Mulberry Youth Conference

How to Develop a Youth Conference

NB: this is the first page of the guide, it is available in full as a download

Background Work

• Provide Young People With A Model: If at all possible young people should attend a high quality youth conference prior to planning any conference. This is vital so young people can 1) visualise a successful conference, 2) gain motivation, 3) identify possible topics and speakers.

• Develop A Steering Team of Students and Interested Teachers with Senior Management Support: while the conference is largely student run, a successful event can only develop with a team of dedicated staff at its core. Make no mistake – a conference requires a substantial time commitment on the part of staff and students. That said, the rewards of a successful conference make any such effort extremely worthwhile.

• Develop a Conference Mission and Philosophy: You need to know why you are running the conference, what outcomes you want for the school and for the students who attend. As with any good Enterprise Projects, much of the learning is gained simply from the process of preparation and organisation.

• Create a Budget and Identify Possible Sources of Funding. Local business partners and universities may wish to support the conference.

• Drum up additional support among students, publicising the conference and its goals: It is vital to promote the conference among students so that you have a strong, reliable organising team. You will need at least a half-dozen superstar students to make your conference a success, as well as a team of at least a dozen other students willing to help with different aspects of organisation. One key element of our conference’s success has been our participation in the New York Conference over seven years. Our students know that a key element in our selecting of students to participate in the New York Conference is the degree of effort and leadership they show in developing the Mulberry Conference and this can help them maintain their commitment.

• Divide into conference teams: Teams for our conference include a business team, an administrative team, a workshop team, and a presenter’s team, a housekeeping team and a welcome committee. Their general areas of responsibility and key tasks are outlined below:

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