Here's a collection of good resources I found for the first-time conference planner.
- [How to Plan and Run a Great Conference Experience] (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/plan-and-run-a-great-conference) - Written by the organizer of HybridConf. there are some great tips in the comments too.
- [How to Organize a Conference: 18 Amazingly Useful Tips] (https://medium.com/tedx-experience/how-to-organize-a-conference-567fb50ccdbd#.na4qa5ivd) - by Louis Rosenfeld, the founder of Rosenfeld Media
- [5 Tips To Reduce Conference Awkwardness] (http://blog.tito.io/posts/5-tips-to-reduce-conference-awkwardness/)
- [Look After Your Speakers] (http://blog.tito.io/posts/look-after-your-speakers/)
- [Conference organiser's handbook] (http://www.quirksmode.org/coh/)
- [Mastering the Art of Sparking Connections] (http://sparkcamp.com/sparking-connections/) - by the creators of Spark Camp
- [Handbook for open-source software community conference organisers] (http://conference-handbook.readthedocs.org/index.html) - based on the experience of the organiser of DjangoCon and PyCon
- [Planning an Accessible Conference] (http://www.sigaccess.org/welcome-to-sigaccess/resources/accessible-conference-guide/)
- [7 ways to make your next conference a complete success] (https://www.import.io/post/7-ways-to-make-your-next-conference-a-complete-success/)
- [How to organize a tech conference] (http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2015/10/06/organizing-conferences/)
###Comparable conferences (1-day/single-track/200 people/cross-disciplinary/autism) We're looking to host a one-day, single-track summit, bringing together designers and makers that hail from disciplines but share a common trait: they all create solutions (beyond therapies) that help autistic individuals.
- [Creating an Autism-Friendly World] (http://researchautism.net/about-us-research-autism/research-autism-events/research-events/autism-friendly-world)
- [AutismCon] (http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/raise-money/special-events/autismcon.aspx)
- [Industry Conf] (https://industryconf.com/) - 1 day, across front-end design and dev, UK, slightly more exp (200 pounds)
- [Break Conference] (http://breakconf.org/) - 3 days, Belfast, similar in cross-design disciplines
- [HBS Marketing CPG Conference] (http://www.mcpginnovationconference.com/) - 1 day, similar price point - $70
- [HarvardxDesign] (http://harvardxdesign16.com/#failurexdesign) - 1 day, design, similar price point - $30
- [Spark Camp] (http://sparkcamp.com/#)
###Other nice conferences
- [So Coded] (http://2015.socoded.com/#about) - 2 days, Germany, 3 person org team
- [Cocoa Love] (http://cocoalove.org/) - 3 days, Philadelphia, targeting Apple developers
- [Úll] (http://2015.ull.ie/) - 2 days, Ireland (2014)