Spatial And Functionality Operational Requirements For Different Conference And Exhibition Scenarios

Small conference for two days

Write a 1500 word essay in which you analyse the spatial and functionality operational requirements for the three different conference and exhibition scenarios.

Conferences generally understood as a meeting of several people to discuss a particular topic. Conferences are differed from the each other in terms of size and purpose, and the term used to cover the general concept. At conference, innovative ideas and new information exchanged among the members. Attending conferences is very useful for individuals, by attending conferences they get chance of networking with peers, encounter new vendors and suppliers, they can position themselves as an expert, get new ideas and knowledge, and they can have fun (Rabinowitz, 2017). This essay is designed to identify the spatial and functionality operational requirements for three different conferences, first is small conference for two days, which include workshop and forum for approx. 200 delegates and 10 exhibitors. Second is medium size conference for 3 days, which include 6-8 concurrent sessions every day and various social networking activities for approx. 1500 delegates and 50 exhibitors. Third is major international conference for 5 days, which include plenary and concurrent session and social networking activities with award ceremony and closing gala dinner for approx. 5000 delegates and 400 exhibitors.

Spatial requirements for small conference for 2 days, which include 200 delegates, 10 exhibitors involves first the venue where the organisers can organise their exhibition. The conference involves 10 exhibition stalls, workshop and forum. For workshop the organiser will require a conference room with the capacity of 200 people at a time, the same conference room can be utilised for forum. The venue should have additional space for stalls, the size of stalls did not matter what matters is its attractiveness. There are 10 stalls at conference the ideal size for the stalls at small conferences is 4 meters × 4 meters it is almost around 16 square meters. The total space required for 10 stalls will be 160 square meters. 160 square meters is for stalls but for movement of delegates they need additional space. When organisers choose the venue they should focus on those places, which have one conference room with the capacity of 200 people at a time and an open or covered area of almost, around 250 square meters.    

Functionality operational requirements for small conference are when the venue is fixed according to the area required the organisers will focus on the other requirements for the conference. The basic requirements for conducting small conference are availability of electricity, toilets for both men and women separately. For workshop and forum, the organisers need to make available a proper sitting arrangement the chairs need to be comfortable, as the guest has to a spend lot of time while sitting on them. For workshop, the company require desks on which they can put their stuff required at the time when they participate in workshop. On every desk, they need to place water bottles pen and a writing pad. Organises need to check the quality of light in the conference room, proper working of the mikes and decorations (Bearzotti, Salomone and Chiotti, 2012).  

Medium size conference for three days

For stalls at exhibition, the organisers need to send invitation to the interested parties who want to participate in the exhibition. When the invites are dispatch, the organisers need to make sure that they will provide them a best and attractive area for stalls. For developing temporary stalls for exhibition, the organisers require cardboards properly designed as per the size of the stalls, a flex backdrop covering back wall, and Vinyl pasting on back wall. They also need to provide fabricating stalls with platform carpet, back wall with paint and products display, plus reception table, leaflets stands to look stalls more attractive and by selecting all items, they need to consider their budget (Janiesch, Matzner, and Muller, 2012). At stalls, organisers need to check the proper availability of electricity so the working of exhibitors not gets affected.

To Organising a medium size conference for 3 days that include an opening plenary session, 6 to 8 concurrent sessions each day and social networking activities and for 600-1500 delegates and 50 exhibitors the organisers need to develop a proper spatial and functionality operational requirements. As the conference conduct by organises is of medium size it will involve more space and amenities then small conference. Before booking the venue, the organisers need to draw a plan to know the total space required to conduct the entire conference for 3 days.

To conduct the opening plenary session on first day the organisers requires a hall where chairs arranged in the shape of theatre (all the faces of chairs towards main stage) with the capacity of gathering 1500 peoples at a time. Organisers can use the same conference room, which is use for opening plenary session for conducting 6-8 concurrent sessions every day and for social networking activities. Organisers require the additional space for installing 50 stalls for exhibitions, if they select the size of one stall 4 × 4 meters the total area of one stall will be 16 square meters and for 50 stalls, the total area will be 800 square meters. For movement of 1500 delegates the additional space is required, so the total space requires for the exhibition area will be 800 square metres + 500 squares meters that are 1300 square meters. For selecting, the venue the organisers need to select that place which is having a big conference room with the capacity of 1500 members at a time plus it should have an open or cover area around 1300 squares meters for the exhibition.

Major international conference for five days

The basic Functional operational requirements for medium-sized conference include proper sitting arrangement with comfortable chairs, proper availability of drinking water, availability of toilets both for men and women there should be at least 4 toilets each (Preston, 2012). To conduct the opening plenary session the organisers requires a big screen on which they can show related videos to delegates, mikes and speakers so voice of addressor will be audible to all, lights in the conference room and slight decoration.

Length of each concurrent session workshop will be 90 minutes. The delegates will attend the session according to their interests. The presentation room will be equipped with a data projectors, screens and wireless internet access. For the presenter-required equipment’s are laptop, adaptor and the room will be equipped with VGA cables. For the social networking, activities the organisers need to provide laptops to each delegate or they may ask the delegates to bring their own laptops, proper charging slots for each individual should be available in the conference hall, and high-speed Wi-Fi is required (Hall, 2012).

For the stall area organisers need to provide properly designed stalls, the stalls will include walls made of cardboard or of fibre, proper electricity connects and slots, a flex backdrop covering back wall, and Vinyl pasting on back wall. They also need to provide fabricating stalls with platform carpet, back wall with paint and products display, plus reception table, leaflets stands to look stalls more attractive (Masterman, 2014). 

The major international conference will be held for 5 days, the conference will involve plenary and concurrent sessions and social networking activities and on last day, they will be organising an award ceremony and a closing gala dinner. The major international conference involves 3500 to 5000 delegates and 400 exhibitors at the conference.

For large conference the organisers required a large space as total 5000 delegates are going to attend the conference, for opening plenary session the organiser requires a conference room with the capacity of 5000 people at a time, they can use same room for the various concurrent sessions and social networking activities. Beside conference, room the organisers requires an additional space for 400 stalls, size of each stall consist of 4 × 4 meters that mean 16 squares meters. The total area require for stalls will be 16 squares meters ×400 that is 8400 square meters. 8400 square meters will be a space cover by the stalls and for movement of delegates the additional space is require, the total space require for exhibition area will be 11000 square meters. The organisers need to find out the venue, which is having large conference room with the capacity of 5000 people and they should also have an open or covered area of almost around 11000 square meters.

There should be a proper desk and reception to store all necessary details of delegates and exhibitors. To conduct the various section include in the schedule of the conference will require projectors, microphones, sound system, Bluetooth devices, laser pointer, table microphone video link, wireless microphones, large screen, high speed Wi-Fi connection, and audience microphones (Getz, 2012).  

In addition, the organisers are going to organise an award night and closing gala dinner. The organisers can arranged at the same conference room for both dinner and award ceremony. The organisers need to arrange a best caterer for preparing gala dinners for 5000 delegates and they should also need to arrange some awards to recognise the contribution of best delegates into the conference (Silvers and Goldblatt, 2012).       

 In this essay, the organiser has planned three different conferences at three different venues. The venues have been selected on bases of size of the conference and number of delegates and exhibitors. The relationship between spatial functional area and the requirements of the conference has been analysed in this essay

References

Bearzotti, L.A., Salomone, E. and Chiotti, O.J. (2012) An autonomous multi-agent approach to supply chain event management. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(1). pp.468-478.

Getz, D. (2012) Event studies: Discourses and future directions. Journal of Event Management, 16(2). pp.171-187.

Hall, C.M. (2012) Sustainable mega-events: Beyond the myth of balanced approaches to mega-event sustainability. Journal of Event Management, 16(2). pp.119-131.

Janiesch, C., Matzner, M. and Muller, O. (2012) Beyond process monitoring: a proof-of-concept of event-driven business activity management. Journal of Business Process Management, 18(4). pp.625-643.

Masterman, G. (2014) Strategic sports event management. United Kingdom: Routledge.

Preston, C. (2012) Event marketing: how to successfully promote events, festivals, conventions, and expositions, United States: Wiley.

Rabinowitz, P. (2017) Organising a Conference. [Online] Available at: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance/conferences/main [Accessed 17-07-2018].

Silvers, J.R. and Goldblatt, J. (2012) Professional event coordination, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.