June 2004
Cheat Sheet: Planning general sessions

General sessions serve a variety of purposes. For some shows, they’re meant to infuse attendees with a sense of excitement about an event. For others, they’re designed to be a time to recognize achievement or reflect on a year’s accomplishments. Planning the wrong sort of session could be like planning a birthday party for a funeral. Here are some tips to help stay focused and plan the most appropriate general session for your next event.

By Linda C. Chandler

Defining the finish
It’s impossible to plan appropriately if you haven’t defined the goal for your general session. Some common goals include:
• To convey important industry news.
• To present awards.
• To motivate or entertain attendees.
• To build community.
• To achieve buy-in for a program or business direction.
• To reassure a group during challenging times.
• To conduct elections or receive feedback from attendees.
• To meet legal requirements.

General session basics
•  Limit a general session to no less than one hour, and no more than three hours. Pacing is important; build to a big finish.
•  Break up the time creatively so it isn’t solely a program of talking heads. Engage the audience with interviews, a game show format or entertainment.
•  Rehearse all parts of the production and every participant — even CEOs, big-name speakers and entertainers. Everyone involved must have the agenda and be prepared.
•  Plan for staff placement and ticketing issues.

Read more
These books contain information about planning general sessions:
•  Complete Idiot’s Guide to Meeting Planning, Robin E. Craven and Lynn Johnson Golabowski, Alpha Books, 2001
•  Convention Industry Council Manual 7th Edition, Susan Krug, Editor, CIC, 2000
•  Corporate Event Project Management, William O’Toole and Phyllis Mikolaitis, Wiley Event Management Series, 2002
•  Meeting and Event Planning for Dummies, Susan A. Friedman, Wiley Publishing Inc, 2003
•  Event Entertainment and Production, Mark Sonder, Wiley Event Management Series, 2003

Location, location, location 
•  Auditoriums and ballrooms present the least problems. Lighting and conditions are easier to control.
•  A special off-site venue can be interesting but challenging. Don’t force it to be something it isn’t.
•  Exhibit hall is possible. Consider advantages and disadvantages. (See below.)

General sessions on the trade show floor
Pros
•  You may save money by using space already included in your exhibition package.
•  Creating a general session area can be easily accomplished with pipe and drape.
•  Keeping everything in one place ensures traffic into show area and creates a “home” for the event.
•  If you’ve not done it before and think creatively, it can add a new spark of variety to your event. (Think drum corps or conga lines down aisles to or from the general session area.)

Cons
•  Acoustics is a primary concern. You’ll likely need not only high-quality microphones and directional sound speakers but also carpeting on the floors to achieve good quality.
•  Lighting is never optimal in an exhibition hall, especially for PowerPoint or similar projection. Brighter projectors cost more and still may not overcome ambient light.
•  It forces the trade show itself to go dark temporarily.
•  Rehearsals must be held in another location or while the trade show is down.

Timing
When you hold a general session depends on what you hope to achieve. If you want to motivate attendees about to enter the show floor, then the morning before a show opening may be best, but if you want to recognize successful people, evening might be better. Some basic guidelines:
• Traditional wisdom calls for morning general sessions, while attendees are fresh. However, in some cites, such as New Orleans or Las Vegas, where nightlife is a part of the draw, early morning general sessions may not be advisable.
•  Some organizations incorporate general sessions into luncheon or dinner programs. This is great for awards and recognition, but if you want to inform, the food may be a distraction.
•  If you’re bringing in a well-known speaker to talk about business concepts in hopes of getting attendees to reflect, an afternoon session with less pomp and circumstance and more refined presentation may be best.
•  Although most would advise against it, some organizations have had success with end-of-day general sessions, but do it only if there’s great programming to draw attendance or if it has become traditional and continues to work.

Sources
Linda S. Goldman, Harris-Goldman Productions Inc., (619) 299-7951
Marilyn Harrington, Infinity Expo Group, (203) 925-2100
Beth Petersen, George Little Management LLC, (914) 421-3200
C. B. Wismar, PGI Inc., (703) 528-8484