REVIVING THE AUDIENCE
Three of the top 10 trends cited in a recent Benchmark Hospitality survey were customised meeting packages, the revival of team building and creative and healthy culinary options for meals and refreshment breaks.
Canny venue operators, most particularly hotels and resorts, are ahead of the game, with W Hotels for instance offering mood lighting, upbeat music, aromas and innovative set ups, as well as special menus including breakout energisers and local specialities. In addition, the group offers on-site events to complement a conference programme ranging from self- make sushi and karaoke breaks to a spa-ception, professional barbarcue challenge or video gaming with Kinect for Xbox 360.
At Radisson Blu hotels, the latest offering is Brain Food, devised by nutritionists to keep blood sugar constant, stress levels low and aid concentration. In addition, some hotels are now featuring the Brain Box, a breakout room with flexible furniture layout and plexi-glass walls which can be written on.
According to Francois Galoisy, general manager at the Radisson Blu Hotel Media City in Dubai, the new concepts have received positive feedback. “We invited our top clients and bookers to the hotel and everyone that attended the event loved the idea of the Brain Box, the fact that it’s a more ‘chilled out’ alternative to the traditional break-out room.
“Fun elements were also key, the wii as an option to play and ‘exercise’ was popular as was the fresh and tasty food. We expect to see elements like Brain Food and Brain Box to become staples within our meetings packages over the next few months.”
TIME AND MOTION Another issue that exercises those who specialise in event management is the running schedule of any event and the need to offer alternatives to the classic keynote celebrity kick-off to the conference, tradition- ally favoured in corporate circles. “If you have invested time and money in securing
a well-known speaker, you want maximum return on investment from people in the room,” says Kirstie Hep- burn. “In the past few years, I have noticed a real drop in attention spans – blame it on the smart phone – and you also need to remember to leave time for Q&As, otherwise the audience leaves feeling very frustrated.” Other considerations are the timing of these
keynote/inspirational sessions and here she recom- mends a heavyweight presenter to overcome the late afternoon conference slump, as well as short, sharp keynotes interspersed through the day if possible. JLA’s Lee has another suggestion – to halve the length of the average business forum.
Jeremy Lee
MOVING THE GOAL POSTS
A good speaker will avoid the packaged presentation and adapt to suit the client requirements, according to Tina Schneidermann.
“I recently worked with Stephen Bungay and, over two days, he was able to change the programme to allow for more time on a point that was particularly important to the group and, as a consequence, also ended up working with them over dinner and well into the night.
“He has the experience and energy to sense that this point needed more time and could, within a few minutes, adapt the rest of the programme to ensure the objectives for the session would still be met.”
Tina Schneidermann “A conference can be twice the length of a Wagner
opera and this should be the subject of a rethink,” he says. “Keep in the outside talent as they are the professionals, offering a breath of fresh air, but look at the internal speakers – management from marketing, sales, operations and finance might not be natural on-stage performers and could be best used with a moderator who can ‘interview’ them to bring out the salient points of any presentation.” While this might work in terms of audience atten-
tion, conference programme specialist, Tina Schnei- dermann, director of TS Event Services, cautions that the focus of the meeting should never be forgotten. “It can be useful to have several speakers or one
Above: Brain Food by Radisson Blu
speaker in different short sessions, although this is not always practical,” she says. “However, it’s important that the event owner and the team has the opportunity to demonstrate that it is their meeting and that they are espousing and driving the message throughout.”
/ 45
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100