Running a Major Event: Challenges of scaling up

1. Running a Major Event: Challenges of scaling up Trevor McCrisken & Denise Hewlett, PAIS

2. Running a Major Event:Challenges of Scaling Up • US Foreign Policy Conference at Warwick, September 2014 • Sponsored by BISA, ISA, US Embassy, ESRC, Institute for the Study of the Americas • Organised by PAIS – Academic-Administrative partnership • Oz Hassan, Trevor McCrisken, Denise Hewlett, Jackie Smith, Mary Sheffield, MichielFoulon • Attendees – 80 including 18 Early Career Researchers • Three days: Early Career Day and Main Conference Days • Budget: £32,500

3. Start planning early! • Started discussions 1 year before the conference • Ambitions – THINK BIG! • Biggest US foreign policy conference in Europe • Big name keynote speaker • Not just a meal – a banquet – at WARWICK CASTLE! • Practicalities – venue, accommodation, responsibilities, costs, FUNDING • What could each of us bring? – experience, contacts, time and energy

4. Get the keynote – all else follows • Key part of thinking big and being ambitious • Former US President Bill Clinton • Had spoken at Warwick at the end of his presidency • Surely he’d want to come back?? • But his fee….was1 million dollars!!! • Plan B: Hillary Clinton • Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State • John Negroponte, George W. Bush’s Director of National Intelligence • Role in Central America in the 1980s

5. Who you know helps • Robert Wescott, President of Keybridge Research, Washington DC • Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, Administration of Bill Clinton • US Embassy connections • Liz Dibble, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy London • Plus Assistant Cultural Attache, Robert Adelson

6. Show me the money • IAS Grant £18,000 • Oz as early career researcher wasn’t able to be lead so I had to take lead on this application • Joint effort among the team – lots of rewrites to get the emphasis right – Early Career development • US Embassy • Had contributed to previous BISA USFP Working Group Conferences to the tune of about £1500 • We applied for £2,950 • They granted us £1,950 • On the basis of “If you don’t ask you don’t get”, I pressed them for the full amount • Bob Geldof principle!

7. Timetable • 6 months prior to event: website, invitations, flyers, keep speakers warm, off campus bookings (University permission) • 4-5 months prior to event: sort out speaker accommodation and travel, monitor conference registration, put conference programme together, alert panel members • 3 months prior to event: print up publicity and programme, finalise registrations • 2 months prior to event: Request papers from presenters, check with venues • 1 month prior to event: prepare information pack for attendees • 2 weeks before event: send out info pack, prepare badges, finalise venue information • Be prepared for anything, dropouts – keep a spreadsheet

8. Working with the University • Rules and regulations – costs, what you can use/what you can’t • Going off campus • Booking VIPs – University can help, but maybe take a deep breath! • Security – potential for protests, etc.

12. And finally… • Don’t be in Australia when your conference runs!!