Programming - Things to Consider

There are many things to consider while planning your program. Different aspects of your program plan can interact to aide or to hinder its success. A lot of Programming is coming up with cool ideas, with good people to make them shine, figuring out a schedule with no conflicts (moments where a program participant is expected to be in two places at once), and fitting everything into your available spaces. Here are some specific things to think about while you're doing that.

Audience

For each program item, think about the probable audience for that item. What

Number

Is this going to be a popular program item? How popular? The general rule is that it's better to put an item in a room that's slightly too small for it than in a room that's way too big for it, but generally you want there to be space for people to join an event when its already under way.

If one of your Guests of Honor is a big draw, you need to keep this in mind when scheduling his or her programming.

Building Layout

Facilities

If you can help it, do not put children's programming or babysitting someplace where people will have to walk the kids all the way down a long hall to go to the bathroom. I'm just sayin' is all.

Equipment and Furniture

I could have put this anywhere, but I put it under building layout because I encourage you to think of your Program Ops staff (and hotel staff) when planning the program. If you have multiple program items that require a projector for a presentation, or a particular workshop-style layout, consider scheduling them back-to-back in the same room to reduce the number of room changeovers. If you must switch equipment from room to room, try to make such switches fairly local and small in number, instead of having your staff run themselves ragged from a distant annex and back.