Organising a congress isn’t something you just do on the side: it has been compared to starting your own business. A lot needs to be arranged at the financial level, as well as the administrative and of course organisational levels. The Utrecht Convention Bureau provides you with independent and free advice and support for organising your congress. But we can set out a number of important points for you right here: things you need to consider when organising a congress.
Bid procedure
You are enthusiastic and want to organise a congress. But perhaps there are various initiators in other countries who are putting themselves forward for that same congress. This will lead to a bid procedure. A bid is a specified proposal submitted by all parties to the management of the association or to a selection committee. The management of the association or the selection committee will ultimately decide in which country and in which town or city the congress will take place.
You need to compile a large amount of information for a bid procedure. This can take the form of a bid book or a bid form. Whatever the case, you need to compile information on data, location options, prices and conditions.
In addition to compiling all information, a bid procedure may comprise:
- Setting up a special committee (Local Organization Committee), which will compile all information and oversee the entire process.
- Putting together a bid book or bid form.
- Lobbying the association.
- Presenting the bid book or bid form. This often goes hand in hand with a presentation to the management of the association or the selection committee.
- Organising a site inspection. If you are the organiser of a congress, you naturally want to know what Utrecht has to offer and you will view various congress and event locations.
A bid book communicates what your invitation really means, in an inspiring and thorough way. Besides the official invitation, it also contains things such as letters of recommendation from various bodies and government organisations that are associated with the congress.
Support
The Utrecht Convention Bureau will happily work together with you to create a bid book. When supporting the most effective possible bid procedure we will draw on our own expertise and that of other stakeholders, such as congress venues, the Professional Conference Organizer and the hotels.
The Utrecht Convention Bureau can also provide extra support by contacting other grant-providing funds such as the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Pre-financing and Guarantee Fund of the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions. Furthermore, the Province of Utrecht has made the Incentive fund knowledge events available once again in 2022. Through this, the province government invests in the acquisition of multi-day national and international scientific congresses that further the goal of a healthy city and region by and for all. The themes in line with this goal are healthy, green and smart. This grant is intended for non-profit organisations, national or international scientific institutions/associations or an authorised representative of these bodies.
Promotion
When you organise a congress, you also need to promote it, so a lot of promotion needs to be carried out before, during and after the congress. Clear and distinctive marketing will help to realise a successful congress, with a logo being one good example. The following media will help to achieve your goal in this area:
- Advertisements in journals (online and offline)
- Publicity generated by press releases
- Congress website
- Digital presentation
- Mailings to the addresses in various databases
- Social media