Introducing 'top-tier' conferences

1. www.london.edu
Top tier
conferences
Jon Conradi
Student-led Initiatives

2. Regular events ‘Highlight’
events
Top tier
1000+ a year 30-50 a year 7-10 a year
We are starting to tier student-led events
2

3. Regular events ‘Highlight’
events
Top tier
A vibrant
ecosystem of club
activity that allows
students to tailor
their experience
1000+ a year Provide
professional depth
and shared
memorable
moments
30-50 a year Events that we
can make ‘world-
class’
7-10 a year
General training Managed Bespoke support
Guidance docs Direct support Advisory group
Daily events 2months+ lead time 6months+ lead time
Highly adaptable Part of club planning 2-5 year plan
<1hr support from
team per event
~10hrs support from
team per event
30-50 hrs support
from team per event
This allows us to support better
We are starting to tier student-led events
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4. We have standardised a Net Promoter Score across all student-led
conferences. Attendees are asked whether they would recommend
the event on a scale of 0-10:
Net Promoter Scores
Conferences
4

5. Typically, our conference attendees are not very impressed
Our median score is 22: there are not many more
‘promoters’ (9-10) than ‘detractors’ (0-6)
The scores
Conferences
5

6. -20
0
20
40
60
80
100
NetPromoterScore
(%ofpromoters-%ofdetractors) Net Promoter Scores (NPS) of
student-led conferences in 2015-16

7. Target quality
Brand risk?

8. We have two years of NPS data
Less conferences with a negative NPS in 2015-16 than 2014-15
But little significant improvement overall
Less bad, but no significant improvement
2015-16 compared to 2014-15
8

9. 9
Conference Net Promoter Scores, median ~20
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
14-15
15-16

10. Failure 1) Focus on the current year in isolation, dismissing (or
no record of) previous work. Sounds like:
“Last year’s leaders were rubbish.
I can do a much better job”
Failure 2) Using number of attendees as the criterion for
success. Sounds like:
- “This year’s conference will be better!”
- What does that mean?
- “More people!”
Principle causes
Underperforming conferences
10

11. How eurOUT became the top LGBT business leaders event in
Europe: https://youtu.be/wl-ML8YdEu4
1. Establish a clear goal
2. Be realistic
3. Get your governance right
4. Develop your management principles
5. Invest for the long term
6. Be true to yourself
Example of best practice
eurOUT conference
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12. We are working with the SA to:
• Stop unnecessary conferences and develop viable alternatives
e.g. more speaker series of the standard of TELL
• Facilitate good conferences to keep making it easier to put on
great events
• Work closely with a small-number of conferences. Ones that
we can make ‘world-class’ and use to help differentiate LBS from
our competitors
Improving conferences
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13. Regular events ‘Highlight’
events
Top tier
Stop average
external-facing
conferences.
Encourage
alternatives
Support to make
it easy to deliver
great events
5-10 a year Events that we
can make ‘world-
class’
3-4 a year
Managed Bespoke support
Direct support Advisory group
2months+ lead time 6months+ lead time
Part of club planning 2-5 year plan
~10hrs support from
team per event
30-50 hrs support
from team per event
Stop, facilitate or make ‘world-class’
Applying tiering to conferences
13

14. - eurOUT
- Women in Business Conference
- Africa Business Summit
- TEDxLBS
2016-17
Top tier conferences
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15. - who is your audience?
- which other events appeal to this group?
- how will you know if you've had a real impact on them?
- how do I achieve this? What is the timescale?
- is a conference really the best way to deliver? Better options
could include smaller focussed event(s), a speaker series,
developing content
Approaching this with rigour is crucial if we are to use student-
led initiatives to help us continue to attract the best future
business leaders to our community.
Questions to ask your team:
What if I’m not ‘top-tier?’
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