People are often surprised that a staff of four produces a conference with attendance ranging from 800 to 1,000 people, on top of all of the other programming that we provide throughout the year. With 100 conferences under our belts we have quite the handbook that we use to keep us on track. We thought we would “pull back the curtain” and share a little bit of the event-planning logistics that goes into each conference.

Volunteers

First and foremost, we would like to thank all of our volunteers who help with the conference. Volunteers include the NEMA board, Professional Affinity Group (PAG) Chairs, the local committee, session proposal readers, on-site volunteers, and speakers. The conference is a group effort with a lot of moving parts and we couldn’t do it without all their help.

Theme

Where do conference themes come from? Though ultimately decided and refined by the NEMA staff, we get ideas from all over. We pay attention to the topics which are current discussions in the field, on social media and mainstream media coverage of current events affecting museums, and sometimes the ideas come from NEMA members who say “I’d love to see X…” We also get inspiration from the location of the upcoming conference, or try to build off a previous conference theme that seemed to have room for more exploration.

How much does the theme matter when you’re planning a conference session? That’s really up to you! A lot of people find the theme helpful in the brainstorming process, as a way to focus their ideas or potential avenues of discussion; others find it irrelevant for the really cool idea they already have. Once the session proposal is submitted, a panel of NEMA staff and volunteer proposal readers go through all the submissions to try to build as well-rounded and compelling a slate of sessions as possible. In practice, this means we’re looking for both thematic and non-thematic session proposals, so work with a theme exactly as far as it works for you!

The theme matters most when we’re considering keynote options. We like to mix up the formats to keep it interesting from year to year; one speaker versus a panel discussion, performances, or interview. We’re always open to suggestions, and we like to feature, where possible, a person or group local to the conference location that year. Dan (NEMA's Executive Director) works with the keynote presenters to mold their presentation to suit the audience, the space, and the time constraints, and, yes, the conference theme.

Sessions

Every year, a rotating cast of volunteers including NEMA Board members, PAG chairs, and interested people from the NEMA membership, join members of the NEMA staff to go over all the sessions that have been proposed for conference. To streamline the selection process, we ask each reader to ‘captain’ a subsection of proposals. They read the proposals in their subsection carefully, thinking about clarity of topic and description, the initial speaker list, and likely appeal to the NEMA conference audience. Then they present briefly about each session to the rest of the team with their recommendation for acceptance, amendment, or adjustment for another avenue. Then the team discusses and comes to a decision on each session, looking to create the broadest range of topics and speakers possible.

Often an idea that doesn’t seem to fit for conference has “legs” as a webinar, journal article, or other option in NEMA’s programming. Other times there are sessions that are very similar, or present different sides of corresponding topics, and those sessions are sometimes asked to merge, so that we get the benefit of more voices, rather than having to reject one. Still other times, an idea doesn’t feel quite complete, and the session facilitator might get a message from the team asking them to include a different kind of voice, sometimes even with suggestions of particular people or institutions that could contribute to the topic. We like to include both recognized authorities and new voices in conference sessions, which is why sometimes you might get a message from us asking you to resubmit next year in order to make space for people who have never had a chance to present before, or to include new or underrepresented voices on your panel.

Local Committee

One of the highlights of every conference is the chance to get to visit local museums. Seeing what our conference-neighbors are up to, with new exhibits, behind the scenes tours, and innovative programming, is as much fun for the NEMA staff in the run up to conference as it is for conference attendees at off-site and evening events!

For us, conference season starts in January or early February with a trip to our upcoming conference location, to tour the hotel and have a chance to meet with members of the local museum community to start planning. We go over the logistical requirements for hosting events, and also ask our host organizations for suggestions on good restaurants, local knowledge of upcoming events, and suggestions for programming, especially the keynote.

Potential host organizations then have about a month to brainstorm what an off-site session or evening event might look like at their site, oftentimes calling us to talk through possibilities. What kinds of events are popular? How do we set the ticket prices? How do timing and transportation work?

We want events to be as affordable as possible, understanding that catering costs are usually the biggest bite out of any event planning process. NEMA needs a nominal piece of the ticket price to defray the cost of busing, but after that, the ticket price is determined by the host site, looking at their budgets for food and beverage. Usually the host site waives any other event costs (rental fees, staff costs for extended hours, etc.) as their contribution to the museum community. We set timing in a conversation between us in the office and the host site: when do sessions let out for the day? What’s the travel time needed? How long do you need for your tour/progressive dinner/cruise? We recommend that events that are not serving dinner start either late enough or end early enough to allow for people to eat on one side or the other. For off-site daytime sessions, timing is based on the site’s schedule and also the speakers’ since sometimes speakers might be on panels with potential conflicts.

Location and Hotel Selection

We try to rotate the NEMA conference around the six New England states as much as possible. Experience and the post-conference survey tells us that the most successful conferences are easily accessible to a majority of our members, have scenic beauty or historical interest, have an interesting “vibe,” have interesting museums attendees can visit, and are affordable.

In addition to providing rooms for concurrent sessions, we need space to hold a keynote/opening session, two simultaneous sit down lunches which accommodate up to 400 people on average, an exhibit hall of 50 or more vendors (10,000 sq. ft.), and the annual meeting lunch (usually around 200 people). The hotel will also need to have at least 200 guest rooms available per night for attendees.

You may be asking yourself, “Why don’t they just go to a convention center?” We have investigated convention centers in the past and for future conferences, but in general have decided against them. Conference attendees tell us repeatedly that bumping into friends and colleagues in the hallways is an important part of their NEMA experience. We feel that a convention center would make the conference less intimate. Convention centers are also much more expensive, and that would impact the cost of conference registration significantly. We do our best to keep the costs low so the conference is accessible to more people.

Due to the large size of the conference, there are a limited number of New England hotels with the space to hold us. We work with Conference Direct, a meeting planning service, in selecting conference sites. They research hotel availability, and due to the volume of business they manage, they are able to negotiate on our behalf with the hotel to secure the best rates on hotel rooms and cost of food and beverage (f/b), as well as any other concessions, like free wi-fi for attendees, free parking where possible, etc. Hotels make their money on food and rooms booked, so contracts always include a required minimum for both of those. In turn, the hotel provides free meeting spaces. If we do not meet the contractually required minimums there is a financial penalty. Therefore, it’s always an educated guess on how many nights to reserve in the initial room block; there’s a balance to strike between being sure we can meet the minimums, and trying to reserve as many rooms as possible early on to have enough discounted rooms for attendees.

Contracts with the hotel also include protections for NEMA’s investments and the quality of your conference experience. This includes everything from “force majeure” events like extreme weather, war, or being commandeered by the US government to smaller issues that can impact your hotel visit, like changes in hotel management or brand, construction or other renovations, or removal of promised services and facilities. In response to labor issues throughout the hospitality field, NEMA has also requested that Conference Direct start to include clauses in our contracts regarding labor disputes. This has been added into existing contracts, such as for the 2019 conference, and will be in all contracts in future.

With all of these requirements (room availability and sizes, meal cost concerns, etc.), we try to plan our conferences several years in advance so we have the best possible spread of locations and options.  Fortunately, we currently have the hotels through 2021 contracted and are close to a decision for 2022. Once that anchor point is settled, an entire web of other contracts starts growing around it. In addition to working with the hotel, we contract with audio/visual companies and bus companies, as well as working with the local host site to plan off-site and evening events. Those institutions also contract with caterers and other vendors, and then there are our own exhibitors, many of whom plan their travel and pay for their booths months in advance, and depend on our conference to advance their businesses. Their annual budgets, like ours, are often built around the conference; in our own way, NEMA is a part of the creative economy with direct and indirect economic impact just like all of your organizations!

Coffee, Tea, and Food

Food and beverage are a cornerstone of your conference experience, and a proportionately important piece of the conference budget. Coffee and tea are important to most peoples’ conference happiness. But to the NEMA staff paying the bills it’s “liquid gold.” People are often astounded when we tell them how much coffee and food generally cost at conference hotels. In the past few years, coffee has cost between $35 - $75 per gallon, which means between $3.50 and $7.50 per serving. Overall, our food and beverage bill is usually in the $60,000 range, depending on the number of attendees. So it’s a real balancing act to make sure we keep everyone well-caffeinated and well-fed while also keeping conference costs affordable to our attendees.

We work hard with the conference hotel to create meals that are tasty, affordable, and offer options for any dietary restriction (vegetarian/vegan, gluten-free, or any other allergy). Typically our contract locks in current prices for our conference 2 – 3 years later. Industry research shows that, yes, chicken is the most flexible entrée for conference meals, but we try to encourage a reasonable variety whenever we can, and we take in a taste test on pre-conference site visits.

Exhibit Hall and Sponsors

The NEMA conference also features an exhibit hall. We have 45 to 60 exhibitors each year depending upon the size of the hotel. They offer a wide range of products and services to the museum field. We try hard to make our exhibitors and all of our business members feel appreciated as part of our NEMA community. They depend upon the contacts that they make during the conference to sustain their businesses. To this end, we locate our “Demonstration Station” in the exhibit hall, plus snack breaks, box lunch pickup, and opening/closing receptions (including the popular NEMA raffle). Don’t forget to network with them since they are a very knowledgeable group of people and you never know when you might need their products or services. Many of our exhibitors are long-term NEMA supporters; University Products has been exhibiting with us since our first exhibit hall in 1985.

Revenue and Expenses

Producing a conference of this size can create quite a few expenses. Did you know it costs $975 to rent an LCD projector and screen for three days? Laptops cost $200 a day to rent, which is one of the reasons why we ask speakers to bring their own. We try and keep our expenses down in order to keep the price of attending the conference low.

Conference revenue sustains NEMA for the rest of the year, accounting for about half of our operating budget (with another 40% from membership and 10% from other sources like grants and workshops). Conference revenue supports all our other programming and member resources, much of which we provide at no cost, like Lunch with NEMA webinars, New England Museums Now, and our advocacy efforts.

Scholarships

Conference revenue also supports our professional development scholarships to help others in the field who can’t afford to get to conference on their own. Other scholarships are funded by individuals, institutions, or companies, and we are incredibly grateful to all of those people who see investing in the learning of their colleagues as a worthwhile donation.

Attendee Comfort

Every year, we try to get better about providing options to make conference comfortable, convenient, and accessible. For those who don’t like carrying extra paper and appreciate a “green conference,” we introduced the conference app in 2012. For nursing mothers and baby-caregivers, we provide a family rest zone with privacy, comfy chairs, and a basket of amenities. For attendees with disabilities, we do our best to offer a completely accessible event. For the comfort of all, we have begun incorporating gender-neutral restroom options and self-identification pronoun stickers. Some of our “comfort options” vary from year to year based on the spaces available at each location, but with enough advance notice, we’ll do everything in our power to accommodate your needs.  If there’s a way we can improve your conference experience, please let us know as soon as possible.

Post-Conference Wrap-Up

After conference (and a long nap or two), we review every evaluation sheet dropped in a box, every response to the post-conference survey, and every tweet in that year’s conference hashtag.  We debrief with the board and PAG chairs, and use all that combined feedback to start our list of ideas and amendments for the upcoming conference, starting the cycle over again in December with the next theme and call for session proposals. And on that note, we hope to see you in November in Vermont!