Thing 15: A Brief Encounter with Event Organisation
Not only have I attended conferences, seminars and other events but I spoken too however I don’t have much experience of organising events. From my limited experience I know that organising events is a lot of hard work but is extremely rewarding. My only experience of organising anything like a conference or similar event was as a graduate trainee. During the trainee year everyone worked on a project, which culminated in a graduate trainee project showcase event. Each trainee gave a short presentation about their project to invited guests from across the library service.
When the opportunity arose to step in and help out with the organisation as a result of another organiser getting a new job I jumped at the chance to gain experience in organising an event. Getting involved definitely made me realise how much is required to organise an event, even a very small one. There is so much to consider to make an event successful. Co-ordinating the speakers, who were my fellow trainees, was tough at times as we had about 16 or 17 speakers. Trying to make sure everyone knew what was required of them in terms of presenting was important and hard to get right whilst trying to create a running order of speakers was particularly challenging especially deciding who to put first and who to put last.
As well as giving my own presentation on the day I also took on the master of ceremonies role, giving a welcome speech, introducing guest speakers and presentations and telling everyone it was time for a lunch break. I did enjoy this aspect of organising and would love to do it again. I’m not at all bothered about standing up in front of a room full of people to talk when it is just for things like welcome speeches and introducing people but presentations are a much more scary affair.
I hope this post has given a useful insight into organising events. On reflection writing everything down has made me realise how much of a contribution I made to organising the event and how much effort is required even for something quite small scale. Organising is something I’d definitely like to do more of in the future, perhaps more than speaking although I love speaking too. I’d love to be part of organising more little library meet up type events in my area because informal things are
