Venue
This is a report on the planning and delivery of a series of seminars conducted by the ASQ Customer-Supplier Division. The seminars were conducted in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana during the period of July 18-22, 2011. This cluster was called Back Home and originally included Naperville, Benton Harbor, Ft. Wayne, and Indianapolis. Dennis Arter presented the Supplier Auditing seminars, Dick Gould presented the Supplier Certification seminars, and Kathryn Roberts presented the Supplier Nonconformances seminars. Betty Kildow’s seminar on Supplier Business Continuity had to be cancelled because of low registrations.
Long range planning
Seminar clusters are generally chosen by three criteria:
- Industry density. We need a population to draw from. History shows that most participants come from within a 300-mile radius.
- Driving distance. Instructors must be able to drive to the next city within four hours.
- Location in North America. We want to cover all parts of the USA and Canada evenly.
The Midwest locations met all criteria. We previously conducted courses in the Chicago and Indianapolis areas. The Division Council approved the Midwest cluster at the May 2010 meeting in St. Louis, MO.
Local support and venue selection
We must make sure the local Sections see us as supporting their mission of service to the members. Dennis Arter discussed the plans by e-mail with the local leaders. All leaders were happy to see us coming. Dennis also asked the local leaders for venue suggestions (hotels, conference centers, colleges, etc.) We received a great deal of support from Jim Bluschke, past chair of the Benton Harbor Section. We contacted several possible properties, using the following guidelines:
- Classroom style seating of 15-30 per event
- Minimal AV of screen and power strip
- Only hot beverages and water in the morning
- Light lunch midday
In the past, we have had good results with Hilton Garden and Courtyard hotels, as well as local conference/catering centers. Meeting rooms have averaged $200/day, AV was generally included, and food/beverage has averaged $25/participant. Midwest contracts were reviewed by ASQ staff support (Cynthia Nazario) and authorized by the CSD Education Chair (Maria Stoletova) in March 2011. Dennis Arter used a personal credit card to guarantee all events.
Publicity and registration
We have a support contract with ASQ Headquarters for our Roadshows. It includes publicity as well as registration. Dennis developed a brochure from an earlier template and requested ASQ Headquarters to update the Roadshow page on the CSD web site. He also requested calendar entries for both the ASQ main web site as well as Quality Progress magazine. Dennis also worked with Lisa Bray on staff to update the previous mail piece and select a cluster of local ASQ Sections to receive an announcement flyer. We selected 10,000 names around the local area. We also sent the announcement ot all CSD members. The mail pieces went out in mid-May, so interested parties would have about six weeks to reflect after delivery by the US Postal Service.
Registration services (Daren Miller) worked with other staff members to integrate our Roadshow events into the Training Institute software package. As before, we tried to capture as much as possible on the CSD wiki pages.
Delivery
Throughout early June, registration numbers trickled in. Historically, registrations tend to peak about two weeks prior to the event, with some even registering two days prior. In order to meet our hotel cancellation agreements, we had to make our go or no-go decision by July 1st. The numbers were low for all but Naperville, which was unexpected. Only one person signed up for the Business Continuity class and it had to be cancelled. The Supplier Certification classes were only held in Naperville and Benton Harbor. The three instructors made travel commitments. Dick and Kathryn prepared their workbooks and shipped them to the Naperville hotel. Dennis used a local office supply store close to O’Hare airport for his workbooks. Textbooks were handled by ASQ registration staff and shipped with the badges and course completion certificates to the Naperville hotel. As before, all instructors brought along their own projectors. At the end of each day, they put course materials in the trunk of the rental car, to carry to the next location.
The three Naperville courses were held at the Hilton Garden Inn. The final count here was 25 for Audit, 16 for Certification, and 24 for Nonconformances. The Benton Harbor courses were held at Lake Michigan College. The final count was 4 for Audit, 6 for Certification, and 10 for Nonconformances. The Ft. Wayne courses were held at the Marriott by the airport. The final count was 7 for Audit and 11 for Nonconformances. The Indianapolis courses were held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fishers. The final count was 7 for Audit and 7 for Nonconformances.
Financials
We brought in more than we spent on this cluster.
Fixed Expenses
- Meeting Room rent totaled $1500 for all four locations.
- We had $80 AV expenses for the projector screen in Naperville.
- Cost to print and mail the advertising pieces was $3,820.
- Instructors were paid $1,000 per class, for a total of $10,000.
- Instructor travel (airfare, lodging, meals, and rental car) totaled $4,800.
Variable Expenses
- Food and beverage averaged $29/person, for a total of $3,352 for the 117 participants.
- Printing, binding, and shipping workbooks cost $1,274.
- Textbooks shipped from HQ cost $681.
- HQ staff support time cost $787. Badges and certificates cost $553.
Income
- Revenue from participants totaled $37,698, after deducting credit card fees of $924.
$10,851 was added to the CSD treasury from this cluster.
