HPAIR

ACONF25

Host Country Bid

Information Session
General Information
● What is ACONF?
● Why bid for ACONF?
○ Work closely with HPAIR, local universities, governments, and private sectors to
create an unforgettable experience.
○ Showcase your city’s vibrancy, culture, and potential to an international audience
○ Experience of a lifetime
○ Professional development
○ Share your city with the world
Info Session #1 Agenda
● Overview of Committees
● Roles of Host Country Team
● Elements of a Bid Book
● How to Bid
● Tips!
● Questions
COMMITTEES
Overview
● Every successful ACONF host country organizing team (HCOC) has
the following teams:
○ Conference Programming (CP)
○ Corporate Relations/Finance
○ Delegate Experience (DE)
○ Design
○ Marketing and Communications (MarComm)
○ Operations (Ops)
○ Tech
CONFERENCE PROGRAMMING (CP)
● Responsible for organizing the academic and professional component of
HPAIR conferences
● Develops content for panels, firesides, and keynote speakers
● Organizes seminars, where speakers give instructional discussions
regarding their area of expertise
● Invites all of the speakers for the opening/closing ceremonies,
seminars, and panels & coordinates with speakers about logistics
CORPORATE RELATIONS
● Contacts organizations/companies that may be interested in
sponsoring HPAIR by email
● Makes phone calls to company representatives who decide
on sponsorships
● Negotiates terms of the sponsorships
● Creates sponsorship package
● Develops and organizes the Impact Challenge
FINANCE
● Manages the bank account and bank relations
● Manages the PayPal account
● Creates revenue reports
● Manages the finance email and respond to delegates’ finance
inquiries
● Forecasts committee budgets and create conference budgets
● Reimburses staff, speakers, and delegates
● Manages merchandise sales before and during the conference
TECHNOLOGY
● Help maintain our HPAIR portal, website, HPAIR+, etc.
● Maintain our tech stack
● Knowledge of React on frontend; Firebase on backend
● Support our other committees in automating processes
DELEGATE EXPERIENCE (DE)
● Responsible for everything delegate-related
● Oversees and crafts the application review process (delegate
application and interview questions, screening delegate resumes,
sending out early, regular, and late evaluation forms, assigning
seminars/IC/field trips to each delegate, finalizing final accepted
delegate roster, sending out acceptance/rejection emails)
● Answers all Help Emails and Facebook messages from delegates
● Manages the Conference Facebook Group
● Scholarship evaluation process
● Crafts Pre-Arrival Booklet, Fundraising Booklet, and Delegate
Guide for delegates
● Updates FAQ Guide on HPAIR website
DESIGN
● Oversees branding for the conferences
● Works very closely with other committees to ensure that HPAIR’s
promotional and physical materials are ready for distribution
● Creates Delegate and Speaker Conference Handbooks and
goodie bags
● Designs recruitment materials, email banners, logos, lanyards, t-
shirts, certificates, sponsorship package, speaker invitations,
speaker guide, social media pubs, powerpoint templates, and so
much more.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
● Spreads the word of HPAIR all over the world
● Reaches out via universities, newspapers, media coverage, etc. to
pub HPAIR
● Selects and coordinates with conference ambassadors,
delegates who have been accepted in the early round who recruit
additional delegates
● Coordinates with partnership clubs
● Posts on HPAIR’s social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter pages, changing cover photos for the various application
rounds, etc.
● Maintains database of HPAIR alumni, speakers, sponsors
● Coordinates International Night and HPAIRx
OPERATIONS
● Ensures that the entire conference runs smoothly, works with
other committees and their needs to improve the overall efficiency
of the conference
● Plans food, transportation and living arrangements for all staff
members
● Helps plan the schedule of the conference
● Secures all venues of the conference + venue setup
● Organizes catering and set-up for lunches and coffee breaks
● Coordinates pre-conference tours
● Coordinates logistics behind evening events like HPAIRx and I-
Night
● Staff task delegation and staff training for conference
TIPS
● Find a stellar team
○ Execs; and Directors and Associates for each committee
○ Team should be based in the host city, with a strong familiarity with the
relevant venues and city.

● Partner with a university

○ Good infrastructure (venue, staffing, AV equipment, speakers, etc.)
○ Primary venues should be supported for free or heavily discounted.

● Go deep, not wide with your bid books

○ No need for a 50+ page bid book with extraneous information; rather have a
concise bid book with a lot of detailed information about location, sponsors, team,
and conference overview
ELEMENTS OF A BID
BOOK
Operational Overview
● Overview of budget — approximate expenses associated with:
○ Location rental costs (hotels, conference centers, universities)
○ Food vendors and suppliers; decoration and venue decor costs
○ Costs for HOC: flight, hotel and accommodation costs
○ Speaker management fees (shouldn’t be huge)
○ Equipment (cameras, AV, mics, etc.)
● Conference timeline
○ Very general schedule and overview of the conference
○ Have rough itinerary for the four days of conference — what does a typical day
look like; when does it start and end; what events will take place, etc.
Team Composition
● The most important part of any bid is having a strong organizing
team
● Your bid book should include brief bios of every member on the
team
○ Detail relevant experience and preferably conference organizing background
● Also outline the organization of your team
○ List of all the committees (see slides above)
○ List of directors and associates on the committees
Letters of Support
● Another very crucial component of any successful bid is having
strong local support
● A good bid team should have written letters of support from local:
○ Universities where we’ll be hosting the conference
○ Businesses and corporations who will provide sponsorship and monetary or in-kind
support
○ Government agencies or departments (e.g.: the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of
Education, etc.) who can help out with
○ Hotels that will offer us discounted bulk rates (for delegates as well as staff
members)
○ Food vendors and other merchants to discuss bulk orders of food (for lunches and
opening ceremony) and overall costs for decoration
Provide Clarity and Details
● Note: a confirmed sponsor/venue/speaker means that contingent on
your team winning the ACONF bid, they are locked into
commitment.
● Providing concrete details allows for a clear assessment of
financials:
○ Ins and outs of amenities at venues (is it cost-free partnership, what is inclusive of
package, is AV equipment provided, etc.)
○ Approximate financial requirements for each team (marketing, merchandise,
catering)
● Information of the city, accommodations, tourism, public
transportation
● Details are important to understand accessibility for both hosting
and potential delegates
Sample Bid Book
2018 Asia Conference Bid Book from Kuala Lumpur

Content
● Conference Schedule and Vision
● Organizing Team
● Confirmed/Potential Sponsors
● Confirmed/Potential Speakers
● Proposed Venues
● Tourism and the city
Additional Examples
ACONF2024 Chulalongkorn Bid Book

ACONF2022 Hong Kong Bid Book

How to Bid!
Summary and Key Takeaways
● Running a conference naturally incurs high-costs. As HPAIR is a non-
profit organization, every successful ACONF heavily relies on a
‘thrifty” team. This means that in order to keep costs as low as
possible for our delegates, HPAIR requires in-kind sponsorships such
as free venues, airline partnerships, and other conference related
costs.
● In general, we highly recommend finding a university partner early
on and being the core base of the conference. Some teammates
could be from the university themselves to help aid with
communications.
Procedure
● If you want to submit a bid for ACONF, there are two things you
need to submit to us:
1. Send a completed bid book to <presidents@hpair.org>
with the subject line “ACONF 2024 BID SUBMISSION -
[CITY]”
2. Fill out the Bid Application Google form:
a. https://forms.gle/quyjXjQVkWfJFBbc9

● Please submit both parts of the application by December 15, 2024

Bidding Interest Form

https://forms.gle/oaeG5cp2BTnbg5A18
Bidding Application Form

https://forms.gle/quyjXjQVkWfJFBbc9
 Questions?
Email: presidents@hpair.org