Christy Froelich, CMP and Partner with Precision Planners
Carly Underwood, CMP and Event Manager for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
flash assemblies, mob meetings, deep dives, and every variation on Ted Talks and speed-dating-for-meetings that you can imagine are out there begging for assignation. But, are they working? “Yes,” votes Christy Froelich, CMP and Partner with Precision Planners. She spoke to me about the ‘village’ meeting set which is basically a general session positioned in the center (think box- ing-ring style), with kiosk learning centers set up all around the perimeter of that epicenter stage. Once the main (center ring) session is over, attendees flow freely between all those nearby sup- plementary educational cubicles that have been put together with comfortable seating and (hopefully) non-competitive audiovisual components.
According to Christy, “There are many benefits to learning/ networking/transferring knowledge in this fashion. Sessions are fast and to-the-point, about 20 minutes each, and rotate around the clock so that people can move between sessions to catch as much content as they choose. Networking is made easy since the set is so fluid.” Speaking of fluid, how about shaking your group up by offer- ing a ‘net-walking’ session during your next program? Carly Un- derwood, CMP and Event Manager for the Institute for Health- care Improvement is working on including this element at IHI’s National Forum. “Since IHI’s mission is to improve health and healthcare worldwide, we feel it is vitally important to include healthy options for our meeting attendees. [For our annual meet- ing] we will include ‘net-walking’ to allow participants to network while on a walking path outdoors but within the hotel’s property. Our hope is that attendees will realize they don’t have to stay inside and be sedentary to work and learn. IHI also encourages ‘walking meetings’ back at our offices in Cambridge, MA, so this is a natural extension of what we already preach.” Carly says they are also going one step further (pun intended) at that same conference by placing treadmills and yoga mats in an overflow room adjacent to the main hall. “Participants will be
WWW.MIDWESTMEETINGS.COM
able to walk and stretch while watching a live stream of all our plenary talks.”
Other groups have turned to ‘drop-in mini seminars’ stra-
tegically scheduled between main educational sessions. Think of these as bonus offerings to your carefully constructed overall agenda that usually run in conjunction with coffee breaks. In fact, offering refreshments inside these auxiliary rooms helps to en- courage attendance. Topics can be more in-depth continuations of something that has already been started within your earlier programs or trendy, unique topics that are just for fun like basket weaving (think about a series of summer camp activities), culinary demonstrations (promoting health and wellness), or tech-themed providing quick lessons on how to use Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter to support your event.
Just remember that whatever you call your creatively named and trendy learning opportunities, make sure you explain the purpose as well as the
amount of attendee involvement required.
We’re guessing that no one should walk into a drum circle without the knowledge and understanding that there will be some sort of noise (duh!) and rhythm-making involved. Oh, and one more thing. If you’re considering a session using the word ‘campfire,’ regardless of the discussion topic, might I suggest some marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate be involved?! Terry Matthews-Lombardo, CMP, better known as TML, travels, plans meetings and then writes about all those experiences from the viewpoint of being on the road and in the center of the action. It’s usu- ally a good combination, or at least worth an interesting read. Having worked on both sides of the industry, she writes from the viewpoint of a veteran planner as well as a travel-savvy road warrior. If you want to read more from TML you can follow her at www.midwestmeetings. com and at
www.tmlwrites.com where you’ll find stories covering both destinations and detours or visit her blog at
www.hypeorlando.com/ hospitality-hive/.
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