Documentation and Reporting

Documentation and Reporting

The wing should have two items to assist the CPO in planning the conference: a robust continuity book for history and to act as an operations plan; and a separate annual conference book or electronic file containing all the required items for this year’s event. (Sample Table of Contents for each are found in the attachments). These items will be invaluable to the planning staff… and to you.

Legacy Documentation

Some assume that a continuity book and an annual conference book are essentially the same. They are not. It’s true that they each contain some of the same items, but they are designed to be used for different reasons and are useful for different lengths of time.

Let’s consider the differences.

Continuity Book/Operations Plan

Whereas staff positions have continuity books covering the job, in this instance continuity covers an activity type. The continuity book (for brevity’s sake) is the conference planning legacy document. It serves as the history of the activity, a place to store plans, procedures, checklists, to incorporate lessons learned, past contracts, venue history and all the other long-term or permanent information about an activity.

Continuity books can be either hard-copy or electronic, depending on preference. Many people, however, store them both ways and keep a hard copy. It’s easier to read. A sample table of contents for a conference continuity binder is in Attachment 2.

Annual Conference Binder

The annual conference binder (electronic, hard copy or both) contains all the documentation and history needed for the conference at hand. Unlike a continuity binder, it doesn’t contain history, lessons learned, or plans per se. The conference binder contains all the pertinent checklists, timelines, budget, venue information, registration information, contracts, contacts, and program information for that year. A sample table of contents for an annual conference binder is in Attachment 3.

Important Conference Documents

The documents discussed in this section will make it into the annual conference binder. Many of these will also find a home in the continuity binder.

Checklists and Timelines

Conference planning is made much easier with a robust checklist and timeline system. While it’s impossible to think of everything, good checklists and timelines get to the 90% solution and serve as the basis for both completing the tasks at hand, as well as stimulating discussion about how to improve those tasks.

Checklists and timelines are tailored by wing and by event. The following list contains many of the ones used by CAP for its F2F annual national conferences (samples of many are included in Attachment 4):

• Master deadline checklists

  • Pre-conference

  • During conference

  • Post-conference

• Site survey checklist

• OPR checklist (each OPR is responsible for including their own checklists which are included in both the continuity book and annual binder)

• Sub event checklists

  • Seminars

  • Protocol

  • Banquet

  • General assembly

  • Awards

  • Meetings

  • Lodging

  • Food & Beverage (F&B)

  • Budget

  • Marketing and social media

  • Registration, conference programs and bags

  • Social activities

• Packing list for Conference Project Officer (often overlooked, but critical)

• Emergency checklists:

  • Power outage at venue

  • Medical emergency/non-emergency

  • Fire/natural disaster at venue

  • Member victim of crime checklist

  • Theft of CAP property checklist

Planning Spreadsheets and Documentation

Determining what should take place at a wing conference is covered in the section “Planning Conference Activities.” How these activities are plotted, documented, shared and evaluated will be discussed.

Spreadsheets are “good friends” to have. Budget spreadsheets make math easier. Schedule spreadsheets make combining place, time, activity and requirements easier to view holistically. Finally, it makes sorting item requirements in multiple ways easier.

• Conference budget

• Conference room set ups (by day)

• Room block schedules (by day)

• Audiovisual requirements (by day and room)

• Learning Session/seminar, activity, and meeting by department

• Food and beverage and Dietary Restrictions

• Registration by type

• Venue research

• Master lodging list

It seems like a lot, and for small conferences not all may be needed. The good thing however about a spreadsheet is that, with copying and a little tailoring, specific reports can be generated meeting specific needs. For instance, the Seminar, activity and meeting by department spreadsheet can be easily adapted for the hotel’s audiovisual department with a different sort to show them what is needed for their quote. The same basic spreadsheet is also adapted for the hotel event staff for room set up. Samples of many of these spreadsheets are found above.

Floorplans

No conference is complete without floorplans. The venue provides a basic map of the facility, along with square footage and seating capacities for each basic floorplan offered:

• Theater

• Classroom (or schoolroom)

• U-shape

• Hollow square

• Conference

• Reception

• Banquet (rounds of 8 or 10, with or without buffet)

• Auditorium (half-moon)

• Exhibit Hall

The basic numbers shown in the venue literature assume that only the basic floorplan is incorporated and that the room is filled to capacity without such things as additional tables, aisles, projection, podium or other amenities.

It’s important to discuss with the venues how a specific floorplan is envisioned, so there are no surprises. Most venues’ sales agents can use special floorplan software which can blueprint how a room will look when equipped with desired seating and amenities. If the conference continuity binder has a sample floorplan from past year’s that is desired, go ahead and share it with the venue so that they can help adapt it to the new space.

Two other notes about floor plans: first, a seat set as described above usually doesn’t have an additional charge. They’ll put seats and tables out as part of the basic room charge (or free if the meeting room is comped). Additional amenities, such as “pipe and drape,” screens and projection, staging, any audiovisual (including microphones), special lighting, hanging banners from the ceiling, exhibit hall draping, etc. will come at extra charge. The good news is that almost all these charges can be negotiated.

The second note is that floor sets can be changed during the day usually without charge if two conditions are met:

• The venue has agreed in advance and planned for the change (because they must get the labor)

• There are no chargeable amenities not previously agreed to.

The Contract

As discussed previously, the contract is the single most important document to have (and to get right) when planning a conference. This represents the legal and binding agreement between CAP and the venue. How the contract is carried out depends on the additional work done by the CPO and the venue. This work and the associated requirements are expressed by the CPO in the form of checklists, floorplans, menus, spreadsheets, etc.

The Banquet Event Order

The venue expresses how it understands CAP’s requirements in the form of floorplans as well as something called a banquet event order (BEO) (see sample in Attachment 6). The BEO is the document that tells the event staff and the banquet staff exactly what is needed when, where and for how long. A BEO exists for each room and/or each activity each day. It discusses

• How rooms are set up.

• Number of seats.

• Whether food and beverage are required (the actual F&B is shown separately).

• Whether the room needs to be rekeyed.

• For how long the room is being used.

• If A/V support is required (the actual A/V requirements are shown separately).

• If a tailored floorplan is to be used.

• Any other special requirements such as specific colored table linens, centerpieces, small table and setting for POW/MIA table, wider aisle for color guard, awards table, etc.

Tip: Always carry copies of this as well as the spreadsheets, and the contract in the annual binder and bring with them to the venue. Don’t rely on looking at these on a smart phone or tablet.

The Invoices

The invoices start flowing in from vendors even before the conference begins. Some are easy to reconcile against the budget. You either did or you did not pay $10.37 for a role of ID card stock.

The invoice from the venue, is, obviously, more complex. Depending on how audiovisual was contracted, it may or may not be included on the master invoice. If it is, master invoices are normally billed by-day and aggregated. Items to watch for:

• Reconcile the invoice against the agreed-to prices as stated in the contract and official quotes.

• Ensure that the quantities and menus accurately reflect the BEOS and final counts guaranteed to the venue.

• Ensure that comped rooms are reflected in the master bill.

• Ensure that there are no unauthorized room charges (sometimes members receiving comped rooms might order room service, parking or a movie that should be billed to their credit card but makes it onto the master bill accidentally).

• Ensure that no alcohol is on the invoice. CAP funds cannot be spent on alcohol.

• If cadet rooms’ pay per view is turned off (and you should ensure that it is), make sure you aren’t billed for it.

• If the wing is sales tax exempt, ensure that it isn’t on the bill.

Note any discrepancies and contact the venue’s sales manager and their accounting department to see how best to straighten things out. Remember that the end of CAP’s fiscal year is 30 September. All invoices should be paid by that date.

The After-Action Report (Hot Wash)

The after-action meeting (also known as the hot wash) usually happens within 2 weeks of the end of the conference. Sometimes it is treated as a pro-forma activity, and this would be a mistake. The after-action meeting is a wonderful chance to review the conference and gather lessons learned from those who staffed the conference – while minds are still fresh with the detailed on what went wrong and as important what went right.