NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Technical support  >  Mechanisms 

Conferences

Conferences provide technical support by gathering relatively large groups of individuals together for a focussed range of presentations, discussions and formal and informal networking.

Conferences can come in many different forms and formats:

• They can range from local or regional gatherings with tens of participants to national or international events with hundreds of participants.
• They can explore the frontiers of knowledge, debate contentious issues, share experiences of good practice in implementation, or discuss opportunities for collaboration or coordination.
• They tend to consist of a mixture of different styles of presentation, discussion, participation, and documentation.
• They can be one-off or regular events.
• They can involve participants from many different organisations or from different departments of one geographically spread organisation.

Advantages of using conferences as part of a technical support programme include the following.

• They can be very effective in raising awareness of new initiatives, or about gaps in local, regional or national services.
• They provide opportunities for creative and unstructured learning and morale boosting through the formal and informal networking between the participants.
• They can lead to important resolutions, declarations or statements which contribute to significant changes in widespread cultural perceptions. For example, technical support designed to promote the involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in the work of NGOs, may be enhanced by their participation in a high profile conference bringing together a wide range of different organisations.

Conferences can also have disadvantages.

• Quality control and overall evaluation can be tricky. Some participants may miss crucial sessions, for example. Some sessions may work much better than others.
• Even when there are question and answer sessions, the size and structure of conferences makes it difficult for some participants to feel fully engaged or involved in any kind of dialogue
• Travel and subsistence costs can be considerable.
• Usually only a small number of participants from each NGO or CBO can be included, and it is difficult to evaluate how effectively they take the learning back into their home organisations.

Most NSPs only occasionally organise conferences, because of the costs and human resources needed to make them successful. However, some NSPs will also provide small grants or bursaries for individuals from their partner NGOs to attend a variety of different national or international conferences.

Issues to consider

• Different individuals and different NGOs and CBOs will gain different things from conferences. For example, some will value the higher profile or reputation they gain through attendance or presentation at conferences, above the learning that they would expect to get from the conference. Some will be more interested in the informal networking they can do. Others will value the opportunity to consider new or unusual views about a particular area of work.

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