How to plan a conference
A fourteen-week plan for a one-day customer conference: four teams, thirteen activities, three milestones and an early-bird window. The conference day is fixed; the preparation before it can move. The same plan appears below as a Gantt chart, a Kanban board and a checklist, and the views stay in step.
Gantt chart: the work that leads up to a fixed day
The event date is set with the venue and cannot move, so the preparation is planned backwards from it.
Conference day is a fixed milestone, drawn as an outline diamond: it holds its date whatever happens to the work before it. The other two milestones follow work. Registration opens waits for the Event website and Line-up announced for the Agenda. Follow-up and survey waits for the conference day itself, so it moves only when the event does.
The green band is the early-bird window: registration opens on 15 February and the discount ends a month later, just after the line-up is announced.
When preparation slips toward the day
Drag Sell sponsorships one week later. Signage and booths and the Technical rehearsal move with it by the same week, now landing on 21 April, six days after the conference. The five quiet days between the booths and the rehearsal do not absorb the delay, because a drag keeps the gaps in the chain.
Conference day stays on 15 April, and Tidigar shows no warning: a fixed milestone is an anchor, not a deadline that pulls work earlier. Compare the rehearsal with the conference day yourself, then decide what to cut. Shorten the booth work, end sales earlier or add help, until the rehearsal is back on the day before. See Two kinds of milestone for the rules.
Kanban board: what each team is doing now
Early in the plan, the budget, venue and sponsor packages are done, while the call for speakers, website and sponsor sales are under way. Sponsor sales run for seven weeks and feed the booths and the rehearsal; a card that stays in In progress that long deserves a weekly look.
Checklist: what is due when
The same activities as a list, with the due date, the team and the status. Many event teams run their weekly meeting from a list like this.
Choose the End column heading to sort by due date. After the slip above, the rehearsal's due date reads 21 April, later than the conference itself.
Make it yours
- Choose Open in Tidigar under any view to get your own copy. It is free, needs no account and stays on your device.
- Open Conference day and set your event date; the follow-up moves with it.
- Drag Goals and budget to your real start; the preparation after it follows. Check that Technical rehearsal ends before the conference day.
- Rename the teams to match your organization. To keep an updating view on the event team’s office screen, store your copy in Tidigar Business (paid) and follow Screen links. Anyone with that screen link can view it without an account.
Let the event team follow dates in their calendar
After saving your copy in Tidigar Business (paid), select the saved Checklist view and choose Share → Screens…. Make a screen, then choose Calendar subscription → Copy calendar link on its page. The event team can subscribe in their calendar app without a Tidigar account; see Screen links and calendar feeds.
Technical rehearsal appears across its planned work days and Conference day as a one-day milestone. The early-bird band is not a calendar event. Changing the original plan updates the feed; the demonstrations on this page do not publish one. Calendar apps may take hours or longer to fetch changes, so tell the team separately about urgent changes near the event. Anyone with the address can read the published view; share it with the team rather than treating it as a private invitation.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should you plan a conference? Three to four months for a one-day event with a few hundred guests; six months or more when the venue is in high demand.
What should be booked first? The venue and date. Speakers, sponsors and marketing all depend on them.
What if preparation runs past the event date? The date stays where it is. Use the timeline or the checklist to find the late work, then shorten it or cut scope; moving the event is a decision for the venue and the guests.