“The draw of Civil War history and prox- imity of the battlefield ties in extremely well with leadership and strategic plan- ning,” says Hans Schreiber, director of sales, Wyndham Gettysburg Hotel. “It’s a natural destination for smaller meetings and board events.”
Schreiber’s experience exemplifies a sea change in the way meetings, particularly small ones, are mounted today. Businesses and other organizations seek excitement, theme opportunities and intimate cus- tomized touches.No longer is a speak- er at a podium enough to satisfy an audience of executives, employees or shareholders. Meeting planners are charged with keeping groups alive with energy. Nodding heads and un- retained results are not on the agen- da. A smaller meeting group size helps to negate boredom.
Ensuring enthusiastic stimulation is why meetings are frequently scheduled in groups of 10 to 50. Wyndham Gettysburg, for example, created an executive meet- ing manager position devoted exclusively to small meetings across all markets. “This manager works hand-in-hand with a client through the entire meeting process from booking to conclusion,”
explains
Schreiber. “For large meetings, catering or convention services often take over after booking.”
Earlier this year, a top retail chain sched- uled four meetings at Wyndham Gettysburg instead of one. To keep impact high, groups of 35 executives convened over consecutive weeks. They began their meetings with the Fields of Freedom movie at Gateway Theater (located on the same campus as the hotel) and went on to explore the battlefield. Back at the hotel, they discussed how decisions made in Gettysburg impacted the Civil War.
By utilizing a battlefield model, the partic- ipants gained valuable insight and absorbed how lessons learned on the bat- tlefield could be applied to their business.
“People from all over the country attend- ed these meetings and they loved them,” reports Schreiber. “They observed history and were able to analyze through the Gettysburg Battlefield tie-in how to improve their business. This could not work so effectively with larger groups.”
With economic and corporate culture changes, organizations tend to hold more small meetings than major gatherings. According to the National Business Travel Association, about 86 percent of meetings scheduled by a large number of U.S. com- panies are made up of fewer than 100 attendees. On its website, StarCite Small Meeting Solution posts that events of this size represents 80 percent of all corporate meetings for a total of 200,000 people and $2 billion in incremental annual revenue.
24 November December 2010
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