TMG Events Planning Experience –Conferences, Workshops, and Training

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Washington DC/Stateside Events
Social Development Advisors Network (SDAN). The TMG conference services support team has provided support for the SDAN meeting held at the RRB in September 2000. These meetings require an understanding of protocol and cultures as they bring together high ranking officials from USAID, The World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, CIDA, IMF, the Asian Development Bank, DfID the European Union, NORAD, GTZ, and the foreign ministries of Finland and the Netherlands.

Food Crises Prevention Network TMG organized and conducted the annual meeting held November 17–19, 1999 at the American Geophysical Union. This meeting was organized in coordination with USAID, the Club du Sahel and CILSS. There were approximately 50 participants including presenters. TMG coordinated 18 presentations by bilateral foreign assistance and cooperation organizations including USAID, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the European Union, multilateral organizations such as The World Bank, and private voluntary organizations, universities, and consulting and technical assistance firms. In addition to normal logistics arrangements (travel, transportation, per diem, and catering), TMG organized and hired simultaneous interpretation services, from French into English and English into French. TMG also ensured there was bilingual staff at the hotel to assist the meeting attendees.

US Study Tour/Meeting of Eight African Farmers for Water Management TMG and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organized a major study tour held from July 16 to July 31, 2000, in the United States. TMG arranged all international travel and domestic transportation of the participants at two of the four agricultural sites visited and studied: transportation around Washington, D. C. , from the airport to the hotel and back and to debriefing meetings, and to several sites in Arizona, Texas and Alabama. The TMG escort/interpreter efficiently expedited the logistics for this visit: meeting the farmers at the airport, distributing their per diem advances, and providing basic information/translation (French to English) services. TMG also arranged transportation to and interpretation services for the pre-return debriefings with the Deputy Assistant Director of USDA, the USAID Office of Agriculture Director, USAID officials from AFR/SD and researchers from Purdue University in Washington, D. C.

Overseas Events
The Producer Organizations Workshop. TMG's SD contract also provides support for events held overseas. The SD team worked on two important USAID workshops held in Nairobi, Kenya in November 2000. Workshop was attended by over 50 USAID and USDA employees and included participants from USAID missions in Africa, as well as from USAID and USDA headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Agriculture, Food Security, Environment and Private Sector (AEPS) These meetings have been conducted on a bi-annual basis for several years under TMG's support. The meetings bring together 70 to 80 USAID employees and invited participants from USAID missions in Africa, as well as from USAID headquarters in Washington, DC. The workshops permit USAID staff and participants to share ideas and opinions in the technical areas of agriculture, food security, environment, and private-sector development.

Sahel Regional Program (SRP): TMG has provided management and administrative support to CILSS' headquarters and its nine member states (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Chad, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and the Gambia) over the past six years. A significant amount of this support involved direct planning and execution of conferences and workshops at all levels (regional, national, local) that addressed a broad range of technical and policy subject matter (food security, local-level management, financial management, and capacity building).

Sahel Regional Collaborators' Workshopwas held July 17–18, 1995 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. TMG staff arranged for invitations and site logistics (conference room, breakout discussion rooms, luncheon facilities, catering, etc. ) for approximately 75 participants. Twenty individual or organizational presentations were made, with three major discussion groups on Regional Strategic Objectives. TMG distributed abstracts of all presentation materials in advance; arranged to have the SRP Collaborators' Workshop audio-taped; and prepared and distributed a thorough summary proceedings report. In addition TMG prepared a poster session to introduce its own regional "Linkages Study" to the participants. The TMG Associate coordinating the workshop also provided translation services, interpreting the exit briefing given for executives of USDA and USAID, as well as a technical round-table discussion.

Other Events Planning Experience

The following examples demonstrate not only TMG's capacity for events planning from a logistical standpoint, but also its ability to provide additional program support. Our staff are knowledgeable in development issues, and they can apply this knowledge to identifying issues, crafting agendas and designing presentations and working groups. We also gain by obtaining additional program information gleaned from the events themselves, which we can then incorporate into our efforts.

Ghana PME Forum: TMG has major responsibility for organizing annual national education forums where stakeholders come together to share what they have learned about specific education interventions as well as other interventions that affect primary education in Ghana under its Quality Improvements In Primary Schools (QUIPS) program. TMG's efforts significantly increased the level of participation in the forums. Through excellent publicity and planning, TMG almost doubled the number of participants at the first forum (April 1999) from an anticipated 200 to 375. Both USAID and the government of Ghana assessed the Forum as "an ultimate success of QUIPS in general and TMG in particular. "The second forum, attended by the Minister of Education, the USAID/Ghana Director and other high officials in the Ghana education system, brought together over 500 participants.

African Development Bank: Management and Administrative Training (AfDB): Under this contract, TMG conducted a major organizational analysis and personnel restructuring of the AfDB department. An integral part of this process involved organizing and conducting a series of training workshops, retreats and meetings (in French and English) for 72 division chiefs and heads of departments, as well as for 63 directors and deputy directors. TMG was involved in providing 36 months of technical assistance and training support for two phases of the AfDB restructuring process.

U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)-Presidential Mission:South African/U. S. Energy Summit on Sustainable Development: The summit focused on opportunities and approaches to developing sustainable energy in the Republic of South Africa, in the process bringing together local and national economic, political and cultural leaders from the U. S. and South Africa. One of TMG's specified roles under the contract was to identify black-owned South African businesses as possible candidates for joint ventures with U. S. firms. TMG provided significant administrative and logistical support for the approximately 350 participants.

OUR CONTRACTS – A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESSFUL SUPPORT
USAID/BHR Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA):
TMG worked extensively with ASHA to help facilitate reforms in higher education and create partnerships in development with higher institutions of learning abroad espousing U. S. ideas and principles. Over the period of the contract (1993-1998), TMG designed and implemented workshops and conferences for institutions interested in obtaining grants for overseas programs. The workshops conducted included sessions on designing and preparing grant proposals, with key elements focused on institutional reforms and partnerships with U. S. institutions of higher learning or firms with interest in developing countries.

USAID/BHR Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
During one year alone, TMG organized and conducted close to 30 different workshops, conferences, and retreats for OFDA. These targeted at over 400 participants, including staff from OFDA, other USG agencies, and PVO/NGO partners, such as CARE. The meetings, retreats and workshops ranged from one day to a week. The planning, nature and support for these activities involved the combined effort of TMG's training staff of three full-time professionals based on-site at OFDA. This level of support also involved a unique understanding of the way OFDA operates and the training needs required to keep its operations fully functional and highly efficient