Controlled chaos
We had 30-some international professionals on campus this week for a three-day conference. When I first asked about hosting it at our university, my boss said sure, if I'd be the point person and run it. The missions organization was excellent to work with over the past months: they consulted on the schedule and agenda, and included a two hour sessions so I could ask questions of the group for an upcoming doctoral paper on educational alternatives.
Three weeks after the alumni reunions, here comes the conference. This kind of event set-up, where we know who and how many are coming, makes it easy to plan logistics. There's a lot of back and forth as people commit to help and back out, but the essentials can be set in place. Details will shake out during the flow of the event. Consult on agenda and schedule, talk to faculty, design a session, write the survey. Check. Book meeting rooms, call hotels. Check. Arrange meals with the dining hall and restaurant, get snacks and supplies on a trip to the business Costco, pick up a second Freecycled pod-coffee machine. Check. Book vans, contact volunteer drivers, arrange the exchange of vehicles and key hand-offs. Check. There might be 101 details, but they make sense and begin to come together.
We pick up supplies and set up registration and organized snacks Sunday night. Monday, while drivers bring attendees from their hotel, I set out the morning's snacks. "Did you know students are campaigning for student elections in chapel today? Do you want to go to that?" asked one of the drivers as she drops off guests for the first session. Oh oh! No one in the chapel office had mentioned it, though I'd emailed them several times about introducing the missionaries to students. Definitely not interested! Extra coffee break instead!
My daughter-in-law gets off work early and joins me to prepare dinner two hours before guests arrive at our house. "There's no place like home" is certainly true for networking events. Over thirty people eat and have fun getting to know each other... and are on their way home by 7.45pm. My husband helps us clean the kitchen: my son comes to collect his fabulous wife. We are done by 8.30pm and drop into bed exhuasted.
Tuesday begins with another early start, getting coffee ready for arrivals at 8am and a 10am coffee break. During my afternoon session, I get the information I need for my paper. Volunteers set out coffee break, then we scott off to put together an International Dinner (college students speed-dating international professionals). Students and missionaries exchanged information for fture networking, and exclaimed how useful and what fun the time was.
After Wednesday's morning meeting (including an unscheduled coffee break / whew, the snacks from the morning are still out!), volunteers take a group of 16 for a Seattle experience, beginning with lunch at Ivars on the waterfront. People don't like to be herded like cattle, so I've built in a range of tour options. The comings and going would be crazy-making for someone who needs every detail nailed down in advance.
Our guests visit the Aquarium, Pike Place Market, and Seattle Center. No one does all three, and some who'd planned to do one, choose another option. With an hourly rotation of three vans at various meeting points, we move them from place to place in one and two hour increments, according to how they decide to spend their time. By 4.30, we return them to hotel, airport, or our two campuses. We clean and refuel the vans and drop off the keys.
The capture-the-moment approach is only possible with very detailed planning ahead of time. Every possibility has to be accounted for: will people eat quickly or linger? Are they innovators or high maintenance? Do they want to ride or walk between campuses? A group like this, who has lived in many different places, has its own timeline. They may break for coffee a half hour early or twenty minutes late, all within a day. Request copies of DVDs or documents. Ask for change for a $50 bill or insist on paying with a credit card we don't accept.
A good event may look easy - and indeed a volunteer snapped her fingers at me once after a successful event and said, "I could do this, too! That was simple and fun." She has no idea of the pieces constantly whirling through the planner's mind, of changes made on the fly within a web of texts, phone calls, emails, and brisk walks from place to place. Volunteers carry the heavy load behind the scenes. Timing changes. Some things fall by the wayside. The unexpected crops up. "Always have more on hand than you think you'll need," is a wise proverb.
How nice to look back when it's over, to hear, "We had a wonderful time. How relaxing. You cared for us in every detail!" I passed those thank-yous along to volunteers today. Couldn't do it without them! My student assistant is heroic in getting things put away and reorganizing supplies. Now to write that paper...
Three weeks after the alumni reunions, here comes the conference. This kind of event set-up, where we know who and how many are coming, makes it easy to plan logistics. There's a lot of back and forth as people commit to help and back out, but the essentials can be set in place. Details will shake out during the flow of the event. Consult on agenda and schedule, talk to faculty, design a session, write the survey. Check. Book meeting rooms, call hotels. Check. Arrange meals with the dining hall and restaurant, get snacks and supplies on a trip to the business Costco, pick up a second Freecycled pod-coffee machine. Check. Book vans, contact volunteer drivers, arrange the exchange of vehicles and key hand-offs. Check. There might be 101 details, but they make sense and begin to come together.
We pick up supplies and set up registration and organized snacks Sunday night. Monday, while drivers bring attendees from their hotel, I set out the morning's snacks. "Did you know students are campaigning for student elections in chapel today? Do you want to go to that?" asked one of the drivers as she drops off guests for the first session. Oh oh! No one in the chapel office had mentioned it, though I'd emailed them several times about introducing the missionaries to students. Definitely not interested! Extra coffee break instead!
My daughter-in-law gets off work early and joins me to prepare dinner two hours before guests arrive at our house. "There's no place like home" is certainly true for networking events. Over thirty people eat and have fun getting to know each other... and are on their way home by 7.45pm. My husband helps us clean the kitchen: my son comes to collect his fabulous wife. We are done by 8.30pm and drop into bed exhuasted.
Tuesday begins with another early start, getting coffee ready for arrivals at 8am and a 10am coffee break. During my afternoon session, I get the information I need for my paper. Volunteers set out coffee break, then we scott off to put together an International Dinner (college students speed-dating international professionals). Students and missionaries exchanged information for fture networking, and exclaimed how useful and what fun the time was.
After Wednesday's morning meeting (including an unscheduled coffee break / whew, the snacks from the morning are still out!), volunteers take a group of 16 for a Seattle experience, beginning with lunch at Ivars on the waterfront. People don't like to be herded like cattle, so I've built in a range of tour options. The comings and going would be crazy-making for someone who needs every detail nailed down in advance.
Our guests visit the Aquarium, Pike Place Market, and Seattle Center. No one does all three, and some who'd planned to do one, choose another option. With an hourly rotation of three vans at various meeting points, we move them from place to place in one and two hour increments, according to how they decide to spend their time. By 4.30, we return them to hotel, airport, or our two campuses. We clean and refuel the vans and drop off the keys.
The capture-the-moment approach is only possible with very detailed planning ahead of time. Every possibility has to be accounted for: will people eat quickly or linger? Are they innovators or high maintenance? Do they want to ride or walk between campuses? A group like this, who has lived in many different places, has its own timeline. They may break for coffee a half hour early or twenty minutes late, all within a day. Request copies of DVDs or documents. Ask for change for a $50 bill or insist on paying with a credit card we don't accept.
A good event may look easy - and indeed a volunteer snapped her fingers at me once after a successful event and said, "I could do this, too! That was simple and fun." She has no idea of the pieces constantly whirling through the planner's mind, of changes made on the fly within a web of texts, phone calls, emails, and brisk walks from place to place. Volunteers carry the heavy load behind the scenes. Timing changes. Some things fall by the wayside. The unexpected crops up. "Always have more on hand than you think you'll need," is a wise proverb.
How nice to look back when it's over, to hear, "We had a wonderful time. How relaxing. You cared for us in every detail!" I passed those thank-yous along to volunteers today. Couldn't do it without them! My student assistant is heroic in getting things put away and reorganizing supplies. Now to write that paper...
