AITP Region 5 Fall 2012 Conference Report
November 3, 2012
By Larry Schmitz, Conference Co-Chair
Attached is the financial summary of the AITP Region 5 Fall Conference held October 10-11, 2012 at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Northeastern Wisconsin Chapter was the host chapter. The conference also included the Association Annual Meeting of the Members as well as a "face to face" Assn Board Meeting and the
Region 5 Board Meeting and Leadership Workshop.
Since we had Norbert Kubilus, Association President, as our banquet speaker, we didn't offer a Gold Sponsorship this year.
We offered 7 Silver Sponsorships which included:
-opportunity to host a seminar session with their speaker at their expense
-prime location exhibit table ( 8' skirted table with electrical and free WiFi)-these exhibit tables were located right where the break refreshments (and later the cocktail hour) were located)
-two passes to the conference. Other members of their company could register for the conference at AITP professional member price.
-The cost of a Silver Sponsorship was $775.
We focused our sponsor recruiting efforts to fill these slots first so that we had our seminar topics and speakers locked down as early as possible to be able to go public with promoting the conference. It worked well and we filled them quickly and were able to establish our web page promotions to include the entire program with topics and speakers.
We also reserved the "number one" exhibit table location for our own use for our Membership Booth. This also worked well as we had 34 student members (future professional members) and 50 non-members in attendance. The Assn Membership Committee also piggybacked on our Membership table to recruit people to attend Membership Focus Groups they held during the conference. The booth itself was organized and hosted by the NEW chapter. The NEW Chapter President, Ron Mathis, personally manned the booth all day long--which I think speaks volumes about how important the membership issue is to the Northeastern Wisconsin Chapter. Cudos to them for their efforts.
We also offered Bronze Sponsorships. These were the same as the Silver but without the seminar/speaker opportunity and a less desirable exhibit table location (but still in high traffic areas right outside the seminar rooms). We charged $400 for the Bronze Sponsorships and had
5 Bronze Sponsors plus one Media Sponsor (which was a Bronze Sponsorship we bartered with a business magazine publication for approximately $800 in ads in their magazine in return for a Bronze Sponsorship).
All of the sponsors/exhibitors were in the area of the breaks/seminar rooms so they had steady traffic all day (verses being stuck in a side room as we have seen at other AITP conferences--worked for us--and our sponsors).
In addition to the 7 sponsor hosted seminars, we organized a Career Planning Panel Discussion session that was repeated twice during the conference seminar timetable. The panel included two professionals from the career planning/job placement field and two AITP members who had been touched by the IT job market "blues". The seminar got rave reviews from those who attended. However, we erred in holding it twice since the attendance didn't warrant taking up two seminar slots.
Part of that stems from our anticipation that this would appeal to the student members--and this year we had 34 students vs last year when we had 85.
However, that said, it was a good thing to do. Those who attended really appreciated the practical advice they received. In fact, all of our sessions got high marks from the conference attendees. And that was our goal--to have diverse topics and quality speakers-and, based on the session evaluation forms, we succeeded in accomplishing that goal.
Financially, the conference was a huge success. This can be attributed to how we plan. We plan our conferences so that the registration cost for a professional member covers the cost of food and beverages provided as part of the conference--and doing a good job of negotiating with the hotel for "comp" (no charge) on items that hotels like to "nickel/dime" you on.
In our case, we charged $40 for professional members, $20 for student AITP members (non-member students paid "non-member" fees--and we checked student member rosters to ensure they were really dues paying members). This worked well since the cost of non-members attending the conference was $50 and the cost to BECOME a student AITP member is $30--some of our faculty advisors used this to get their IT students to join AITP and be eligible to apply for scholarships and attend the NCC. We had one Faculty Advisor who made it a requirement for students to ride the bus provided by the University that they be AITP student members--She is FANTASTIC!!
The cost of the buffet dinner and the breaks both days worked out to be around $35/person. So we made $5 per professional member and $15 per non-member and lost $15 per student member. So we accomplished that financial goal as well.
By going with a buffet, we were able to offer food for everybody's dietary needs (meat lasagna, chicken, vegetarian pasta options). That also worked well--being a buffet, and with lots of side dishes, salads, people could eat what they like and as much as they liked. Based on the evaluation forms--it was a big success. Delicious food, plenty of variety, plenty to eat (for meat lovers and "twig nibblers"--grin). In addition, for anybody who understand the cost model for hotels or other banquet facilities, buffets are always less expensive than plated meals.
The other critical factor in planning a successful conference is the hotel negotiation. We used our banquet revenue to leverage some other "comp"(free/no charge) things from the hotel that most groups pay for.
We got the Assn President's suite for free. We got the Region President's suite for free (in Region 5, this cost is the responsibility of the hosting chapter). We got the Hospitality Room for free (again, a cost responsibility of the host chapter in Region 5). In addition, we got the hotel room for the Hospitality Chair for free, got all our meeting rooms/seminar rooms and two board rooms (one for the Assn Board and one for the NEW Board) for free. We also got all the exhibit skirted tables w/electrical and free WiFi for free. And the A/V for the banquet was also free.
We also got a super deal on hotel rooms for our attendees. $79/night--single or double, that included a full buffet breakfast in their Pine Tree Grill.
Bottom Line
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Committee that put this whole thing together and executed our plan. We had a mix of "newbies" and "seasoned, successful Conference Committee veterans". It worked well. We had one GREAT committee and everybody did their job and "pulled on their oar" right when we needed them to. That really is what makes a successful conference.