Symposium Ideas

On Friday I attended a panel session featuring Paul Goldman from Texas Law Publications, Zach Burt from Texas Wesleyan Law Review, and Dwazendra Smith from the Journal of Race, Gender & Poverty at Southern University Law Center.

Excellent panel with a wealth of useful tips.
* The importance of regular communication with symposium speakers, even when there is no real news. Ping them once/month to motivate them and keep them abreast of symposium news
* Hold an award banquet in conjunction with your symposium, and get a professional photographer to document the banquet. Present an achievement award to a local member of the bar, also any student awards
* Charge for CLE credits (~$10/hour was low figure given)
* Enable credit-card payment through your website
* Web presence is very important--make sure your symposium website is well prepared
* Plan on 1-2 invited speakers backing out. You should have a couple back-up speakers.
* Minimum of six months to plan and organize the symposium
* See Paul Goldman's resources on the UT Publications website--all of Paul's documents, including a budget sheet and sample fundraising letter are available
* The importance of budgeting and fundraising. Students usually underbudget and miss details. One student's budget went from $1,000 to $12,000. Low figure for one-day symposium seemed to be ~$3,000