When meeting planners start to focus on their next event, often times the conversation swirls around the benefit of flying people in versus holding the meeting virtually. The major concern management often has is regarding the cost of the meeting in comparison to the ROI. MPI Foundation and Maxvantage recently polled several meeting planners to determine what type of meeting works best –given the message the organization wants to convey. Below are the results:

Face-to-Face Meetings make sense for the following purposes:

  • Networking – Most virtual platforms have limited or no networking capabilities. If part of your meeting includes a networking segment with an exchange of business cards, a face-to-face meeting makes the most sense.
     
  • Sensitive Issues – Human Resource training, company mergers, layoffs, or a shake-up in the C-Suite team, should be handled in person so the message is not lost and questions can be answered. In addition, if there are any confidential issues, face-to-face will ensure the attendees are not sharing the information with other people in their home or office.
     
  • Incentive Trips – When salespersons exceed their quotas, usually there are incentive trips to reward them for efforts. This usually involves their spouse and other entertainment opportunities. 
     
  • Celebrations – Holiday parties, company outings, and the like are meant to allow employees to get to know each other "off the clock" in a fun environment.
     
  • Client or Educational meetings — New product launching events, educational conferences where many topics are covered in 2 or 3 days, and user conferences are ideal for in person contact. 
     
  • Team Building — Any type of exercise that builds communication and trust must be done in person. 

Virtual Meetings make sense in the following scenarios:

  • Internal organizational meetings
     
  • Daily meetings – such as the first or last 20 minutes of each business day.
     
  • Project meetings — this would be suited when the event meeting services company is updating the client on the progress of the event. It might start monthly, than weekly, and as the event closes in, daily. 
     
  • Recruitment meetings — When HR is considering candidates for a position, they may set up virtual interviews before they fly in the best ones for the face-to-face interview. 
     
  • Product Updates — A new release of software or minor updates to a product can be effectively handled virtually. 

Virtual meetings are utilized when the travel budget for the meeting has been significantly cut, management is looking to reduce out-of-office time, and the meeting is planned at the last-minute.

AV Event Solutions, a California meeting equipment supplier, can assist you in making your next face-to-face meeting a smashing success. In most cases, the answer is: face-to-face! Give them a call today to learn more about their interactive technology tool rentals.