Learning and Planning for the Annual Meeting Programming Process
The Annual Meeting is ACC’s biggest event of the year and committees play a vital role in its
success. More than half of the programming is conceived and planned carefully by committees,
and committees heavily influence the overall educational direction. Below is a quick overview on
what every successful committee leader and program chair needs to know about the process.
1. Familiarize yourself with ACC Guidelines.
a. Review the sample submission page and Annual Meeting Program. Use the
spreadsheet provided at http://am.acc.com to prepare your submissions.
b. Review the pre-selected program tracks chart on the 2016 ACC Annual Meeting
Call for Programs Guidelines and consider where your program ideas might best fit
(you may indicate multiple tracks).
c. Confirm the number of programs your committee has been awarded for the 2016
Annual Meeting.
d. Plan to submit the number of program ideas required of your committee.
e. Seek guidance from those on your leadership team with experience in program
planning (i.e., a former Program Chair).
2. Brainstorm program ideas by gathering information, and decide whether you want to
solicit from the entire committee or a small group of representatives (i.e., an advisory
board). Committees are able to do this by:
a. Reviewing the memorandum provided by ACC HQ staff outlining the committee’s
past program submissions, session attendance, webcast and legal quick hit
attendance, popular eGroup discussion topics, and more.
b. Using an ACC survey tool, discussions with individual members, the monthly calls,
and/or the in-person meetings, such as the AM committee business meeting as a
vehicle to obtain feedback from members regarding committee priorities/projects,
and to recruit leaders to help execute elements of the strategic plan after its
developed.
c. Collaborating with other committees’ program chairs for joint program idea
submissions.
d. Learning about the committee’s topic preferences and rating your submissions
accordingly. While rankings will not guarantee selection, they will guide the final
program selection phase.
3. Strategize with your committee to receive the highest odds of being selected.
a. Present fully developed program submissions. Proposals that provide descriptions
with specific, practical objectives will have a significant advantage. Submissions
lacking detailed descriptions will be automatically declined.
b. Submit more intermediate and advanced level programs. ACC members
consistently ask for more in-depth information.
c. Consider including an ethics session. Members are very interested in ethics
programs, so ACC HQ staff would more than just a few high quality submissions to
choose from.
d. Include any dynamic speakers in your submissions to stand above the other
submissions.
e. Ensure that the topics aren’t so narrow that you struggle putting together an inhouse panel. Ideally, you should have a full panel and an understudy should any
drop out.
f. Avoid generic program proposals on a popular topic; the competition is likely to be
intense.
g. Propose a program with creative and unique method of presentation.
Bonus: If your topic isn’t selected, they can be repurposed as other resources such as webcasts,
joint events with chapters, or legal quick hits.
4. Coordinate with key players and invest in your AM presentation.
a. Submitters of accepted program ideas must submit a program organizer to serve as
the point of contact between ACC and session faculty. The program organizer will
be responsible for submitting faculty. Program organizers may or may not serve as
faculty.
b. Consider having a partner to assist the program organizer. Alternatively, one
program organizer can develop content and keep the leadership in the loop, while
the other monitors its development and provides support.
c. Consider scheduling a standard meeting on a certain day and time each month
regardless of call for program deadlines to keep the faculty and program organizer
on track.
d. Program organizers must complete program organizer’s training offered by ACC.
e. When selecting faculty, consider implementing a process as opposed to
automatically accepting candidates. For example, ask for a CV and/or LinkedIn
profile information, and have a brief call to discuss qualifications sought.
f. Use the ACC faculty database to easily screen candidates interested in your session.
5. Market your program.
a. Invite your members via eGroups, committee calls, chapter events, webcasts, etc.
b. Ask your program organizer and faculty to actively seek out potential attendees.
c. Think of ways to engage your audience before and after the panel session.
6. Leverage technology to your committee’s advantage. Some tools to consider are:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Google forms (for surveying smaller groups or to obtain ranking from leadership)
eGroups (for surveying the overall committee and soliciting ideas)
Dropbox (if your IT dept. allows it!)
An audience response system (for live polling your session).
Authors:
Shawn Graham, Program Chair, Corporate & Securities Law Committee
Rachel Okolski, Assistant GC & Managing Attorney, ACC