Ed Bernacki

Why Do Business in a Box?
Challenging the boundaries for successful meetings
By Ed Bernacki

You’ve tried laser light shows and motivational speakers to engage people. You even thought of drummers, indoor fireworks and opera singing waiters to stir things up. And what is the result?

I have seen these gimmicks in different countries as a speaker on innovative thinking. What is clear is that too many events think that adding some sparkle to the same old format for meetings will improve results.
It is time for more “outside the box” thinking to design our meetings. Yet, before we can think “outside the box,” we need to see what the current “inside the box” thinking is producing. Here are my observations: 
We start planning many events without defining learning objectives for what it should achieve for participants.

With no overriding objectives, speakers are not challenged to create more original, unique and focused presentations.

We organize events to fill time slots. If we have a seven-hour day, we plan for six keynotes plus lunch with little thought going into new approaches. There is a shift to celebrity and motivational speakers who may be inspiring but who offer little to the theme of the event.

If your research finds that people say, “Networking is the most valuable benefit of attending an event,” you should be worried. Your event can be replaced with technology.

Some people are questioning how we create value when we bring people, speakers and ideas together in a conference. Yet, far too many events are planned with far too little strategic thinking. This must change if events are to remain effective and profitable in the long term.

NOTICE HOW PARTICIPANTS PARTICIPATE
To start, focus on the “participants.” Explore how participants “participate” in your events. This may sound simplistic, yet I gauge the effectiveness of conference participants by asking: “Who attends meetings like this, takes notes and never looks at them again?” About 70 per cent of the people will raise their hand. If you doubt this, ask participants at your next event. We must define how we want participants to participate.

When I work with groups to prompt some “out of the box” thinking, I start by discussing two assumptions:
 1. The true experts at your event are in the audience, not on stage. This conversation is about the expertise people will bring with them. This applies to association, staff and industry conferences. You should engage the expertise that walks into the meeting room as people want to share and learn.
2. Always use the brainpower of the audience to create something. The most successful strategy I know is to have participants collaborate to solve a problem or create personal ideas.  It can be as simple as investing 20 minutes to collect ideas for this question: “What would make our company / association / industry more successful?” It can be as complex as this case study.

A CASE STUDY IN COLLABORATION
I assisted the Ireland National Federation of Voluntary Bodies design a meeting entitled “Innovation in Services & Supports for People with Intellectual Disability.” It was an annual meeting for 300 people. We used these assumptions to brainstorm ideas to engage participants. The federation wanted some keynote presentations and a way to discuss eight challenges that need solutions. 

We concluded that half of the event would be traditional with keynote speakers. The other half would be collaboration workshops to achieve three objectives:
•  prompt new thinking about each challenge,
•  provide time for people to engage with each  other and the issue,
•  capture recommendations and conclusions   for publication.

Each workshop would have about 75 people. Challenges were researched and developed into a one-page overview. Each would be led by a thought provocateur that would prompt and provoke participants to think in new ways.
Here are the details of the three-hour sessions:

Thought provocateurs had 15 minutes to focus participants on the process, the challenge and to achieve a result in three hours.

Three expert speakers each added 20 minutes of new thinking.
Thought provocateurs led a 50-minute discussion to explore the issue based on several predetermined questions.  

In the final 20 minutes, people were asked to define five specific recommendations (in groups or individually) to solve the challenge.

Each session had a “scribe” who captured ideas, conversations and solutions. The same process was repeated for all workshops. The
scribes came back with pages of notes that led the federation to publish a 68-page book, which was distributed to participants and the wider community.

This conference may have lacked the sizzle of a laser light show but it scored high for satisfaction and engagement. It was a good way to “think outside the box” by thinking about what happens inside the meeting rooms. Participants want to participate. Challenge them to create something useful and they will deliver.

Sunjay Nath, MBA, BScE, CSP, travels the world sharing “The 10-80-10 Principle,” which is a framework that helps individuals and teams improve their performance. The methodology combines best practices with small wins to help people empower themselves.
• www.SunjayNath.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Winter 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.