Click to Search

Events

Deciding dates, locations and venues
Preparing event invitations
Confirmation of speakers and requesting PowerPoint presentations
Collating bookings, payment, delegate lists and badges
Guidelines for preparing HDC event handouts
Guidelines for preparing PowerPoint presentations
What to do on the day
What to do after the event

Deciding dates, locations and venues

Dates

Dates for any events should be agreed at least six weeks in advance with the HDC.

Location

Geographical locations for events must be decided in advance with the HDC. If the event includes a visit to a nearby nursery, the venue for registration and presentations should be no more then 5 miles away.

Venue

Any venue must be decided in advance with the HDC. Venue bookings are to be done by the contractor.

The maximum costs for hire of any venue is £400. This should include hire of any audio visual equipment and catering costs.

Audio visual

A screen, laptop and data projector need to be made available for use on the day. If any other equipment has been requested, this also needs to be made available. HDC have data projectors, laptops and screens available for use. Equipment should not be hired unless agreed in advance with the HDC

Catering

Catering charges should be between £10 and £15 per head including VAT. This should include the provision of lunch with drinks and at least two lots of tea and coffee. If no lunch is to be included in the programme for the day, tea and coffee should be provided and should be charged at no more than £2 per person.

For registration, tea and coffee should be available at least half an hour before the registration time listed on the invitation. All other tea, coffee breaks and lunch should be made available at least 15 minutes before the time listed on the invitation. Tea and coffee should always be served with biscuits.

If there are more than 30 people attending an event, at least two stations should be provided to serve from.

Catering numbers must be adjusted in advance of each event to reflect the numbers of delegates attending. A contingency of at least five extra lunches/ coffee servings needs to made for last minute attendees. Delegate numbers should be checked in advance with the HDC and final catering agreed with them.

Preparing event invitations

Click here for examples

Templates

There are two different templates for event invitations. Examples are enclosed and will be supplied electronically.

We don’t have a preference which type is used, it really depends on the amount of information/ level of detail being presented.

Content

The draft text for the invite should be supplied by the contractor responsible for organising that event. This should include an introductory paragraph and finalised speaker titles and times.

Deadlines for return of reply slips will be completed by the HDC.

A suitable map(s) and where necessary, written directions, must be provided for inclusion on the invite.

Copying

HDC will copy all event invitations.

Distribution

The final invitation needs to be supplied to the HDC for distribution to Members four to six weeks before the event date.

BASIS and NRoSo registration

HDC will use the invitation to apply for BASIS and NRoSo points. As BASIS points can not be supplied to event attendees in a written format ie included within the event handout, they will be provided as one of the PowerPoint title slides supplied to you the day before each event.

BASIS and NRoSo points can only be collected by delegates by signing the BASIS and NRoSo forms that will be supplied to you by HDC the day before each event. This forms must be returned to the HDC after the event for them to return to BASIS and NRoSo.

Confirmation of speakers and requesting PowerPoint presentations

We send an email to speakers to confirm their involvement in the event as soon as the invitation has been distributed to HDC members. This also carries a copy of the invitation for that event and requests audio visual requirements to be confirmed.

Importantly, this also states when copies of speakers PowerPoint presentations need to be submitted to the HDC if they are to form the basis of the event handout. Ideally, this should be two weeks before an event, one week before at the very latest.

Example email text confirmation:

Dear All

Thank you for agreeing to speak at the above event next month. Attached is a copy of the invitation that was mailed to growers today.

PowerPoint will be available for use on the day, but if you need any other equipment, let me know and I'll arrange it. Your PowerPoint presentation will also form the basis of the event handout so please ensure all graphs etc are visible when printed in black and white only and that you can tell the difference between treatments. I've attached some guidelines on preparing PowerPoint presentations which include info on file size, printing graphs etc.

Please can you send your presentation through to me by Friday 5 September to allow sufficient time to prepare the handout.

If you need any further info, do give me a call.

Kind regards

Jan

We will provide an electronic copy of our PowerPoint guidelines. You will need to change who you want them sent to at the bottom.

Collating bookings, payment, delegate lists and badges

Bookings

All event invitation reply slips should be returned to the HDC to enable HDC Membership details to be checked. HDC try to ensure all delegates register in advance of the event. We do however allow attendees to attend any event up to, and including, the day of the event itself. This includes those delegates who turn up on the day and have not registered.

Confirmation of attendance

HDC do not send confirmation of attendance letters either before or after the event.

Payment

HDC try to ensure all payments are received prior to the event but some may have to be taken on the day. This can only usually be accepted in the form of cash or cheque.

Receipt of payment

Receipts are not issued unless specifically requested. A receipt pad will be provided to provide receipts on the day of the event should any payments be taken.

Delegate lists

HDC will supply delegate lists on request prior to the event to inform organisers of attendees registered to date and numbers of attendees.

A final list will be provided the day before detailing delegates name (alphabetical by surname), organisation, if payment has been received and a column to tick if the delegate attended.

Badges

These are to be prepared using the template provided and the final delegate list supplied to you by the HDC. Plastic badge holders should be supplied by the contractor.

Guidelines for preparing HDC event handouts

HDC event handouts are made up of a combination of word and PowerPoint documents.

Word document
- Use the word document template provided for all events
- All font should be in Arial (assuming you don’t have Helvetica 55 Roman)
- Please request an up to date list of HDC and Defra projects for each event series

PowerPoint document

Print off the PowerPoint presentations for each speaker, 3 slides per page, with the title of their talk (Arial 14, bold) and with the persons name and organisation underneath this in italics (Arial 12).

The most important thing to make sure with the PowerPoint presentations is that all the graphs print out in black and white - use the 'pure black and white' option in the print dialog box.

Also some versions of PowerPoint are not compatible with each other and the text ‘drops off’ the slide – please check to make sure this is not happening.

Collation

Please collate in the following order:
- Front page – please copy on to red paper for HNS, blue for PC events
- Follow with the programme for the day with times
- Then each PowerPoint presentation should follow in sequence as per the event programme
- HDC Projects
- Defra Projects
- Notes page

Please note, BASIS and NROSO Points should not be listed in the handout. These can only be supplied on the day either verbally or by PowerPoint.

Photocopying

Please copy the handout so that it is double sided.

Please ensure all new sections (programme, each speakers presentation, HDC projects, Defra projects, notes) start on a right hand page (you may need to add in blank pages to make this happen).

Binding

If possible we prefer ring binding – wire or plastic.

Numbers

We usually prepare about 10 more copies of the handout than the number of people attending. When counting up people attending, ensure speakers, ADAS/HDC staff are included.

Copies for the HDC

Please send us ant spare of the handout for each event series as we get requests from those people that did not manage to make it. Please also ensure an electronic copy of the full handout is supplied to the HDC.

Guidelines for preparing PowerPoint presentations

Photographs

Please ensure any photographs included in the presentation are a maximum file size of 0.2 – 0.3Mb (for email) and 0.5Mb otherwise.

We advise saving the images as a JPEG file and 200 d.p.i. before inserting them into the presentation.

Graphs

Your PowerPoint presentation will often be used as the basis for an event handout:
- Please therefore ensure graphs and bar charts can still be interpreted by the reader when printed in black and white.
- This may necessitate using variations of dotted, dashed (or symbols) for lines rather than different colours.
- To check this, choose ‘Pure black and white’ in the print dialog box and then print.

Lines (in whatever image format) also need to be thick enough so that they can be seen when projected.

File size

Overall file size should be approximately 2.0 – 3.0 MB

Delivery to HDC

To ensure enough time for checking, printing of handouts, loading on to the PC etc, please ensure your presentation is delivered to the HDC by either e-mail or CD, four working days before the event date.

What to do on the day

Signs

- Ensure signs at venues are put up in clear and obvious locations both inside and outside of the building.

Publications

- HDC factsheets – lay out together in factsheet number order. These are free to HDC Members and therefore should be made available to them.
- Publication Order Forms – lay these out for HDC members to take away.
- Display ‘sample’ copies of HDC publications. These must not be taken away - if anyone is interested in obtaining a copy, take contact details including their HDC member number, then pass these details to Anne Leipnik at HDC.

Registration

Have a table for registration near entrance laid out with the following items:
- Delegates list (which must be printed in surname alphabetical order), delegate badges (lay out in surname alphabetical order) and event handout.
- As people arrive welcome them and ask for their name.
- Tick them off the list as attending and check to see if money needs to be collected from them for lunch. If payment is taken mark them off as paid and if a receipt is required suggest this would be ready for them to collect during tea/coffee break.
- Give the delegate their badge and a copy of the handout.

Tea/Coffee/Lunch

- Have more than one station for tea/coffee available. This will allow easy access to people and will prevent a queue forming. - Make regular checks to ensure tea/coffee/biscuits and food/drinks at lunch does not run out.

Audio Visual

- Make sure audio visual equipment (eg. laptop, data projector, OHP etc.) is working OK.

Presentations

- Copy the presentations from the CD onto the hard drive of the laptop including title slides which HDC will provide you.
- Title slides automatically run in the following order: event title slide, BASIS slide, NROSO slide, welcome slide. Each speakers title slide and presentation then need to be hyperlinked in the same order as the programme for the day.

How to hyperlink slides and/or presentations together:
a) Select the HDC logo on the welcome slide to link to the first speaker’s title slide.
b) Click ‘Insert hyperlink’ on the toolbar.
c) At the ‘Insert hyperlink’ pop up window type in the location of the file (eg. c:\Jeanette’s folder\Joe Bloggs presentation) or use ‘Browse’ to link to the relevant presentation, then click ‘OK’
d) If the logo will not allow you to hyperlink to it, create a small coloured box in the bottom right hand corner of the slide to be hyperlinked from. Select this box and repeat from ‘b’ above.
e) At the end of Joe Blogg’s presentation set up a hyperlink (from a logo or coloured box) to the second speakers title slide.
f) Use the HDC logo on the second speakers title slide to hyperlink to the second speaker’s presentation.
e) Continue until all title slides and presentations are hyperlinked.
f) To preview how the hyperlink will appear in the slide show click the slide show icon at the lower left of the PowerPoint window. Also check each presentation is in the correct running order.

Speakers

- As the speakers arrive, show them to where they will be doing their presentation and offer to run through their presentations with them. Familiarise them with the audio visual equipment, how to forward their presentation and any audio equipment eg microphones that will be used.

NRoSO forms

NRoSO (National Register of Spray Operators) points are obtained for most events.
- Delegates must be advised that a registration form is available for them to complete if they wish to gain NRoSO points for the event.
- Return the completed forms to the HDC office for them to forward to NRoSO.

Maps

- Ensure sufficient maps are made available (if required) to all delegates.

What to do after the event

Delegates list and Payments collected
- Ensure any payments, which have been collected for lunch, have been marked off on the delegates list.
- Forward the completed delegates list, payment (cash and cheques) and receipt pad to Anne Leipnik at the HDC office.

Handouts

- Forward any spare copies of the event handout back to Anne Leipnik at the HDC Office. HDC will send these out to delegates who were not able to attend on the day.

Publications

- If there are no further events in this series, return all HDC publications to Anne Leipnik at the HDC Office. If there are still further events happening in this series ensure the box of publications is passed onto the person in charge of the next event and any extra copies of anything are requested from the HDC.

NRoSO + BASIS

- Ensure completed NRoSO and BASIS forms are returned to either Anne Leipnik or Jan Beckenham at the HDC Office as these need to be sent onto NRoSO and BASIS, for points to be allocated to the delegates.