InnovativeMeetings By Barbara Palmer

Take Away

The Shock of theNew

Change or die, the experts say. Just make sure that your audience is prepared to change along with you—as the Medical Group Management Association learned from its new PEER Conference.

The Medical Group ManagementAssociation’s (MGMA)Annual Conference offers a “smorgas- bord” of options suited to thewide-ranging needs of the organization’s more than 22,000 mem- bers, according to Jane Biglin,MGMA’s vice pres- ident for product solutions. ButMGMAwanted to addaconference option that wouldencourage deeper levels of attendee participation and peer-to- peer learning. And so was born the PEER (Participate, Edu-

cate, Experience, andRelate) Conference, which debuted on March 2–5 at the GaylordNational Resort&Convention Center, nearWashington, D.C.—andwhich featureda slewof innovations designed to do just those things. An“Exchange Café” invited attendees to sit at

tables where facilitators guided discussions about issues; people could stay or leave as they wished. “RoundTable” sessions askedattendees to bring up any topics they most wanted to talk about, while “Case Study” sessions asked them to read case studies in advance and be prepared to discuss them. “PokerHand,” held near the end of the day, gave attendees a chance to grab a drink and then brainstormsolutions to problem scenarios drawn at randomfrom a deck of over-sized cards. For the most part, the association didn’t invite

industry experts to speak at PEER, said Shana Bosler, MGMA’s content manager, but instead relied on participants to determine the meeting content. The 400 attendees, Biglin reports, were completely engaged and enthralled — that is, about 40 percent of themwere.Manyof the oth- er participants felt uneasy. Facedwith a format that required their full participation, Biglin said, “they didn’t know where to sit or what to do.” It wasn’t that PEER was a flop. On site, “we

heardfrom the peoplewho really liked it, andwe left feeling like the conference was a success,”

Bosler said. “But then when the evaluations came in,weheard from all the peoplewhodidn’t like it.” Looking at the profiles of attendeeswhowere

most satisfiedwith the conference,MGMA’s team saw a distinct pattern: The more experienced, senior-level attendees rated it the mostly highly. They “were people at a level where there are not thatmany experts out there to tell themwhat to do anymore,”saidKrystalVanVeghten,MGMA’s sen- ior manager for product marketing. Learning from each other suitedthem very well. Thebig takeaway, Biglinsaid,wasthatMGMA

needed a better match between audience and for- mat. So for next year’s conference,MGMAis tar- geting members with at least five years of experi- ence. And it’s making PEER smaller, limiting the size to 125 attendees. Next year’s design will add back in more traditional presentations, inter- spersedamong the participatory elements. Some sessions, for example, will start with industry expert speakers,VanVeghtensaid,whowill “teeup the topic so that attendees have something to chew on.” This year, MGMA’s marketing department

created a series of educational brochures and videos to help familiarize attendees with the format change. Still, thatwasn’t enough, andsome atten- dees arrived without really understandingwhat to expect.“We didn’t do enough handholding to get [attendees] ready,” Biglin said. “We’ll do even more of that this coming year.” BiglincreditsMGMA’s board ofdirectorswith

the fact that there will be a next time forPEER,giv- en all the changes theywouldhave tomake. The boardencouraged—demanded—that the staff keep moving forward. Biglin said: “Our board memberswere the oneswhosaid, ‘Youmustdothis again.Youcan’tdosomething innovative only once. You have to try it at least three times.’”

ON_THE_WEB: For more information about MGMA’s PEER Conference, visit www.mgma.com/peer. 38 pcma convene October 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY MICK WIGGINS

Been There, Done That MGMA’s meetings staff has some advice for meeting profes- sionals who are think- ing about introducing new formats to their attendees: Start small when implementing changes. Take enough time to identify the appropri- ate audience for the new format. To give the format a chance to work, plan to do a new meeting for three years. Don’t dance around the changes when communicating with potential attendees. Be very direct, and say exactly what you intend to do. If it scares people off, then it wasn’t for themin the first place. Don’t plan to make money on the meet- ing the first year.

Barbara Palmer is a senioreditorof Convene.

Innovative Meetings is sponsored by the Irving, Texas, Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.irvingtexas.com.