Choosing the right location

Factors that will influence the location of a training session include the participants, the program itself, and the available budget. When contemplating where to hold your training sessions these factors need to be carefully considered.

The type of program will certainly dictate the kind of location that is needed to host the program. Large lecture-type programs will need a venue with a large lecture hall that has the seating capacity to handle the number of participants expected, while some programs will have a small number of participants and only require a small conference room. Some programs, while having a large number of participants, may also require smaller capacity rooms if the group is breaking out into smaller groups for parts of the program. Lastly, the program content may determine the need for a certain type of facility. For example, if the content involves hands-on training in computer software programs then a computer lab is necessary, while if the program is only an overview of a new program or changes to an existing program, then projecting images of the program for the participants or including screenshots in the program handouts may suffice.

While the number of participants will dictate the size of the room needed, the geographic spread of their home locations, combined with the length of the program, may necessitate overnight accommodation for participants. In most cases this is easily handled by holding the training at a conference center with hotel accommodation, but other possibilities include college or university campuses, retreat centers, and camps. Even without the need for overnight accommodation, it might be necessary to hold a workshop in a large facility because of the number of participants. However, before looking into these types of facilities, it must be determined that the need exists for this type of facility. With a short program (a single day or less) other possibilities include library or university meeting rooms, rental halls, schools, and community rooms.

Once the type of location has been determined it will be necessary to visit prospective locations to tour the facilities. Even if you believe you know the perfect location, it is best to visit multiple facilities to gain the proper perspective of the different possibilities. The simplest way to keep the advantages and disadvantages of the various locations in order is by completing a simple facility checklist. Before visiting facilities, determine what your program will need in a facility and then use the checklist to keep track of the various venues that you visit. A sample program facility checklist is shown in Figure 7.1.

In addition to touring the facilities, it is also necessary to meet the main staff members of the facility, the persons that you will interact with on a regular basis. If you do end up using the facility, these are the people who will be handling your program, so it is important that you are comfortable with them. Another important aspect of the location is described by Pearl Stewart in her article ‘Selecting Conference Sites’ (Stewart, 2000). Stewart discussed two conferences where some members did not attend due to the location of the conference. In one case the conference was to be held in a state that had recently reversed affirmative action laws, and in the other, the conference hotel had been involved in racial discrimination suits. Each case had very different circumstances, but these cases illustrate the need to have a clause in the contract that allows for it to be voided for certain reasons.

When meeting with representatives of the hotel or conference facilities it is important to understand that you (and your program) are the customers, and the details of the contract must be acceptable before the contract is signed. All facilities will require a deposit that will be non-refundable, so it is necessary to be aware of this before signing a contract. Therefore, it is crucial that your organization understands it may forfeit this deposit money in the event that the program has to be cancelled for a reason outside of your cancellation clause. Another concern is the date the deposit is due to be paid. If you are funding your program completely with registration fees, you will need a secondary source of funding for the deposit or you will need to set the date the deposit is due after the registration closes. However, if your organization has a positive cash flow, you may be able to use other funds for the deposit and reimburse them from your registration fees.

Another important aspect of the contract details is that most clauses in the contract are negotiable. If there is a clause in the contract that is worrisome, or that does not meet your program’s needs, ask that it be adjusted to your needs or deleted from the contract. In the current economy, many hotels and conference centers are actively seeking out new contracts and they may be willing to make adjustments if it means being able to earn your business. This is especially true when it comes to the food that may be provided as part of the contract. Many facilities also serve as banquet halls and therefore are used to serving an upscale clientele, but most are willing to scale down the amounts and type of menu at a lower cost if this is agreeable to your program. When discussing menus, remember to discuss options for participants with dietary restrictions, and also be aware of any cost increases that this may cause. Lastly, be sure to make clear to the conference staff that any requests for additional foods or beverages that will result in increased costs to the program must be approved by you before being acted upon.

During the program be sure to touch base daily with the staff representative to discuss any problems, but also to express your level of satisfaction with the food, staff and the facilities in general. When the program is finished, meet with your representative to collect an itemized bill that should be carefully checked before being submitted for payment. If the program went well and you and the participants were pleased with the facility, it might also be prudent to begin negotiations for a contract to repeat the program at a later date. Not only will you save yourself the effort of seeking out and visiting other possible venues, you may be able to secure the same facility at the same or even a lower rate for your future program.

Keeping track of everything does not have to be a nightmare. Spreadsheets will allow you to keep track of registrations, payments, accommodation, and meals required by your program. Sharing your spreadsheets with the conference staff is also a good idea, as you both can refer to the same document when discussing the program. Several conference staff have commented that they like to work using the files of the program logistics staff, as it gives them a better idea of the program staff’s perception of how the event will transpire. Spreadsheets can also be used to compare and contrast the pricing of different possible venues. Figure 7.2 provides a sample chart that can be used to keep track of registration and payments. This chart can also be used to note any dietary or accommodations requests.

Figure 7.3 shows a sample spreadsheet that will be useful to keep track of many different aspects of the program accommodations. First, it can be used to keep track of the trainers and days that they will be in attendance at the program. Accommodation and meals needs for the trainers, participants, and guests can be logged into the spreadsheet easily, calculating not only the numbers needed by day of the program, but also a total cost expended by the number of meals and rooms needed. Any adjustments to the overall cost, such as deductions for lower numbers of attendees at a meal, can also be inserted. This type of spreadsheet will prove invaluable when planning a budget for the program, but also when the time comes to verify the invoices when the program is finished.

Handling people

The logistics staff may also handle all the ‘people’ tasks that are involved in producing any sort of training program. Shorter programs will not require much in the way of people handling, but a program that requires food and drink and/or overnight accommodations will require a great deal. There will be people with dietary requirements and dietary requests, and possibly different numbers of people for meals on different days. If you are including overnight accommodation, you may have requests for specialty rooms; and if you are having multiple overnights with multiple speakers/trainers, you may need different numbers of rooms each night. Once again, a spreadsheet is a great aid in keeping track of everything.

Another aspect of people handling is managing their complaints. Even with a small group there will be issues to address and problems to solve; increase the size of the group and you will increase the amount of problems. In programs where you are using a hotel or conference center, participants may bring their problems to the attention of the hotel staff, but in reality the participants are your customers and it is the program that is the customer of the hotel. You and your logistics team must serve as the go-betweens for the participants and the hotel staff otherwise you may not be aware of ongoing problems. These problems may result in poor evaluations of your program, or, even worse, the reputation of your program could suffer greatly over a simple issue that you were completely unaware of at the time.

Another area where the logistics team may work with handling people is working with any volunteers and guest speakers or presenters in the program. Coordinating the work of volunteers takes a careful hand and a watchful eye. While many volunteers can be dedicated individuals, some volunteers for reasons of their own, not for the success of the program. These individuals will need close direction, and this is not possible if you are leading the program. Volunteer position responsibilities need to be spelled out as clearly as you would a paid position description. We have had volunteer trainers show up at the last (and we mean last!) possible moment before their session. In addition, their understudy was also a no-show. We were in the midst of a quick review of our notes, preparing to lead this portion of the program, when in strolled the missing trainer. If we had clearly stated that all trainers for the day’s sessions need to be present by 9 am, perhaps we would not have had this problem. We learned from this experience and now have descriptive paragraphs for all of the volunteer positions. This also helps people know exactly what they are signing up to do when they step forward as a volunteer.

If your program is fortunate to have guest speakers for certain portions of your program, their arrival and accommodations are best handled by someone not directly involved with presenting a portion of the program. This will allow them to be available to greet the guest and help them get settled without interruption to the program.

Administrative tasks

Administrative tasks are the backbone of any program; without them, or without them performed properly, a program will most certainly collapse. The logistics team may consist of staff members of a single library or organization or be comprised of people from multiple locations. Whatever the composition of the team, it is important to have people working on the administrative tasks who are able to work independently. Public knowledge of a program most often begins with publicity in the form of fliers, newsletter or listserv announcements, or direct mailings which are produced by the administrative arm of the logistics team. Registration materials are also produced and collected by the team. Once again a spreadsheet proves indispensible in keeping registrations and payments straight. The logistics team can also reproduce handouts needed for the program. If this is to be the case, certain conditions must be met so that the materials can be ready in a timely fashion at an affordable cost.

Dates must be set, and all involved need to be cognizant of these dates and adhere to them. The first date would be the deadline for all materials requiring reproduction to be received by the administrative team. The second would be the date by which the handouts need to be completed. Both dates are very important to the success of the program, and they should be mutually agreeable to all parties involved. Having a key person not able to meet one of these dates could result in incomplete or inaccurate handouts. Another issue of concern with the production of handouts is the cost of their reproduction. Depending on the amount of handouts and the number of participants, the cost of reproducing the handouts can quickly add up, especially if the cost is to be borne by a single entity. Setting a reasonable cost per page in the planning stages will allow the handouts to be completed without animosity.

The financial aspects of the program are also handled by the administrative arm of the logistics team. In the planning stages, a budget must be created that will be followed by the team when tracking the income and expenditures. Creating a budget is a daunting task that many have not previously encountered. However, it can be relatively straightforward if one approaches the task one step at a time. First, all possible costs should be given a line item in a spreadsheet, even if approximate costs cannot be determined for every line item at this time. Any items whose cost can be approximated or is known should have values entered. This will leave you with having to determine some sort of estimated amount for your unknown costs. Frequently, the largest unknown cost will be the cost of the contract for the facility where the program is being held. This cost will become a known cost soon enough, but in the early stages approximate costs can be found by speaking with the staff of short-listed facilities. If one of the costs, such as reproduction of the program handouts, is going to be covered by a sponsor or an administrator of the program, it is still important to list this cost. A separate line negating the cost, on the income portion of the budget, will be present for any costs being covered outside of income from the program. If the program is going to be presented in future years, these costs may not be borne by outside entities, so knowing what the cost was for past years will prove helpful.

Once the approximated costs have been determined, it is time to focus on the income side of the budget. Armed with an approximate total cost, the next step is to determine how these costs will be covered. The most common sources of funding for workshop costs are the administrative budget of the library or information center and the participant registration fees, but another possibility is to apply for a grant to cover all or part of the costs. Grant sources include national and state library associations and private foundations. List all sources of funding as separate line items in the income portion of your budget spreadsheet as shown in Figure 7.4.

Spreadsheets can also be used to aid the decision-making process to compare and contrast the different possible venues and their associated costs. While it may be difficult to make columns that will provide a direct comparison between each venue it may be possible to make adjustments for the different packages offered. A sample spreadsheet is shown in Figure 7.5.

Oftentimes the cost to the participants of the program is an unknown figure in the initial planning phases. Once the expenses have been determined, it is possible to use spreadsheets such as those in Figure 7.6 to determine the income generated from different possible participant fees. While no program should be planned with a budgeted net income in a negative range, most programs do not have the capability to finish with a large positive income, so the need to set a participant fee as low as possible to cover costs is usually paramount. It is important that it is clear to all involved what will happen to net income after all invoices have been paid. If the program does have a sponsoring organization, most times this amount can be used to offset their contribution. In the case of programs that are fully funded by participant fees, it is important to know where any extra funds will reside after the program ends and who will control them until they are needed again.

Developing the curriculum for instructional programs is a difficult and time-consuming task, as is presenting the material to the participants, but the logistics involved with these programs can be just as daunting. Frequently the area of logistics can be overlooked or underestimated when setting up an instructional or training team. Often the duties are parceled out amongst the trainers, who themselves may already be overburdened with their training load. It cannot be stressed more that these duties need to be assigned to individuals who do not have other duties in the program. These individuals will be kept quite busy before, during, and after the program. They need to be organized and have meticulous attention to detail. These individuals need to be informed of the importance of the tasks they are about to undertake as the success of the program rests just as much on them as it does the trainers.

As trainers, we want our programs to be enjoyed by our participants, and the logistics play a large part in the participant’s enjoyment of a program. It cannot be stressed enough: pay just as much attention to your program’s logistics as you do to your program’s content, because the participants sure will. Using the ideas and tools presented here, the work of the logistics team will be organized and professional. Programs that are well organized are successful and receive high praise from their attendees. You want your program remembered for the content and not for the poor quality lunch or temperature extremes, so remember: pay attention to the small details.

Useful links and further reading

Further reading

Reference