How to Organize a Young Writers' Conference
Writing conferences designed specifically for young people give students a chance to learn more about what kinds of opportunities for writing exist, to pick up some skills to enhance their own writing and to hear authors speak about writing. Organizing a young writers conference the first year is a challenging undertaking, but once the groundwork has been set, it’s an event that will become easier to undertake year by year. Involving teachers, parents, and the students themselves in the organization process gives a sense of ownership to the event.
Instructions
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Set a date and time for the conference well ahead of time after estimating the number of participants and finding a site. Schools work particularly well, of course, since you’ll need both a number of rooms for the individual workshops and a larger space (with plenty of seating) which will be used for the speakers’ presentations.
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Organize a committee of teachers, parents, students and other community members willing to work on preparations for the conference. Sub-committees will work on organizing a time schedule, gathering necessary materials and copying items for the presenters, serving as guides at the conference, purchasing refreshments and so on.
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Find a guest speaker. Depending on how far ahead of time you do your planning and whether or not you can offer some kind of a stipend or honorarium, you might be able to get a local author of children’s books or other personality to speak. Give the speaker a time limit (probably no longer than twenty minutes) and ask if she will be willing to take questions after the talk.
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Poll students as to what kinds of information and activities interest them. You might make up a check sheet listing titles which range from “How to Write a News Article” to “ “Writing a Humorous Monologue” to “Opportunities for Writers in the Business World.” Once you know the topics which interest students, arrange for presenters for each of these topics. Teachers, of course, would be available to manage most of the topics, but look into the community for other resources. Business people, newspaper writers and editors, free lancers, and others may be willing to help.
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Set a time limit for each workshop and give the presenters a general guideline of your expectations. For example, you might ask them to address the topic, to create something interactive as part of the workshop, and to allow time for questions at the end. Explain to the presenters that you will be following a round-robin schedule, allowing each student to attend two or three workshops.
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Schedule students into the various workshops and make nametags and maps of the building. As students arrive, they will be given a copy of their schedule for the conference. Ask some committee members to be available to escort presenters, and students, if necessary, to the various workshops.
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End the event with the speaker and refreshments. Assign someone to research the speaker’s background and write and give an introduction. The same person might field questions from the students after the talk—and perhaps prepare some participants with questions to make sure there are some. Invite everyone to enjoy the refreshments and to continue to talk casually with the speaker.
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Tips & Warnings
Talk with organizers of other conferences before you start your own planning.
