Adding to my blog the first post written by Top  Meeting Designers, people with contrasted experience in our profession and from which we intend to explain what is our passion.

Today I present the points of view of our profession from Mireille van den Pop-Andeweg, as you can see on her profile Linkedin, this Dutch Lady has extensive work experience, but above all, she is a awesome person, human, close and excellent friend.

I was fortunate to meet during my attendance at the conference Fresh Copenhaggen (2012), then through MPI and Trade shows in our sector as IMEX or EIBTM we have been being together across Europe.

Thanks Mireille, it´s a pleasure open my blog to your thoughts.

Meeting Design.

Much is said about it, but what is it exactly and more importantly, what can you do with it? In short, it comes down to designing your meetings in a fashion so you reach your guests in their hearts. The message you wish to share reaches them best when they feel at home, comfortable, or just quite the opposite: out of their comfort zone.And that’s what you want to achieve. Convey a message. A message that will show a change in behavior.

Either to understand your brand promise, promote your business, purchase your products or to develop new products. Such adaptations may be very subtle, as playing with light, sound and smell. Or may be rigorous, get people out of their comfort zone and let them experience themselves what you want them to learn from you. Use all six senses. Sitting down and listening to a speaker on a stage for eight hours, I’m sorry my dear planner, that no longer works. Over the past years there has been enough research to make us understand that this is not the most efficient way to make one thing clear. After 20 minutes, the mind drops out. So why persist to sit still in another 7,5 hours of rear end torture? Because we have always done this way? A wise man once told me:’ if you do what you always did, you get what you always got’. And is that what we want? More of the same?”

Meeting Design is not about getting attendees to the right location. It’s about getting in their minds.”And that is customized. Allways.

For a large biotech company, we have recreated an old Dutch farm kitchen. All the speakers were welcomed by the farmer (a trained moderator) at his kitchen table, in their socks. Because in a Dutch farmhouse you leave your dirty clogs or muddy shoes outside by the door. We held the product presentation outdoors, in the field. We gave all attendees rubber boots. Because for this group of attendees experiencing, seeiing, feeling, smelling and tasting the produce is more important than sitting down in (no doubt) a beautiful venue and listening to an expert on stage. Which lead eventually to increased sales results.

A large international company that wanted to present its annual results to the staff, we asked the CEO not to have his usual presentation in his suit in front of a screen with a powerpoint presentation filled with statistics. We invited him and his CFO to ‘join us at the bar, during his summer vacation’. Dressed in a Hawaii shirt. Initially a little uneasy, he agreed with this unusual concept. The bartender, again a trained moderator, managed to lead the conversation extremely well. What initially would end up as a monotonous one-directional presentation, was now a lively and relaxed interview. The informal setting helped the audience to understand the tough material.

During the MPI NL Conference we had the participants experience themselves what meeting design is and what light, sound, smell and use of your voice to can add to your meeting. How you can use these senses to enhance the results you wish to get.

One of the meetings of the technology industry association aims to bring supply and demand together. Instead of the well-known back to back arrangement, it was chosen to have a more informal formation. This format contributed to a renowned research institute to find, in an open discussion, new partners to develop a mobile detection instrument for cyanobacteria.

Meetings can be organized much more efficiently and above all with so much more fun.

The experts at Evento.es can tell you all about it. Do not hesitate to give them a call!  

Note: In our global world, people are closer than never ¡¡¡

Bien, ya realizada la entrevista en profundidad con el Dueño del Meeting, ahora procedemos con las entrevistas a los distintos grupos de interés que hemos encontrado.

En nuestro caso hemos definido los siguientes grupos de interés, por un lado los posibles asistentes anónimos que hemos extraído de los anteriores asistentes a cursos sobre la materia ya organizados por nuestra empresa. En segundo lugar encontramos los patrocinadores de Meeting de parecidas dimensiones y que son habituales empresas interesados en poder colaborar en la realización de un proyecto con un presupuesto económico similar al Curso Internacional de Cirugía en el que trabamos. Y por último nos entrevistamos con los posibles ponentes de las materias a desarrollar en el curso.

Hacemos con ellos un interesante modelo de entrevista focalizado en tres diferentes aspectos: en primer lugar tratamos de conocer las motivaciones personales y profesionales por las que acuden a un meeting, tratando de no pensar en concreto el que estamos trabajando; En segundo lugar tratamos de recordar al menos tres reuniones memorables a las que hayan acudido para extraer de ellas lo que recuerdan, qué es lo que las hizo únicas o especiales. En este punto, a veces si las entrevistas no son muy fluidas trabajamos en recordar alguna reunión que ha sido recordada no solo en positivo, sino por el contrario localizando puntos de mejora, y realmente se suelen desbloquear las entrevistas; El tercer punto consiste en centrarnos ya en nuestro Curso y determinar los motivos por los que acudirían a nuestro Meeting intentando encontrar al menos dos en cada uno de estos apartados, Aprendizaje, Networking y Aspectos puramente motivacionales.

Regla fundamental y de la que hemos aprendido mucho: no valores, deja hablar y escucha atentamente lo que los entrevistados te quieren transmitir. Pregunta si no entiendes y no des por oído en otras entrevistas nada. Céntrate en escuchar y esa sin duda es la mejor manera de aprender.

A partir de aquí, un trabajo de oficina, de consultor, tenemos que extraer la información de cada entrevista y colocarla en ideas y conceptos que hagan referencia  o tengan que ver con el contenido del curso, con la sede, con los ponentes, con el facilitador, con la tecnología a aplicar y con referencia al resultado final del curso.

Nosotros usamos Trello como herramienta de trabajo para estos procesos.

Con este super informe que recoge más de 300 conceptos en nuestro caso nos preparamos para la siguiente entrevista con el Meeting Owner o Dueño del Meeting, dónde el objetivo es hacer ver desde diferentes perspectivas lo que el curso debe de ser en su versión ideal. En esta entrevista seleccionamos todo lo que se considera importante para generar la atmósfera elegida por nuestro cliente que recordamos era la Cercanía.

En nuestro siguiente post os enseñamos a cómo elaborar el Backbone o Espina Dorsal del Programa y como consensuarlo con el Meeting Owner