Goals
These goals, set by the ILTA Conference Co-Chairs, direct all aspects of the educational program development:
OVERALL CONFERENCE GOALS:
Align the strategic goals of conference with those of the organization
Collaborate with all supporting structures of the organization to align and integrate programming
- Strengthen the team approach to staff/officer/volunteer involvement
- Continue the development of the team approach to conference planning
- Create educational content that is an extension of regional and peer group programming
Deliver high value, affordable conference
- Set registration fees for members and vendors so that the value experience far exceeds the cost of attending
- Provide value for vendor sponsorships
Increase networking opportunities
- Align networking opportunities with organizational structure (regions, peer groups, focus groups, professional strata)
- Target networking events to attendees who have limited opportunities to connect with their specific peers
- Communicate (market) networking opportunities across various organization venues (website, e-groups, conference brochures, conference e-news, officer communications to specific constituencies)
Develop and deliver an external communication plan that reflects the value proposition and the ongoing ROI analysis
Provide communications that showcase the rich educational and networking experiences
Balance vendor interaction to our culture and member needs:
- Observe desired vendor speaker ratio as stated in the educational program goals
- Work with vendors to ensure marketing focus centers around educational and product offerings
- Provide adequate opportunities for members to visit the exhibit hall
- Communicate the value of vendor/sponsor contributions to the conference
Demonstrate our focus on the latest technologies by developing and offering communication and social media tools
Attract international attendees by demonstrating the value of their participation
Maximize collaborative opportunities with the Law Department Peer Group/attendees to gain further value from their “client-focused” perspective
Provide and promote a platform for volunteer opportunities
GOALS FOR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM:
Deliver High-Quality Sessions
- Centralize communications related to session development
- Develop/deliver sessions that demonstrate a collaborative approach to programming
- Develop/deliver fresh, relevant, diverse content across a broad range of areas of focus
- Develop/deliver content that attracts decision makers
- Deliver high quality keynotes and plenary sessions
- Continue the development/delivery of content related to and coordinated with our Law2020 initiative through progressive and successive topics
- Develop/deliver programming that provides value to our hybrid attorney/technologist attendees
- Ensure the experience level of the session matches the published experience level
- Define and publish session formats for delivering content (presentation, panel, roundtable discussion)
- Develop intermediate and advanced level sessions, sessions that build on each other
- Provide hands-on sessions across the areas of focus
- Provide alternative formats for some sessions
Manage the Speaker Population
- Seek out the best qualified speaker(s) on each topic
- Maintain a member / vendor speaker participation ratio of 65/35
- Seek out and mentor and manage new speakers to ensure a fresh, diverse speaker population
- Continue to develop speaker management tools to support the conference committee in selecting and mentoring their speakers and developing content
- Provide professional development for speakers and moderators
- Provide professional development for committee team members on courseware developmen
Provide Resources for Team Members
- Develop and provide good resources and tools for planning (teamsite, wikis, expertise, program survey, course catalog)
- Encourage the use of the tools, providing training to the planning team if needed