As well as kitting out venues you'll need to arrange catering and assemble all the equipment necessary. A complete working environment has to be created where people can function as well if not better than in their own workplaces. Students can often help with this but above all you have to get people motivated and start the debate rolling. Once this happens the information starts flowing. Generating a public debate before, during and after the event is an essential part of action planning, and as well as producing your own publicity there's considerable scope for using television and the press.
Local media can play a very important role.
Prior to a planning weekend in Northern Ireland, the local paper produced a 36 page special issue on regeneration in the area - a feat surely never achieved by any conventional planning process. The Event A group of specialists from a range of disciplines relevant to the problem in hand has been invited to participate as a team of anything from five to twenty five people. Significantly they usually come from outside the area being dealt with because this provides a degree of freshness and independence. Local specialists are equally, if not more involved, but usually as Advisers rather than Team members. This can be from a bus or on foot and the purpose of this is to quickly get a feel for the place and the key issues.