We recently published a blog post summarizing the recent Scaling Up Nutrition National Conference in Zambia, which took place on September 13th and 14th. This was the third time since 2019 that Khulisa’s Scaling Up Nutrition Learning and Evaluation (SUN LE) team supported this conference, and they’ve learned valuable lessons about how to choose a conference organizer.
For a conference like this one, which lasted two days and had more than 170 attendees, an experienced, well-resourced conference organizer is essential. The conference organizer – in this case, a Zambia-based company called Le Châteaux 42 – was responsible for selecting the conference venue, planning the schedule of events, managing attendee registration, organizing video/audio recordings and photography, and much more.
When asked to provide a tip for choosing a great conference organizer, SUN LE Learning and Dissemination Advisor John Manda didn’t hesitate with his response. “Test everything,” John said. “Test everything and do dry runs for everything.”
Before contracting the conference organizer, the SUN LE team invited the candidates to conduct live demos of all their audio-visual equipment and technology. “We asked them to do demos for the photography, the audio equipment, the video equipment, the teleconference equipment, and the setup,” John explained. “Based on that, we were able to get a good glimpse of what they would provide at the conference.”
Conducting this demo in advance gave the SUN LE team confidence that the conference organizer they selected would provide great photography, video, and other services. And the conference organizer delivered.
Check in next week for another #EvalTuesdayTip about choosing a conference organizer.