ANZSMS18 - Convenor's Report

8th February 2001


Organisation of the 18th Conference, held at Legends Hotel on the Gold Coast, has represented something of a departure from previous conferences in that it has been held in an "off campus" location and we have employed the full services of a Professional Conference Organiser. The organising committee feel that that these decisions have helped to make this conference a successful and enjoyable one.

Choice of Venue

Many members of the society had expressed the view that the move away from university premises at the Thredbo conference was a desirable process. The committee therefore examined a number of "of campus" options for the location of the conference. These included the Brisbane Convention Centre, Hotels in Brisbane, The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast and Eco-tourism resorts such as Fraser Island and Curran Cove. As well as offering competitive pricing we felt that Legends was a comfortable and accessible venue which also offered excellent facilities for sponsors and exhibitors.

Timing of the Conference

In spite of strenuous attempts on our part to avoid a clash with the Lorne Protein Conference, the organisers changed their minds about the scheduling of that conference very late in the day and did not even have the politeness to inform us. Correspondence from Richard Simpson in May, 1999 indicated that the proposed date for that conference was 11 - 15 February and we did not discover their change in plans until after the 2000 Lorne Conference. The Lorne organisers were unwilling to consider rescheduling their conference and it would have created major difficulties to reschedule our own conference at that stage. Apart from any problems we may have experienced with plenary speakers, the previous week overlaps with the School Holiday period, resulting in consequent increase in venue costs, and the following week is very close to the commencement of University Semesters. This clash is most unfortunate and has probably had an influence on delegate numbers. It is difficult to provide advice to future committees on how to avoid such a conflict. Some of the Lorne organisers did, however, express considerable embarrassment over the clash and this may encourage them to be more diligent and cooperative in future.

Plenary Speakers

The committee attempted to choose speakers who would cover a range of areas with in the discipline. Invitations were made to potential speakers nearly two years before the conference and we feel that we were able to secure an impressive line-up of prominent international and Australian speakers. Matthias Mann accepted our invitation enthusiastically in July 1999. However, in spite of repeated requests during 2000 for an abstract and title we received no response until in mid December when he informed us that he would be unable to attend because of "other commitments". Although we felt that this behaviour is unacceptable, there was little we could do to change his mind ( or force him to attend!) and it certainly threw or organisation into turmoil. Fortunately, Keiryn Bennett was able to step in at the last minute to offer a lecture in the same subject area and to lead the Biomolecular session and the committee is most grateful to her for that contribution.

Delegates

Delegate numbers are rather lower than we had expected and it is difficult to discern the reasons for this. Advertising was extensive and included a mailing list of around 2000, all of whom received the announcement post card. We also advertised on the Web pages of several other societies and organisations, and brochures were distributed in trade magazines and at both ASMS and IMSC. In early January registrations were below 100 and lead us to make some budget trimming decisions on catering, satchels, abstract booklet etc. By the Friday before the conference, numbers had increased to 137. However the number of presentations, particularly in the poster format, is still considerably lower than experienced at recent conferences.

Demographic Analysis of Delegates

ACT	4
NSW	39
QLD	29
SA	10
TAS	2
VIC	17
WA	2
No state Given	3
Belgium	2
Canada	1
Denmark	1
Netherlands	1
New Zealand	1
Sweden	2
UK	2
USA	3
No Country Given	7

Sponsorship

Sponsorship participation has been much higher than we originally expected. In our initial budget estimates we assumed a net of $20 - 25, 000. We found this area a most difficult and frustrating one to deal with. Most companies refused to commit until about 6 months out from the conference and I was still receiving requests for booths and satchel inserts on the Thursday before the conference!. Indeed, six months out we did not even have a Patron Sponsor and the budgetary consequences seemed dire. However, as a consequence of strenuous efforts by the committee and the help of Carillon Conference Management we have managed to secure gross sponsorship of $52,000. Most of this is "unfettered" but does include sponsorship of the Poster Session by Bruker and sponsorship of the name badges by Amersham-Pharmacia. The net income from sponsorship is difficult to estimate at this stage but should be at least $35,000. There is a further $10,000 gross income from exhibition booths, which should nett around $5,000.

GST

The introduction of the new taxation regime proved to be a major headache for the organising committee largely because, it came at a crucial time in the organisational process. Prior to July we could not obtain realistic quotations since all our major suppliers had inserted "let out" clauses in their quotations. Furthermore, when we began to purchase services in July we discovered that ANZSMS Inc. had not registered for an ABN. We were informed by the ATO that it is the central affiliated body which must hold this registration. The delay associated with organising this registration threw our planning about a month out of schedule and resulted in our having to set the closing date for registrations and submission of abstracts much later than we had planned. This in turn threw us up against the inevitable delays caused by Christmas. Such circumstances are obviously a one off and will not occur for the next conference. However, we feel that the central committee should revisit the issue of GST registration. We are obliged to pay GST on all of the goods and services which we purchase and so this tax is effectively incorporated into registration fees. However, because the society is not GST registered we are unable to show this on invoices. This means that eligible organisations cannot claim back the GST. I also understand that once turnover reaches $100,000 we are obliged to register and we are already approaching this figure.

Budget Issues

Budgeting turned out to be very difficult this time around, particularly the setting of the registration fee. This was partly due to the unpredictable effects of the GST but also because of the tardiness of our sponsors in committing themselves. The use of a Professional Conference Organiser does add significantly to registration costs. However, in view of the fact that the convener's time was severely limited by other commitments and that the mass spectrometry community in Brisbane is very small, we could not have managed without Carillon's assistance. In fact, the PCO's fees will largely be offset by the very generous support from sponsors. Feedback so far from sponsors indicates that they have been encouraged by the suitability of the location and by the efficiency of the organisational aspects.

Although, our finances looked to be in severe difficulties in the first week of January we are now confident that the conference will come close to breaking even. The predicted deficit is $1,967.

John Bartley
ANZSMS-18 Convenor



Page maintained by: Web Administrator
Last Updated: 14 April, 2010