Organizing a Regional Meeting - Early Stages of Organization - Selecting and Contracting for the Meeting Site

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Aurelia

Guidance for planning a regional meeting, starting with how a steering committee selects future venues based on local section proposals. It outlines early organization steps: appointing a site selection committee, preparing an RFP, evaluating candidate venues, and touring facilities before contract negotiations. The document then emphasizes ideal physical setup priorities—comfort, one-stop attendee convenience, strong program packaging, session proximity, and networking-friendly spaces—followed by practical site selection criteria.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Organizing a Regional Meeting

Early Stages of Organization

Selecting and Contracting for the Meeting Site

The Ideal Physical Setup for a Regional Meeting

Considerations in Site Selection

ORGANIZING A REGIONAL MEETING The steering committee of each region selects and approves future meetings based upon requests from local sections to host a meeting. These requests are usually submitted as a presentation to a regional meeting steering committee at one of the regional meetings. The sites are typically agreed upon three to five years prior to the meeting. When presenting a proposal to the Steering Committee, a local section should indicate features of the area, facilities being considered, relative costs, and the program being considered. EARLY STAGES OF ORGANIZATION Selecting and Contracting for the Meeting Site After the steering committee has approved the request, the local section should appoint a Site Selection Committee to review facilities and suggest meeting dates. The next step is to prepare a request for proposal (RFP) to submit to possible meeting venues. A sample of the RFP and meeting setup appear at the end of this chapter. These might include conference centers, college/university campuses, hotels, and convention centers. The amount of meeting space is an important consideration—most regional meetings require between 8 and 12 concurrent meeting rooms, as well as exhibit space and areas for registration, workshops, banquets, poster sessions, and other special events. Your ACS meeting planner can help you put together an RFP and distribute it to facilities in your area for competitive bidding, Once they have received responses from potential meeting facilities, the Site Selection Committee should tour those they are most interested in before proceeding with contract negotiations. Keep in mind the traditional time of year for the meeting, holidays, and school breaks, and then determine when the most desirable facilities are available—at the best price. In addition, confirm your selected dates with your meeting planner in order to avoid potential conflicts with other meetings. The Ideal Physical Setup for a Regional Meeting When planning a regional meeting, one of the first decisions to make is where to hold it—the physical setting. While many attendees are local and drive to the meetings, a number are far enough away to require housing during the meeting. The comfort of attendees is paramount in attracting them, and keeping the arrangements as simple as possible is a major consideration. The content of your meetings meets the highest professional standards; accommodations should be comparable. Regional meetings must compete for attendees with other professional conferences, workshops, and educational seminars. Attendees appreciate“one-stop shopping”. The primary attraction is the program, and it always should be. But, to keep and build attendance, attention must be given to the packaging of that program. Attendees don’t want to find their own housing; they appreciate the meeting negotiating hotel rates to their benefit. They don’t want to worry about where to park, where to find meals—or just a cup of coffee—and they want sessions in proximity to one another. They also appreciate having an area where they can sit and read the program or chat with colleagues. Networking is a major benefit of attending regional meetings, and the venue should be conducive to that. You are competing with other professional organizations that do address those considerations. Take a closer look at those brochures that arrive in your mailbox offering you a training program or seminar. Look carefully at how they have packaged the meeting. Basically, if you want to attend, you check off a couple of boxes, fill out a registration form, and then show up. Considerations in Site Selection When selecting the location for your meeting, consider the following: 1. The location should include sleeping rooms or easy access to nearby hotels and restaurants, preferably within walking distance and/or near to good public transportation to make it easy for attendees to get to and from the site. (Many will be carrying

FAQs

How does a local section submit and advance a proposal for a regional meeting?

Local sections submit requests to a regional meeting steering committee, typically through a presentation at one of the regional meetings. Proposals should describe area features, facilities, relative costs, and the program being considered.

What are the early steps after the steering committee approves the request?

The local section appoints a Site Selection Committee, reviews facilities and meeting dates, and prepares an RFP to send to possible venues. After responses arrive, the committee tours key options before beginning contract negotiations.

What factors should be prioritized when choosing a meeting site?

The site should offer convenient sleeping accommodations or nearby hotels and restaurants, easy delivery and storage access, and ideally a hotel or conference center. The venue should also support attendee convenience, staff readiness, traffic flow, varied room sizes, and access to needed technical and community resources.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Aurelia