Planning a convention: a checklist

A convention is a hundred small jobs done by a dozen teams at once. This is the order that works.

Three months out

1. Create the event with its dates, venue and a cover picture, and keep it a draft until you are ready.
2. Add the standard teams — Finance, Procurement, Transport, Medical, Protocol, Media, Prayer and the rest. Each gets its own budget line and its own page.
3. Set the budget. Finance fills in each committee's line; every request for money and every purchase is held against it.

Six weeks out

4. Open registration or ticket sales and publish the event page.
5. Confirm your speakers and mark the ones the public may see.
6. Plan the buses: pickup points, how many seats, departure times.
7. Ask for volunteers from the event page — each chooses the team they want to join.

The week before

8. Publish the programme day by day.
9. Set up the medical tent and the emergency numbers.
10. Print badges for staff and name badges for guests.

On the day

11. Scan at the door, dispatch the buses, and post updates on the Live wall.

Afterwards

12. Gather the testimonies, photographs and reviews, close the books, and ask every committee for its report.