I have some off the cuff recommendations
But first I want to congratulate you on a (too) full house. When excess of success becomes a problem - you’re on to something good! Keep it up!
I would recommend that you find a format that let’s you devolve the process a little. Perhaps so that some of the work can be done in a couple of flexible “satellite events” on a smaller an more intimate scale. If these are happening for example a week or two days before - then two of the “core team” could do some satellite hopping (A-Z and Z-A respectively). That leaves time for the core team to organize ahead of the main event.
During the satellite time they would be going around making notes (to answer some difficult questions at the main event), and answer some easier ones on the spot. That way you already get a better overview what kind of crowd you will get at the main event, but you don’t throw out a lot of time organizing and confirming. You just do a satellite, and twitter the time and place - and try to cluster them a little in space, but stretch them out over time.
This would have the benefit for the participants that they can already sleep over some of the initial responses (if you do the satellites before the main event), and it uncramps the event on several levels.
I was happy to hear that the food was good. This is routinely underestimated! If I were to give career advice for getting rich, it would probably be: Remember to put cookies on the table.
A decent blood sugar level does wonders for my mental performance. I found that out while fasting for ten days, while working at a synchrotron (it is expensive, so when you get a block of time - you work day and night). Do yourself a favor and don’t try that, unless you want to go there.
Lastly, I used to have a folder where I kept useful info on writing in. This however was mostly intended for student theses and research articles published together with students/others. Some of it will still apply/help though, especially if you are more tending to write for Wikipedia or want to translate scientific articles into plain writing. I am unfortunately pretty weak on general journalism or creative writing where the emphasis is quite different sometimes.
I found “The Craft of Research” by Booth really good in terms of comprehensiveness. Of course it is pre-networked age (well most of academic science still is) and thus does not cover what we’ll try to address as we go along. The EU also has some good resources available as it does loads of writing and translation at a very professional level. But very often you will also need a couple of short cheat sheets that address specific issues that you deal with (or you have to explain) on a regular basis.
If someone wants my collection you should message me, and we can do this based on “fair use”. I think actually most of my thing in the collection were freely available from some publisher - even though it may say something else in the document itself still…
But I’d want you to make an effort an give/point me to some resource that is clearly better than one I use (not too hard to do I think), or is a really worthwhile addition (we’re going for quality, not quantity). Ah, yes before I forget: I have to mention Strunk & White before someone knocks it over my head. 