innovation skills training

How to Deliver an Impactful Health & Wellness Conference in Less Than 45 Days

How might our volunteer committee plan and deliver a memorable, impactful, inspiring and helpful conference to members in less than 45 days?

The Challenge

A national association’s Health Safety & Wellness Committee was looking to run a two-day conference for their Health Safety & Wellness representatives. It was early September, and the goal was to run the event in mid-November. Due to the pandemic, HSW reps hadn’t had the opportunity to meet in person for almost three years and mental health and wellness in the workplace were an increasing concern. The representatives, primarily male and in the trades, needed guidance and tools to respond to new workplace realities.

The conference theme was already chosen and announced to members – five minutes of empathy. People were anxious to get back to in-person professional development. The committee leading the effort had 75% new members and little experience running and planning conferences. They wanted to deliver a member experience that was memorable, impactful, inspiring and helpful and wanted to build capacity on the committee for running future conferences.

The Solution

TouchPoints Learning & Innovation was invited to help the committee deliver on their mandate.

Our goal was to successfully deliver the conference program and provide effective team development for the entire HSW committee while creating a repeatable blueprint that the organization could use to manage similar events in the future.

Our solution involved providing guidance and support to the committee and the organization, including:

1Create Focus and Structure

We created alignment with the association’s values and established learning and development objectives for conference participants. Also, we structured the committee’s weekly conference planning meeting so they could better manage their accountabilities to the Board.

2Support the Design

We collaborated with the committee to create interactive professional development content aligned with the conference theme and achieved learning outcomes. We designed and developed participant communications, a repeatable registration process, and a participant’s guide.

3Support Facilitation

We prepared and coached speakers to ensure their content matched the conference theme, delivered select learning content throughout the conference and led a post-conference ‘lessons-learned’ retrospective with board and committee members to capture ideas and insights to support future efforts.

4Develop Processes to Support Future Conferences

Finally, we created a How To Plan the HSW Conference’ checklist including timelines and events to guide the committee’s next conference planning efforts.

how to deliver an impactful conference

Deliver an Impactful Conference: The Results

The HSW representative participants of the conference were grateful for an in-person event that was well-organized, relevant and impactful. Participants felt they were equipped with knowledge and resources to tackle mental health challenges in the workplace.

“We all worked amazingly well and came together. It was a positive experience. So much work is involved – lots of behind-the-scenes effort is needed. This event would not have succeeded without Carrie and Janice!”

The HSW representative participants of the conference were grateful for an in-person event that was well-organized, relevant and impactful. Participants felt they were equipped with knowledge and resources to tackle mental health challenges in the workplace.
deliver impactful conference

While the effort we put in was well recognized and appreciated, this team worked well together because they were willing to collaborate, focusing on their strengths and learning while doing.
By supporting the committee strategically, we freed up their time to focus on the areas where they could add the most value: brainstorming, subject matter expertise, and, most importantly, enhancing the overall member experience.

They invested the time and effort to bring focus, clarity and shared understanding to achieve their desired outcome. Organizers took a slippery, touchy-feely concept and made it rock solid by clearly explaining to HSW reps what was expected of them and the specific steps they could take to impact mental health in the workplace positively.

We were satisfied knowing that the committee members would be much better positioned to do this together—and with less outside support in a future event.

Need help creating and delivering practical training sessions for your team?

Schedule a discovery call with me today. I’ll listen to your thoughts and work with you to find a solution.