Rockport: Organising a Pre-Conference Tour

Organising a pre-conference tour in 2016 allowed new Round Square member, Rockport, the opportunity to raise its profile in the network, strengthen global relationships and gain an insight into the conference management process. Rep, Dawn Toland, shares her advice on how to plan a pre-conference tour and the learnings that have prepared her for the forthcoming Globally Accessible Conference in 2019.

Author and position: Dawn Toland, Round Square Rep, Head of Boarding, Media Studies, Geography

School: Rockport is a co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 3-18 years. The school serves 220 students and is situated on the shoreline of Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland, close to a scenic coastal path running from Holywood to Bangor.

Introduction

Rockport achieved Global Membership in 2016 and to celebrate this milestone, we decided to host a pre-conference tour in advance of the Round Square International Conference in Louisenlund.

We had completed exchanges and attended conferences ourselves but we felt that making a greater contribution to the Round Square community would embed the IDEALS further within our school, engage students and staff and deepen our connections with other Round Square members.

Planning

The school commitment to organising a pre-conference tour was cemented a good two years before the RSIC 2016 in Louisenlund but the nuts and bolts of logistics planning took place 12-18 months in advance of the event. Planning so far in advance was essential for ensuring adequate accommodation would be available for guests. As a small school, we could not offer accommodation onsite, but found that local hotels were happy to work with us if we could plan more than a year in advance.

In the early stages, it really takes one person, ideally the Rep, to be in control of planning and bookings. Once other schools have confirmed and numbers are finalised, then wider staff can become more involved. I created a small but motivated planning team which included administration staff, the school catering team, and an enthusiastic group of teaching staff.

The pre-conference was discussed at whole school level by the Headmaster and Rep at staff briefings and then staff were individually approached and encouraged to become part of the implementation team. Staff were consulted on the itinerary and assigned certain days or outings depending on their preference. They were also invited to input into the latter stages of the planning process for their areas.

In terms of co-ordinating the staff volunteer group, it was unrealistic to have set times for meetings due to the busy teaching timetable. I found it more effective to go and speak personally to volunteer staff to let them know that I value their time and follow this up with a group email about arrangements. I also left token thank you gifts for all staff who helped during the pre-conference. They were, after all, giving something extra in addition to their teaching time at school.

The theme we chose for the pre-conference (which will also be the theme of our first Globally Accessible Conference in 2019) was: “Northern Ireland- Our Changed Environment”. We chose this theme as we believe Northern Ireland has a unique and recent perspective on conflict resolution. Belfast, and the wider landscape, have developed with reflective consideration on ‘The Troubles’. The common theme which unites the conference is to allow young people to see how an area can emerge and change for the better if there is a collective will to make it happen. 30 years ago, people would never have believed that Belfast could be the global destination that it has now become.

Creating the itinerary was a fairly simple process.  Northern Ireland is a well-known tourist destination so it was easy to identify key visitor attractions and supplement this with the local knowledge of staff and advice from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Given that it was our first pre-conference tour, we decided against including a service element as we anticipated this would be complex to organise, but we are hoping to include it in our global conference planning.

In terms of reference to the Round Square IDEALS, my advice would be to initially focus on one or two IDEALS – do not feel the pressure to cover everything – and try and remain flexible. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to activities.

Activity

Our work involved organising accommodation, catering and the tour itinerary for attending schools. The itinerary included visits to The Giant’s Causeway, a Belfast City Sight Seeing Tour including the Titanic Centre, Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Peace Lines and Crumlin Road Gaol and an afternoon in Dublin.

On the delegates’ arrival to Ireland, students acted as hosts mixing with the other delegates and leading in the activities. The students involved were those who had been interviewed and selected to represent Rockport at Louisenlund for the RSIC and it was part of their interview for this role to agree to act as hosts on the pre-conference.

Challenges

• Juggling school commitments – The biggest challenge was juggling school based teaching commitments and finding the time to organise an event. To overcome this, have a frank discussion with your understanding and supportive Headteacher (this is critical for all Reps to have!) in advance of taking on the event.

Impact

As a relatively new Round Square rep, I feel I benefitted greatly. Meeting a small group of other Round Square reps from Australia and India for a longer period helped me build my global network of colleagues, reaffirmed my enthusiasm and they were a very understanding, supportive set of people who appreciated the efforts put into conference organisation.

Rockport as a school benefitted as by offering the opportunity of a pre-conference tour, we were able to increase our profile in the network. As arrangements went so smoothly, this has helped our reputation in the network, and we have seen great interest in Rockport’s global conference scheduled for March 2019. We expected 100 delegates but have expanded to double the size of delegates. I feel that this situation is a direct result from the initial pre-conference.

Those schools able to attend now have a lasting link with us and as a direct result, I receive many inward exchange requests.

Offering a pre-conference tour also enabled us to celebrate our membership of Round Square externally. Activities were widely publicised on social media and documented in the school magazine. We believe that March 2019’s event will raise the school profile within Round Square again but will also generate local publicity with the wider media in Northern Ireland.  Rockport is a unique school within the educational landscape in Northern Ireland, a fact that we are proud of and value.  It is our intention to publicise the fact that we are hosting this unique event which will promote face-to-face global collaboration amongst young people and all the benefits that this will bring.

The staff involved benefitted as they met like-minded professionals and saw the pupils engage with their peers at other schools, which helps me to build the Round Square team internally and encourage other staff to become involved.

By participating in the pre-conference tour, our pupils had the chance to form friendships before the conference: they arrived in Louisenlund with 30 contacts rather than travelling as a group of 5. This prepared the students for participating in the social aspects of the conference, and resulted in an easier and more enriching experience at the conference itself. The benefits of participating in the pre-conference tour were also recognised by parents; they could see how this activity enabled their children to get the most out of a RSIC. Some have even offered to assist us in our conference next year as parent volunteers.

The impact on pupils also extends beyond the conference. They returned full of enthusiasm, eager to tell students and staff about their conference experience, extending the positive experience of the event to others in our school. I felt that their involvement also developed their confidence and enabled them to better understand the value and investment needed to benefit from a conference experience. The pupils today still talk about their time at the RSIC.

The Future

The pre-conference tour acted as a pilot for us; there was always a plan to do something larger.  In March 2019, we will use a similar but slightly extended format to host a Globally Accessible Conference for 13-15 years olds where we expect to host more than 20 schools.

Offering a conference for this age group will help the profile of Round Square within school with students, staff and parents. Many Round Square events are for older pupils in the Sixth Form who then leave school taking their Round Square enthusiasm with them. It has been a deliberate plan to host for ages 13-15 years as the pupils will remain in school for a minimum of 2 maybe 4 years and the ‘Round Square effect’ will be present for a longer period of time. This will help to keep Round Square relevant, alive and sustainable within the school community.

Advice

• Budget with care and have a flexible plan. If you want a quality event it will not come cheap!
• Reach out to other Round Square schools for help with common paperwork and ideas –  I think a school needs to attend a number of different conferences in other schools before embarking on one of their own.
• Seek administrative support – Always, always be kind to you school admin team!
• Outsource transport arrangements and catering when possible.
• Use readily available and existing attractions to entertain your guests – Remember, you are a teacher, and these people are experts in hosting visitors; they manage large tour groups every day. Outsourcing also means that anybody you use will provide you with a necessary risk assessment for the activity.
• Just do it! It will be worth it, but start small and grow from there. I do believe that I would not have been ready to do a Globally Accessible Conference next year if I had not stepped up and done a pre-conference tour in 2016. So I guess, start small and grow and don’t take on too much – it is better to offer a quality experience to a few schools than an average experience to many.