Conference Planning 2001

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Conference Planning Notes 2001

Program

Program schedule New: program spreadsheet. Complete.
Abstracts
Vendors (Elaine's vendor DB; Jim's Vedor Application DB)
Rooms

Publicity

Lists  -- Urgent! Need help!!!
Brochure  Brochure text! and drafts of cover artwork!  

Conference Registration

Registration DB Web site        
Hotel Registration 

Finances

Expense Estimates  
Revenue Estimates   
Break Even Point


    

Program

Program Schedule

See the preliminary program schedule spreadsheetRose colored cells need further confirmation.  Times for morning program differs slight differ slightly from the brochure (see below).  Jim will email the time slot to each speaker and post the schedule on the web when approved.

Judy: call David Webber for EBXML (OASIS). We have Elizabeth Fong scheduled for OASIS (OK???). 

Jim: Call Lance Carroll, Metagenics at 919-490-0034 x211 re: a presentation -- DONE but still needs to confirm and send abstract, despite reminders.

Judy: Follow up with Sue Ellen Wright sewright@neo.rr.com  

Phong: Barry Michel, SAIC for multimedia metadata from MISB at www.ismc.nima.mil/vwg -- DONE - need abstract info

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Keynotes.

Abstracts

All speakers confirmed (except Jim U'Ren and Lance Carrol). Some speakers still need to submit abstracts.  You view the abstract DB via two browsers:

Not yet shown by the viewers are three columns that Jim added: selected (Y/N), ScheduleDay, and ScheduleTime.  These will be used to notify speakers of there time slots (successfully tested using MS Word mail/merge)

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Vendors:

Elaine's Vendor DB is done, created from  vendor business cards collected by Judy and Jim at the last DAMA-I conference.  Jim has proofed it and made corrections (mostly, removed non-vendors).

Jim implemented an online registration system for vendors.  You can browse it with this web page: Browse Vendor Registration DB.   Oracle has registered.

Tom is heading the vendor relations.  Elaine is helping.  Elaine has made assignments  from the DB.  We've probably missed the brochure deadline for naming vendor exhibitors, but we can include them in later publicity.

Jim called Tony Shaw (Wilshire Conferences) to find out how much they charged for booths. See Jim's summary of his advice.

Proposed fee structure:  $500 to exhibit.

Oracle may agree to sponsor something special since they are presenting and the exhibition area is on site, not in a hotel.

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Rooms  

We have 2 lecture rooms and 2 auditoriums for programs.  
The capacity of the rooms are:

We have the employees lounge for vendor exhibits. Will hold 15 vendor exhibits.
Dinning room A (seats 12) is reserved for us.  
NIST floor plans and room descriptions are here: 
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/confpage/meetspace.htm  
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/visitor/flplan.htm  

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Publicity

Lists

Rosie is maintaining a chart of publicity contacts and notes.  

Need volunteers to search vendor web sites (listed in Elaine's vendor DB) for posting opportunities:  user groups, events calendars, magazines, etc.  

Rosie will negotiate chapter lists. (Judy to assist).  - Urgent! 

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Brochure

Draft text of the brochure is complete.  Note: morning times differ slightly from spreadsheet to accommodate a common template for both days.  We can adjust the actual times in the final program schedule that we hand out during registration.  Not included: NIST boiler plate sections for transportation and map.  Decision needed on admitting a 4th person from an organization for free.

Brochure cover artwork: draft 1 (Art was instructed to remove running man)

Brochure cover artwork: draft 2 (misspelled symposium, wrong website on monitor, and possibly too cluttered)

Brochure cover artwork: draft 3 (instructed to remove longer, redundant URL).  He says he can improve on our Metatopia logo for extra cost ($150, I think)

Brochure cover artwork: draft 4  Art will deliver hi res versions of this draft Monday(7/9/01), with and without the text and Logo.  We can add our own text if we want.

It may take NIST a couple of weeks to print the brochure - mid to late July.  Meanwhile, we could sent email or print it quicker elsewhere. Jim will post the brochure on the web when final.

Judy reports that NIST can do our printing and (some) design.    One option is a brochure (40 cents ea.) with color cover - we can choose among several stock formats which we can modify.  Basic content:  agenda, topics and speakers.  Extra cost to design cover but we can do it ourselves.  Patrice said: no postal andesia since we and others will be mailing them also.

Judy, Jim, Twyla, Pam, and Jennifer all contributed to sketches. Added Dan Gilman's elusive "M" symbol.  Jim copied all sketches into PowerPoint slides.   Jim will hire Art Hammer (703-276-7123, artpossesive@aol.com ) to produce the art work for $150 if used.  

Conference Registration

Registration DB Web Site

Jonathan Kind  volunteered to put up a decent web site & database.  Jim and Jon will get a new web host that supports Win2K and create a secure registration DB by June 21.  Our current web site will redirect registrants to the new web site.  (He will continue to redesign our full web site on the new host to our specifications.  When complete, we'll redirect www.dama-ncr.org to the new site until the DNS changes are distributed thoughout the web)  (Contact info: work: 703-908-1512, home: 202-299-0174; mobile: 202-210-4482; jonathan.kind@enews.com ; jbkind@hotmail.com )

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Hotel Registration

Jim called Patrice Boulanger 301-975-3882 for hotel registration procedures and post them on Metatopia web page.   All set.  

Finances

Expense Estimates

NIST has one price structure which requires zero profit and another price structure for profit making events.  We expect to make a profit.  Table 1 shows the profit-based structure.

Table 1: NIST per person fees

Service unit fee units needed (max) Total 
(max)
Public & business affairs fee- 1st day  $25 1 $35
PBA fee - 2nd day $5 1 $5
Administration fee $5 1 $5
Coffee break $3 4 $12
Lunch $15 2 $30
Banquet on site $40 1 $40
       
Total     $127

Other costs.  

Warning:  these are just guesses.  We need to improve the estimates.  Missing: conference materials included with registration (proceedings, CD, case, goodies).  May not include banquet.

Keynote speaker costs:  $5000, max.  

Speaker registration cost:  30 speakers x $127/speaker =  $4000 (rounded, max)

Publicity guesstimates.   

Brochure cost:  $1 each (printing and mailing) x 5000 mailed = $5000.   (wild guess)

Other advertisements:  $0 - $5000  total.  (wild guess)

Total speaker and publicity = $19,000 max. / 200 paid attendees = $95/paid attendee.

 

Total expenses  =  $225/person  X  200 persons  =  $45,000

    Pre-conference expenses:  Publicity ($10,000)  = $ 10,000. 

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Revenue Estimates

Assume:  $300/paid attendee X 200 paid attendees  = $60,000

Assume:  $200/vendor exhibit x 10 exhibits = $2000

Assume:  $200/vendor sponsor x 5 sponsors = $1000
    Note: vendor sponsor gets listed on brochure cover, web site, and advertisements.

Total revenue = $63,000

Break Even Point

Assume:  ignore revenue from vendors (just count as profit, for simplicity)

Assume:  fixed costs are 
    Keynotes = $5,000
    Speakers =  $4,000
    Publicity = $10,000

    Total fixed cost = $19,000

Assume: per person costs are
    NIST fees = $127/person

Assume:  registration fee = $300/person

Let N = number of persons to break even, then

127 x N + 19,000 = 300 x N      gives:     N = 110

 

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