The OpenWater Blog

Why You Need Others to Help With Your Conference Planning

Planners are often tempted to go it alone when it comes to their abstracts conference. Typically, it’s because these professionals feel as if they have the best grasp on the theme and details of the conference. Sometimes, it’s due to monetary constraints. No matter the reason, one thing is clear: it’s important that you never go it alone when it comes to conference planning.

This doesn’t mean that you need to hire other humans, either. In fact, an abstracts management system will provide the foundational support you need to meet your conference’s needs and those of your attendees and staff.

Abstract management systems are perfect partners for conference planners for many reasons, including:

• Structure – As a planner, you’re going to have a lot of data to be organized. This means you need a system, rather than just more people, to help you organize it.

• Flexibility – Abstract management systems, like OpenWater, are flexible and you can tailor the features to suit your unique needs. Specifically, you can create a simple submission process, judging criteria, and reporting both during and after the event.

• Simplicity – Organizing teams of people can be difficult. Organizing your own efforts with an abstract management system is simple.

That being said, not all abstract management systems are created equal. This makes it all the more important that you recruit others to test your abstracts management system to ensure it’s the best match for your organization. Below, we’ll discuss three different types of testing you should engage in when you’re evaluating a new system for your organization.

How to Test Your New Conference Planning Companion

Once you’ve settled on a conference management system as your companion for your next season, it’s important you test it to ensure it does everything it should. Doing so is simplest with human testers from a few different pools:

• Inside Your Organization – You should have your staff test the system to ensure they find it easy to use. After all, those who are inside your organization will be the people who use your system on a daily basis and have the greatest interest in ensuring it’s a good fit.

• Outside Your Organization – Friends and family members are great resources because many will be vaguely familiar with what you do but are not as well-versed in abstracts conferences as your co-workers are. Remind friends and family members to keep track of issues they encounter so you can address them before you choose an abstracts management system.

• Testers From Outside Your Industry – It’s good to have some testers who are not familiar with your organization at all. This is a great way to test whether the system is intuitive, especially from a user perspective. And, if your user has no experience with abstracts or paper collection and is still able to navigate the system, you can feel confident that the system will be smooth for real users as well.

You Need Help With Your Abstracts Conference, But That Doesn’t Have to Come From Other People

An abstracts management system is a simple way to manage your conference, especially if you prefer to take control over the process on your own.

Thus, while you can use help with your program, this isn’t to say that it has to come from other staff members; a system may work just as well (if not better).

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