The Obermann Center is one of the only units on campus that provides both funding and staff support for conferences—in particular, the annual Obermann Symposium. Our assistance includes:

  • Advising on programming and scheduling
  • Maintaining the budget
  • Arranging conference rooms, reserving hotels, making travel/airline arrangements, paying honoraria, arranging catering  
  • Creating marketing and communications materials including a website, posters, press releases, and more
  • Advising on recruitment of co-sponsors and campus and community partners 

The following is a rough timeline of administrative tasks involved in planning an Obermann Symposium. For more a more detailed publicity checklist—one that can be used when planning any campus event—please consult our Publicize Your Event guide.

18 MONTHS IN ADVANCE

Write a short description 

Write a clear, accessible, engaging, one-page narrative description of the symposium topic, including: 

  • Its value to the campus and other audiences
  • Outcomes you anticipate
  • Items (like keynote speakers) that demonstrate why you need funding (if seeking further funding)
  • Keynote speakers you hope to invite and what excites you about their work
  • Why you are the right people to lead this effort
  • Why this is the time and place for the event

Titles of academic papers don’t necessarily make good event titles. If you want to engage a public or interdisciplinary audience, keep the title short and clear, and avoid discipline-specific terminology in the description. You can use this as the basis for several grant applications to leverage Obermann Symposium funds and to gain programming partners. 

Define your outcomes 

Defining outcomes is becoming ever more critical. These might include:

  • Collaborating on a collection of articles or special issue of a journal
  • Developing a significant web publication together
  • Laying the groundwork for a deep, lasting collaboration
  • Defining an emerging field and disseminating the discoveries
Choose a date  

In coordination with Obermann staff, choose a Spring semester date for your event. Don’t host an event on a holiday (check for Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays) or right before a holiday weekend. Check the BMindful calendar. Avoid home football weekends if possible. Check the UI Events Calendar and co-sponsors’ calendars to avoid competing for attendees.

Develop a budget  

Develop a budget with Obermann that demonstrates precisely the costs you expect to incur and the funds you hope to collect. If you are applying for other grants, award committees will want to see that expenses are necessary, that their funds will be used appropriately, and that there is no evidence of “double dipping.” They also want real impact, so showing you have funding from Obermann proves your proposal has already been vetted. With our help, be sure each provider gives you a written copy of charges and changes. Major costs will include:

  • Honoraria
  • Travel and hotel for speakers
  • Receptions, coffee/snacks, and meals
  • Room costs
Apply for additional funding 

This is especially useful for high-profile speakers, hourly student help, public/cultural events such as exhibitions and artists, technology, and documentation. Some sources include:

Consider a local arts partnership

It’s worth asking Hancher, Englert, or FilmScene if they would consider bringing in a major performer (or film) whose work connects with your topic.

Identify keynote speakers

Identify and confirm your speakers as soon as possible. Many high-profile scholars accept only a limited number of invitations each year. Once the speakers confirm with you that they will participate in the symposium, Obermann will send an official letter of invitation that will include:

  • The amount of the honorarium (plus travel and hotel)
  • The dates the speaker needs to be in Iowa City
  • All activities expected of the speaker
  • Request for acceptance, including agreement to fulfill expectations

Obermann will then follow up with a logistics letter, detailing hotel and travel plans and requesting their bios, headshots, and any food allergy info they want to share. 

Create preliminary schedule for the symposium
  • Additional panelists — Most symposia are organized around invited speakers. Think about colleagues or contacts in your networks that would align with the topic.
  • Consider spaces for event
    • For a conference of 100–150, you’ll likely need:
      • One large room for plenaries
      • Spaces for lunches
      • Space for reception (probably first night)
      • Space for banquet (if that is part of your plan) or small dinners
      • Space for any special events
      • Consider using other interesting buildings for receptions/dinners to introduce conferees to your campus or community
    • Contact the UI library (especially Special Collections), art museum, Pentacrest museums, Hancher, etc. to see if they would like to plan related exhibits or activities
      • Be sure to check whether you'll need to pay extra fees for museum guards or janitorial service, etc.
Communicate with possible campus/community partners 

Think about what campus stakeholders you would like to loop in to the symposium planning. We can invite them to attend planning meetings as necessary. 

1 YEAR IN ADVANCE

Reserve spaces
  • Hotel — Obermann will reserve hotel rooms.
  • Secure rooms for symposium events — Obermann will reserve agreed-upon spaces.
Seek departmental funding 

Approach potential campus partners with a request for support. Make your  case emphasizing how their constituents will benefit from the symposium and/or how the topic or the approach aligns with their missions.

  • Be clear if you are seeking financial support (usually $100–$500) or a partnership that will increase awareness of the event. If departments act as co-sponsors in any way, they should be required to publicize the symposium to their faculty/students. You can do this via email or a Qualtrics survey.
    • Include "benefits" to department and its faculty and grad students.
    • Include budget with larger budget requests.
    • Be specific about how these funds will be used.
    • Include poster/graphic.
Invite colleagues 
  • Obermann can send a campus-wide “save the date” email.
  • Send personal emails to the people you most want to attend (on- and off-campus).
  • Don’t bombard people, but do not assume one notice will be sufficient.
  • Obermann will publicize the events on social media, but co-directors are encouraged to share updates through their social media channels as well (e.g., post when you secure a major speaker and tag that person, their university, etc.).
Webpage creation and management
  • Obermann will begin work on the symposium webpage about a year in advance and have it ready for public viewing about 9 months in advance. It will include:
    • Speakers’ bios
    • Schedule (which will become more specific with time)
    • Resources page—bibliography, related websites, etc.
    • About page with your mission and bios of the conveners
    • Maps – If you are using multiple venues and have many out of town guests
    • Accessibility and parking information
Publicity strategy

Obermann will assist with all aspects of publicity. What is most needed from the symposium directors are:

  • Help in locating a strong image that will serve as the identity of the symposium.
  • Accessible language – both an abbreviated 1–2 sentence version and a paragraph that describes the symposium and provides a sense of why you’re doing this, who it’s for, how you’ll be covering the topic, when it’s happening, and where it takes place.
  • Ideas for contacts you have on campus and beyond in the media. For instance, it is best to reach out to Iowa Public Radio at least a half year in advance. The Obermann Center can reach out to the Office of Strategic Communication and the OVPR communication team.
  • Student involvement – Directors have engaged their students via asking them to contribute to social media and creating video, book reviews, and other forms of responses to the core texts/themes of the conference.
Catering

Obermann will arrange catering. Much of this work will be done in the months prior to the symposium, but farther out please indicate any ideas for special meals or locations. Obermann will gather information about panelists'/keynotes' dietary needs.

Tech and other equipment
  • Check the tech in all of your spaces. Schedule in time for a tech run-through in the weeks prior.
  • Make clear tech requests to all of your guests and give them a firm deadline. 
     

3–6 MONTHS IN ADVANCE

Obermann Director of Operations will:
  • coordinate airline ticket purchases
  • make sure all hotel rooms are reserved
  • make sure all rooms for presentations and social events reserved
  • order the catering
  • create “in-house” schedule that includes picking up speakers at hotel, students to assist with tech, airport times, etc. — joint work of co-directors and Obermann Director of Operations
Obermann communications team will:
  • have symposium webpage up to date, including related events that are being organized by community/campus partners
  • arrange for photographer and/or videography if you want that service (factor into budget and be sure it feels necessary). If you are arranging photography or recording lectures, be sure to ask speakers for permission ahead of time.
  • have media plan in place and poster finalized (co-directors assist with creating list, especially of off-campus recipients).
  • create a printed conference program based on the schedule. Co-directors contribute acknowledgement text. This is completed one to two months prior to the symposium. Obermann will send tentative program to co-directors for corrections.
Send invitations
  • Invite the UI president to your event using this form.
  • Invite campus leaders—DEOs, deans, etc. especially someone who helped pay for the conference—to open the conference or offer a greeting at the banquet — joint work of co-directors and Obermann Director.
  • Invite colleagues to serve as moderators and/or respondents — co-directors
  • Send personal email reminder to colleagues in the Midwest who might consider traveling to Iowa City — co-directors
Fine-tune schedule
  • Reach out to speakers for the titles and abstracts of their talks/presentations.
  • Make sure to build in breaks.  

2–3 WEEKS IN ADVANCE

  • Do you want name tags or table tents?
  • Send out instructions to moderators about the format and their responsibility to keep panelists to their time — co-directors
  • Dispatch email notification goes out across campus and to other stakeholders
  • Posters are hung and mailed (2–3 weeks)
  • Double check room reservations, AV orders, and catering
  • Create signs directing people to the symposium site(s) if necessary
     

1 WEEK IN ADVANCE

  • Obermann sends email to visitors with their itineraries.
  • Co-directors plan welcome speeches, being sure to thank everyone who contributed money or services.
  • Run-through of the week with co-directors and Obermann – use the “in-house” schedule. Consider smallest details such as:
    • Who will make sure speakers have water?
    • Who will keep track of time?
AT THE SYMPOSIUM
  • Make sure the photographer gets photos of the co-directors and invited guests.
  • Get headcounts of keynote presentations and other large events, such as performances.
FOLLOW-UP
  • Cash out budgets with Obermann.
  • Obermann Director of Operations collects all funds and issues honoraria and payments.
  • Write thank you notes to all the contributors, financial and volunteer.
  • Obermann will send evaluation surveys to speakers via email.
  • Plan de-brief meeting with Obermann staff.
  • Provide summary report to Obermann including highlights, accomplishments, and headcounts.
  • Report to grants awarding offices, if necessary.