Location, Location, Location….
Where You Hold Your Next Meeting Can Positively Impact Your Business
Do you find that productivity at your Monday morning meetings has reached rock bottom with a boredom factor rivaling, say, Monday-night pot roast?
Change is good. Consider holding your next meeting or event off-site. A new environment could be just what your team needs to develop new ideas and discover better solutions to specific challenges. Moving a meeting or training program off-site removes employees from the daily distractions of phone calls, e-mails and deadlines so they can concentrate on the material at hand.
Today’s off-site meeting venues can provide all the ingredients needed for a successful training program or meeting, allowing you to stay focused on the meeting’s purpose, and not on the meeting environment itself.
However, all meeting facilities are not the same, which makes it critical for companies to choose the right facility. The perfect venue must have all the necessary amenities and conveniences that make it worthwhile to hold training sessions off-site in the first place. Choosing the right location, therefore, means that companies must first focus on their needs — space and privacy, technology and service — and then determine whether the proposed site has the resources available to meet those needs.
Multi-purpose. In choosing the best facility, companies must decide if there is enough space to accommodate the number of people they expect to attend. This seems fairly obvious, but you must compare the overall size of the rooms, not just the number of seats. In addition to simply making sure that there are enough seats, you should verify that during the meeting, you will have the privacy you require to do your best thinking. In other words, you don't want a polka band in the next room or a group of Boy Scouts learning how to make birdcalls. Leaving the distractions of the office behind, only to encounter a new set of distractions would obviously minimize the benefits of going off-site.
Tech-savvy. Make sure the facility offers the appropriate level of infrastructure to support high-speed wireless and Internet access among other options. Verify that the audiovisual equipment you may need — LCD projectors, DVD players, plasma presentation monitors and microphones — is available onsite. Confirm that there is someone on staff available to assist you should your PowerPoint presentation suddenly disappear or you can't find the "on" switch on the microphone.
Service-oriented. Perhaps the most vital factor to consider when choosing a meeting facility is service. All the greatest amenities and technology mean little if a company lacks the proper liaisons to make those features easily available. Particularly, companies should expect to have access to a conference-planning manager who can organize all the details ranging from food and beverage requirements to AV equipment needs. Such coordinators are an absolute "must have" when planning an off-site meeting.
Remember: Change is good. Companies that take time to research the best facility for their meeting or event will find that going off-site will result in an increased level of enthusiasm, greater group participation and a stronger return on their investment.
For more information on meeting planning, contact Norm Zymm at the Manufacturers’ Association at 814/833-3200.