WMU News

Office focuses on providing conference planning, management services

Nov. 5, 1999

KALAMAZOO -- So you've been put in charge of an annual meeting or a national conference--in addition to your regular duties and with no additional staff. Conferences and Seminars at Western Michigan University is ready to help.

For more than 20 years, Conferences and Seminars has been providing complete planning and management services for conferences, seminars, meetings and other related events. Part of the Division of Continuing Education, it recently reorganized to focus more exclusively on providing these services.

Under the reorganization, the professional programs component of the office was transferred to the Haworth College of Business' new Office of Business Development Services, notes Chris Garrett, director of Conferences and Seminars.

"That left our office free to focus on program development and planning conferences," Garrett explains. "We can take care of all the organizational details so our clients can concentrate on program content."

The reorganized office offers services such as developing program objectives and curricula, making facilities arrangements, securing speakers and exhibitors, negotiating fees and contracts, marketing and promoting events, registering participants, and handling on-site management. Its clients include educational institutions, non-profit agencies, health care providers and similar organizations.

"Our experienced conference management team is prepared to plan, coordinate and implement an event of any size," Garrett says, "whether it's a one-day meeting on campus or a week-long national conference anywhere in the United States."

For more information about Conferences and Seminars, contact Garrett at (616) 387-4174 or visit the office's Web site at <www.wmich.edu/conferences>.

Media contact: Jeanne Baron, 616 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu


Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
616 387-8400
univ-rel@wmich.edu

http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news