06 December 2024 - A behind-the-scenes look at UX24 – notes from a first-time conference organiser
UX24 was a big achievement – the first UCISA UX in Higher Education (HE) conference, sold-out to an audience of 80, and a personal career highlight. A few months after the event, I reflect on my experience leading the organising committee.
UX24 happened on 17 September 2024 after nearly a year of planning. As chair of the organising committee, it was my responsibility to drive forward the vision for the event as well as lead the planning process to make sure the event was delivered successfully.
Organising a conference was a first for me. In this blog post, I share my experience of leading the organisation of the conference, with a retrospective on the highs, the lows and the learnings, and my thoughts on planning future events.
What was involved with organising a UX in HE conference?
UCISA approved our proposal to go ahead with the conference in November 2023. Shortly after that, the organising committee was set up including Sonia Virdi (University of Edinburgh), Graham Hancox (University of Nottingham) and Joe Talbot (University of Oxford). Esther Wong, Events Officer at UCISA was assigned to us to guide us through the process. We set up weekly meetings to start planning.
Priorities: date, venue, theme, keynote, sponsors
Before we could start planning in earnest, we needed to decide several things. When and where would we have the conference? What would it be about? Who would it be for? The date needed to align with the existing UCISA event calendar and mid-September seemed a good option. Not in the holidays, but also not too far into the semester.
Survey responses helped us decide on Manchester as our location
Deciding a venue was trickier than finding a date. Each of the organising committee had their preferences but we needed an objective viewpoint from potential attendees. We sent out a simple survey to members of the UX Group asking if they would be interested in an in-person conference, and if so, where they would like this to take place (presenting them with a list of locations where UCISA had previously ran events). Manchester received the most votes and therefore was picked.
We picked a theme to resonate with everyone
With the date and venue decided, we needed to confirm a theme and a description which we could use to start spreading the word about the conference, to bring everything together. My vision was that the event would offer something for everyone working in UX in HE regardless of their job roles or level of experience. I wanted the day to provide attendees with a space for creativity, support and collaboration, to respond to a need I felt hadn’t been possible to address with our online events. I wanted people to come to the conference and be able to openly share their experiences, and from this, discover new ways to address their challenges positively. I was struck by the tendency of UX work to flip between the ‘problem space’ and the ‘solution space’ and after brainstorming with the rest of the committee, we decided upon ‘Challenges and Opportunities’ as the theme for our first conference.
Securing keynotes and sponsors
With the key details decided and published on our conference webpage, we could start thinking about what to include in the programme to bring the theme to life. It was great fun making a list of all the inspirational speakers we would like to keynote our conference, and we set to work writing emails to many of our heroes in the UX world to tell them about the conference and ask them if they might be interested in keynoting. At the same time, we reached out to various companies to ask if they would be interested in sponsoring the conference, giving details of our expected audience and referring them to the UCISA sponsorship packages on offer (supplied by Esther from the UCISA events team).
TPX Impact, Tash Willocks and Ben Holliday all confirmed together
To my delight, two of my top-pick keynote speakers, Tash Willcocks and Ben Holliday both replied to they would be interested, however, this potentially presented a quandary – to have to pick just one. While simultaneously pursuing sponsorship options, I received excellent news from Vaughan Johnstone at TPX Impact that TPX Impact had agreed to be our primary sponsor. Since both Ben and Tash both worked for TPX Impact, it meant we had managed to secure both Tash and Ben and TPX Impact one happy Friday afternoon in February 2024. Hooray! I took to LinkedIn to share this news about the conference as it came together, and this attracted interest from other sponsors. We were very excited to be approached by Pantheon and by Apps Anywhere to complete our set of conference sponsors.
Attracting speakers, curating the schedule and promotion
We were keen to attract a mix of well-practiced speakers and stars of our community as well as people who had no prior speaking experience but had interesting stories to tell and case studies to share. We also wanted to secure some workshops for the programme, to give a practical element to the day (since previous feedback from our members had indicated this was something UX practitioners really valued).
Taking care over the call-for-speakers form
Designing a call-for-speakers form for the conference was an interesting challenge for me. In my years working in UX, I have pitched a wide variety of talks to different conferences and in the process, have experienced a wide range of selection processes from the very vague to the very specific. I remembered how daunting I had previously found very specific call-for-speaker forms, especially when I was completing the form months before the speaking opportunity, without a fully formed idea in my head. We decided to opt for a simple form, asking applicants for contact details and a summary of their session idea with the plan to select the submissions we felt best matched the conference theme and ethos, and then contact successful applicants to confirm the finer points at a later date.
Encouraging people to submit session proposals
Alongside the conference planning we continued with our regular online UCISA UX Group webinars and meet-ups, and we took every opportunity to promote our call-for-speakers at these events. I also offered one-to-one sessions with community members if they had an idea for a session they wanted help with, and was pleased when several people took me up on this offer and later submitted proposals.
Selecting the sessions and building the schedule
We closed the call-for-speakers in May 2024 to give us time to select our preferred sessions, confirm arrangements with presenters and firm up the programme in good time to advertise the conference with the full schedule. We were fortunate to receive an excellent, varied selection of proposals and with a blank timetable to fill, the committee first reviewed them all individually, and then as a group. We collectively decided on our chosen sessions (including some reserve sessions) and reached out to those who had submitted proposals to let them know. Allocating each session to a space in the timetable took some thought. We wanted to make sure there was a flow between the session topics, and also wanted to present enough variety so there was something for everyone. We decided on a schedule with some plenary sessions (for everyone to attend), with other parts of the day split into two tracks – giving attendees the option to choose between different workshops and talks.
Marketing the event to everyone
Publishing the final schedule was pivotal in allowing us to start promoting the event in earnest. We made heavy use of LinkedIn (both through UCISA and the committee’s own individual accounts) to spread the word, highlighting the early bird rate (available until August 2024). We asked each of the speakers to share details of their sessions in their own networks, and our sponsors also played a big part in helping to market the conference. The committee members also used speaking opportunities and internal channels to tell people about the event.
Weekly check on how many tickets sold
One of the highlights of our ongoing UX24 weekly meetings was finding out the booking numbers from Esther at UCISA. We had an upper limit of 80 participants (based on our chosen venue’s capacity) as well as a minimum numbers requirement from UCISA to make the conference viable. Each week we pressed Esther for the tally of bookings, having mini celebrations when we sold our first ticket, then when we reached the minimum requirement, and finally when we reached our capacity and sold out (and had to operate a waiting list).
Countdown to the big day
As the event neared closer, topics discussed in our weekly meetings became increasingly practical. When would we travel to Manchester? How would we set the space up? What did attendees need to do in advance? Did our speakers have everything they needed and know what was required of them? Would we include giveaways for attendees?
Speaker pre-meeting
Recognising the importance of our speakers, Esther arranged a pre-event call with them as a group to go through arrangements for the day and help them prepare. Bringing all the speakers together built excitement for the conference and Esther followed a detailed checklist to cover everything they needed to know and to answer their questions ahead of the event. As a follow-up to this call, all speakers received an email with detailed guidelines for them to refer to ahead of the day itself.
The Event app
UCISA set up an app for UX24 which was provided by external company Event Mobi. Attendees and speakers received details to download the app ahead of the conference which provided them with the schedule as well as location information. The app was also available to be used to set up polls if speakers wanted to include this feature as part of their sessions.
Tote bags with a fun UX message
As we edged closer to the day of the conference, the buzz grew and Sonia Virdi had the great idea to provide attendees with a souvenir of the day, to take away with them. We liked the idea of tote bags carrying a UX slogan that would resonate with the community. UX practitioners often refer to ‘sprinkling UX dust’ to acknowledge times when we are brought in at a pre-launch stage of a production process (when often, it can be too late for us to do any meaningful UX work). Sonia applied her creativity to this idea and created a design for black tote bags, adopting the pink of the UCISA logo.
Getting to Manchester in good time
The wider UCISA event team – Esther, Sian and Bridget, travelled up from the UCISA base in Oxford the day before the conference to ensure everything was in order in the venue. Gary and the AV team also also arrived the day before to set up the sound system, microphones and recording equipment. Sonia, Graham, Joe and myself also came the day before were thrilled to see the venue for ourselves, with everything prepared for the big day. Several attendees had also travelled the day before, so we were able to meet them to introduce ourselves and chat over an informal dinner in the restaurant of the venue.
Our role on the day itself
Tuesday 17 September was a bright and sunny day and the committee were up early ready to go, with a sense of nervousness mixed with excitement. Had we forgotten anything in our planning? Would the day go smoothly? The UCISA events team were on hand to take care of registering delegates, speakers and sponsors, while myself and the rest of the committee had a role to meet and greet people. As the organising committee chair, I was tasked with introducing the conference and delivering closing remarks at the end of the day. Throughout the day, each of the organising committee members had a role to introduce speaker sessions, and members of our wider UCISA UX Group committee attending the conference were also on hand to help with tasks like microphone running to take questions after sessions.
Would I organise another conference?
In a word, yes! As my additional blog post explains in greater detail, the event was a great success both in terms of number of tickets sold (and therefore financial viability) and in terms of the experience it provided for attendees and sponsors (testified in the feedback we received). This made all the hard work in planning feel worthwhile. From a personal perspective, it was a career highlight to organise a conference, I felt stretched and away from my comfort zone, and therefore I learned a lot from the process. I was very mindful and appreciative of the support of the events team at UCISA to guide myself and the rest of the committee throughout. There were times when I felt I was constantly asking questions but Esther and Sian were always very patient and supportive, and nothing was too much trouble for them. Based on the success of the event, our committee has made a request to run another conference next year, so I look forward in anticipation to UX25.
Written by Emma Horrell.
To read the original blog click here.
