APEC One Health Conferences

Conference management

Client Department Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries

The brief

Earlybird was contracted to manage a series of five foresighting conferences for the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), under a joint funding initiative with AusAID.

The conferences were developed to strengthen the capacity within the health institutions across the participating APEC member nations and brought together animal and human health senior government officials from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member nations.

All conferences were hosted outside of Australia in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Earlybird has previously successfully managed numerous conferences for the Department, which led to the engagement for this series of logistically challenging conferences.

Our work

The team managed all aspects of each conference including the selection of the destination and venue for the conferences, field trips and the social functions attached to each.

Each conference had delegates travelling from multiple countries and our team worked to coordinate all travel, accommodation and daily per diems. This included a requirement to complete acquittal to the APS standards and code of practice guidelines at the conclusion of each conference.

Each conference utilised our dedicated conference website, marketing and registration system, Earlybird Digital. The flexibility of the system enabled us to tailor each registration system to accommodate cultural nuances of delegate groups. The system's powerful marketing tools ensured that the delegates were engaged in the conference and the materials being presented well before they arrived. 

To ensure effective communication at each conference Earlybird also provided translation services catering for the range of nationalities at each conference.

Results

While working with each of the venues and a number of delegates from across a number of different countries was a challenge, feedback from delegates who attended each of the conferences was extremely positive. The department were pleased that delegates and their own staff experienced a flawless journey and stay at their destinations, as well as well planned, well-executed and fun conference sessions, day trips and social gatherings in each location.