[O-04] Geoparks in Japan

[O04-P46] What should we pay attention to conference management in relation to geopark?
- A example of the conference of Japanese Geoparks in Kanto district in 2015 (Choshi conference) -

*Masahito Yamada¹, Naoya Iwamoto¹, Masahiro Wakayama¹, Yuzo Tamazaki¹ (1.Choshi Geopark Promotion Council)

Keywords:geopark, questionnaire survey, text mining

A conference of Japanese Geoparks in Kanto district (Choshi Conference) had been held from21 to 22 November 2015. In this conference, geoparkian from Geoparks and aspiring Geoparks of Kanto region as well as the general public attended. The number of the participants including staff members was about 600. After this conference, a questionnaire survey was conducted in relation to the impression of the conference. The number of respondents inside Choshi was 27 and respondents outside Choshi was 28. This questionnaire survey was analyzed using a text mining tool.
According to the results of frequently used words of the survey collected from the respondents outside Choshi, they enjoyed staying in Choshi and attending the conference because there are various related events for two days. In the meanwhile, they gave the opinions that session meetings were not long enough and there was not enough space for display booths. On the other hand, respondents inside Choshi,they got much cooperation from many groups, but they gave the opinions that giving information in relation to the conference to public in advance was delayed and the walking route of participants in the conference site should have been considered. In addition, most of the organizers concentrate on providing many good services to the guests that they could not afford to enjoy the meeting.
For more successful and better conference in the future, we concluded that it is important to prepare as early as possible that the organizers can also enjoy the meeting, making joyful project for participants, having much cooperation from various groups and preparing enjoyable geo-tour for participants.