Conference Organization - Behind the Scenes
I am one of the lucky few who has had a glimpse into how hard it is to organize a conference for music therapists. (Now, in our defense, I don't think that music therapists are more or less difficult to plan for, but I've never really planned a conference for any other group of people - I did plan a couple of camping trips for 300+ girl scouts when I was in high school - they were probably as difficult as music therapists, and I had to dig latrines for them - entirely different story... good memories!). The conference that I help organize is nothing compared to the scale of the AMTA National Conference, but there are lots of things that go on behind the scenes of my conference that participants should never know about!
In case you are wondering, the conference I help out with is The Online Conference for Music Therapy(OCMT) - check out the link! It is a pretty neat group of people to know and work with! Conference is on February 6, 2016 - plan on joining us!!
I also have a glimpse into the work that our AMTA conference organizers go through every year. Since I now have a role on a national committee, I know the people from National Office who run conferences every single year. Let me tell you, there is SO much work that goes into running a conference!
For us at OCMT, we don't have to hassle with negotiating hotel room costs or conference room costs. We don't have to rent microphones, meeting rooms, figure out transportation, or make sure that there is food nearby. My hat is off to the folks at AMTA for figuring out all of those things.
At OCMT, we have different things that we have to organize. The most important thing is to make sure that we have an easily accessed presentation platform. Let me tell you, that particular task takes up most of our time. We have to find a software platform that can be accessed by any music therapist from any place in the world. We have to find a platform that will allow for visual presentations as well as for streaming audio and video. We have to become so familiar with the program that, when issues happen (and they do), we can troubleshoot behind the scenes without bothering presenters or attendees.
Once we have the question of platform figured out, we start the rest of the work. Our first task is to set the conference date. After that, we start to talk to keynote speakers. This year's speakers are Dale Taylor and Mercedes Pavlicevic (more info on the website). Once the keynote speakers are committed, we get going on the rest of the presentations! We've currently closed our Call for Presentations, and I get to arrange proposals for our blind review. Now comes the time when we start to organize the presentations.
After the presentations are approved and arranged, the CBMT process starts up. We offer 15 CMTEs for attending most of the conference, and CBMT has their own approval process. We submit our paperwork, presenters' information, and marketing materials for approval. Once that approval is gained, we start the other tasks. Here are some of the things that we do in the months before the conference:
In case you are wondering, the conference I help out with is The Online Conference for Music Therapy(OCMT) - check out the link! It is a pretty neat group of people to know and work with! Conference is on February 6, 2016 - plan on joining us!!
I also have a glimpse into the work that our AMTA conference organizers go through every year. Since I now have a role on a national committee, I know the people from National Office who run conferences every single year. Let me tell you, there is SO much work that goes into running a conference!
For us at OCMT, we don't have to hassle with negotiating hotel room costs or conference room costs. We don't have to rent microphones, meeting rooms, figure out transportation, or make sure that there is food nearby. My hat is off to the folks at AMTA for figuring out all of those things.
At OCMT, we have different things that we have to organize. The most important thing is to make sure that we have an easily accessed presentation platform. Let me tell you, that particular task takes up most of our time. We have to find a software platform that can be accessed by any music therapist from any place in the world. We have to find a platform that will allow for visual presentations as well as for streaming audio and video. We have to become so familiar with the program that, when issues happen (and they do), we can troubleshoot behind the scenes without bothering presenters or attendees.
Once we have the question of platform figured out, we start the rest of the work. Our first task is to set the conference date. After that, we start to talk to keynote speakers. This year's speakers are Dale Taylor and Mercedes Pavlicevic (more info on the website). Once the keynote speakers are committed, we get going on the rest of the presentations! We've currently closed our Call for Presentations, and I get to arrange proposals for our blind review. Now comes the time when we start to organize the presentations.
After the presentations are approved and arranged, the CBMT process starts up. We offer 15 CMTEs for attending most of the conference, and CBMT has their own approval process. We submit our paperwork, presenters' information, and marketing materials for approval. Once that approval is gained, we start the other tasks. Here are some of the things that we do in the months before the conference:
- arrange for conference registration
- train presenters and keynote speakers on how to use the presentation platform
- set up the conference schedule
- train conference moderators on how to troubleshoot situations during the conference
- set up CBMT post-tests
- communicate with every attendee on how to access the live conference
- communicate with every attendee on how to access the recordings of each presentation
- set up the YouTube channel
- meet on a regular basis to communicate with each other
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