The nature of conference management requires a successful company to be able to meet peak demands and handle multiple meetings and tasks simultaneously. McKing prides itself on its ability to provide superior logistical and publications assistance while managing multiple concurrent and complex projects.

We offer a full complement of conference management services, including premeeting, onsite, and postmeeting support. McKing staff members plan and manage meetings ranging from small, local 1-day sessions to large, multiday out-of-town conferences. The types of meetings our staff has planned, supported, and convened include focus groups, town meetings, national scientific meetings, international conferences, workshops and symposia, grant review sessions, and advisory committee meetings.

We are active partners with our clients, from concept development through meeting closeout. Our conference staff members attend planning meetings and make recommendations regarding program content, format, and participants; meeting logistics; publicity pieces and vehicles; meeting materials and products; meal functions; special events; exhibit and poster sessions; security; audiovisual equipment and services; and so forth. In addition, our staff members are skilled in negotiating contracts with meeting venues that maximize services and equipment while minimizing expenses and virtually eliminating any liability for attrition, cancellation, and other potentially litigious developments.

Our conference planning staff provides clients with comprehensive timelines, frequent status reports, in-person briefings, and timely financial updates. McKing's premeeting services include:

• Planning support and program development
• Participant identification and selection
• Budget preparation
• Site selection and reservation
• Domestic and international travel
• Lodging
• Meeting room arrangements
• Audiovisual arrangements
• Publicity materials preparation and distribution
• Letters of invitation
• Logistical factsheets
• Preregistration
• Preparation of premeeting materials
• Exhibit design and setup
• Planning of group events (including entertainment)
• Editorial and graphics services
• Web site design and management, including online registration

Onsite support features personalized, rapid response to the needs of our clients and participants. Our onsite meeting services include:

• Registration
• Speaker assistance
• Information center operation
• Recording and transcription of sessions
• Audiovisual and technical services, including Web and satellite broadcasting
• Production services, including video production
• Coordination of exhibits and poster sessions
• Meeting room monitoring
• Photography
• Security

Following a meeting, McKing's conference staff members process reimbursement vouchers and produce postmeeting materials. McKing's postmeeting services include:

• Thank-you letters
• Minutes and summaries
• Reports of action items
• Verbatim transcripts
• Editing of presentations
• Technical reports and proceedings
• Postmeeting materials preparation and distribution
• Attendee evaluation tabulation and reports
• Debriefings
• Reimbursement processing
• Vendor invoice payments
• Preparation of interim and final reports
• Preparation of interim and final reports

The McKing staff includes skilled facilitators who help participants come to consensus, agree on strategies, and develop program recommendations.

For each meeting, we can help set the agenda, move the agenda forward, recap the day's discussions, and report on the day's events. We can provide the full range of audiovisual support, from real-time flipchart notations to the electronic creation of signs, slides, and overheads. Our staff can take notes of one day's discussions and quickly write and produce a topline report to open the next day's session.

We can prepare strategic plans or position papers resulting from meetings. Preparation of these papers involves steps similar to those described in the Publications section below.