Conducting conference preparatory events: The pre-conference activities include:

Establishing conference organizing committee – in this category, academic staff members from ILI and University of Greenwich will be selected. These staff members together identify collaborating organisations, participants and members from these organizations that are willing to work in the organizing committee of the conference. After the selection of these organizations, based on their merit to the conference (both as participants and collaborators), the chairpersons of the organizing committee will establish contact and give specific duties (as participants, as presenters, as discussants, etc) during the conference.

Identifying possible collaborators – The next step in the preparation stage will be identifying possible collaborators and participants, and align the specific activities they can perform during the conference. This can be done in the manner that the chair from the University of Greenwich will make contact to the British Council in Addis Ababa and other organisations of the International community in Addis Ababa. The chair of the University of Greenwich also contacts International Institutions that are involving in research such as CODESSERIA/OSSERIA, ECA, etc. These organizations can present papers and can involve as discussants in the conference or solely as participants or maybe finance issues of interest or they may be willing to establish collaboration in the future. Other organisations that can involve in the conference can also be contacted and invited. The chair from the ILI will make contact with the Ethiopian Economic Association, the Forum for Social Sciences, the Ethiopian Management Institute, Addis Ababa University-School of Federalism, Addis Ababa University – Institute of Development Research, and the IFPRI-KCID, in Addis Ababa.

Pre-conference debate – The pre-conference preparation within the ILI is that ILI plans to conduct ILI-Masters Students and staff research conference before the main conference. This is planned on October 5 – 6, 2009, for two days. The tentative theme of this pre-conference activity is: THE ROLE OF BPR IN CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IN ETHIOPIA: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES. During this trial conference, in the capacity of the ILI, organizing committee will conduct meeting on the preparations of the main conference. This may include the preparations of the participating institutions and personalities, various subcommittees such as facilities, accommodation, and presenters and discussants in the main conference.

Preparing a brochure – One of the pre-conference activities is preparing a brochure that incorporates terms of invitation, participation and profiles of the organizers, and then be posted online. During this time conference preparations such as accommodation and facilities are checked. Preparation for publication of the proceeding is also completed in this period.