Some of you found this blog through my newsletter or whilst searching the Internet.
Yet many of you have met me when I’ve had the honor of speaking at your conference or meeting. Last week, two things happened that made me decide to share with you some ideas about how to make meetings more meaningful and memorable.
First, one of my favorite bloggers on the world of meetings, Sue Pelletier over at MeetingsNet asked meeting planners and others in an online community to which I belong to share their ideas on how to improve conferences. Her request was sparked by an innovative thinker in the association world, Jeff De Cagna. I’ll know that many of you have strong feels and great ideas on this topic too.
Second, in the past week, five publications have asked to publish my article, “Coming Back to Our Senses to Create More Meaningful and Memorable Meetings." It’s relatively short for an article but, on the long side for a blog post – so click on the next post to read it if it matches your interests.
Below are some of the quick ideas I sent to Sue in response to her call.
1. Use more formats for learning/idea exchange - both to make the meeting more interesting and to enable people with different temperaments and interests to get to know each other better, learn in different ways and find others with common interests.
Plus bring in more experts from way outside their ostensible topic/industry/professional area to get a fresh perspective.
Example:
"Meet the Experts"
Three 30-minute expert-led table sessions in a ballroom, with the bell ringing to notify attendees to move to the next table. Attendees reserve their seats for each session via online early registration and/or upon arrival at the meeting
2. Create more memorable multi-=sensory moments that reinforce the meeting's "storyline"
Storyboard more of the moments along the main paths and byways that attendees will walk, from the moment they enter the meeting space and between meetings. Involve more sensory cues and points of interest, from "Burma Shave-style signage along a hallway to localized "overheard" audio conversations.
3.Record via audio and video more of the meeting sessions + on-site interviews with experts (including attendees, exhibitors & speakers) and offer as streaming downloads from a site, perhaps free to some and for-fee to others (members/non-members of an asn. or attendees / non-attendees of the conference
4. Provide year round follow-up for continuous learning & community-building
Pre-meeting announce a contest and/or way that people can keep in learning & interacting with each other so that the conference/meeting is the launching event of for the "community" of attendees.
Build on the learning, sense of affiliation, peer-to-peer idea exchanges & other collaboration. More firms, associations and other organizations should consider adopting the features of an online social network or be at risk for losing their members' (or employees, customers or other kind of meeting attendee) top-of-mind attention/loyalty.
