Frequently Asked Questions

As many people as you want! There is not an ideal number, the obvious limitations are venues, space available, and availability of delegates. It's best not to start with how many people should we have at this event, but what's the work to be done and how many does it make sense to have there. It also does not mean that everyone has to be brought together at once - this can prove to be impossible for some organisations due to 24/7 or shift working.

With one organisation we ran 13 similar events with between 150 and 350 delegates per event,it is also possible to devise a series of incremental sessions that build on the work done at previous events. It can also mean brining together a good representative slice of the organisation and using creative communication methods to engage the rest of the organisation.

It depends on the work to be done. Events of less than one day are not very satisfactory unless it is a series of events you are building on. However you can run an afternoon and a morning session to make up a day, or choose a full day from 9 to 5. Once the design team has met and decided on the work to be done, the design will tell you how long the event should be. Don't be afraid to run a 2 or 3-day event. The more investment you are prepared to put in for the event the better the pay-off.

In terms of organising an event on average they take about 2 - 3months from the conception of the idea - and we have run ones in shorter and longer timeframes! With the speed that organisations move at today planning too far in advance can mean that date and information is out of date very quickly! The design team for the event will need to meet between 1 and 3 times (depending on the size and length of lead-in time) and they may be asked to comment on draft designs and handouts electronically. Again, depending on purpose of event there needs to be time for work and research to be done.

There are also some logistics consideration such as availability of a venue and getting the invitations out to people with enough notice! The right venues tend to be booked up some time in advance so once you think you might go down the road of a large event, start looking around for venues and provisionally have some on hold.

Again this depends on the size of the event but for a 200 - 300 person meeting it involves marketing the event, inviting people or getting nominations (depending on how it is decide to run), finding the venue and liaising with them. Maintaining a database of attendees and stationery organisation.

It can seem that way, faced with large numbers of staff who have been brought together to work together! However the cost of not involving staff has proved to be more costly - with 70% of change efforts failing, this way of working offers a chance to really build relationships across the organisation and involve everyone. And having the voice of the leadership during the design phase ensures there are no surprises for leaders or participants at the event!

Each event is different and the costs echo this - things to factor in are:

• Venue Hire
• Any audiovisual equipment such as microphones
• Stationery - event packs, badges, flipcharts, posters
• Teas/ Coffees/ Lunches for people
• Travel costs (trains and hotels) - if being paid by you
• Costs of people being off site

Typically a London Hotel will charge you a day delegate rate of between £55 and £80 per person, per day. Regional hotels are often cheaper at between £40 and £60 per day. Dedicated conference venues (whilst having specifically designed and well thought out facilities) start from £50 per person, per day. Other venues such as Football Grounds, Universities/Colleges or Sports Halls are on the whole cheaper.
And if you can't afford a lot - then be creative about getting a venue!

A typical event has the room laid out with people sitting in groups of 8-10 people sometimes at round tables, sometimes in circles of chairs. But whatever the configuration of the groups, each group must have access to a flipchart. The importance of the flipcharts is that the information is public. One person is not sitting capturing notes that no one else can see. People can look at and read other tables' flipcharts - it allows people to connect with the work going on at all the other tables in the room. This gives you a record of the day and if wanted a basis for a report of on-going communication with the organisation.

To support the work of the event, handouts are used. And handouts are copied for every single delegate. That way everyone has the same information - information is not 'controlled' by a table facilitator. A dilemma we struggle with is do we give all the handouts out in the morning or do we put them out 'just in time'. For one-day events then it is easier to give handouts out in a delegate pack with a introduction to the pack covered during the opening comments. For longer events it actually helps the delegates to have the handouts arrive as and when they need them.

For longer events the overnight evaluation and a discussion with the design team will tell us whether we are still on track or if any tweaks need to be made to the design. In case we make changes 'in the moment' we generally adopt the principle of not numbering handouts. It is easier to pull a handout and replace it with something else.

Large scale working is about engaging people in the work of the day. The focus of the day is on people doing the work, not on a speaker at the front of the room! Sometimes it is appropriate to use speakers and we invite people to talk for no longer than 15-20mins and then use a process called Open Forum (question and answer with a twist!).

Using OHP's puts people into audience mode, it is something that is happening to them and in a room of 300 people it can be very hard to engage with a distant presentation - not least because you can not see it clearly!

Be very careful with venues! Whilst they often say they can take 200 people this can mean standing up or in the more traditional room format. With people sitting on round tables, 8 - 10 to a table, with a flipchart and space to move around the room venues often that claim to take 200 end up with a 100 at a squeeze! And don't forget that most venues are hotels - whose primary use of their function rooms are weddings and parties.