TECHTRAIN 2003 (3-4 July, 2003):

Summary of the organising committee activities (compiled by Kate Noble)

Things to consider, things to be done. Not in any order of timing or importance

Venue:

establish early so can determine conference dates & have venue costs

tour several times

Daytime caterers

Resources:

o Data and slide projectors for each room

o Overhead projectors for each room

o A/V (video) for each room

o Back-up laptops (committee to provide laptops for each room)

o Microphones for each room

o Whiteboards available

o Trestle tables & table cloths

o Signage for trade displays

o Direction indicator signs

o Breakout rooms

o IT support

o Photocopier

o Printer

Conference dinner:

numbers

venue

menu include special meals

alcohol

entertainment

Conference daytime caterers:

may be limited by who the venue prefers

sample several (always good!)

get cost breakdown (how much is the lunch component, the morning or the afternoon component) for sponsorship purposes

see if an organisation can sponsor a morning or afternoon tea

Budget: (see also the following budget report and budget tables)

Incoming

How much in the kitty?

Trade Displays ($500/trade)

Sponsors (help to reduce costs eg presenters’ gifts, morning or afternoon teas)

Uni?

Conference fees

Outgoing

Venue cost (depends on number of rooms. May also need extra tables and partitions)

Catering: lunch, morning and afternoon teas

Catering: dinner

Conference dinner venue costs (include menu, alcohol)

Conference dinner entertainment

May need to pay keynote speakers

Photographer

Design of logo (3 designs to choose from)

Promotional items: (find sources)

o Gifts for keynote and plenary speakers

o Delegate bags & gifts

o Presenters’ gifts

o Logo artwork setup

o Note pads, pens

o Name tags

o Lollies

o Committee jumpers

o Courier per product and per batch

o Source: www.skmarketing.com.au
skcorp@bigpond.com

Printing:

o posters (A3 & A4 = 1000)

o program

o letters to trade displays?

Conference CDs, labels, toner

Hire of display panels

Uni parking permits

Bus hire for conference dinner

Marketting and advertising:

o Adverts eg Australasian Science (3/4 page = $370)

Bank fees and Uni charges

Mail/couriers

Casual wages

Promotion of conference:

Advertising

Emails (fortnightly where possible) including to past delegates and TechNet forum on regular basis

Web address in email signatures

Written support from DVC to Heads of School

verbal

Contact list:

o TechNet email forum

o Other known TechNets

o Past delegates

o Affiliated teaching hospitals

o Nurses association

o Staff development at other unis

Website:

URL

Registration forms (include PDF format)

Accommodation

Conference dinner info

venue

call for papers

describe 4 themes

Abstracts

Sponsors/trade displays

Displays

Info about UNSW TechNet

Contact details

Tourist information and info about Sydney

Accommodation info (including conference specials)

Special interest groups (need to allocate co-ordinators, 3-point agendas)

Maps – uni and conference dinner area

links

Program:

number of strands

table of contents

Call for papers (need to know length of talk)

Set deadlines to receive abstracts

Decide number of papers needed (presenters’ gifts needed)

Keynote and plenary speakers – need paragraph and photo about each

Site visits

Trade displays

Creativity displays

Abstracts

Maps and floor plans

Program details:

o Binding

o Front and back cover designs

o Paper type

o two sided

o one abstract per page with room for notes

o Page for people to write contact numbers

o Format, layout etc

Marketting and advertising:

Adverts eg Australasian Science (3/4 page = $370)

Email past delegates and TechNet forum on regular basis

Ad in publications of the various unis

Miscellaneous:

Initially, suggest a conference fee (based on 100 persons) so can determine approximate overall budget (day 1, day 2, conference dinner)

Come up with a logo, logo colours and conference themes (strands)

List of jobs, allocate and give time frames

Keynote speakers (include correct protocol for order of appearance) – determine length of talk time for plenary and keynote

Possible need for volunteers at various stages

May need to approach people individually to produce papers

Distribution of posters

Set aside a day to stuff bags (day before conference) and take to venue

Need to constantly chase up participants for trade displays, creativity displays, paper presentations, keynote speakers – get committments

In advance, ensure promo company has sufficient number of what you want (include the possibility for needing extra at last minute). Leave the bulk of the promo printing (bags, gifts) until as late as possible because it might not be possible to have a small number of extras printed with the logo at the last minute (might have to accept items without the logo). Know how long it takes to receive goods from the promo company once they get the order.

Accommodation: get conference rates with conference dinner venue

Thankyou notes sent to guest speakers when they’d agreed to do it, plus after the conference

Book bus and nominate driver

Last few days:

Get draft program proofed – pay particular attention to the spelling of peoples’ names

Need floor plan of trade/creativity display set up to venue day before

List of attendees that can be checked off on the day as delegates collect their name tag and bag

Allocate times to man the registration desk, may need extras

Allocate a time keeper and means of communicating ends of sessions

Determine activity of session conveners, what they are to say, how to introduce presenters

Fill bags and take to venue

Registration desk:

Pens, rulers, sticky tape, lollies, water, name tags, spare tags, chairs, scissors, list of contact numbers,

TT03 Organising Committee meetings leading up to 3-4 July 2003:

Scheduled	Extras
1. 27 August, 2002
2. 24 September, 2002
3. 15 October, 2002
4. 19 November, 2002
5. 17 December, 2002 (informal, BBQ)
6. 28 January, 2003
7. 13 February, 2003
8. 25 February, 2003
9. 11 March, 2003	17 March, 2003 to collect posters for distribution
10. 25 March, 2003	10 April, 2003 for assistance with contact list
11. 8 April, 2003	15 April, 2003 for program
12. 5 May, 2003	6 May, 2003 for program
13. 20 May, 2003	22 May, 2003 for program and special interest groups
14. 3 June, 2003
15. 17 June, 2003
16. 24 June, 2003	2 July, 2003 to fill delegate bags & take to venue

7 committee members, plus volunteers assisting with registrations/accounts, venue set-up, manning the registration desk and conference ‘gofer’, and 1 volunteer assisting with burning CDs.

TECHTRAIN 2003

Finances and Registration: a Short Report (compiled by Jennifer Till)

Budgeting and Finances - Process in Brief

The committee devised a working operational budget near the beginning of the organization process. This included estimates on what we would need and how much these would cost.

This budget was used to fill out the forms needed to set up a University project to hold incoming funds.

The Staff Development Unit needed to be set up as a vendor in order to receive credit card payments into this project. An Eftpos machine was acquired and staff members were trained on using this machine.

An actual ongoing budget was kept as an Excel spreadsheet as actual financial transactions took place.

Major Challenges

A large amount of time was spent at the beginning of the process determining what we would probably require and approximate costs. Never having done this process before, many committee members found it difficult to make rough estimates, fearing that these would not be exact amounts. Adrianne Harris (UNSW Staff Development, TechTrain 2003 Committee) was responsible for pulling this all together and assuring that the process ran smoothly.

Being the first time we were involved with many of these processes, some including the setting up of the financial project took longer than expected.

Chasing up outstanding payments dragged on for a few months after the conference, together with all internal transfers taking place to eventually finalise the budget. A simple, organized record keeping system helped this run reasonably smoothly.

Registration - Process in Brief

Meetings took place with the University Financial Service to make sure the registration forms contained all the necessary GST information and that all the correct information for both internal and external payments, in particular credit card payments, appeared on these forms.

The forms were downloadable from the conference website. Payments were processed, all details appearing on the forms were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet and the original forms were filed in an expanding file in alphabetical order by surname. Trade display payments were also filed in this folder.

Email details recorded in this spreadsheet were used to confirm registrations. Name and location details were used to create name badges. Mailing details were used at the end of the conference to send certificates of attendance and details of TechTrain 2004.

On the conference days, at least two people were on the registration table to record attendance, give out name badges and the conference packs.

Red jumpers were worn by all the committee members at the conference in order for us to stand out from the crowd. These proved highly successful.

Major Challenges

Keeping everything in a strict order so that a number of staff could work on registrations at different times proved challenging!

The security department not being on hand to assist with distributing parking tickets meant that the registration table was occasionally under staffed. Increased communication with this department could have alleviated these problems. PARKING IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Figure: Registrations at TechTrain 2003 by University.

BUDGET TABLES TECHTRAIN 2003 Estimated budget:
TechTrain 2003 Budget - DRAFT (as of 13/2/03)
Income
2002 Allocated Funds	15000
Registration Fees	23000
Trade Displays	7500
Sponsorship
TOTAL	45500




Expenditure
Advertising (1)	3000
Bank and Merchant Fees (2)	182
Catering - Conference Dinner (3)	7500
Catering - Conference on Campus (4)	11250
Catering - Suppliers and others (4A)	2700
Committee Memorabilia (5)	700
Conference Packs (6)	5500
Display Panel Hire (7)	1650
Logo (8)	1000
Presenters Gifts (9)	1000
University Services Charge (10)	3000
Venue Hire	7500
TOTAL	44982



Notes to Expenditure table
(1) Advertising - logo, magazines, newspapers, posters, banners and direction signs
(2) 7 months at $26 per month)
(3) $60 per head
(4) 2 x lunches, 2 x morning and afternoon tea, tea and coffee on arrival each morning, cold water
(based on $90 per person for 125 people)
(5) Committee identification clothing - e.g., jacket
(6) Conference Packs - Programs, CD Rom, Conference Bags
(7) 33 panels
(8) Logo already paid for
(9) 64 presenters at $15 each
(10) 5% of the total expenditure (payable at the conclusion of the conference)

Actual Budget: TechTrain 2003

Revenue	Amount	Details
Staff Development	$15,000	2002 conference budget
DVC (Research) Mark Wainwright	$5,000	Internal transfer - 2003
Participant registration	$29,450	cheque and internal straight into account plus credit card internal transfer from BA101 PS01989
Creativity registration	$0	n/a
Sponsorship	$1,300	TechNet UNSW - sponsor morning tea (Charles Sturt Uni provided free Cheese and Wine for second day)
Trade registration	$6,380	cheques
GST recoverable	$2,409.79


TOTAL	$59,540

Expenses	Amount	Details
Action Wear - Committee Jumpers	$523.60	Eileen Emmerson credit card - internal transfer to reimburse
Band - Three Easy Pieces	$600	AP01
COFA - Fridge - official logo	$1,000	Internal debit - 2002
Crowne Plaza - conference dinner	$7,982	$743 on credit card (GH) balance on AP01
Facilities - Bus Hire	$28	Internal transfer
Harris Technology - toner for Lindsays printer (CD covers)	$144	AH credit card
Mail Room - courier expense	$6.09	Internal debit - 2003
Britta Campion - Photography	$385	AP01
Printing and Publishing - Program	$1,089	Internal transfer
Provin - catering on campus	$16,397.70	AP01s
Science faculty - posters	$1,178	internal debit
Scientia - venue balance	$5,625	Internal debit - 2003
Scientia - venue deposit	$1,875	Internal debit - 2003
Security - parking stickers	$600	internal debit (note - not all of these used. Remainder to staff dev instead of admin expenses - certificate paper, carttidges, evelopes for mail out and other stationary supplies)
Cabinet - Thank you Lunch catering	$220.16	AP01
SK Corp - conference bags, torches, timers, trilighters	$8,147.05	AH credit card (note - does not match invoices)
SPA - Panels for Trade Displays	$2,227.50	APO1
Casual Wages	$1,874.93	Internal transfer
Internal Admin Charges (Eftpos Machine and Fund charges)	$4,117.66	Internal transfer
Flowers for Eileen Emmerson - Chairperson	$30	Petty Cash

TOTAL	$54,051

surplus/deficit	$5,488

Trade Display Income, TechTrain 2003:

Alltech	$500	cheque	National Australia Bank Ltd. Cheque no 009007 Alltech Associates Pty Ltd	www.alltech.com/australia
Bacto	$499.99	invoice	UNSW GRP0042467	www.bacto.com.au/
Bonnet Equipment	$500	cheque	National Australia Bank Ltd. Cheque no 002610 Bonnet Equipment Pty Ltd	www.bonnet.com.au/
Crown Scientific	$500	cheque	Westpac Banking Corp Cheque number 070789 13/03/03 Crown Scientific	www.crownscientific.com.au
Livingstone International	$500	cheque	Westpac Cheque Livingstone International Pty Ltd 20/03/03	www.livingstone.com.au
Lomb Scientific	$500	cheque	Commonwealth Bank Lomb Scientific Aust Pty Ltd 05/03/03	www.lomb.com.au/
Sigma-Aldrich	$250	cheque	Westpac Cheque Sigma Aldrich Pty Ltd 06/03/03	www.sigmaaldrich.com/
UVEX	$499.99	invoice	UNSW GRP0042464	www.uvex.com/
Australian Instrument Services P/L	$500	credit card
Merck Pty Ltd	$500	cheque
Oxoid	$500	cheque	Westpac Banking Corp Cheque number 008573 Oxoid Australia Pty Ltd	www.oxoid.com
Radiometer Pacific	$499.99	invoice	UNSW GRP0047120
Corporate Express	$630	invoice	payment for torches for guest speakers
TOTAL	$6,380