Structure, Sustainability and a Touch of Health

 

Think about the last several meetings, conferences or events you attended. Can you remember a meeting that you loved? One that you felt connected and part of something larger than the event itself? If so, then you attended “the perfect meeting”.

According to Successful Meetings, this type of event is composed of three key elements:

  • Good Meeting Structure
  • Green Practices and
  • Healthy Choices

Today, we will explore all three and let you be the judge whether they are workable solutions for your event or conference.

 

Meeting Structure

 

  • Provide a lot of breaks.
    Research states that the average adult can only sit for 15-20 minutes without interrupting their work. They desire to check their phone, move around or talk to the person next to them. Therefore, don’t schedule back-to-back sessions or hold lectures for 90 minutes. Give individuals time to nosh and network with each other!
  • Encourage small group interaction.
    If you are running a large convention, it is easy for attendees to get lost in the crowd. Breaking up into small groups, either through tabletop discussions or spreading out in groups of 4-8 throughout the venue, allows time for attendees to work on solving the challenges facing the company, association or community they serve. An easy way to keep everyone in sync, is to provide these groups with iPad rentals preloaded with applications that can sync with each other and the cloud for real-time storage and access.
  • Provide more workshops.
    When individuals come to your conference, the first question they will receive from the boss upon their return is, “Was it worth it?” of which you want them to give a resounding “Yes!” But in order to do so, you need to provide education that is pertinent to them. With a wide diversity of attendees (novice to experts) the key is not to provide general, middle-of-the-road sessions but something everyone can dig their teeth into.
  • Provide easy Wi-Fi access everywhere.
    Users want access everywhere and they want an easy sign-in process. If you are concerned the venue may not have enough bandwidth to adequately serve your group, you may wish to rent a Wi-Fi booster.

Green Practices

 

  • Choose a Corporate Service Responsibility (CSR) project.
    Rather than doing the project in the beginning or end of the conference, make it smack dab in the middle of it to change up the meeting flow.
  • Go paperless.
    Replace binders with apps, posters with digital signage and goody bags with CSR activities. Millennials demand it and most attendees appreciate it, given there’s much less waste and everything can be stored on a tablet or iPad rental.

 

Healthy Options

 

  • Give them brain-friendly foods.
    The DASH diet has identified the following foods as making an impact in keeping our brains healthy:

    • Green leafy vegetables (lunch or dinner)
    • Nuts (snack)
    • Berries – blueberries and strawberries preferred (breakfast)
    • Beans (dinner)
    • Fish (lunch or dinner)
    • Poultry (lunch or dinner)
    • Wine (dinner and networking)
  • Look at farm-to-table options.
    A big trend is to source food within 50 to 100 miles of your meeting location. Attendees are interested in organic, natural food sources that are not shipped to your meeting destination from thousands of miles away.
  • Add relaxation/fitness options as part of the day.
    Typically, if you wanted to work out while at a conference, you are limited to the fitness center early in the morning or late in the evening. More and more meetings are fitting these options right into the meeting day as long breaks for attendees to enjoy healthy moves and relax at the same time.Here are a few creative ideas:
  • Provide yoga or meditation programs during breaks
  • Allowing individuals to go to the spa in the afternoon
  • Walk and talk about a current company challenge
  • Ride bikes around the property or city

SmartSource Rentals is Your Perfect Meeting Partner

 

SmartSource Rentals can provide the audio visual rentals you need to make your meeting vision a reality. Simply request a quote and one of our Account Executives will respond quickly to your needs.