I'll be hosting a medium-sized (300+ participants) scientific conference in 2016 (International Symposium on Fish Endocrinology). When it come to both practical/logistic organization, as well as the scientific program, sometime I see some minor, yet smart solution to something, or there's some detail which I find very irritating. What are your best tips, and what should be avoided?
One thing that can make a meeting terrible is the proximity of lecture rooms. If talks are scheduled back-to-back, it's good to have the rooms clustered somewhat so that attendees can move quickly between rooms. Make the maximum time to get from room to room about 3 minutes (or equivalent to the allowed time for questions at the end of a presentation).
Hi Patrick, Yes, the physical lay-out and proximity of the lecture halls is definitely something which can make or break a conference, especially those with 3+ parallel sessions. I think this often happens when organizers use old university buildings where you end up running up and down several flights of stairs looking for that elusive lecture hall 3B (or was it 3C?) - have to check my progam again ;-)
This goes on my list when examinig possible venues!
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