Once upon a time, life revolved around a conference

3 months. Thats how long a break it has been. Most of February and March was all about organising a conference here in Johor Bahru. I was the conference secretary. Not entirely something new but nothing had prepared me for the scale and scope of the responsibility that was on my shoulders.

Over the years, I had assisted to organise various half day and full day seminars for the Institution. But this was a major 2 day event with the State government in the picture. After much effort by the Organising Chairperson, we managed to secure confirmation and proceeded to work towards delivering the end product. 5 weeks was all that we had. Finalizing the list of speakers and the topics was the number one headache.

Next on the list of headaches was venue. With such a short time available, ZON wasnt available, and we were forced to accept latest convention centre in town. This was done with much reservations considering the slow response time and exhorbitant cost. Just to get a quotation was taking them 1 to 2 weeks. To amend it took another week or so. The excuse was it took 3 persons to sign the document. And I replied, "So why does it take more than a week???". Cost wise, it was 30 to 40 % higher than ZON or Hyatt. And for participants, RM8 was the parking fee, which was almost double of the rates quoted elsewhere.

The one major thing I was personally proud of doing was ensuring the buffet menu was sensitive to all the major races/religion i.e. meaning, no beef to be served. It didnt make sense for a multi racial group to be served beef when half of the participants abstains from it. What motivated me further to act was seeing the first proposed menu containing only beef soup on the first day. No options. Very insensitive on the part of the convention hall managers. But then again, since school going days, we keep seeing this insensitivity again and again.

There was much paperwork. It was beyond all pre-conceived imagination. The office secretary and 2 other staff were asked to assist. And they delivered. They worked hard and helped ensure we were on schedule and in control of the situation.

We were somewhat lucky in selecting the printers. An old classmate gave a lead which led us to work with a medium sized outfit from Kg Melayu. My gut-feeling was to go with them, and pray all went on well. True enough, they delivered. They were very obliging in delaying deadlines and came up with finished products of reasonable standards.

If I was asked what was the critical factors to ensure success of a conference, I would say there were 2. One was the speakers lined up. Get good ones, and half the battle is won. The second critical factor is marketing. There is no point lining up world class speakers if nobody turns up.

The marketing was a time consuming task. We had no prior experience to tackle an assignment of this size. Getting 80 participants to attend a one-day seminar was a big deal. Getting 300 to 500 participants was different altogether. I pushed for adverts in the local papers and we got that done. Flyers were sent to all members of the Institution. Flyers were hand delivered to post boxes of all major office buildings in the city as well as all the pigeon hole boxes at the Courts. Next came the faxes. Hundreds were sent out to other professional bodies, other professionals, financial institutions, fund managers, property developers, contractors, embassies, etc. Emails were sent out to various individuals, companies and real estate groups. The latter exercise made us realise, there were lots of people out there who dont read their emails regularly, if ever at all.

Coincidently, we were getting very busy at office with our work. Work that we get paid for. Those were trying times. Assistance was requested. Someone had volunteered to send a staff over to our office to assist. We took up on the offer. Later on, we were told the staff was there only to collect cheques and bank them in. Duhhh big time. That incidently practically set my soul ablaze. The anger and disappointment will be there for a long time. At a time when a plea for help went out, none at the top obliged.

Almost everything was heaped on us to handle. Correspondence that was supposed to be done by others, landed on our desk. Various lame excuses given. Yet, we tried hard to deliver. Even the souvenir magazine preparation was very very slow off the block. The printer required 2 weeks to prepare and yet when the deadline to deliver came, the person in charge had hardly done anything, citing a busy work schedule. Again here we had to assist with the editing and compiling. In the end, the printer had only 3 full days to get the books produced, which they did.
At various times during the month, I contemplated resigning out of frustration. And each time I came to the conclusion, to do so was to be irresponsible, regardless of how justified my actions would be. Towards the end, I desensitized myself when hearing comments of me being a superman in handling the tasks.

Short of sleep for days at a time, it was natural tempers were on the rise, on my part. The fuse became shorter. Office work couldnt be neglected either. For me, it was a responsibility to deliver on all fronts. A speaker on the second day, an old friend, when asked the single most important factor that defines success, answered it was "promise". If you make a promise, make sure you deliver. That hit it right on the nail. We promised to deliver a conference and therefore we had to go all out to ensure we delivered. Incidentally, that paper and the panel discussion that followed, were the only sessions I had the time to listen to. The price one paid for being part of the organising committee.

A total of about 510 participants attended, including some invited guests and organisers. We had the most unpleasant task of turning away late-comers. As for the speakers, part of them gave their papers at the very last moment. At least three of them declined permission to distribute their papers to participants. It was naturally their right but I found that very surprising. It was ok to show the slides to 500+ persons in the hall and press that were present, but it wasnt ok it put it onto hard copies for circulation. I will never understand the logic. In the end, I, personally, didnt get to know what was presented. My loss.

Various incidents occured during the two days. To list them down would be emotionally draining I guess. Or, am just too frustrated and lazy now to put it down to words. It may not bring any good to bring such stuff out in the open. Venting frustrations here does have it limits. In the end, the committee did its job. We delivered.

If a conference's success was judged by the number of participants or the number of speakers or the probable high profitability, then this was indeed a very successful event.

Much time had been spent to deliver the promise, at the expense of office work and time with the family. It has been an invaluable experience. And now, we are tying up loose ends. Once that is done, am out. I have done my "national service".