Prior proper planning for IG/IM/RM industry events

I keep an old-fashioned laminated paper annual planner on the wall of my office (neé dining room). It allows me, and by extension my family, to see what's coming up at a glance in terms of my travel, conferences, etc. 

It also includes major holidays for the U.S., and depending on which brand I'm able to find, for Canada and Mexico as well. And it lists major religious holidays like Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, Passover, and again on some brands, Islamic holidays like Ramadan. 

Which brings me to my rant. As I was adding my confirmed 2024 events to the 2024 planner, I noted that the ARMA Canada Information Conference (ACIC) 2024 is scheduled for May 12-14, 2024 in Calgary, AB. May 12 is Mother's Day. Now, I thought that maybe Canada celebrates it on a different day from the U.S., as they do with Thanksgiving, but that's not the case. Mother's Day isn't a federal holiday, or a major religious one, but I bet there are a few mothers who are going to be thinking about this as they decide whether or not to attend. Or speak! 

I'd previously lambasted ARMA for scheduling the former MER, now ARMA InfoNext, conference for the week after the AIIM24 conference that's been scheduled and published for a year, and in the same post, done the same to AIIM for their scheduling a 2-day in-person event in Florida the same dates as InfoGovWorld 2023 and the week before the ARMA InfoCon conference. And the IRMS 2024 conference in London is scheduled for May 12-14 as well, and has been for a year. I know ARMA, and AIIM, and etc. think it's different audiences - they've told me as much. But even if they are correct, it's not different vendors, and it's absolutely not different speakers. So when your speakers turn you down or decline to submit anything, check the schedule - they may have previously committed to a previously scheduled event that you missed or chose to ignore. 

But this isn't just a case of the associations not playing together as nicely as they could. Several years ago, AIIM scheduled the AIIM conference in Orlando during one of the major spring break weeks. And again last year ARMA's InfoCon was scheduled the same time as Canada's Thanksgiving. In response to a comment on my previous post, where a colleague pointed that out, I replied, "You'd think every event planner would have major holidays, including major religions' major holidays, committed to memory or at least written down somewhere." 

"But you don't understand," some event planners will respond. "We schedule this stuff years in advance. How are we to know that the local home team will be in the World Series at the same time as our event?" Well, yeah. I get that. But the dates for major holidays and religious holidays are known well in advance. 

This also made more sense when our associations had bigger shows, and required bigger venues, that might need to be scheduled several years in advance. And I don't doubt that there's still some value in doing that with a particular hotel chain or venue. But no association's conference today is so big that it can't be held in a dozen different hotels in any major city in the U.S. or Canada. And add in the fact that AIIM's fall event last year was brand new, and ARMA's InfoNext and ACIC were being radically rescheduled, and I don't buy it. 

So here, let me help you do your job, event planners. 

• Here's a cheat sheet for religious holidays. 
• Here's one for major U.S. holidays. 
• Here's one for major Canadian holidays.

Most of the 2024 events are already listed, though after the...creative...scheduling of so many events on top of each other in the first few months of 2024, I'm hoping that any other folks looking to plan fall events steer clear of ARMA InfoCon's dates. C'mon, if you haven't announced it by now, you have flexibility. Play nicely. And if you need me to provide the calendars for 2025, let me know and I'll be happy to do so.