Say goodbye to the old classroom set-up where attendees listened dutifully for two hours in a windowless room while a speaker gave a presentation at the front of the room. Today’s attendees want a more interactive, dynamic experience during a meeting, prompting planners and hotels to radically upend traditional approaches on everything from room seating to content delivery and break-time activities.
“Today it’s all about personalizing the experience and engaging people as never before,” said veteran planner and meetings technology consultant Corbin Ball. “In fact, I don’t even like to use the word ‘attendee’ anymore. People want to be participants.”
Carol Hamilton, who is senior associate for the Institute of Conservation Leadership and has a long history of developing learning programs for associations, also believes planners are under increased pressure to move away from the traditional education model tied to a set agenda.
“People’s time has become very precious—it’s harder to take time away from the office,” she said. “Plus there are so many more ways now to get information. When someone does go to a conference, they want to leverage their time to the best advantage. The way conferences were designed 50 years ago does not answer this.”
Another huge factor is the tremendous influence technology, especially mobile, is having on the way meetings content needs to be delivered, noted Annette Gregg, vice president-corporate west for Allied PRA, a destination management and event planning company.
“Our attention spans have shrunk and so has the tolerance level, which means that people simply cannot sit still for long periods of time,” she said. “Audience expectations have also changed—Baby Boomers were used to sitting and taking notes, but Millennials aren’t. Now we know that the best way to retain information is through hands-on engagement. People also want the meeting experience to be personalized and they want something new and different—a cutting-edge experience they can share with their peers.”
Seats at the Table
Meeting room layout, colors and furnishings play heavily in improving the attendee experience, according to Gregg. For an event planned for a financial company, she partnered with Workspring, a company that creates engaging workspace and meeting environments at hotels and off-site venues.
“We did couch seating in various colors, plus moveable seats,” she said. “Instead of theater-style, we broke things apart and did a campfire approach. We also collected data about their satisfaction level with the set-up, which showed that the attendees as well as the speakers liked this approach.”
The concept was so successful that AlliedPRA took it a step further at the client’s next meeting by creating a standalone interactive plaza with a chalkboard that could be used for either pre-scheduled or spontaneous meetings.
“An attendee could come in and call together a group by putting something up on the chalkboard,” Gregg said. “It enabled people to start informal sessions of their own.”
Thomas Pitchford, owner of Pitch Perfect Events, also advocates taking an innovative approach to room layout. He likes to provide a mix of tables and stand-up areas for attendees and limit presentation time in favor of networking.
“It’s important to let people be part of the conversation and let them get up to mix and mingle,” he said. “We also like to give people random numbers for seating, so they aren’t all at the same table with their friends but are meeting new people.”
Pitchford also likes to use music to create energy and break up a long day of sessions.
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“Instead of the usual elevator music, we might do a theatrical overture with lights and sounds or, as an opener, a lively song by Tina Turner or a garage band,” he said. “In some cases, we look at music that relates to the event theme. We also like to have energizing music during brings; something to keep their minds focused.”
Meanwhile, Steelcase is another company centered on innovative event design. The company believes in powerful, purposeful events to create experiences that inspire learning, networking and engagement, and drive business forward. Meeting and conference room layouts are an integral part of that mission, according to Sarah Weller, who pilots Steelcase’s New Business Innovation space, designing highly productive work environments for some of the most important conferences in North America.
“We believe design can shape culture,” Weller said. “If you want a culture of collaboration among various generations, how do you design spaces in which they collaborate?”
To that end, Steelcase sets itself apart with innovative seating layouts that break from tradition by using different types of modern chairs in circular patterns that are colorful, comfortable, inviting and designed to encourage conversation and engagement.
Another standout design experience for Steelcase is breakout seating areas, which resemble inviting, hip, home-like seating arrangements that persuade people to sit, relax , collaborate and converse.
Experience Design
Gregg, who gives workshops on a concept called Experience Design (XD) at industry events, advises planners to carefully consider what they want their attendees to think and feel during the conference. To aid in this, she recommends the use of such online tools as the Empathy Map, which enables organizations to better understand the needs and wants of a target audience.
“The Empathy Map forces planners to step into the shoes of the attendee,” Gregg said. “You pick an attendee and go around points on the map, asking Sally what she wants to experience if she were to attend the event. Once you empathize, you can design an event around Sally.”
Another tool is the Customer Journey Map, which can help create a smoother experience throughout a meetings program. (Information on these tools can be found at online sources such as solutionsiq.com and uxmastery.com).
“We recently used the Customer Journey Map for touch points throughout an incentive program, starting with the initial mailer and continuing through getting to the airport, the sense of arrival, experiences during the program and the follow-up,” Gregg said. “You analyze the whole experience step-by-step, looking at ways to improve even the most negative aspects such as going through airport security or transferring from the airport.”
Use of the map enabled AlliedPRA to solve a dilemma: How to let various program sponsors deliver their messages to the incentive group in a palatable way.
“We knew that no one wants a tradeshow during an incentive and we also knew there would be a long transfer ride on the bus from Monte Carlo to a castle in Provence,” Gregg said. “So we reinvented the experience by letting the sponsors make 10-minute pitches on the bus. It was casual and made good use of the time.”
Measuring Success
Improving the attendee experience extends to taking a deeper approach to soliciting feedback about what worked and what didn’t, Gregg said. She believes post-meeting surveys tend to focus too much on logistics such as food quality when they should be asking deeper questions.
“Logistics are important but they should be less than half of the questions,” she said. “In the case of an incentive, we should be asking people if they felt adequately rewarded. Was the location good enough for you? Did the presentations hit home? Did you get a better sense of the company? Did the meeting change your feelings about the company? What do you recommend that the company do next year based on this experience?”
Measuring actual attendee behavior during a meeting is also essential, according to Hamilton.
“You want consider what they actually do, not just what they say,” she said. “You’ve got to really look at what sessions got the best attendance, which speakers really resonated with the group. There are tools now that make it much easier to do a content analysis.”
Among these tools is social media, she added.
“Planners can use social media not just for promoting the meeting, but for tracking things as they are happening,” Hamilton said. “When you look at what people are sharing on social media, you can see what is resonating and what isn’t.”
Equally invaluable are mobile event apps, which are giving planners real-time access to attendee behavior and preferences, information that can be used to make on-the-spot changes.
“You can get immediate answers to what people like and don’t like,” Ball said. “If one session is really popular, you can repeat it. You can even measure crowd flow. If there’s a long food line or a bottleneck somewhere, you can send in reinforcements.”
