Mr. Dolce

Meetings & Conventions

Effective Methods to Motivate Groups and Build Relationships

By Andy Dolce, Founder, Chairman & Managing Partner, Dolce International

As service providers, those of us in the hospitality industry are limited to how much of a meeting's content we can successfully and reasonably affect. But after 28 years in the meetings and conference industry, we have observed and applied some valuable insights on how to guide our clients as they decide the content, tone and agendas of their meetings and conferences. What we have learned is that it doesn't have to require big budgets, world-renowned speakers or even a purpose-built meetings and conference facility to pull off a meeting that will leave the attendees inspired and motivated to meet their business and organizational challenges with gusto. What it actually takes is proper planning and a conference service staff that is intelligent, savvy, intuitive and driven to exceed its client's expectations. The following are some best practice tips to help your clients meet their team building and motivational goals.

1. Team-building with Impact

To make the most of the team building portion of a client's meeting or conference, the best thing meeting planners can do is to conceptualize and execute an exercise that has a clearly relevant connection to the way that business is actually conducted.

A situation as such can be easily successful when a savvy, well-researched conference planner steps in and asks the right questions. Asking the right questions goes hand-in-hand with understanding your client's business which is perhaps the single most valuable thing you can offer as a meeting and conference professional. Unless you have had personal experience in that industry, the only way you can know the intricacies of how your client does business and what they hope to accomplish during their event is to ask pertinent, insightful and intuitive questions. The right questions could include:

• What does success mean to your organization?

• What are you looking to accomplish through this meeting?

• What are the typical working conditions of the meeting attendees?

• Describe the culture of your organization?

• What challenges are looking to address during this meeting?

• After determining the answers to these questions, it would emerge that the ideal team-building scenario would be one that engages skills such as personal goal setting, benchmarking and vision-casting.

To fully capitalize on a team-building exercise, be sure the activity includes a component that fosters creativity and competition. Working creatively produces a sense of ownership and, when experienced through a team atmosphere, it allows attendees to contribute toward a collective goal that they are the architects of. The result is a sense of team ownership rather than individual accomplishment. Ideally, the activity should force participants to identify the strengths and weaknesses within their team, create an action plan, reinforce the strengths and mitigate the weakness and appropriately delegate tasks.

2. Be Tech-Savvy

People of all ages enjoy the latest technology. You can be a hero to your meeting planner client by being knowledgeable of the trade and consumer technology on the market and offering suggestions of functional, fun and educational ways to integrate them into their meeting.

The most important aspect of introducing technology into a meeting or conference is that it be used in a way that enhances the learning process. Too often technology can serve as a distraction in the meeting setting. Music can be too loud, lighting too dim or too harsh, Wi-Fi can be a distraction during a keynote speech, or freezing cold temperatures can quickly remove the focus from the task at hand.

To help maximize the effectiveness of the meeting in building group morale and keeping them focused on the content of the meeting, we at Dolce Hotels and Resorts go to great lengths to ensure that technology is used in the most efficient and creative ways. Here are some ways to do that:

• Offer interactive room-control systems that let clients control most of the electronic equipment in a conference facility from a single centralized location. A room control system ends all frantic searching to switch on the lights, complaints that the thermostat needs to be turned down, questions about who is closest to the projector and how to turn the projector on or off.

• Suggest engaging the technology that meeting or conference attendees are likely to already have on hand to enrich the team-building or motivational process. Examples of this would be using laptops, IPhones, and cell phones to quickly text or email questions to a speaker during a Q & A or asking members to come-up with iPod playlists of themed songs to play during "ice-breakers", cocktail hours or actual team-building exercises.

• Lastly, during a meeting or conference encourage your clients to avoid making computers, PowerPoint presentations or podcasts the proxy teachers or speakers during a meeting or presentation. If they do, the time and money spent on the meeting might have been better spent on a webinar covering the same material. After all, attendees come to a team-building or motivational meeting to experience the intangible human element that technology can never replace.

3. To Theme: Be Creative, Be Consistent

The most impactful and memorable events are those that are driven by a theme and carry that them through the entire meeting, particularly through the teambuilding activity because it can be such a centerpiece to the gathering. A theme that is ever-present throughout the meeting or conference is like the soundtrack playing throughout a movie and invisibly stringing together varying subplots into one powerful action narrative.

When choosing a theme, consider the objective and make sure that it resounds throughout the entire event - from speakers, to the ice-breakers, to the teambuilding exercise, to the music, lighting and food.

An example of a company that effectively integrated its meeting's theme to its teambuilding activity was Vertis Communications when it hosted a conference at Lakeway Resort and Spa near Austin, Texas. Vertis was hosting a sales conference with the objective of focusing its sales force's efforts on a specific product launch. Taking the objective of "focus" and applying it to the mechanics of a camera, Vertis came up with an entire theme around the film production world complete with props and lighting that made the meeting room look and feel like the set of a movie. Vertis' team-building exercise put its sales-force into several teams, armed the teams with camcorders and editing equipment and called the teams to make a movie around the theme of "focus" over the multi-day conference. The combination of creativity, reinforcement of the theme and relation of the theme to the ultimate meeting objective ensured that every Vertis sales person in attendance left Lakeway absolutely sure of his or her call to action. That's themeing and team-building with impact!

While not every client has the time or money to put on such an elaborate event, there are many small things that can be done in order to enable them to best receive the motivational and team-building messages they will be receiving throughout the meeting. While most facilitators think that big prizes will motivate teams, the fact is it is quite the opposite. Having parody in prizes and having more of them assures that everyone feels like a winner. Simple things to offer are coffee gift cards, AMEX cards with a small minimum cash value. You can even ask the hotel or resort hosting your event to offer something.

Ultimately, the final piece of advice I can share is simply be the expert. After planning and executing hundreds of events, meetings and conferences, feel confident that you have learned a thing or two along the way. When approached by a meeting planner to solve a problem, respond as the expert that you are and offer solutions that are strategic and peppered with creativity. That is the most effective role you can play in ensuring that meeting attendees go home inspired and more connected to their organization than when they arrived. It will also make you an irreplaceable resource to your meeting and conference clients.

Andrew (Andy) J. Dolce founded Dolce Hotels which has become the world's leading conference hotel company by providing environments where people can meet and learn. Dolce is at the forefront with properties in the U.S., Canada and Europe. He has been named one of the "25 Most Influential Executives" in the meetings and travel industries by both "Meeting News" and "Business Travel News". Mr. Dolce has been a board member and president of the IACC. He is on the board of NYU's Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Travel Administration and serves on Iona College's Legal Board of Trustees. Mr. Dolce can be contacted at 201-505-5906 or andy.dolce@dolce.com Extended Bio...

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