Welcome to online tools to help you plan your events and lead you to the people and resources that will help make your event a success.
To begin your planning:
- Determine the goals, audience and format of your event. Consider a variety of event formats.
- To begin the event planning process, visit the event planning webpage. There is an embedded video that discusses how to use the room and resource scheduling tool. If you are considering planning a major academic event such as a conference, public lecture, or roundtable, contact Associate Dean Barbara Gontrum to discuss the goals and aims of your project.
- Mary Jo Rodney and the Event Services Group are your main resource for event support and logistics. They can help guide you through the steps involved in event planning and provide advice on all aspects of event logistics. They can also help put you in touch with other Law School resources to make your event a success.
- To see a list of rooms, please visit our Room and Resource Scheduler.
The main types of events held at the Law School include:
- Academic Conferences (beginning planning one to two year(s) in advance). Conferences are major one to three day events intended to reach a broad audience, including key constituencies outside the Law School such as other academics, alumni, practitioners and policy makers. Examples would include recent conferences on law & film, avian flu, ex-offender re-entry or women and corporate governance.
- Public Lectures or Academic Panels (begin planning eight to ten months in advance). Like conferences, Public Lectures and Panel Discussions are intended to reach a broad audience outside the Law School. The key difference is that these events shorter and simpler, taking place over a single evening or later afternoon. Examples would include the Juanita Jackson Mitchell Lecture by Dorothy Roberts.
- Academic Roundtables (begin planning eight to ten months in advance). Roundtables are focused, intensive discussions among a group of academic colleagues, both from within and outside the Law School. Although selected students and members of the public are sometimes invited to attend, the focus is academic peers and colleagues in a select field. Examples would include the criminalization of corporate governance roundtable.
- Law School Community Events (three to six months in advance). Law School community events have as their main target audience the Law School students and faculty. Although members of the public may attend or select alumni may be invited, these events may not widely publicized outside the Law School. For this reason, they often do not need to be planned nearly so far in advance. Examples include the recent visit by Lt. Cmdr Swift regarding the Hamdan case or the visit by the 4th Circuit.
- Special Events (begin planning six to 12 months in advance). Special events are often focused on alumni and the larger community and may or may not include an academic component. Examples include the Honors Banquet.