Creating a conference agenda: A guide

Prepared by June Lee, MCVP TM 10-11

AIESEC New Zealand PO BOX 11-126, Manners Street, Wellington (04) 499 - 6480 June Lee (MCVP TM): june.lee@aiesec.org.nz

2011

Your guide to creating an Agenda for conferences/Regional Training Seminars

Start with the objectives of your conference. The overall objectives of your conference can be analysed on 3 levels; Learning both AIESEC and general skills Motivation delegates making social connections, enthusiasm, and connection with organizational vision/values Action Steps both immediate and in the long term.

These are the overall objectives of your conference, and all the facilitating team and the EB members responsible should understand these. Once these objectives have been identified, this forms the parameters of your agenda brainstorm.

Brainstorming process: Create a time where all participants can meet (physically and/or virtually), where a session brainstorming process can happen. Allocate at least 2 hours for both explanation and discussion for participants.

Facilitation: A facilitator for this brainstorming session should be selected; this person is responsible for encouraging participants to contribute, and for the output after the session. The facilitator needs to act to continually remind participants of the objectives of the conference. This role should go to the agenda manager. Attitude: At this stage, all ideas, opinions, concerns and contribution is valid, and the facilitator should moderate to ensure that everyone is heard and contributing. o Facilitators: Apply the Law of 2 feet in this brainstorming session if people find themselves not contributing (or learning), they should exercise their own responsibility (i.e. their own 2 feet) to find another way to contribute or learn. In the context of brainstorming, if people have exhausted a single concept, they should move on to building and contributing to another idea. Inclusion: o Should have all Delivery Teams contribution the people creating and delivering the sessions should have a solid understanding of the conference objectives, and also, the input into what session are run (so, when they come to create the session, they understand how their session will contribute to the overall objectives of the conference)

Prepared by June Lee (MCVP TM, New Zealand)

Email: june.lee@aiesec.org.nz

EB contribution: EBs of LCs (if there is multiple LCs) should ACTIVELY be contributing, because they best understand the needs of the LC from a strategic perspective. Middle Managers and Senior Members: Either within functional meetings or within the brainstorming sessions, Middle Managers and senior members should be able to contribute, as they will be able to shed light on some skills developmental needs of operational members in the Local Committee.

The Process: Objectives: Present the objectives to the group, and ensure that everyone has a good understanding of what these objectives are, and the context. Allow time for discussion and questions, and be prepared for potential input or altering of objectives based on discussion/feedback. o By the end of this discussion, everyone should have an understanding of how the objectives of the conference fits into the immediate and long term plan and vision of the LC. Identify the delegation profile: Identify the delegation profile. This can be done by segmenting the delegation by factors such as knowledge levels, experience (seniority could be a factor are there delegates that are finishing their AIESEC career soon? Recently returned members?), and key learning requirements (are there potential EB/LR role members in a session? If so, what should they learn in now for a successful term?) o Group these people into as many or as few as necessary. This does not determine the amount of tracks, so logistics concerns can be disregarded for the time being. o This step can be done within an EB group in advance, and presented to the rest of the group. Brainstorming: In groups of 3-4, participants suggest any and all ideas about sessions for each of the delegate groups (as identified above). There is no particular order that the groups need to discuss, and when participants feel that they cant contribute more ideas to a particular section, they are free to move on. Assign as much time as required for this, and groups can present their ideas at the end of this time. o Facilitator: Assign an individual in each group to record the ideas. Encourage the recorder to be as precise about what they write as possible. Consolidation: Once completed, the facilitator and/or the Agenda Manager should gather all these ideas into output. Consolidation takes 2 steps: o Grouping the ideas: Many of the ideas generated will overlap, having similar objectives, but articulated differently. The agenda manager needs to be able to recognize these and group these ideas together, and consolidate it to one over-arching objective. o Prioritizing: Of all the groups of ideas that arise, prioritize those with objectives that best meet the overall objectives of the conference. o Writing your first draft, and collecting feedback: Writing the first draft of the agenda will be the most challenging. Looking at past agendas often help as a reference. In writing your first draft, focus on creating blocks of objectives and ideas, and making the objectives flow, rather than specific session details.

Prepared by June Lee (MCVP TM, New Zealand)

Email: june.lee@aiesec.org.nz

Focus on delivering your first agenda out as soon as possible the feedback process will help shape the rest of the agenda much quicker.

For Agenda Managers:

On writing the agenda: Be prepared to make many draft agendas National conferences will have as much as 15+ agendas. The frequency of agendas released will depend on the urgency in the earlier stages of conference preparation, you may take anywhere between 3 days to a week, to gather large amounts of feedback. As time progresses, the alterations made will be smaller, so you will be releasing new agendas more frequently. Agenda flow should move from broad to narrow for instance, sessions that focus on AIESEC 2015 or National level strategies should feature much earlier in the agenda; planning orientated items often feature in the middle, and specific skills building sessions such as AIESEC Uni often feature later in the agenda. Bonding sessions need to happen as early as possible in the agenda. Flows of an agenda should mirror flows in real-time processes a session that delivers theoretical learning should be followed by a session that gives delegates an opportunity to apply their skills; if a session is about exchange flow, it could follow the CC-TM-OGX order. The difference in objectives/ideas of sessions should be grouped in colours on agendas, for better visual representation. For instance, session that focus on bonding can be green, skills building sessions are blue, self-reflection/motivation sessions are orange, and so on. This will help both yourself and others understand the overall flow of the agenda. Budget for time both at the beginning of the day, and at the end of the day to explain the agenda, and to sum up the agenda. Look to previous agendas for examples of sessions that ran successfully, and sessions that were not as successful to avoid making the same mistakes.

On working with the Facilitators: Create a rotation for your facilitators they should not facilitate for more that 4-5 hour blocks at a time. Always remind the facilitators of the overall objectives of the conference, so they design their sessions with the objectives in mind. Encourage Facilitators to find delegate-orientated objectives within their own sessions that align with the conference objectives for instance, a session objective could fulfil the learning and motivation component of the overall objective, or the learning and action step component. Encourage facilitators to also develop flow between their own sessions. Avoid letting your agenda dictate how a session should be run this is up to the facilitator and co-facilitator to decide.

Prepared by June Lee (MCVP TM, New Zealand)

Email: june.lee@aiesec.org.nz

On logistics and the agenda: Budget for 2-3 short breaks in the agenda. Sessions after meals should be interactive or discussion orientated people will be sleepy after meals. Think of how social events are going to impact your agenda (e.g. Boat Races) Be prepared to change the agenda at last minute in the face of uncertain events, flexibility is the key.

On seeking and receiving feedback: Your source of feedback should be the main stakeholders most likely, your EB, some middle managers, and MC personnel. Ask for feedback and suggestions from previous agenda managers.

At the conference: Budget time into the conference to explain the days agenda to the delegation. Give the delegation an understanding of what they can expect to learn from the day or conference. At the end of the day, do a recap or summary of the day for delegates, to see if expectations/objectives have been met.

Prepared by June Lee (MCVP TM, New Zealand)

Email: june.lee@aiesec.org.nz