Which part of the conference actually decides the date?
Event plans feel uniformly urgent, and that is exactly why they slip: attention gets spread evenly across tasks that matter very differently. One run tells you where the pressure genuinely is.
Words on this sheet
- Predecessors: The tasks that have to finish before this one can start. Put their IDs here, separated by commas, and leave it blank when nothing has to come first.
- Venue: The place an event is held. A venue line is what hiring it costs, usually a fixed amount whatever the turnout.
Marketing Starter Critical Path Pro engine
After you install, this is the model to open.
Conference Plan: What Sets the Date?
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
This one runs on a Pro engine, and every free install includes five full-quality runs on your own numbers, shared across all five Pro engines rather than five for each. After that, Pro is $199/year.
The answer
The path and the slack:
- Ready on
- Day 32
- Sets the date
- Speakers 14 days
- Registration slack
- 20 days
- Rehearsal slack
- 3 days
The conference is ready on day 32, driven by venue, speakers, program and materials. Registration carries 20 days of slack, which reframes the whole plan: every week a speaker takes to confirm is a week on the finish date, while registration can open late at no cost. Chase speakers, not the registration page.
The model
Six tasks. Registration and the speaker track both follow the venue decision, then converge on the rehearsal.
| Lock date and venue | 6 days |
| Confirm speakers | 14 days, after venue |
| Open registration | 4 days, after venue |
| Build the program | 7 days, after speakers |
| Print and ship materials | 5 days |
| Run the rehearsal | 2 days |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- Which event risks are worth paying to prevent?Event Risk Register
- Where should the next ad dollar go?Split the Ad Budget for Maximum Orders
- Who should get the loan offer?Who Should the Campaign Target?
- What CPA will your ad budget actually buy?PPC Campaign Planner
- Is that market study worth paying for?Is That Market Study Worth It?
- If you raise your bid, what does it actually buy?Ad Auction Simulator
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Schedule risk analysis.