AID Conference 2004

1

• AID Conference 2004
• Analysis, Feedback and Lessons
• Nishant Jain
• nishj_at_umich.edu
• AID Austin
• June 12, 2004

2
Outline

• Final Numbers
• Results from the Feedback Survey
• Analysis and Lessons
• Overall
• Scheduling
• Speakers
• Food
• Hosting
• Venue, Publicity and Logistics

3
Final Numbers
Deficit/Surplus 723.00
4
Feedback Survey Results

• Total Responses 23
• Rating Scale 1-5 (1-poor to 5-excellent)
• Rate the pre-conference communication. How well
  the schedule, sessions, speakers and preparatory
  materials were communicated to you in advance. In
  other words you had clear expectations from the
  conference. (Rating 4.22)
• CommentsCommunication from the conference
  organizers in Austin was excellent. Communication
  from session organizers was not that good. In
  particular, not all sessions provided good
  reading material etc before the
  conference.The globalization session should
  have conducted a survey similar to the spiritual
  cell survey to figure out what the attendees
  would be interested in.

5
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the conference web site. Quality and
  completeness of content, ease of use,
  registration form, design and logo are some
  things to consider. (Rating 4.57)
• CommentsIt was great to see the website up
  and running very early on. The logo of the
  conference was also fresh and really branded well
  throughout the conference.

6
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the hospitality arrangements. Hospitality
  includes transportation to/from the airport and
  the venue. Also the level of comfort of your stay
  at the host. (Rating 4.86)
• CommentsIt was perfect. Hospitality gets very
  high marks. Very warm very efficient.Wonderful
  ! Thank you!

7
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the quality of the venue. Its location,
  facility, A/V equipment, adequate space for all
  formal and informal interactions, etc. (Rating
  4.61)
• CommentsThis was my first conference ... I
  personally would not have asked for more.
  This has got nothing to do with what AID folks
  could help but boy does UT need to change that
  carpet in the main hall) better quality of
  the audio and mic'ing. Also, most guests and
  AIDers don't know what to do with mics so
  instruction on proper use would help. Other
  presentation equipment worked well. The main
  hall was too big-- it made the audience seem
  small at times which has an impact on the
  dynamics with speakers. Otherwise good. it
  was a little cold

8
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the quality of food. Breadth of the menu,
  vegan options, variety between meals and taste
  should be considered. (Rating 4.43)
• CommentsIt is always hard to try and get more
  than one caterers, that would have added to
  variety. Really liked the home like curries (some
  of them!) and the banana leaf idea. I feel that
  at AID we have a bias against those who eat
  non-veg. Somehow one almost has the feeling that
  it would be blasphemy to serve non-veg. We need
  to get over that! Vegan is good, but it is better
  to not be all accepting.I think AID should
  try to support S.Asian women with their own
  catering services. The food will be better, we
  will be giving them work, and we will avoid
  restaurant food.

9
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the effectiveness of the zero-waste policy
  at the conference. Donated folders, recycled
  paper, banana leaves and personal utensils were
  used. (Rating 4.43)
• CommentsI found this quite innovative and I
  hope it is followed in future conferences. (3
  similar comments)A couple of comments 1) The
  food wastage. 2) The heap of paper towels in the
  rest-rooms that resulted from ppl using them to
  wipe their plates was very ironical. banana
  leaves was a very good idea !! This was TRULY
  an excellent idea!! I dont think it is fair
  to call any effort a 'zero waste' one. We can
  either look at the benefits of the quantum
  wasted, and strive to minimize waste. The effort
  at the conference was minimum waste and I truly
  appreciate it.

10
Feedback Survey Results

• Comments contdI wonder though about the men
  taking care not to leave food particles in the
  basin (now you know I am a woman!). I felt that
  it might have been good to have a few more host
  glasses etc. for those who did not have the
  ability to carry all the stuff. ONE BIG OMISSION
  I felt was the lack of use of organic milk
  products. I think the banana leaves were a
  great idea why not next year have a conference
  compost, with the banana leaves, tea ground and
  coffee grounds, paper cups tossed in. With water
  being such a scarce resources, I am not sure how
  ecologically viable we were with all the dish
  washing in high volume faucets. And it was really
  inconvenient. It has nothing to do with the
  arrangements, but lots of water was wasted in
  cleaning the plates. the banana leaves was a
  great idea but the leaves didn't cover the entire
  plate. A notice reminding ppl about conserving
  water in the washrooms would've helped.

11
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the overall quality of the schedule. This
  includes completeness of the issues and topics,
  appropriateness of sessions, the time allocated
  and discussion on the future direction of AID.
  (Rating 3.89)
• CommentsThere were GREAT sessions and then
  there were ones not good at all. Discussion
  on the future direction of AID was something that
  was not visible to a great extent. We should
  have taken advantage of the resource person we
  had in Kalpana and had a session for her. I think
  we could have learnt tremendously from this.
  I enjoyed the panel of Dilip and Bob. Missed
  Dilip for the peace sessoin given that it is his
  current initiative for which he has got an award.
  Missed a session by Kalpana.

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Feedback Survey Results

• Comments contdFor people who are presenting
  for the first time the organizers should make
  sure they review the material before giving them
  time. If we cannot then they should not get a
  slot. For people who have presented before this
  need not be a requirement. This way the burden of
  finding out about hte presentation is reduced.
  And quality is ensured. Beside this also
  increases the possibility of more researched
  topics. Too many concurrent sessions meant you
  didn't have enough time for the issue cells which
  were the most important for educating us on a
  broad range of issue we don't normally work on. I
  would rather see the institution building
  sessions be run concurrently than the issue based
  sesions. Perhaps the only failing was the
  globalization session on Day 3, which was
  pathetic, but that is the fault of the session
  organizers.Too packed. Too many parallel
  sessions.

13
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the competence and preparation of session
  coordinators. How well did the coordinators know
  the topic and the level of preparation that went
  into the session. (Rating 4.05)
• CommentsGlobalization wasnt an effective
  session in conveying the ills of globalization.
  Kiran's Strategy Session was very good. Most
  session were good. However, following were
  chaotic or poorly planned or session coordinators
  were not experts. Balaji's corner (too informal
  ad hoc) Peoples movements (Aravinda was ill
  prepared and message wasnt clear). Gautam was
  well prepared but got small fraction of time.
  Globalization session's objective was not
  clear and ill-prepared. Social scientist from
  UT lead the session? Perhaps the only major
  failing was the globalization session, which was
  pathetic with one person making general
  statements/opinions without supporting evidence,
  and in general no proper connection to AID's work
  demonstrated.

14
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the parallel cell and admin sessions.
  (Rating 4.31)
• CommentsInspite of the reading materials,
  there was a lot of time used in "presenting" the
  material (eg, NE Cell). Adivasi Cell, with Mr
  Chennaiah's presence, was better ... but I hoped
  to get more ideas/brain-storming on future
  directions. Both of these kind of ended without a
  specific direction in sight. Fund-raising was
  more kind of a "tutorial", but I guess thats the
  best way to do it, followed by off-line
  discussions. Publications also lacked in setting
  up a specific goal and direction for the
  future.Sessions I attended were excellent
  Very useful They could be organized in a
  better format.

15
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the quality of the speakers - Rajendra
  Singh, Chennaiah, Bob Jensen, Dilip D'Souza and
  Kalpana. Also include the appropriateness of
  their work with that of AID's and possibility of
  future learning and collaboration. (Rating
  4.72)
• CommentsAll the speakers were VERY VERY
  informed and inspiring!Singh and Chennaiah'
  sessions were invaluable in that they allow AID
  volunteers to learn more from the people that we
  have worked with our would like to work with. Did
  not see the relevance of Bob's talk in the peace
  sessions. I thought he is extremely one sided (he
  even hoped that US would lose a war..). His
  session on writing was good. This was a nice new
  thing that the conference covered. Dilip was
  great and very balanced and witty. We should have
  had him for the peace session. Kalpana, as I said
  before should have had a non-parallel full
  session. A great great miss by teh organizers.
  Fantastic.

16
Feedback Survey Results

• Rate the quality of the cultural sessions.
  (Rating 4.38)
• CommentsMissed the cultural sessions( Heard
  a lot of wonderful things about it though!

17
Feedback Survey Results

• Did you have enough time to network and
  brainstorm informally among other volunteers, or
  were you unable to find much time for this? In
  other words was the schedule too overwhelming to
  discourage informal interactions. (Yes4, No2,
  Somewhat11)
• CommentsBut how much ever time you get for
  networking, it is always less )I did not see
  people from different chapters make an attempt to
  know one another. AID is a growing organization
  and if we need to strengthen ourselves, good
  communication among one another is a must. I
  would like to see an effort in this direction in
  the future conferences. Never enough
  timeIt was a trade-off between sessions and
  debates. I had to skip sessions to participate in
  debates.

18
Feedback Survey Results

• List your top objectives in attending this
  conference. Were these objectives realized?
• Top Reasons
• Networking/Meet people/Connecting/having fun with
  others
• Meet Speakers and Saathis
• Exposure to AID activities
• Setting direction for future
• Learn about issues, personal learning
• Learn new approaches/Ideas
• Sessions
• Getting AID better organized and learning from
  other chapters
• Workshops
• Checking out Austin!

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Feedback Survey Results

• List the aspects of the conference that you would
  like to see in the future conferences.
• Top Reasons
• More detail. More intuition and intricate
  analysis of some issues. Vision.
• The organization!!! We want a repeat of the
  Austin Conference -)
• More emphasis on inter-chapter interaction.
• Continuation of the zero-waste. The alignment of
  our experts with our cells and issues. The
  cultural and shaayari nights, with the informal
  part of it. The Cartoon Board!
• Zero waste
• Excellent organization
• Next year, I would like to see solid
  presentations from the cells with one or two
  cells taking the lead in forming the theme for
  the conference.

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Feedback Survey Results

• Top Reasons contd
• The coordination, discipline and spirit at the
  conference was wonderful.
• The host chapters energy and enthusiasm as well
  as great interpersonal relationships were
  infectious and I hope to see more of this at
  future conferences. Inspirational songs at
  various points were also a great idea and so were
  the "Shayari" and unofficial dance session ?
• Speakers focused on social movements
• Parallel workshops and cell sessions, strategy
  sessions, cultural sessions.
• 1)good schedule 2) great teamwork and
  organization 3) excellent food ) 4) logistics
• Cultural show,Skits,better organized
  workshops,key note addresses.
• More debates on the direction of AID. More
  sessions on fund-raising
• Issue/region cells

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Feedback Survey Results

• List aspects that you would NOT like to see in
  the future conferences.
• Top Reasons
• hmmmm ... have to think hard !!
• I would like to see one of the speakers dedicated
  to some aspect of women's issues.
• Poor presentations.
• While all the guest speakers were excellent, we
  ended up with too many guest speakers at the
  conference. Ideally to keep the conference agenda
  more focussed, we should try to have fewer
  guests, perhaps 2-3 all put together.
• I think in future there needs to be a commitment
  to rigorous gender balance for the keynote and
  sponsored speakers. I am sure that there were
  other women being consdiered that could not come,
  but it was not good for both keynotes to be given
  by men (even if both were good choice for the
  conference)
• General one-way outbursts like the Day 3
  globalization session.
• Bringing our own plates and spoons.
• Spirituality session. Too many parallel sessions.

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Feedback Survey Results

• Anything else that you would like to tell us?
• Great job! / AWESOME JOB !!You guys have set the
  bar real real HIGH !!! / Fantastic job!
• EXCELLENTLY organized! One suggestion is to have
  more (perhaps forced?) interactions between
  volunteers from different chapters. Bigger
  chapters should reach out to the smaller chapters
  and volunteers to energize them. ALL in all, a
  GREAT conference!
• At future conference, have 1-2 sessions that
  highlight AID's technology and administrative
  aspects in ways that demystify them. Led by some
  of AID's tireless volunteers who are "invisible"
  - treasury, administration and legal affairs,
  website and software development etc and make
  these aspect more "glamorous" and "recognized" by
  the rest of AID. Bring in some new and critical
  topics for workshops like Leadership
  motivation in a volunteer-run organization
  Effective meetings Planning for the next year
  Conflict resolution Developing stable roots in
  your community
• May be useful to have some parallel sessions
  specifically to sensitize new volunteers
  attending the conference-- introduce and explain
  basics, including activism agendas etc.
• Good idea to allow space for creative drawing
  etc.

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Lessons - Overall

• Plan, plan, plan. Take lessons from the corporate
  world and execute the plan as a project.
• Start at least three months early. Core 4-5
  people working for the first 2 months and 8-12
  for the final month. Each core person responsible
  for a main task web/design, food, hosting,
  schedule and speakers. With an overall
  coordinator who does nothing else, except
  follow-up.
• A rudimentary web site with registration should
  go up within the first week. Rest can evolve.
• Speakers should be finalized by the end of first
  month, especially if coming from India. Visa
  appointments, plane tickets, domestic itinerary
  takes a month.
• Schedule should be finalized by the end of second
  month. Thats when the invites to non-AID
  population should go out.
• Send weekly emails on AID coords to build up the
  excitement.
• Think of something innovative and new to make the
  conference unique. This time retreat room,
  zero-waste, the theme made it different.

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Lessons Overall contd

• Keep at least a 1000 buffer in the budget.
  Unforeseen expenses add up.
• Different tasks for the final month hosting,
  food, conference folder/labels,
  treasury/registration, minutes/video recording,
  AID Stall/books/information table,
  publicity/media, speakers/schedule,
  cultural/songs/skits, overall.
• Weekly planning meetings are indispensable. Apart
  from reinforcing commitments, they are vital
  check points and help build camaraderie in the
  core group. This goodwill helps the group through
  trying times. Trust me there will be several such
  times.
• In the planning meeting minutes clearly delineate
  the tasks to do, deadline and the person
  responsible.
• Persistently contact chapters to register.
  Otherwise you will have a flood at the end,
  making the food estimation and hosting very
  difficult. In any case, plan for at least 25-30
  additional registration in the final 3 weeks.
  About 55/164 registered in the final 3 weeks or
  so.
• Publicity/Media outreach should be done
  throughout with articles on specific
  issues/speakers. Should be stepped up during the
  last month.

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Lessons - Food

• s
• Sufficient amount of food for everyone. Timely,
  wholesome and hot food.
• Banana leaves Hit item! Made cleaning simpler
  and faster.
• Everyone pitched in for serving. Serving process
  went smoothly without any chaos.
• Lack of plates, spoons cups was an issue only
  on the first day lunch. Folks 'got the message'
  pretty quickly!
• -s
• Tighter control on wastage on the first day. Have
  containers to store extra food.
• For dinner, plan 20 less than what you order for
  lunch
• Chai was served 'unofficially !' way before 'tea
  break' on Sunday.
• Chai cupsCoffee cups is almost 7030.
  Suggestion Buy extra chai vessel.
• The food team could have used 2-3 extra hands
  while set up cleaning.
• Wash rooms must be cleaned each night and
  restocked.

26
Lessons Venue/Logistics

• Every inch on UT needs reservation. The rooms,
  the patio and even the corridors. Reserve at
  least 5-6 rooms. Retreat/email room worked well.
• The sound system in the room could support only 2
  mikes. Installing a new system would have cost us
  at least a few hundred dollars.
• All the paths from the door of the hall to the
  stage had stairs. It would have been more
  comfortable for people if at least one of them
  was a flat surface. (strollers etc.)
• Arrangement of stalls and posters in the
  corridors was perfect.
• No point in having documentaries. Ex Journalism
  of P. Sainath 3, Guriya - 12, Life and Debt
  3. There were no people at all for the other
  documentaries. But the compilation and collection
  was good for us.
• Done a little better on the conference badges we
  gave to the attendees.
• Austin volunteers themselves got parking tickets.
  Either the instructions were not clear or they
  have not paid enough attention to them among so
  many other things.
• Zero waste concept could be improved. Low volume
  taps and cloth towels to dry plates would have
  made it more effective. Moreover composting of
  banana leaves was only partly pursued.

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Lessons Speakers

• Identify a speakers travel co-ord early on -
  right when the agenda committee is formed across
  chapters. Tasks this person should focus on
• a. Identifying potential orgs with whom the
  speaker could network withb. Identify potential
  organizations/foundations with whom the speaker
  can get funding fromc. Work on the logistic
  issues like visa/insurance requirements for
  speakers, buying travel tickets from India to the
  US, co-ordinate US travel with different AID and
  ASHA chapters etc. Make sure we find out in
  advance special requirements for the speakers -
  particularly, health and dietary requirements.
  Also, give a day or two for the speaker to do
  some sight-seeing.d. Make sure the speaker knows
  before he/she leaves India his detailed itinerary
  and his/her engagements in various cities in the
  US - what talks in which city and when, will the
  talk be formal or informal, which orgs will
  he/she meet - some info about the orgs.
• We did a, c, and d quite well. We really didn't
  work too much on b). a) and b) requires lot of
  research work and we didn't find the time for
  that. We also didn't allow much sight-seeing time
  for the speakers at least for Mr. Chennaiah - all
  his visits were too hectic.

28
Lessons Schedule

• Identify key sessions for the conference early on
  - will help set the theme and a focus for the
  conf.
• Formal session should end by 7-8pm. Keep after
  dinner for informal/fun/cultural sessions. Maybe
  have some sessions to encourage networking,
  introduce new chapters through group activities.
  Everything should end by 10pm, else will impact
  the schedule the next day.
• The schedule was too packed. Have more breathers
  between sessions.
• The content for new presenters/new topics should
  be asked in advance.

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Lessons Hosting

• The hosting coordinator should not work on
  anything else, especially in final 3 weeks.
• Start early to compile the list of hosts. Add 15
  to the estimated number of attendees. (110
  attendees were hosted in this conference.)
• Hosting assignments should begin 3-4 weeks prior.
  Be prepared to do a lot of shuffling and
  following up during the last 10 days or so.
• People driving-in should be hosted close to the
  venue or with the students who do not own
  transportation.
• Ask attendees to bring their own sleeping
  bags/comforters.
• Keep a buffer of 6-8 for last minute arrivals.