs to be superb. If people can not hear, they will start talking and soon there is no hope anyone else will hear.
• The person in charge should have all the answers. When I asked for a needed code to hop on the Internet, I was directed to a house phone and told who was the conference contact. I spoke with the man, who was really helpful, but felt that I or any other attendee should not have had to call the conference contact. For our upcoming conference we should have a pre-conference walk through with all the office members and know the answers to the questions, or at least point them to someone in our office who will have the answer.
• The setting and conference should be at the highest quality that is affordable, depending of course on the purpose of the conference.

* Please note that everything I write is of my opinion only and does not reflect the opinions of my employer.