1 Know your audience

Before you start crafting your conference agenda, you need to understand who your attendees are, what they expect, and what they want to learn. You can use surveys, interviews, social media, or analytics to gather insights about your audience's needs, interests, challenges, and goals. This will help you tailor your conference agenda to match their preferences and motivations.

2 Define your objectives

Next, you need to define what you want to achieve with your conference agenda. What are the main messages, themes, or outcomes that you want to convey? How do you want your attendees to feel, think, or act after attending your conference? How will you measure the impact and success of your conference agenda? Having clear and specific objectives will help you align your conference agenda with your overall conference vision and strategy.

3 Choose your format

The format of your conference agenda refers to the structure, duration, and delivery of your sessions. You can choose from different types of formats, such as keynote, panel, workshop, breakout, Q&A, or networking. The format of your conference agenda should reflect your objectives, audience, and content. You should also consider the benefits and drawbacks of each format, such as the level of interaction, engagement, feedback, and learning.

4 Select your speakers

The speakers are the core of your conference agenda. They are the ones who will deliver the content, share the insights, and inspire the attendees. Therefore, you need to select your speakers carefully and strategically. You should look for speakers who are experts, credible, relevant, diverse, and engaging. You should also communicate with your speakers clearly and regularly, and provide them with guidelines, feedback, and support.

5 Balance your content

The content of your conference agenda is the substance, the value, and the appeal of your sessions. You need to balance your content to ensure that it is informative, relevant, diverse, and engaging. You should avoid too much or too little content, too broad or too narrow topics, too similar or too different perspectives, and too boring or too complex presentations. You should also use different media, such as slides, videos, polls, or quizzes, to enhance your content.

6 Test and refine your agenda

Finally, you need to test and refine your conference agenda before you finalize and publish it. You can use feedback, data, or simulations to evaluate your conference agenda and identify any gaps, issues, or improvements. You should also be flexible and adaptable, and be ready to make changes or adjustments based on the feedback, data, or situations. Testing and refining your conference agenda will help you ensure its quality, effectiveness, and relevance.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?