Mr. Fears

Meetings & Conventions

Seven Secrets to a Successful Meeting

By Bruce Fears, President, ARAMARK Harrison Lodging

Are your company's training sessions designed to inspire maximum creativity, innovation and productivity? In a successful session, participants are actively engaged, groups are collaborating successfully and energy levels are high. A successful meeting or training can help improve overall quality and produce results that ultimately contribute to the bottom line of your organization.

Don't expect this article to give you the usual dry academic concepts. My goal is to share with you ideas that have sprung from real-life situations where goals have been met in new and exciting-and sometimes unconventional-ways.

1. Book a venue with a new view

Choosing a destination is one of the first-and most crucial-choices. Instead of something typical, planners should consider how location might broaden participants' horizons-literally. Even a small change of place-or pace-gives a different perspective and a refreshing sense of separation from everyday routines. So if your company typically sends groups to the city, try the experience of a country setting with wooded surroundings and invigorating recreational activities.

A meeting room with a view offers the benefit of a new viewpoint on business and provides a scenic backdrop for brainstorming.

If you normally spend your workdays in suburbia, a vibrant urban environment can offer attendees a stimulating alternative as well as opportunities to enjoy non-traditional dining, athletic or cultural events. For example, consider a meeting space that is situated in one of North America's beautiful national parks.

A good example of an inspiring alternative is Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas. Located on the Arizona/Utah border, this breathtaking landscape of dazzling red rock canyons and turquoise blue water is popular for managerial retreats and incentive groups. Here participants get down to business on the Resort's luxurious houseboats equipped with every amenity from refrigerators to fireplaces.

For an experience that is unique as the marine wilderness itself, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a remote destination much removed from the modern world. Located 60 miles west of Juneau, Alaska, the park stretches northward from the state's Inside Passage to the Alsek River, encompassing 3.3 million acres. During meeting down-time, participants can enjoy the patchwork of evolving ecosystems in Glacier Bay, including snow-capped mountain ranges rising to over 15,000 feet, coastal beaches with protected coves, deep fjords, tidewater glaciers, coastal and estuarine waters and freshwater lakes.

2. Try teambuilding with a twist

Incorporate opening activities that help participants get to know one another and kick up energy and enthusiasm for the session. For example, try kicking off your meeting with the thrill of a whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River. It will get your attendees excited for the conference and will be a homerun for the team.

Although most destinations will lack the thrill of Colorado River whitewater, there are still plenty of ways to infuse groups with enthusiasm and create an atmosphere of collaboration and fun.

For example, people arriving at conference centers say they feel energized about their meetings immediately when they experience a special welcome at check-in, receive motivational messages tucked into boxed breakfasts and participate in high-energy team-building activities.

Introduce games and activities to your group. Instead of the same old cocktail reception or "I trust you to catch me before I fall" exercise, try something brand new like fire-walking. When Tom Clancy, Chief Learning Officer of EMC, brings together new employees, he plans an activity where participants actually walk on hot coals. Tom reports this unusual event, typically something his employees haven't tried before, is a fantastic way to build camaraderie.

Another unusual idea comes from a conference center and hotel in Princeton, New Jersey. At the Harrison Conference Center & Hotel, groups have partnered with local charities, rolling up their sleeves for a day in a soup kitchen or a Habitat for Humanity homebuilding site. Doing good deeds together brings team members together.

3. Comfort counts

Do your creative juices flow freely in a windowless conference room where the furniture's uncomfortable, the temperature is too hot (or too cold) and the buzzing fluorescent lights overhead are too bright? Of course not. To feel creative and ready to learn, we need to feel comfortable first.

Fortunately, comfort is something you never worry about when your company chooses a bona fide conference center. For anyone unfamiliar with conference center advantages, here's a brief primer. The best conference centers are approved by the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), an industry group with more than 30 stringent standards that ensure quality in all aspects of the meeting experience.

At an IACC-approved conference center, you'll find a distraction-free environment that's equipped with everything you need to be comfortable, focused and productive. Features include everything from ergonomic furnishings and adjustable controls for both lighting and temperature to an ample supply of meeting materials and chilled bottled water. Continuous refreshment breaks are convenient to the meeting room, plus you have excellent technology resources and the services of a professional conference planner.

4. Transform an ordinary room into a collaboration room

Most conference rooms are designed for meeting presentations, but it's easy to turn them into spaces that spark collaboration. The key is communicating with the conference planner so he or she can modify a center's space and services to meet your company's goals. Here are just a few ideas from some resourceful conference planners:

Also keep in mind, technology can enhance meeting and learning environments in different ways. Even something as simple as utilizing a sound system to pipe in classical music can help expand minds during brainstorming or learning sessions.

The Babson Executive Conference Center in Wellesley, Mass., for instance, has a room designated solely for video conferencing so groups unable to travel can access the facility and obtain real-time updates. Webcasting and using technology like web cams can also bring in creative minds and ideas from those who might be unable to attend in person. To take advantage of these possibilities, use your conference planner as a resource. He or she is an expert in how technology can be used to inspire and share ideas.

Finally, be ready to capture all those new ideas! All meeting venues should equip their rooms with an abundance of materials-easels, sticky notes, colored markers, etc. to encourage everyone to express ideas, build on ideas and make new connections between ideas. It's an effective way to encourage high-energy collaboration and visually shape those new ideas into real possibilities.

5. Find a theme for your team

A theme generates enthusiasm and gives participants something to rally around. It should reflect your company's goals and help set the tone for the duration of the session.

With a theme in mind, you and your conference planner can creatively incorporate it into many aspects of the meeting, including decorations, props, music, food and beverages. Even if the budget is limited, creativity with a name, color and simple props can go a long way to making any session fun and memorable. It's simple and economical to liven up a meeting room with inexpensive themed items that create a sense of camaraderie and excitement as participants walk though the door.

Your conference planner can suggest innovative ways to incorporate a theme and further the goals of your meeting. When a group at The Conference Center at Marlborough in Massachusetts, for example, requested an informal icebreaker, the staff turned the dining area into a replica of the Cheers TV Bar. The result was a relaxed, fun atmosphere that immediately encouraged attendees to mingle and get to know everyone in the group.

6. Reward everyone's efforts

When wrapping up an event, it's rewarding to recognize how individuals and teamwork contributed to the success of the session. Finish with a flourish and acknowledge everyone's focus and hard work.

When the best is saved for last, no one will want to miss the grand finale. The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for example, recently hosted a sales meeting for a large group from around the country. The Inn is adjacent to the University of North Carolina campus and used this proximity to great advantage by hosting the gala at the University's planetarium-a perfect venue for its "Reach for the Stars" theme! The evening began with the elegantly attired guests walking the "red carpet" to the planetarium's entrance as "paparazzi" captured their photos.

7. Measure and share results

Upbeat, energetic meetings are likely to produce exciting, tangible business results. Make sure your planners build quantifiable goals into the meeting and then follow up with participants after the event to let them know how well goals were achieved.

As President, ARAMARK Harrison Lodging, Bruce Fears is responsible for operations at over 50 conference centers, corporate training centers and specialty hotels in educational environments, as well as 14 state parks and other resort operations. He assumed his current position following the integration of ARAMARK’s conference center, corporate training business with its parks and resorts business. Mr. Fears received a BA from Bridgewater College and participated in programs at University of London’s School of Economics and University of Florida’s School of Management. Mr. Fears can be contacted at 425-957-9708 or fears-bruce@aramark.com Extended Bio...

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