Lessons of a Conference
For almost
two months I have helped organize the international conference “Winning Central
Europe: The Spread and Reception of the Korean Wave in the Czech Republic and
the Adjacent Countries” together with members of the Czech Korean Association.
The event took place on the 28th and 29th of November in
the Celetná building and needless to say, it was a successful happening. This
article is dedicated to the lessons I have learnt and what I recommend to do in
order to make the organization of any
event as smooth and worriless as possible.
1)
Divide jobs
between members of the committee and focus only on your specific
responsibilities. I was the Conference coordinator and my main job was to keep e-mail
correspondence with all of the professors and students concerning
accommodation, transport, program, abstracts etc. as well as keeping
registration of listeners. I wanted to help out with refreshments organization
too, but it was already too much – and working late into the early morning
hours, responding to e-mails and keeping track of various changes, is not good.
Which brings me to point number two,-
2)
Limit the time
you spend working. Honestly! Give the work 2 hours at most and get stuff done instead of
working for hours on end, because you simply keep on procrastinating. The same
goes with any task – essays, revision, reading that book for literature class
or article for Linguistics seminar...
3)
It is the
21st century, but still: get
people’s phone numbers. It just may happen that you’re in a building
with unreliable or slow internet and where is your God then? Ask for people’s
phone numbers to avoid conversations like “I haven’t received your last
e-mail!” and therefore extra stresses like “Because you haven’t responded we
understood the deal isn’t happening” and having therefore to think of something
last-minute (true story)... Just get their phone number and get all
communication done in a matter of minutes instead of depending on internet
connection and waiting forever for
replies. PS: Thank you, girls from O.M.G. dance group (pictured), for coming in
and performing even though our central medium completely disserted its role one
night prior!
4)
Plan ahead.
Where to order food; the location of the nearest supermarket in case milk
for the coffee runs out; who will wash the cups and dishes and where, the route
for the professors when travelling from the accommodation to the conference
room...
5)
Sit down
and enjoy the show. You have spent so much time and energy on this event, so make sure you
get enough sleep and food to actually take the seat of a mere objective
listener than a subjective coordinator. Also, this is the perfect chance to
meet people both from the guest lecturers and audience and it would be a pity
to waste it due to responcibilites that can easily be done before the event!
Anna
Hupcejová
The Czech-Korean Assocation (Česko-korejská
společnost, ČKS) is a non-profit organization which organizes events
such as Korean film evenings, lectures, Korean days in Ostrava and Prague and
most recently an academic conference on the spread of Hallyu in Europe with the
goal of bringing the two cultures closer to each other. More information at www.cks-korea.cz, in case of inquiries or interest in becoming a
member of ČKS, write info@cks-korea.cz.
