A “pre-conference meeting” is an abbreviation for “pre-conference meeting.” An opportunity to bring together the essential actors in a conference so that everyone can examine their strategy for conducting a successful conference is provided. This meeting is frequently held in a conference room or similar setting.
Find out all you need to know about pre-con meetings before you start planning your next event.
What Exactly Is a Pre-Convention Meeting?
Depending on the scale of the conference, there may be dozens—or even hundreds—of persons who are responsible for ensuring that the event is successfully executed. The pre-con meeting, sometimes known as “the pre-con,” is an opportunity for all of these individuals to get together in one location and discuss the specifics of the upcoming event. For vendors, this is an opportunity for them to ask questions, for organisers to prepare personnel for any idiosyncrasies that may arise, and for crews to survey the area and decide where to install tables, chairs, stages, and any other fixtures.
The pre-convention meeting is usually held a few days before the event itself takes place. On the day of the event, a brief walkthrough may be conducted to refresh participants’ memories of the overall plan shortly before the doors to the conference open to the public.
What Happens During a Pre-Convention Meeting?
In the case of people who do not regularly organise meetings, a pre-con meeting may appear uncomfortable or unpleasant at first since it may involve unfamiliar phrases or vocabulary, such as “event resume” or “banquet event order,” which may be unfamiliar to them. Pre-con meetings, on the other hand, are intended to iron out any misconceptions or confusing components of the event. This is your opportunity to learn more about what those phrases represent and to ask any additional questions that may help the event go more smoothly.
The Pre-Conference Meeting and What to Expect
With the supplier management team that will be engaged in the programme, the event planner will evaluate all of the final logistics for a specific programme during the pre-con meeting.
Typically, the conference services manager at the venue is in charge of organising and scheduling the pre-con meeting. Consider the following scenario: if your conference is being hosted at a hotel, the hotel will almost certainly have an employee whose sole responsibility is to arrange events like yours. This individual will invite managers from various departments who will be engaged in the event to review their specific roles for the event with him or her.
While speaking at the pre-con, it is ideal for the event planner to emphasise some of the most essential goals of the event, such as significant information about the organisation hosting the event, key messages that will be given during the event, and notable VIPs that will be in attendance.
Examine the event’s schedule
An event recap contains a thorough description of all of the event’s specifics. Dates, hours, contacts, participant profiles and emergency contact information, as well as food and beverage options, transportation and shipping information, billing and other specific requirements, are all included in the packet of information.
Everyone in the department will go through their responsibilities in the incident, including any pertinent facts and their standard operating procedures. They will also go over their comprehension of the event contract as well as the information that was previously presented about the banquet event orders.
Meeting and event planners should remember to ask precise questions about the event specifics during this time, such as the number of staff members who will be there and the names of important contacts from all regions represented who will be in attendance during the actual event itself. A review of the following topics may be included as important aspects of the pre-con discussion:
- Requirements for food and beverages
- Requirements for the guest rooming list
- Exhibition standards for conferences and trade shows
- Space needs for meetings and trade shows (including detailed floor plans)
- Electrical and telecommunications standards, for example, are examples of technical requirements.
- Specifics on signage placement and other decorations may be found here.
