Step 1: Initial Planning

Our events align with the CMI Professional Standard for Management and Leadership skills. e.g. Personal Effectiveness, Interpersonal Excellence, Organisational Performance, each of which has various sub topics. CMI will focus on one overarching topic from the professional standard each month to which your event topic and content must align. For more information, see the Professional Standard Wheel and the Schedule of Themes .

With support from your Regional Manager, once you and the Board have discussed your event concept in more detail including the aims and objectives, theme and content, date, time, location etc, you can then complete the Regional In Person Event Request form . This will enable the CMI Events team to support you with the next stages of organising and delivering your event. Once you have completed the google form a member of the events team will be assigned and become our CMI Event lead. They will be in touch with you to start the ball rolling.

For your first in person regional event, your event lead and or CMI Events team members will be in attendance to support you and model best practice. Thereafter, you will have all the relevant tools to deliver your next in person event with remote support from your CMI Event lead.

CMI Events will source an appropriate venue to host your event. If you have a preferred venue or location, please let us know and we will explore availability. Once a preferred venue is identified, your event lead will arrange an in person or virtual site visit. This will provide an orientation of the event space and allow an opportunity to ask any questions regarding the venue and plans for the event. Please let your event lead know if you would like to be involved in the site visit. During the site visit, there is a checklist which will be completed to ensure that the venue is fitfor-purpose and all the relevant questions are asked.

Once a suitable venue is sourced, we will ensure that all of the event requirements are confirmed and contract signed.

You’re at a great place in making progress with your event plans. Start to use your In Person Event Planning Checklist . This will support you in tracking your progress and helping to ensure you have not missed any crucial steps. This should be updated and placed in your regional shared Google Drive so members of the Board and CMI Events can track progress and offer support if required.

Have you secured your speakers? It is important that you confirm your event speaker(s) and host(s). Decide who will be your speaker liaison - this is the person who will communicate with your speaker(s). This can be someone from the Board or the CMI Events team. The speaker liaison will then send an initial invitation email. This email is to explore their willingness and availability to participate, giving them a high level overview of the event and their proposed role and or contributions. Once they have confirmed, please request a high resolution headshot photograph (JPEG format) and short biography (80-100 words) that we can use for the promotional marketing of the event. Please also secure the same items from your event host or facilitator.

Please note: As a registered charity, CMI is unable to offer a fee or honorarium to speakers as a token of our appreciation we are pleased to offer free CMI membership for three months to speakers who are non members. We will cover reasonable travel and accommodation expenses where necessary. For details refer to the Expenses Claim Form

The content of the speaker’s presentation/conversation should focus on the topic in question and although they may refer to their business or services, it should still be in context with the event and any such reference(s) should be brief.

Host: A member of the Board should be the host for the event. The host would be expected to start the event with a welcome, introductions, housekeeping and provide any logistics and/or instructions to delegates as required throughout the event.

In collaboration with your event lead, outline a draft agenda for your event, specifying times, activities and location. An In Person Event Agenda Template can be found here to assist you in making a start.

Don’t forget to ask for a high res headshot and short biography from the speaker