Social. It’s a word that strikes fear in some and excites others. Today it seems that everything is social. From social media to social networking to social technology to social business, the trend is all things social. It’s the new black. So what is the social conference? Does it mean adding more social media efforts to our event marketing? Is it allowing people to use social networks to communicate with speakers during the event? Is it integrating face-to-face audiences with live streaming remote audiences?

For me, one of the most critical things a conference organizer can do to appeal to our increasingly sophisticated audience is to design experiences that are more engaging, participatory and social. People are not coming to your conference for the content. (They can get that online.) They are coming for the conference experience. So make it social and less independent.

Humans are essentially social beings. Our meetings and events are complex social experiences. And our conference experiences have the power to alter our attendees’ minds.

When we require our attendees to sit passively and quietly in rows with little or no social interaction, we work against the brain’s natural social systems. We rob attendees of the chance to engage, interact and learn. We create social isolation in the midst of a crowd. In short, we are treating our attendees like robots trying to download data from the speaker into their hard drives: the brain. We think that if our attendees hear the information, they automatically learn it.

In traditional conferences, an expert stands at the front of the room and lectures to an audience that sits passively listening. It’s a one-way monologue. Research is clear that this conventional conference design is directly opposed to how our brains learn.

Conference organizers need to work hard at making a shift from long-established one-way, vertical presentations to more multi-directional education experiences. We need to create horizontal experiences where attendees are invited to talk to each other, talk about the content, talk with the speaker and engage in active learning with one other. This means fewer speaker monologues and more attendee dialogues.

In short, we need more structured and facilitated conversations to create a compelling, irresistible social conference experience that continues to attract today’s sophisticated audiences.

> Return to “The Challenge of Change“

Meetings are not inventive. In most cases, they look, feel and are delivered as they always have been. I, for one, get bored at most meetings. Given the opportunity to change anything now and for the future, I’d wave my magic wand and…

1. Make it all more visual: art on walls, sculpture in hallways, places to create art for the spontaneity of creating and using the right side of our brains. Invest in community and have community artists. Have items for sale for people who want a bit of the local flavor.

2. Add water and light in places that allow participants to relax. This means redesign of the traditional buildings we use for hotels. An article in the Sept. 19, 2011, issue of The New Yorker, “Laboratory Conditions,” gives insights into how design can change.

3. Use music, appropriate and thoughtful, designed to stimulate thinking and relaxation. Play is a bit of art, too. It’s the ability to use different parts of our bodies and brains, and to incorporate creativity differently into what we do. If a game of golf at a meeting is OK, then different play can be. And it can be created to accommodate all.

4. Create seating that’s not too low or too high—and in places convenient for conversations that bubble up when people gather.

5. Encourage intentionally created community and spontaneously created community encouraged by the venue and organizers, who may be the community themselves. (We’ve seen it happen with Tweetups. We’ll see it continue to happen and we’ll broaden the access to anyone without prejudice or membership.)

6. Provide more resources, outside the usual. That is, access to different thinking and the people who do it. This is an easy one; in every venue and virtually, there are people who are subject experts or subject-knowledgeable who want to share ideas.

7. Include reflection time without overcrowded agendas. No one needs that “one more” session or speaker no matter who they are. Having time to reflect, alone or with others (while seated near light and water in appropriate seating) allows us to regroup after filling our heads.

8. Offer experiences as part of the meeting that are designed to fill our heads differently. For example, I’d like to have an art tour at the D.C. convention center or at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia if I’m in those buildings for other purposes.

And for a start—because my magic wand is not that powerful—I’d immediately add the following:

1. Audience-centric room sets a la Paul Radde (thrival.com). Why, after all these years, are we still seated in the same bad chairs  in the same straight rows at the same draped tables? Let’s move stuff around and open it up. Let’s have spaces that allow participants to move and flex and write and talk and listen and learn.

2. Awareness about those who attend meetings and their needs: not because it’s PC, but because it is empathetic and appropriate. We’re all different and we learn from each other.

3. Comfort, defined however each of us wants to define it. My comfort includes availability of appropriate seating; bio-needs met including foods and beverages available throughout and not only from 10 to 10:30, at lunch and from 3 to 3:30; adequate restrooms that are near the space used; lighting that allows me to see; sound that allows me to hear; and signs and badges that are the right size to read.

4. Service from the venue and vendors and the meeting organizers from the minute I arrive until I leave. For example, I loved the story in The New York Times about the Occupy Wall Street protestors ordering pizzas. Who knew that protests could be so organized?

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have more spontaneous meetings?

> Return to the “The Challenge of Change”

Joan Eisenstodt is a highly respected hospitality and meetings industry trainer, facilitator and consultant. She is the chief strategist of Eisenstodt Associates LLC, which provides clients with planning and management support for conferences, seminars and conventions. She has a passion for politics and social justice.

What would I kick to the curb and flush down the toilet? I have to be honest, there are so many things I would change it took me the better part of a week to come up with an answer, but I looked into the abyss and came up with one thing that we all suffer from in the meetings industry. The one thing that holds us back as a community. The one thing we must change. Fear. As an industry, we need to abandon our fear of anything and everything.

Fear is paralyzing. Fear is overwhelming and fear has brought down civilizations and I fear (pun intended) that fear is slowly eating away at our industry and making our skills and services nothing more than a commodity that can be done by a trained monkey or an online “meeting planning program.”

Our services used to be special; our services used to be  desired and considered essential. However, through our fear of losing that position, we have painted ourselves into a corner. Our fear takes many shapes. We are afraid of budgets. We are afraid of what the boss thinks. We are afraid of the attendee reaction. Because of this, we are producing meetings that are the same year after year because we will only do what has worked in the past. We will only do what is the tried and true. We will no longer take risks and make stakeholders and attendees understand why our talents are necessary.

There is no desire to shake things up because we might make a mistake, choose something that one person does not like or have a session that is a bomb. The heavens will tumble if we have one attendee who is unhappy; we fail to realize that is actually what we need to be doing.

Instead of recognizing that it is fear holding us back as an industry, we make excuses. We cannot try Pecha Kucha for our session because our speakers are not prepared for that. We cannot engage through social media—our attendees are not ready for that. We cannot have sponsored lanyards; it would upset the other sponsors. We cannot go from four days to three because it has always been four and it would confuse the attendees. These are all excuses that I hear from the meetings and events community everyday. The true reason is fear; fear of change.

Meeting and event planners need to abandon fear and let go. We, as an industry, need to take the time to learn and grow and not make excuses. Yes, you can have a hybrid event and stream your sessions; technology like WordPress and Livestream has made it affordable and doable so the only reason not too is fear. You are afraid of failing.

You can take the time to learn social media because your attendees are on all of those platforms. The excuse that “our attendees do not do that kind of thing” is a fear reaction.

If we abandon fear, we open ourselves to trying new session styles, trying new venues, new programs and new platforms. We open ourselves to running hybrid events and online campaigns. We can be the driving force in face-to-face interaction instead of backseat drivers letting fear rule the road.

> Return to “The Challenge of Change”

Keith Johnston is one of the most outspoken voices in the meetings industry. His PlannerWire blog doesn’t shy away from the often-caustic commentary as part of its stated purpose: “new thinking for meetings and events.”

The term “strategic event marketers” is common within the events industry, yet some planners remain hesitant to embrace a strategic event planning process. Acting as a strategist does not require one to understand or recite the organizational go-to-market plans or financial earnings. Rather, it is about understanding the event objectives and developing innovative tactics to create memorable attendee experiences.

If there is one thing I could change within the events industry, I would challenge all planners to become strategists and focus their attention on the attendee engagement versus merely logistics.

A successful strategy I often use is storytelling. It’s the concept of developing an event around one common message or storyline, and ensuring every element supporting the event connects the dots back to the main storyline. When the attendees can recite the storyline upon the leaving the gathering, you know you have successfully relayed your strategic message. The key is being consistent in the delivery. When executed effectively, the storyline should become intuitively obvious and, to double the punch, the attendees should feel inspired by the message.

Storytelling creates a huge opportunity for event strategists to cultivate longevity in the conference objectives. While the story is unveiled at the event, it can act as the foundation for post-event communications throughout the year.

In addition to storytelling, planners can also act as strategists by leveraging technology throughout their events. The event technology landscape is vast and the options, features and usage can be overwhelming. However, as planners we cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by the immensity of it, but rather see it as an opportunity to customize our specific event. When evaluating how and what technology to incorporate into an event, the handy storytelling strategy can act as a useful tool. Determine how the technology can help tell your story and connect to the event message.

A story used at Symantec’s annual sales conference was based on the need to motivate the attendees to propel their efforts from a successful 2011 into greater achievements in 2012. In an effort to understand the conference objective, the executive team was surveyed with a few key questions: One, how do you want the attendees to feel pre- and post-conference? And two, what is one message you want the attendees to walk away with? The responses helped shape the conference storyline into “Fast. Forward. Move fast and move forward into 2012.”

Vibrant, yet visually and tactically appealing, the storyline was carried through every conference element from the signage, website, messaging, evening events and even the technology.

To amplify the forward motion aspect, we used the hottest and latest technology trend of “gaming” to engage attendees. Mobile device applications are the direction of the future and a gaming experience was yet another opportunity to create a memorable event and drive home the common message.

A good event strategist is the heartbeat of a memorable event, and every planning decision should be leveraged to inspire the attendees and further the conference story. We need to challenge ourselves daily to act as strategists and implement new conference planning technologies.

> Return to The Challenge of Change

Ashely Muntan, CMP, is an event marketing manager for Symantec Corporation and resides in Atlanta. With more than 11 years in the industry, she project manages large events and takes pride in acting as the team “storytelling champion” and seeing projects come to fruition. 

With goals and objectives at the forefront, next look at audiovisual requirements, speaker needs and traffic flow, taking into consideration participant safety, comfort and accommodation for people with disabilities. If your program includes a food and beverage function, review your meeting room’s access to this service and decide if you will need these functions outside your meeting room or included within.

When deciding on a room setup, keep in mind three principles to guide choice of configuration:

◗ Set to the long side of the room. For a rectangular room, placing the speaker on the long side will put more of the audience closer to the presentation. If you are lacking space or using rear-screen projection, you may have to set the stage on the short side of the room to be more space efficient.

◗ Minimize straight-row seating. Set chairs in a semi-circle or herringbone (V-shape) to give the audience the best view of the presentation. With straight-row seating, you can only see the people next to you and the backs of heads of those in front of you. A semi-circle set enables viewing between persons.

◗ Avoid center aisles. The center of the room is the best viewing of the presentation and should not be wasted on an aisle. A center aisle would be necessary if you have entertainers entering or leaving through the center of the room.

With these principles in mind, it’s time to choose the ultimate setup for your next meeting.

Theater or Auditorium Style
This is the best setup for a large group where writing is not necessary and food is not served. Chairs are set in rows facing the speaker, stage or focal point of the room. Remember that a standard meeting room chair is narrower than most people’s bodies. Ask the hotel or venue not to set the chairs touching side-by-side and allow at least 2 inches between (4-6 inches for optimal comfort). This reduces the capacity of your room because not all chairs are used. You may not have a choice in chair spacing, however. Capacity restrictions and fire codes can dictate space between chairs, distance between rows and the number and width of aisles. Some hotels may use chairs that interlock to meet spacing requirements. Ask what the hotel’s regulations are up front and to provide diagrams of the various setups available. A last-minute change of setup due to fire code regulations can cost additional man hours.

Schoolroom or Classroom Style
This setup is best for meetings where attendees need to write or use a computer. It allows for minimal interaction between attendees and is best used for lectures and training meetings. Chairs are set at 6-foot or 8-foot tables facing the presenter. Standard seating is three people per 6-foot table and four people per 8-foot table. To allow for more workspace between attendees, ask the hotel to reduce this to two chairs per 6-foot table and three chairs per 8-foot table. This setup is most optimal for breakout sessions where entertainment is not used and thus center aisles create the best access for attendees entering and exiting the room.

Conference Style
This format is ideal for smaller groups where attendee interaction is a main objective. Seated around tables, participants have a direct view of their colleagues to facilitate discussions. Specify what type of table arrangements you need based on the objectives of your meeting:

Boardroom: One solid, rectangular table that can be an existing table in a hotel meeting room or created by putting together 30-inch-wide tables. This setup is best for a board of directors meeting with heavy discussions as participants are in closest reach to each other.

U-Shape: Tables are arranged in a horseshoe, which is ideal for meetings that need to facilitate discussion between attendees but also include an audiovisual presentation set at the opening of the “U.”

T-Shape: Best for a panel, presenters or lead management that needs to sit at the top of the “T” and direct the discussion down the length of the tables.

Hollow Square: Best for meetings that do not require an audiovisual presentation. If the hotel has serpentine tables, request a rounded hollow square setup to maximize seating on the ends. If these are not available, straight tables can be placed at an angle creating an angled hollow square setup.

Multi-Sided Shapes: Multi-sided shapes such as a diamond or octagonal are best for larger groups of 20 or more. They comfortably seat nearly every attendee at the end of a table and provide direct sight and voice communication to
participants.

Banquet Style
This setup works best for meetings that require food and beverage service and where participants are asked to break out into small groups. Setup includes 60-, 66- or 72-inch round tables with chairs around the entire table or only on one side—a crescent-round or half-moon setup. If your function includes a speaker or audiovisual presentation, the crescent-round setup allows for better viewing of the presentation while still facilitating discussion between attendees.

Combination Setups
For large conventions with a quick turnaround between meeting and meal functions, consider combining a theater-style setup with banquet tables at the back of the room. Attendees can easily move from one function to the next without major changes to the room setup.

No matter what setup you choose, remember to consult with your conference services manager on what setup has worked the best in his or her facility and any challenges that need to be overcome such as columns restricting sight lines or fire marshal restrictions. Facilitating a learning environment in accordance with your meeting’s objectives should take top priority. The more comfortable the room can be for attendees, from the width of the chairs to the temperature in the room, the more likely they will learn and interact on a higher level.

1. Incorporate green initiatives and actively highlight how they impact the meeting. For example: “By using recycled plant materials for centerpieces, we saved $2,000 dollars and applied that to bringing in a great speaker to better enhance your education.”

2. Add a corporate social responsibility activity to your meeting. Many activities can be brought on site to a meeting and provide measurable results so you can report to your attendees the direct impact they made.

3. Add time to the meeting agenda for attendees to interact and provide feedback on sessions. This allows attendees to truly digest and incorporate what they just heard versus rushing to the next session. It also allows for networking with other attendees, which increases the value of the time spent in a meeting.

4. Instead of an impersonal e-mail blast, offer a webinar or educational session to engage exhibitors on the resources available to help them exhibit successfully and reach their intended audience. Webinar topics could range from the destination itself to how exhibitors can increase booth traffic, find off-site venues for client entertainment and cut costs.

5.  Use social media outlets to engage exhibitors and attendees before, during and after the meeting. Don’t know what to talk about? Offer fun facts about the meeting destination or links to discounts.

“The key is balancing the facilitation and context with the individuals themselves,” says Diane Dean, a manager in human relations and organization for Tokyo Electron U.S. Holdings in Austin. Dean understands the value of group bonding both from her HR background and as the owner of The Learner’s Edge, where she works with Austin Overtures Sightseeing, a local destination management company, creating custom teambuilding experiences with horses.

“There’s bad teambuilding in general and good light teambuilding, like scavenger hunts,” she says. “The difference is how you raise the bar in terms of the challenge for the participants. There should be a leveling within a group when everyone is up against the same problem. Otherwise, people will dismiss any lesson they might learn and feel it’s a waste of their time.”
That said, we’ve put together a sampler of some creative teambuilding experiences worth considering. While not the only games in town, they’re certainly among the more memorable.

SKY HIGH
The philosophy at Orlando-based Wildly Different is simple: Play outside the cubicle. So it’s no surprise that co-owners Lisa Jennings and Jane Lipps tend to create and encourage off-the-wall, if not occasionally above-the-ground, events—e.g., sand sculpting, designing comic books, producing commercials—that let attendees bond and strategize while indulging their wilder sides. Among their more thrilling experiences is the High Flying Adventure.

“It’s a great way to start the day, and a really fun, unexpected way to see this part of Florida,” says Lipps, who’s also the firm’s CFO: chief fun officer. The options for fun and excitement are many, and take into account both land and water. “We can begin early with hot-air ballooning or hang-gliding, where they strap you with an instructor in the back of a plane, two people at a time, while the rest of the group is on the ground, watching,” Lipps says. Planners can then choose from a variety of adrenaline rushes, including parasailing, zip-line rides (55 feet up), skydiving in a wind tunnel, and taking on the Slingshot Surprise, where riders, powered by giant cables and springs, are catapulted 365 feet in the air.

All this proved irresistible to Dale Mortensen, who brought a dozen top team managers from Milwaukee Electric Tool to Orlando as a reward for their successful sales work. “He wanted to do something outstanding to thank them for a good year, something where they were all experiencing together,” says Lipps, whose program for Mortensen included air boating, go-carts, and simulated sky diving and hang-gliding. “He was ecstatic, and his people had a great time being together outside a stressful work environment,” Lipps says. “They were energized, competitive and thankful.”

SWEET DREAMS
“When you visit my chocolate factory it’s like visiting my home,” says Michael Antonorsi, master chef and co-founder of Chuao (pronounced, aptly enough, chew-WOW) Chocolatier in Encinitas, Calif. The operative word here is sensual, as in taste, smell and feel. “It’s a sensory experience that, with each bite, arouses you,” Antonorsi says.

Clearly, chocolate is part of Antonorsi’s roots; his ancestors once ran a small but thriving family farm, part of Venezuela’s popular criollo cacao plantation industry. It’s also a family experience in the San Diego area; brother Richard Antonorsi serves as Chuao’s CEO while several other family members staff everything from accounting to production.

For a meeting planner, that familial warmth and knowledge translates to an intimate (up to 12) group chocolate-making experience that’s jovial and very much hands-on, not unlike helping mom and dad prepare Sunday dinner. And just like peeling apples and kneading dough, making a chocolate firecracker truffle is also an artistic and ultimately delicious experience.

“Since the owners are Venezuelan they use Venezuelan cacao as their base, which gives their chocolate a unique profile,” says Chuao spokesperson Brooke Feldman. The cacao is then blended with Latin American chocolate to form the specialty products that are sold in Chuao’s nearby outlets. Truffles remain a favorite, both to create and ingest. After being prepped on the process, attendees don aprons, wash their hands, and then hand-roll choco-bits in cacao powder and a velvety chocolate melt, accented by twists like herbs (rosemary), spices (chipotle) and a popping candy—hence the “firecracker” moniker. And yes, finger-licking and face painting is encouraged. Once cleaned up, attendees get to taste their creations in an elegant boardroom with the chef, aided by a selection of fine wines and premium beer.

LIFE IMITATES ART
While most adults have learned how to appreciate good art, few have the time or talent to try creating their own. Enter Wine and Canvas, a small (three outlets) Indiana-based company that brings two popular art forms—painting and drinking wine—together under one roof. The hook: using local artists as instructors to guide attendees as they re-create, by their own eyes and hands, one of the studio’s various featured works.

“I’m impressed with what people turn out there,” says Shannon Gardner, president of Accent on Indianapolis, who’s planned several group events at Wine and Canvas’ Indianapolis studio, which is located 20 minutes from downtown.

“Just by looking at the final paintings, some of which hang on their walls, you can tell it’s obviously a very well-instructed experience.” It’s also an enjoyable bonding session, thanks to the refreshment options, which include beer, wine, and cheese and crackers (private catering can also be brought in), seasoned with some competitive artistic spirit.

“They can do a teambuilding event for 70 people, where everyone gets to paint on their own 16×20 canvas and is judged by the event staff at the end,” Gardner says. A twist on the game is where teams of two, three or four take turns painting (like a relay race) on a single canvas for a limited time, with the best-judged paintings receiving awards. The real reward, though, comes at the event’s conclusion, when attendees take home their masterpieces along with some good memories.

HORSE SENSE
Few activities can prove more rewarding than a teambuilding exercise where the four-legged players outsmart the two-fers. And while that’s not the goal of the Horse Course at The Learner’s Edge, it’s been known to happen. That’s in part because Diane Dean’s teambuilding experience, which encompasses everything from grooming and saddling to corralling and leading her horses, focuses more on the humans fitting in with the animals than vice-versa.

“They’ve got to use their body language differently with horses than other humans because that’s the only language the animal speaks, and that’s a big challenge,” says Dean. That difficulty becomes clear when, for example, as an arm-linked team of three, participants try to capture and halter a loose horse in a 20-animal corral. “Only the middle person can speak, and only the outsiders can use their arms,” she says. More challenging is when Dean puts a blindfolded attendee on a horse and instructs a second person to verbally guide the horse and rider through an obstacle course. “We had a leader who was doing the tasks incorrectly over and over with several of his subordinates watching,” says Dean. “After the third time I said, ‘Is it common for a successful person to do the same thing over and over if it’s not working?’”

On the other hand, the positive effects of spending two or three hours with a smart, affectionate horse can outweigh any human dress-down.

“Horses teach people how to communicate better, be more open-minded and flex their style,” Dean says. While all of her animals are human tolerant, participants receive a safety briefing beforehand and trainers are on hand if needed for animal control.

THE KING AND I
No doubt what happens in Vegas does often stay there, especially when it relates to, revolves around or, in Nike’s case, resembles Elvis Presley. In search of a “hot-a-hot-a” burning team-building event, the sportswear giant’s Western Europe group teamed with Las Vegas DMC Activity Planners for an event that would bring a tear to the King himself: setting a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Elvis impersonators, followed by a 5K race down the Strip (it’s Nike after all, and they like to run).

“The concept had to be fun and have relevance for the company,” says Stephanie Arone, DMCP, president and GM of Activity Planners. Arone’s team scored on both counts, drawing some 850 employees who were required to seriously dress like Elvis (is more description needed?) and sing, in unison, at least three minutes of Presley’s hit “A Little Less Conversation” (from the 1968 film “Live a Little, Love a Little”), which Nike had incorporated into an ongoing ad campaign.

Guinness’ record-setting requirements were strict and strictly enforced, says Arone, who had to pre-register all potential impersonators under tight security to assure an accurate final count. “We had an adjudicator to oversee everything,” she says, adding that dozens of Elvis wannabes were eliminated for costumes and performances deemed unacceptable.

The final, hip-swiveling tally of 645 qualified impersonators beat the previous record (147 in Australia, 2007), leaving Nike’s team “absolutely thrilled,” per strategic meeting and event manager Judith Van Leeuwen. “The result was better than they would ever have imagined,” she says, including the program’s main goal of making the Nike Western Europe sales force believe it could make anything happen as a team. Arone, meanwhile, has two more Guinness applications in the works.

In fact, you can’t afford not to practice teambuilding. Quite often, taking a break from your habits and not working in the typical way will boost your own ROI by cutting down on negative energy and creating efficiency and enthusiasm when you return to work. What works on a personal level also works on a team level.

An entire team or even an entire organization can be sick, or chronically fatigued and running on empty without really being aware of it because this condition has become a part of their culture. There’s real ROI in taking sick days, or alternative days, for a team or organization. It’s important to plan a meaningful break to recharge, gain new perspective, and recognize and address areas within a group’s culture that can be improved. A well-planned, productive teambuilding program can go a long way toward helping.

Qualified teambuilding providers facilitate programs that are catalysts for change within organizations, propelling growth, promoting a positive culture and healing rifts. And it’s okay if there’s fun involved, too. Fun is a necessary component to sustaining a high level of activity, engagement and buy-in for an organization’s mission. The teambuilding event should be engaging, interactive, intelligent and welcoming; it should promote creativity.

Preprogram questionnaires are vital to ascertain what your objectives, challenges and ideals are. They can be as simple as email questionnaires or they can be
detailed preprogram assessment tools such as the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, or The Team Dimension Profile. With a preprogram assessment and defined objectives, you can make sure your teambuilding event will key in on areas that need to be addressed. An effective debriefing also is vital to producing lasting results.

Questions and discussions might include things like:

◗  What was learned at the event?

◗  What new awareness was created?

◗  What is the plan of action to implement what was learned?

◗  What support does your workforce need to try to follow those action steps and maintain the new lines of communication established during the teambuilding event?

An effective debrief won’t mean much if there isn’t follow-up by the teambuilding facilitator, such as email reminders to participants, surveys assessing results several months after the event and reports to managers.

You can’t afford to ignore the culture and quality of life within your organization. Especially in stressful times, it is vital to use your financial resources to sustain and promote your human resources. Objective evaluations of areas of strength and of weakness, especially from the outside, help organizations move from old models and shake things up in the interest of growth and renewed efficiency.

There are more benefits to teambulding, including:

◗  Increased efficiency through sharing of common practices, questions, concerns and challenges

◗  Better problem solving through networking and sharing solutions to common challenges

◗  Increased sales through sharing one’s techniques, successful methods and information

◗  Increased morale leading to higher retention, efficiency and creativity

◗  A more cohesive, united vision and mission

Last, but certainly not least, a teambuilding experience is just that—an experience. Having group experiences to promote engagement and emotional involvement within your workforce are vital to sustaining what you do. Think about a past experience you have had, maybe a favorite vacation. You might not remember the hotel room you were in, or even the name of the beach, but the memory will take you back to that emotional place, and you’ll reconnect with the feelings you had at the time. Shared positive emotional experiences in your work environment are equally important. Teambuilding is a great way to accomplish that. Now, you’ll only have to convince your boss.

Billy Kirsch is a Grammy-nominated, CMA and ACM award-winning songwriter. Through his company, Kidbilly Music, he provides teambuilding programs, educational workshops and keynotes, connecting people with their creative abilities to innovate, originate and solve problems.

Prepare: A team needs to take a few practical steps toward identifying the problem, for instance, cutting 10 percent from this year’s event budget. The team leader needs to identify the challenge, write a problem statement, and send it to the rest of the team in advance. When the team comes together, the leader needs to have a plan in place to help everyone generate ideas about solutions and let the team evaluate all ideas before building an action plan.

Process: During the team meeting, creativity should be allowed to flow. This can be done when everyone in the group, including the team leader, defers judgment on any ideas. Remove the words “that won’t work” from the conversation during brainstorming. Douglas encourages group members to explore the most wild ideas while still staying focused on the topic. To cut costs, a group member might suggest cutting keynote sessions, even if they’re a signature part of a conference. Before judging that idea, group members should embrace it and, if possible, build off it. Maybe cutting all keynote sessions from the event isn’t the best idea, but it might encourage another group member to suggest cutting big-name keynote speakers from all but one session.

Plan: Once ideas are shared, they should be put into an impact versus effort grid, a two-by-two matrix that identifies the ideas easiest to implement with the least amount of effort, as well the ideas that are hardest to implement with the most effort. Ideas that land in the former group should be put into action immediately. Those falling into the other category can be discarded. Those that fall in the middle need to be evaluated as to whether they should be considered (see Douglas talk about the grid in a video here). Once ideas are evaluated and decided upon, the team needs to be clear about its goals and timelines. Then, work should begin within the first 30 days. Finally, the team leader should reward the team members after a project is complete with time off, thank-you notes, gift cards or another gesture.

Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, a design and innovation consulting firm, says, “The difference between a design brief with just the right level of constraint and one that is overly vague or overly restrictive can be the difference between a team on fire with breakthrough ideas and one that delivers a tired reworking of an existing one.” In the video below, see how a team at Ideo solved one particular challenge: designing a shopping cart for today’s shopper. Think about what ideas you can pull from this video and incorporate into your own meetings and brainstorming sessions.

By Monica Compton, CMP

In the 1980s, the word “outsourcing” entered the English-speaking language. Its birth was largely a descriptor for companies doing business across national boundaries, a labor force solution for specialized tasks. In the United States, the topic has become a political debate between those who see the cost benefits of outsourced labor and those who believe that outsourcing jobs overseas hurts the domestic economy.

For the meeting and event planning industry, the argument is a little older and a lot closer to home. It started in the 1970s when U.S. airline deregulation gave birth to travel management companies who had access to the airlines’ computer reservations systems. Travel agents who had traditionally worked inside an organization were transitioned to these outside companies. Then in the 1990s, the Internet allowed direct access to airline websites and, well, we know what has happened to travel agencies.

Whether a position is outsourced to a human being or technology, the debate continues to rage on. When meeting management functions are outsourced to a third-party company, does it erode the responsibilities of internal employees and threaten jobs? Or, does it allow internal staff to better focus on their core responsibilities and the tasks that are more critical to their association’s vision?

Some would argue that it depends on the type of task. If the meeting’s focus is educational and best relayed by the experts of the organization, then this responsibility should be kept inside. If the task requires a wider experience that is not found within the organization, such as knowledge of and leverage with international hotel properties, then this role should be outsourced.

Bobby Hobes, CCTE, travel and meetings coordinator for SRA International’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, believes outsourcing is cost effective and allows internal staff to concentrate on areas that need more attention. “The third-party planners afford myself and other planners the luxury of putting energies into other areas, i.e., budget oversight, program content and logistic changes, to name a few,” Hobes says.

Robert Casias, CMP, director of meetings and marketing for the National Guard Association of Texas, thinks that third parties, specifically in the area of site selection, are not effective if your organization already employs a meeting planner who is experienced in negotiating rates that work for your particular group. “I like working with hotels that are familiar with my programs,” Casias says.  “I don’t have to spend time explaining what my goals are for a particular meeting to a third party.”

Jennifer Gachui, director of global accounts for HelmsBriscoe, a global site selection and meeting services company, has clients who have experienced both the positive and negative sides of using a third-party company. While some felt they could handle everything the third party did with internal staff — from negotiating the rate to execution — Gachui says other clients thought third parties “made their job easier, saved them time and made the planning process less stressful.”

Few can argue that a lagging economy often necessitates outsourcing to compensate for a loss of internal staff. Gachui’s business has tripled in the past year due to resource-strapped clients who are now open to outsourcing. “Every organization has so much more to do with less today,” Gachui says. “The need to conserve resources (time and money) has made many organizations keep an open mind and try working with a third party.”

But rather than hiring a full-service management company, Casias thinks the trend is more toward utilization of part-time event planners and consultants. “The only time I think a third-party planner works well is if the company or organization has no planner on staff and are short on time to put on a meeting,” he says.

While CDC’s Hobes has no plans to use third-party services in the next three months, he could possibly outsource in 2011 if very little notice is given to arrange the meeting. And in these changing economic times, short-term bookings have become commonplace as organizations wait for funding or take longer to gauge the attendee interest level before planning the meeting. Shorter lead times can necessitate a last-minute thrust for additional staff and make outsourcing the only available option. This is especially the case when the organization is booking a first-time location and is unfamiliar with the area’s hotel offerings. An experienced third party can quickly filter through the hotels that do not match the group’s needs and put the full force of their buying power behind the negotiation for better rates.

Gachui says her clients want this knowledge of the product and industry, and the experience in negotiating hotel contracts. According to Gachui, the result is “better rates, great contract terms, and enhanced industry contacts and leverage.”

Casias says he tested the use of a third party to see if it could negotiate lower rates than he could garner on his own, but he wound up with a higher room rate for his attendees. “Hotels are not willing to negotiate lower rates and then pay a commission to a third-party company,” he says. “They prefer to extend a much lower rate than have to pay it out in the form of a commission.”

And while a short-term planning window may cause organizations to rely on the third party’s recommendation in lieu of performing their own site visit, Casias believes this is breaking what he calls one of the cardinal rules of meeting planning. That is, “never sign a contract for a property unless you have seen it and walked the space yourself.”

Monica Compton, CMP, has 18 years experience as an international meeting planner.  A writer and event-marketing consultant for U.S.-based Pinnacle Productions, she splits her time between Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Third-party relationships: Love ’em or hate ’em

A recent discussion on LinkedIn initiated by Natasha Carter, a global accounts manager with HelmsBriscoe, reflects common arguments and attitudes most often encountered when talking about third-party services with meeting planners.

Meeting planners, what do you look for in a third-party site selection company?

Answers:

Greg Poulos, President, Bluefin Productions Inc.

I am not a planner, but work with many good and a few great planners. The criteria I see that makes site selection work is a company that takes the time to understand all of the needs of not just the client, but the event as well. After many questions and back and forth, good site selection involves knowledge of many properties, and local conditions (union issues, other conventions and events, weather, construction and more) as well as a great ability to negotiate on behalf of the client.

Lorraine Mariella, CSEP, CMP, President, Celebrations Event and Meeting Management

I will not work with third-party site selection companies. All of these companies work on a commission basis and therefore cost me or my client money. The only exception is that I will work with CVBs.

Adrienne Sasson, Marketing and Business Development, Redefine Vacations

A good meeting planner should have access to ideas and venues and not need a third party for site selection. Our company handles meetings and site selections for corporate clients and we work with meeting planners as well to set up the travel. As Lorraine mentioned, using the destination CVB is always a good source when one is not overly familiar with an area. They are helpful and there is no service fee.