Organizing a Symposium Has Lots of Moving Parts

I have been working on a project lately that is coming to a head today. It is an educational symposium for music therapists from around the world, and I'm always reminded that there are lots of things that have to happen in order to have any type of meeting of music therapists (and others, of course).

This symposium has been my labor of love lately.

I took this concept and ran with it. Here's a list of all the things that I had to think about during this process...

Convince the board to support this idea
Develop idea for symposium
Contact potential presenters (my first choice took me up on the offer! - This was easy!!)
Start to define symposium purpose and CBMT information
Select date and time for symposium
Submit CBMT paperwork to become preapproved and officially offer the event
Set up registration through various entry sites
Get web master to update website
Coordinate registrations and payments
Communicate with registrants
Answer questions (there are ALWAYS questions, even when I've tried to think of ever single possibility)
Arrange the platform
Train presenter on how to use the platform
Complete my part of the presentation
Arrange handouts
Provide refunds for people who need them 
Pace nervously when it is nowhere near time to start the presentation
Imagine all sorts of things that could go horrifically wrong...

(That's where I am right now)
Start the symposium
Answer questions
Facilitate discussions between participants and presenter
Coordinate post-test/evaluation process
Send out certificates
Close CBMT paperwork
Finish up financial considerations and close the event
Remove the registration page from the website
Reflect and review how it went for future events...

Now, please know that I am NOT complaining about this process - I actually enjoy all of these gears and cogs and moving parts. The symposium starts in 7.5 hours, and I am more than ready to get this thing going! I wish that I could just go, but that's not how things work - there is a time and a place for everything, and this is not the time. That's in 7.5 hours.

For the moment, I am going to do some relaxation things, try to figure out how I'm going to ship a whole bunch of packages to my family, put ear drops in to help with my double outer ear infections, eat some spaghetti for breakfast, and keep moving forward...

I'm just REALLY glad that I organize things online - I NEVER really want to have to coordinate physical things like rooms, like multiple presentations happening simultaneously, like instruments to specific places. I've learned that there is plenty to do when you are just expecting folks to be on their computers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sing A Song Sunday - The Time Change Song (Fall)

It's the time of year where most of us here in the states get to fall back one hour. This is a wonderful time as it gives us a chance to get an extra hour of sleep and to reset our internal clocks to be in sync with the earth's rotation a bit more than we are during the summer. I love this time of year and really dread moving to Daylight Savings in the Spring. Today' song is directed towards choir members and can be found here . There is also a spring version, and I'm sure I'll post a link to that one next year when we [shudder] spring forward yet again... Here is a YouTube video of a guy singing the song. I'm so very sorry for the pitch, but at least he's out there trying his best. Yipes. Anyway, the song itself is based on a hymn composed in 1907 by John Hughes. The words are by Dean McIntyre and were written in 1995. I find the song a bit tongue-in-cheek, but they give me a giggle every time I read them, so enjoy!! Sorry for the lack of diagram
Read more

Being An Internship Director: Why I Do Very Little Active Recruitment

Image
I am not someone who participates in every single internship fair or makes ads for my internship program to put on social media. I do not feel an obligation to anyone to fill all of the openings that I have every year. I operate on a "if you build it, they will come" type of viewpoint. I figure that the interns who are meant to be with me will find me. As a result, I do very little active recruitment. I will be part of the AMTAS Virtual Internship Fair this upcoming Sunday. I am not really expecting too many applications coming from this meeting, but I am interested in how it is going to be run. I decided to sign up because I want to see what others are doing and offering out there. So, this Sunday, I will be sitting in front of my computer, listening to what others share about their internships. One of the things that I like about being a National Roster Internship Director is that I have the ability to decide how many interns and when those interns work with me. I occasiona
Read more

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea
Read more