DEC. 2: Hybrid Meetings “Most hybrid events are like bad cable accessTV.” That’s from consultant Sam Smith, managing director of Interactive MeetingTechnol- ogy and a co-founder of the successful hybrid meeting EventCampTwin Cities (http://slidesha.re/gy2pCR). And I know exactly what Sam means, having suffered through a dismal live- streamed event this week. I actually didn’t suffer for long—after just a few min- utes, I turned to something more interesting. That’s one of the points
that Sam makes about creat- ing effective hybrid events: People have a lot to distract them, and meeting organizers are not going to engage view- ers by simply sticking a cam- era in the back of the room and switching it on. —Barbara Palmer
NOV. 30: Get Out! This morning, in TheNew YorkTimes’ Frequent Flier column (http://nyti.ms /tw1N3Z), Jennifer Davis, a marketing executive for a dig- ital display company, suggests taking a walk outside: “One afternoon in Albi,
France, before some meetings on our video wall technology withour European team, I discovered an awesome for- mal riverfront garden behind the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum. No one told me it was there, and it was so incredibly beautiful that it brought a smile to my face.
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That’s a great way to start a meeting.” I wholeheartedly agree.
This is the image I snapped on my iPhone earlier this week—and the spectacular view the editorial team enjoyed as we mapped out our January issue poolside at the beautiful Le Blanc Resort in Cancun.We were there to help host the inaugural Convene Forum, a hosted- buyer conference with a focus on shared learning. I’ve been to Cancun three times since I first visited
this tropical paradise 30 years ago on my honeymoon. I never imagined that this quiet vacation spot would take off to become Mexico’s most popular resort destination, but that’s only because I lacked the foresight. It struck me that imagination is a trait that planners
learn to cultivate—to be able to see in your mind’s eye how a space can be transformed, set up, or reconfigured to suit your group’s needs. That capacity is tested even more when planners book a future meeting at a venue that exists only on a drawing board, the topic of our October cover story (http://bit.ly/Oct-cover-story). —Michelle Russell
In fact, the reality that dis- coveries such as this aren’t often given the chance to occur is a meetings-industry pet peeve of mine.Wouldn’t it be nice—and wouldn’t your participants be more engaged?—if they were given, or encouraged to take, some time prior to or during the meeting to do a bit of exploring in the place that they are in? —Hunter R. Slaton
NOV. 22:The Nature Breakout Being able to get in touch withnature creates tangible benefits for your meeting attendees: Research from the University of Michigan shows that a walk in nature can actually boost cognition by 20 percent (http://bit.ly/Mich- study). And Outside maga- zine cites a study that reports that office workers who had views of trees and flowers were sick less often (http:// bit.ly/Outside-mag). In the future, convention
centers and other meeting venues could be asked to add another metric—green space—to their stat sheets. Houston, for example, would position the 12-acre Discov- ery Green Park, across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center, not as an attraction, but as a necessary resource for meet- ing planners and attendees. —Barbara Palmer