Conference Organisation

This is the "template" for conference organisation as requested by Wendi.

General Overview of Virtual IEF Conference Organisation

Agree on an Overall Conference Theme – sometimes relating to a conference taking place around that time toward which the IEF wants to contribute content.

Suggestions from January 2026 IEF Board meeting:
In 2026, one option may be: 19 – 30 October | 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) | Yerevan, Armenia
Possible themes or topics for the virtual conference this year could include:
- Bahá'í perspectives on a systems reset (see David Obura et al. on IEF website https://iefworld.org/Systems_Reset2026 )
- Building community around environmental issues (nine-year plan)
- Staying positive in a disintegrating world
Get Board agreement for overall conference theme.

Look for speakers – panelists and moderators.
Generally, there is one moderator and three panelists (ideally showing some diversity in background, gender, and age)
Panelists are asked to speak 12 – 15 min. (longer if only two panelists, shorter with four) The moderator introduces the topic of the particular panel (1 – 3 sentences) and introduces panelists right before they speak (1 – 3 sentences, a longer bio can go into the chat)

Look for co-sponsors in collaboration with the IEF Board. They can be Baha’i institutions or other organisations, depending on the nature of the conference and possible alignment to another conference.

Aim for quality, not quantity: Three online events have proven to be effective and manageable.

Length of Events: The program could take 50 - 60 min. Since most speakers tend to speak too long, it’s best to plan for 50 min. so that there is at least half an hour for Q&A/discussion. The event may go for as long as 90 minutes, but if the discussion is not that lively/interesting, the moderator can end the program anytime before.

Panel organisers ask all the speakers for the following information: 
Moderator:
- your official name and title
- a brief bio (one paragraph)
- a picture of yourself
Panelists:
- your official name and title
- a brief bio (one paragraph)
- a picture of yourself
- a title of your talk
- a brief description of your talk (one paragraph)

Publicity 
- Write a conference invitation
- Create a conference flyer for social media and for email distribution
- Create flyers for each panel, listing the panel’s topic and speakers
- Send out publicity widely and start early – see timeline below.

Set up Zoom Meetings for each panel with registration.
· It is vitally important to set up the meeting with registration. Among the reasons: Reminders and additional information or any changes (if needed) can be sent to registrants. In addition, we have an idea of how many people will attend (usually about 50% of registrants), and we have an email list of everyone who registered.
· Under “Options”, choose “Mute upon entry”.

Create conference page on the IEF website.
Send all the above information to the IEF secretariat as it is coming in. This is necessary for the creation of the website.

Send reminders to Panel Registrants one week and then again one day before each panel.

Rehearsals: About one week before a conference event, all the speakers – moderator and panelists – get together to test technology and to consult about the sequence of speakers and the flow of the event. This has proven to be very useful. Reporters of panels

Find a reporter for each panel, ideally a youth, to write a brief summary for a conference report.

Distribution of Responsibilities

Overall Conference coordinator 
The coordinator takes responsibility for the whole conference by coordinating all the collaborators and areas of the conference: the panel organisers, publicity, the Zoom registrations etc.
The coordinator calls for meetings and makes sure that conference planning is progressing according to the agreed upon timeline. 
The conference coordinator needs to be informed in detail about all planning actions at all times. The easiest way of doing this is copying the coordinator to all conference related emails.
The conference coordinator keeps the IEF president and secretary informed.

Panel Organisers (3 organisers if there are 3 panels) 
Panel organisers invite and communicate with the speakers and moderator of their assigned panel. 
They provide the speakers with all the necessary information and collect their information for the conference: Their official name and title (for publicity), title and brief description of their talk, brief bio, picture of themselves. 
They also plan the date for the rehearsal which takes place about one week or so before the conference. 
It is possible but not necessary that the panel organiser is also the facilitator of the panel.

1 person for Zoom registration set up and management. (See instructions above) This person must have a Zoom account and will be responsible for Zoom hosting the conference, therefore must be available during all the conference events and for all the rehearsals.

Creation of Publicity materials 1 – 2 persons 
Publicity outreach: The more volunteers for that, the better
Spread the word in newsletters, write brief articles that attract people to the conference in general and to specific events (also for IEF newsletter) 
Send publicity materials to Kiara Ehsani who hosts the IEF Instagram page, to Rebecca Teclemariam Mesbah who hosts the IEF Linkedin page, and to Christine for the IEF Facebook page.

Conference reporters: (about 3 reporters, one for each event)
Summarize the content of each conference event for the conference report. Several volunteers could share this work. Group work would also be possible.

Timeline
5 – 6 months before: 
· Overall conference theme ready for publicity
· Decide whether IEF conference happens alongside or in collaboration with another conference. 
4 – 5 months before
· Panel organisers invite speakers
3 months before:
· Dates of all events settled for publicity, which means most speakers confirmed
· Panel organisers collect all information needed from speakers
· Create conference flyer with overall theme and dates of events
· Start more intense publicity
2 ½ months before: 
· All panel speakers confirmed and information gathered
· Topics of each panel ready 
· Create Zoom registration for each panel
· Create flyers for each panel with date, overall topic, speakers, and Zoom registration
· Finalise conference website
2 months before
· Start intensive publicity
1 month before:
· Panel organisers arrange the date for the rehearsal 1 Week before each panel
· Send reminder to all conference registrants
· Conduct a rehearsal for the speakers 
1 Day before each panel
· Send reminder to all conference registrants

After the conference
· Encourage note takers to write reports in a timely manner – within a few days
· Send reports to IEF secretariat

Meetings
At the beginning of conference planning, regular meetings are important to consult about the organization of the planning team, the content of the conference, and the speakers. Later, action is more important, and meetings will only be called as needed.

First Meeting
· Consult about whether IEF conference happens alongside or in collaboration with another conference or not. (See suggestion by IEF Board above)
· Consult about overall conference theme (See suggestions by IEF Board above)
· Distribute team members responsibilities: 1 conference coordinator, 3 panel coordinators.

If needed, look for more planning team members who could take on responsibilities. Reliable panel coordinators are important for the successful organisation of the conference. They interact with the speakers. The conference coordinator only interacts with speakers if the panel coordinator cannot do so.