Up until recently, one could argue that for millennia meetings haven’t changed very much. When I see most in-person meetings, what strikes me is that just like in ancient Greece, we walk onto a stage, head for dead center and orate from a lectern. For a long time now, I’ve wondered why we keep doing this.

Early in my career, in the 1980’s, because of the needs of some high tech clients, I was challenged with breaking out of that mold and broadcasting my meetings rather than presenting them in person. And in those days, well before the Internet was invented, broadcast meant via satellite. The now quaint sounding term for that type of transmission was “closed circuit television.”

For me, because of my production background, broadcast was natural. Imagining the “scene” as it would ultimately appear on a screen was my normal way of looking at communication. Live meeting production was where I had to think differently and put on my theater hat. Live meetings are the business version of theater and virtual meetings are the business version of television.

These days, of course, “television” (meaning all types of professional video) isn’t limited to the big three broadcasters or even to TV at all. Video streaming is ubiquitous, on the Internet, on smart phones and even on gaming consoles. So one would think we’d be, as a society, way ahead of the curve in creating sophisticated TV like business productions and virtual events. But when I observe the vast majority of virtual meetings what I see is the same mistakes made as were made in early 1950’s in TV. In the 50’s, TV producers modeled what they produced after theater, just as virtual events today are often modeled after live meetings. They surmised back then, they could simply stage a theater production and point a camera at it. Watch old black and white footage of the Honeymooners and you’ll see what I mean. It was “deadly” to watch because it was static and didn’t take advantage of multi-camera angles and editing that we now understand is imperative to create a proper broadcast. Eventually, TV evolved into more sophisticated productions.

Today, in the world of virtual events the same 1950’s mistakes seem to be happening all over again. There is the thought that one can simply transmit a slide over the Internet with a synced voice and it’s a meeting. Add a tiny talking head via video or clip art embedded into a drawing of a virtual trade show and the thinking is that creates an engaging virtual event experience. Putting aside the sync problems, which are commonplace as platforms struggle to combine all of these disparate elements, most importantly, this type of virtual event is exceedingly un-engaging to watch, compromising the effect of the virtual experience and ultimately driving people back to rely heavily on travel and live meetings. And most ironically, it’s completely unnecessary as all of the tools to produce engaging video production are at our disposal if we would just take advantage of them. Combine that engaging transmitted video with an in-person meeting and we create ‘the hybrid meeting” – the best of both worlds.

So what should we do in the world of virtual events, Web streaming and online meetings these days? We should learn from and take advantage of the technology that TV and the movies has given us and used for decades. For one, we should abandon the notion of syncing a static slide to voice and a video talking head. There’s no reason to do that. With sophisticated video Web streaming technologies and production “capture” technology (HD cameras, portable lighting systems, etc.) we can create engaging video for the business world, and stream it full screen over relatively modest bandwidth. But this new era of virtual communication demands that anyone involved in the creation of a virtual event must be a video production expert, a meeting planning pro and an IT guru well honed in the science of streaming video over the Web.

There is another lesson of what not to do that we can learn from the early days of television, and it’s about live verses on demand. In the world of TV, even TV news, live is a choice of last resort. No one in TV chooses live unless they have to, as it increases risk, both technical and human. And on the Internet, well over 90% of all video is consumed on demand. Especially in the world of business, minimally for legal reasons to limit risk, we should review every word and every single piece of data before releasing it to the masses. Therefore, except in rare cases and for good purpose, we should pre-record everything we can, every presentation, every word uttered. In the world of pharmaceutical virtual events, this couldn’t be more imperative. The only element, which should be live, is Q and A. With sophisticated platforms that can be achieved with a technique referred to as “SimLive” – the combination of pre-recorded presentations blended with live Q and A.

The viewer need not even know the presentation is live or recorded unless one wants to express that. Every day on TV news the limiting of live reporting is a practiced technique. Live news stories include taped sections with the actual live portion being a small element of the segment. Pre-recorded means less risk, more control and lower cost. TV learned that lesson years ago.

I remember when The Tonight Show was live and all the problems that ensued, then soon afterward it went “live to tape” to reduce risk and increase the effectiveness as they could edit and re-do sections they weren’t happy with. One can learn a lot from early TV as we create new axioms in the business of Virtual Meetings and Events -Think Like a Broadcaster and You’ll Find Success.

This spin on cogito ergo sum (English: “I think, therefore I am”) could possibly be a good motto for all conferences and events.

Social Learning

We participate, therefore we are.

Our learning, understanding and knowledge are developed in participation with others. Social learning occurs through conversations about the content and through grounded interactions and engagement with others. Often when we discuss a concept or issue with someone, we are internalizing and integrating it into our own personal framework. It is though social learning that we seek practical knowledge to solve our professional problems.

Many conference organizers know that much of the true learning and understanding happens in the hallways. Inside the conference education sessions, attendees receive information. Outside the education rooms, attendees start to socially construct their own understanding. Most of what we know, we have learned with and from others.

We, as conference organizers, have to find ways to capture what happens in the hallways and move it into the education sessions.

Moving Hallway Discussions Into Conference Education Sessions

We participate, therefore we are.

That phrase is exactly where I think conference organizers should begin to focus their meeting planning efforts.

• We should be designing conference experiences that encourage registrants to transition from attendees to participants.
• We need to discover new ways to help individuals move from passive attendees to active participants.
• We must shift from planning one-way lectures to more facilitated discussions.
• We need to switch from sixty- to ninety-minute lectures to sessions that provide short spurts (ten- to twenty-minutes) of content that serve as catalysts for seventy- to eighty minutes of discussion.
• We need to move from securing industry experts as speakers to contracting skilled facilitators that can capitalize on industry experienced participants in each session.
• We need to see our conference participants as the industry experts and subject matter experienced (SMEs).
• We must find a balance of the “what,” the content, and the “how,” the learning process.
• We must stop seeing our meetings as containers for distributing information and start seeing them as a process to facilitate learning.
• We must come to grips with the fact that “information” is a commodity and that “education” is something that has significant value.

Traditional Conference Education Strategies

So much of our conference education strategy relies on transmitting explicit information so attendees can amass sufficient amounts of content to their satisfaction. We spend little time on how to apply that information or practice it. We spend little time on helping others retain that content.

Most conference education sessions focus on how to pour knowledge into other people’s heads. We treat knowledge and information as a substance and the brain as a container. Without realizing it, we’ve bought into the concept that a lecturer or speaker is like a faucet. They can spout knowledge and pour it into each attendee’s brain. That’s assuming that there is nothing already in the attendee’s brain and that listening is the best way to distribute that information. Those assumptions are incorrect.

Engagement, through active participation, not passive listening, is critical to learning, retention and understanding. John Seely Brown says, “…We are constructing knowledge all the time, in conversation, through narrative.”

Brown says that through stories and narratives we construct a framework that our mind begins to understand. It is through conversation with others that we construct our own mental frameworks. It’s in conversations that we create knowledge.

Ratio Of Participants Talking Versus Attendees Listening

So how much time in your annual conference is dedicated to attendee conversations? What is the ratio of listening to speakers versus participating in discussions?

Let’s face it. Registrants come to conference with a list of problems they want solved. It doesn’t matter if our education sessions address those problems or not. Instead of trying to force-feed information and content, let’s create conferences where we see our registrants as a community of practice and learning a process. Then participants, regardless of experience, can use inquiry to ask others about their experiences.

It is up to conference organizers to transition from meetings as containers of commodotized information to conferences as conduits of learning.

Why are so many conference education sessions information data dumps? How can we move registrants from passive attendees to active participants?

As some of our regular readers and contributors may have noticed we changed our blog’s name from “The Strategic Business Value of Meetings and Events” blog to the “Energize Your Meetings & Events” blog. This is not because we do not see the strategic value in meetings (and events), but instead at the core we understand that our team’s biggest contribution to the meetings and events industry is to add energy to programs – keeping participants actively engaged so they can gain knowledge, network with their peers and enjoy the overall meeting or event experience.

Whether you host or plan meetings (or events), supply products or services for meetings, or you work at a venue, the Energize Your Meetings & Events blog will have value for you!

Please note we continue to welcome posts from our contributors, comments from our readers and suggestions from everyone.

Thank you for your support of our efforts and we look forward to hearing from you!

When was the last time you visited a museum?

Nina Simon‘s Complicity, Intimacy, Community post about fostering personal relationships with visitors in small and large spaces brought back a flood of memories of some of my museum experiences. You should read it and then come back here. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you finish.

My Museum Experiences In My Twenties
In my twenties, I had the pleasure of helping Dallas Natural History Museum plan and create some exhibits. I was a docent, trainer and event professional in addition to my day job. I hosted many weekend sleepovers for groups of 30, 50 and 100 kids in that museum. Yeah, what was I thinking? Actually, it was awesomesauce for sure. Ok, I digress.

I recall one experience of working on an environmental exhibit about garbage, trash and recycling. As a content expert (I was known as the Garbage Guru back then) and educator, my task was to help the designers dream up large, hands-on interactive exhibits. Those exhibits were to serve as focal points that entertained, educated and allowed multiple people to play with them at one time. These were not to be the typical poster or 3-D mannequin exhibits. They were to be participatory to increase memory retention and learning.

Applying Museum Exhibit Design Thoughts To Meetings
During those brainstorming sessions, the museum exhibit designers taught me a lot. I learned about the need to create opportunities for strangers to participate together, create community, develop closeness with one another and foster a sense of a safe place to explore the unknown. Little did I know that these designers were giving me a blueprint for annual conferences meeting, events and tradeshow experiences.

Nina Simon’s blog addresses applying Web 2.0 principles of engagement, networking and community in museum environments. In her recent post she described an exchange with a colleague about her experience in a large museum.

Simon said, “It didn’t require the staff at the front desk remembering her name or building a personal relationship with her. It required a certain kind of place and feeling that visitors manage (mostly) on their own.”

Her point struck a chord with me. As meeting and event professionals, it is our job to facilitate an atmosphere, sometimes in massive venues, that encourages attendees to build personal relationships, and manage complicity and community on their own.

So how do we do that? Practically speaking, how do we foster and encourage community, intimacy and participation in events of 500 to 25,000 people?

Eight Tips To Encourage Complicity, Intimacy And Participation At Your Next Event
Here are eight tips to help you encourage complicity and intimacy among strangers and friends at your next event. Hat tips to Nina Simone for helping me spin some of these too.

1. Set the stage early and often.
Let meeting attendees know how they can participate and what to expect early and often before they arrive onsite. Use email, chats, conference ecommunities, YouTube videos and social networks to share these ideas and set the stage. Start sessions declaring them safe spaces to openly share opinions, ideas and thoughts. Encourage others to join in and share their voice.

2. Seek buy in through agreements and ground rules.
Create and share your own COPA (conference organizer, presenter and attendee) agreement.

3. Become a conduit to experiences.
Ask staff and organization leaders to act as friends, partners and helpers instead of enforcers. Get them to set the tone.

4. Secure community greeters and seed group discussions with facilitators.
Recruit organization or local volunteers to serve as community greeters, encouraging attendees to touch, look with their eyes and ears, talk and reach out to one another. Use facilitators to help ignite small group discussions.

5. Use large open spaces wisely.
Create informal lounges in large open spaces where people can mingle, chat and greet one another comfortably. Benches, couches, groupings of informal seating along with recharge stations are great additions.

6. Encourage tradeshow exhibits that are open and able to serve many at once.
Encourage tradeshow exhibitors to create open spaces that display their products or services in ways that can be used comfortably by large groups of visitors. Hands on, interactive exhibits will attract crowds. Are visitors seen as distracting others from the experience and therefore some are missing out? Or are visitors seen as partners helping others join in the participation?

7. Invite group play using displays with social objects.
Nina Simon explains that artifacts and social objects foster conversations around attendees’ shared experiences. Create experiences and tradeshow floor events that attract crowds and invite group play. Consider an exhibit of artifacts from the past five, ten or twenty years of the industry. Place flat screens with rotating images in large open spaces near small group lounge areas to spark conversations.

8. Ask presenters to use interactive learning experiences.
You can read more about that here, here and here.

What tips would you add to encourage complicity and participation in conferences and events? How could your encourage group play and use social objects at your next conference or event?

Having produced interactive and team experiences for meetings and events for 20+ years I have seen and participated in a lot of prize raffles and giveaways at events. But at a networking reception last week, with a completely stuffed raffle drum and attendees feverously separating more raffle tickets to enter the drawing, it was the first time I spent quality time considering the value of prize raffles and giveaways at events. It was also at that moment that I realized that probably 95% of events I have ever attended offered some type of prize raffle or “swag” for attending.

Is this because the only reason people will stay at an event is if there is a chance to win something? Are we all that fickle? Wouldn’t we stay and tune into the event hosts message without a prize being the “carrot on the stick” keeping us there? As an event planner shouldn’t we just try to focus on having a great event, or do we lack so much confidence in our events that we need the allure of a Starbuck’s gift card or the latest electronic gadget to get people to listen to our message?

I notice now even at sporting events (the Chicago Bulls being my example) that t-shirts are shot from “cannons” or parachuted from the rafters. Maybe it is as simple as the potential of winning something adds to the fun. I know my son was appreciative when I snagged one of these parachuting t-shirts, even though at age 5 he would never fit into the men’s extra large t-shirt that was snagged. Or maybe the Chicago Bulls organization just realized we would have left the building without buying another soda or snack with the team down by 20 in the third quarter unless the possibility of “winning big” was still in play.
I am interested in your thoughts on the subject.

Excuse me for a moment as I open up for discussion the question that has been burning in our office and with many others in the industry – Why? Why is a blog on the “Strategic Value of Meetings & Events” or similar blogs in the industry important when everyone is so busy with work, or trying to obtain work? And by the sure quantity of blogs that exist, does anyone really have time to digest more than a couple of them?

Or does blogging in the meetings and events industry need to be legitimized or can it just be an exercise in personal communication, thought/idea gathering or venting?

Typically I would add a bullet point list below of the reasons why I think blogging in the event and meeting industry is of great value. But instead I am going to leave this question open for discussion. I am very interested in your thoughts and opinions and also if there are blogs that exist currently that you find are valuable resources for you.

I look forward to your thoughts!

Thank You – Ed

After the Wall Street Meltdown, many companies took a predictable approach and cut all team building as a “discretionary expense”. The AIG Effect was the final nail in the coffin. Afraid of possible fallout due to “optics”, even companies that were doing well felt it prudent to put team building initiatives on ice. This is unfortunate as, during a recession and its aftermath, team building is even MORE important than during good times. Why? During a recession and the fragile recovery that follows it, the margin for error is narrow. It is more important than ever to:

• ensure that employees get a clear and accurate messages about company plans and performance so that the rumour mill doesn’t takes over
• generate new ideas and solutions to business challenges
• cultivate a spirit of optimism and a recovery mindset
• streamline processes and reduce red tape
• keep the lines of communication open
• reduce friction and misunderstandings
• enhance cross-functional teamwork
• build commitment
• resolve conflicts
• boost morale

Expertly facilitated business team building with a solid strategy for follow-up can address ALL of these areas.

Savvy CEOs know that, sooner or later, almost every organization will go through tough times and that the solutions lie with their people. Who other than the members of your team who are familiar with your customers and processes are in the best position to generate useful ideas to cut costs and generate new business? Texas Roadhouse CEO G.J. Hart gets it. He continued to champion the bottom line value & R.O.I. of team building retreats & incentive travel during tough times. In fact, he earned new respect and, ultimately, widespread favourable media coverage as the result of his stand in the face of CNBC reporters scathing criticism and ridicule of his decision to proceed with the companys annual retreat in the midst of a recession. While other CEOs were shelving their team building and incentive travel initiatives and ducking to avoid media criticism, G.J Hart took it in the chin and won.

10 Steps to Planning the Perfect Team Building Retreat

When you’re ready to plan your next team building retreat or initiative, the following steps will help you ensure that your efforts pay off with bottom line returns.

1. Clarify your Objectives

It is important that you be clear about the reasons you want a team building.

• Do you want to generate solutions to pressing business issues?
• Are you attempting to foster out of the box thinking in the members of your team?
• Is there a conflict that requires resolution?
• Do you need to energize a team that’s tired and discouraged due to tough economic and market conditions?
• Do you want to reward a team that has beat the odds and generated incredible results despite the challenges and then strategize for the future?

Be specific about what you are trying to achieve and articulate this clearly to the person who will be obtaining quotes from suppliers on your behalf.

2. Distinguish between “team building” and “team recreation”.

Team building and team recreation both have their place. Companies would be dreary places if no one ever smiled, laughed and had fun. It is important to remember that a half day scavenger hunt, a few hours of paintball or an evening of drumming or writing songs is no substitute for faciltiated, focused and bottom line oriented business team building. Definitely recreational activities can play a role in your team building initiatives. However, attempting to pass off strictly recreational or social events as “team building” would be like taking your team our for dinner and serving them only appetizer and dessert. A recreational event to reward a team that’s worked hard is important but it’s no substitute for team building. If you’re spending more for recreation than for business team building or consulting to boost organizational performance, it’s like the warning light on your dashboard. You’re off-track and confusing the mission of your organization with that of a country club or recreational centre.

3. Start planning WELL in advance and before you lock in your final dates.

Ideally, you should be contacting suppliers at least 8 – 12 weeks prior to your session for something local. (For foreign travel, 3 – 6 months is best especially if the destination is popular.) Allow about 2 – 3 business days to receive proposals for domestic retreats and about a week for quotes for foreign retreats. In fact, before the economy fully recovers, it’s a good time to save your company money by grabbing travel and hotel bargains. If your currency is strong, you can save even more by starting to plan your team building initiatives a year or 2 in advance. Select a provider and lock in your venue. The detailed planning can come closer to the team building retreat or initiative.

4. Fully brief and prepare the member of your team who will be contacting prospective team building consultants

More often than not, when team building consultants receive inquiries for service, some of the most basic information is missing. Be certain that the person to whom you delegate the task of obtaining quotes from consulting firms can provide such basic information as:

• preferred dates it is always best to have 2 or 3 options
  Make sure that your dates arent carved in stone until you have determined what you will be doing during the reatre and there has been an opportunity to determine the availability of suitable venues.
• group size, composition and degree of physical fitness
• other agenda items to be included and time required
• your objectives (see number 1)
• timeframe (3 days, 2 days, 1 day, 1/2 day)
• budget and what it should include

5. Ensure that you have clear decision making criteria and a process for timely decision-making

Preparing a targeted proposal does take time. It isn’t reasonable, to request a quote, indicate that it is urgent and then delay decision-making for weeks or even months. 5 – 10 business days is a reasonable timeframe for making a decision once you have obtained all proposals. If this isn’t possible then 2 of the first objectives or your team building retreat should be to streamline your decision making processes and improve your team’s ability to make timely decision.

6. Delegate fact finding, get input from your team but NEVER delegate finale decision making.

As the decision maker, you should ALWAYS have a conversation with the senior facilitator or event planner from the firm with whom you are thinking of doing business. This will ensure that all pertinent information has been communicated and provided. Save delegation of decision-making to a committee for recreational events, company picnics and the annual holiday party. For team building and retreats, decision by committee should always be avoided. A committee is great for exploring options and giving input but an executive should always make the final decision based on what is best for the business. Far too often, committees make decision based on what is fun or cool. They also tend to blow the budget on expensive hotels when more affordable options are available.

7. Ensure that you designate a member of your team to communicate your decision and the rationale to all consultants who have taken the time to send you a proposal.

Once you have made a decision, it is important to close the loop and communicate your decision and the reason for it to all consultants who have taken the time to prepare a proposal. It’s good manners and just “falling off the face of the earth” after you have received a proposal, makes your company look unprofessional.

8. Remember to include the key elements for effective team building

The phases of effective team building are:

• pre-session communication to communicate goals, objectives and expectations
• executive briefing to identify key business issues, communicate your support, and clarify how team building is relevant the business ( 1/2 hour – 1 hour)
• context setting and team briefing by facilitator ( 1 1/2 2 hours)
• recreation (flexible & optional)
• simulation (3 – 8 hours)
• debriefing (1- 1 1/2 hour)
• business application exercises (2 hours for prep., 5 to 15 minutes per group for presentations)
• business agenda items (flexible)
• charity event or other opportunity to give back to the community (1/2 day to full day) – highly recommended

One of the reasons for the AIG Effect is that large corporations (particularly those on the public purse who had received TARP funding) were perceived as selfishly spending on themselves. If more organizations would include charity components in their retreats, this would go a long way to reversing that perception.

Remember, recreation is a “nice to have” and highly recommended. It will definitely help team members relax and get to know each other better but it should never be the only element or the main ingredient in your team building initiative.

9. Match your timeframe to your objectives, never pack the agenda and remember to build in buffers.

Allow ample time for transportation and transfer delays. Allocate enough time for people to settle into the venue, especially during the winter or if you are leaving the country. Remember, a late night arrival and early start is efficient but its bound to create resentment and generate a backlash that will undermine your efforts.
Make allowances for some down time even if it means adding half a day to your agenda. One of the worst things you can do is take your team to a beautiful location and give them no time to relax and enjoy it.

Team Building Timeframes: What’s Realistic

Executive Oasis International offers highly effective team building simulations that fit the following timeframes:

• 3 – 4 Days – Full Team Building Simulation (including outdoor recreational activities), Debriefing & Business Application Exercises, Business Meeting, Charity Event or Activity to Give Back to the Community
• 2 1/2 – 3 Days – Full Team Building Simulation (including outdoor recreational activities), Debriefing & Business Application Exercises, Short Business Meeting
• 2 Days – Full Team Building Simulation Debriefing & Business Application Exercises, Short Business Meeting
• 1 Day – Very Basic Team Building Simulation, Debriefing & Business MeetingUsually, 1/2 a day is only recommended for team recreation, however, Ontario based Eagle’s Flight has exceptional team building simulations for large groups that fit this timeframe and agenda:
  • 1/2 Day – Team Building Simulation & Debriefing

  10. Arrange for regular checkpoints with the facilitator or event planner and involve him or her in all course corrections.

  Discuss how things are going and come up with solutions together if there are any concerns. For example, never panic and cut the simulation or debriefing short. Remember, highly analytical learners wont get it just based on experience. Dont expect them to get it. Expect them to struggle a bit. They need time to think, reflect and process. If you want to be innovative, this will be definition involve taking some members of your team out of their zone of comfort. If you panic and cut things short, analytical learners will never have an opportunity to get value out of the session.

  Follow up, follow up, follow up!

  Team building should never be a stand alone event. Work with your business facilitator to formulate a follow up strategy. Encourage the use of the new tools introduced through team building on an ongoing basis. Give each breakout groups a project and have them provide periodic updates in the months following your team building session. In this way, you can boost R.O.I. and ensure that the tools and strategies team members pick up at the retreat are integrated into your day to day business.

Anne Thornley-Brown’s blog Corporate Team Building focuses on strategies for boosting the bottom line impact of team building.

There are many decisions for a planner to make when hosting a team program for a company meeting or retreat. These decisions include selecting the right teambuilding company or facilitator, finding the right venue, deciding on the best program activity and understanding what participants should “walk away with”; such as making new connections, or better understanding everyone’s role within the team.

Often lost in this process is deciding if a program should be run competitively or non-competitively. It is a misconception to think that a competitive group will only do well within a competitive environment. These groups actually are often the ones that would benefit the most from an opportunity to work together on an activity or project run non-competitively, where the entire group wins by participating. The insight that a team’s collaborative efforts helps the entire group succeed is often more valuable than knowing their team can “beat” other teams in a particular challenge.

On the other hand, friendly competition can be healthy if run correctly. When a small group of participants truly work together at a challenge, it can be very rewarding as they collaborate, show sportsmanship and bond together. Many sports oriented challenges such as Corporate Olympiads, adventure hunts and build-your-own boat or racecar events are set up to promote competition. But beware, if a program is not produced tightly, or teams are not distributed equally, this approach can lead to other teams and participants resenting the winners. Claims of cheating or favoritism can creep in and instead of creating organizational unity; winning teams show up losing teams and losing teams give up or try to foul up winning teams.

Does this mean that team activities should never be competitive? Absolutely not! Depending on the situation, friendly competition can generate excitement and keep teams actively engaged. It can also be a good stimulator for participants who are usually not very competitive, or need to be more competitive to survive in their fast paced business environment.

Here are guidelines on adding competition to help you plan a beneficial team activity:

1) Determine what you want participants to get out of the program. If creating a sense of competitiveness within the organization is important (such as a sales team), then adding an element of competition can be healthy.

2) Work with a trained facilitator or team-building company to consider how a non-competitive activity might be structured and what some of the potential benefits are from this type of scenario. Examples of non-competitive activities may include building a playground or bicycles for a charity or tasking teams to accomplish a series of challenges with a group debrief at the end discussing roles and responsibility instead of awarding prizes.

3) Be sure teams are equally created along the lines of age, gender and employee position.

4) If it is decided to include competition, don’t announce or update team scores until the very end of the activity. It may be nice to have scoreboard updates when following a collegiate sports competition, but in a corporate setting keeping scores a mystery allows every team to feel like they have a chance throughout the activity.

5) Stay away from large or financial prizes for winning teams. Teams often benefit enough from the recognition they receive at the end of the event for winning the competition. Ribbons, novelty prizes or low dollar amount gift certificates work well. Large financial prizes can again create a sense of resentment and a team or two might feel cheated. If there is a financial prize, consider a monetary donation given to the winning team’s favorite charity.

No matter what approach you take, it is important to add interactive or team programs to the overall meeting agenda where participants can be actively involved in meeting new people, solving challenges and generating excitement. The key point is to be sure to step back, fully understand your group’s program objectives, and then determine if adding an element of competition is the best way to accomplish these objectives.

This blog was originally written and posted by Blogger Harvey Chimoff on September 16, 2009. Harvey Chirnoff is a cross-functional marketing leader who relies on a special blend of pragmatic strategy, vision, organization, and action to achieve marketing and business results. Contact Harvey at hchimoff@att.net. Click here to see the original blog:

I’m always intrigued by companies that are able to promote and market without direct price cuts, especially during a time of declining demand.

Headline For Marketers: Price is and will always be a critical part of the marketing mix. Although sometimes necessary, marketers should strive to develop approaches beyond just straight price-cutting. Try to create a price benefit that can help build your business longer-term instead of just getting a one-time sales spike. It’s more powerful for building your brand and positioning if you can wrap the pricing mechanism within an activity that actually reinforces the key selling point of the product or service. In the case of British Airways, they’re reminding a key user segment why personal interaction, and hence business travel, is often a key business criterion for success. Business travel will return, even if it’s less than before. The airlines that can do a better job to retain existing users and potentially develop new users will be better positioned to capitalize post-recession.

Here at EventWorks we are a multi-generational and multi-cultural crew. Each in our own way we try to stay informed about our industry and economic trends in general as best we can. Besides this blog, we read trade magazines, weeklies, dailies and more. We follow television and social media. But for all of us, balancing time between “real” production work and ongoing research and learning efforts poses a challenge. We need more than 24 hours in a day.

As an original Mid-Westerner I have come to appreciate the tweets of fellow Chicagoan Barry Moltz, entrepreneur, public speaker and book author. Barry travels to many conferences in many different industries and shares his findings on Facebook and Twitter as well as his website, www.barrymoltz.com.

According to his bio, he has “founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 15 years.” He also authored three successful books about business and his most comforting theory espouses the idea that business ups and downs are part of life. We just have to learn how to BOUNCE”. Following his tweets has allowed me to stay informed in 140 characters or less.

Barry just returned from SXSW in Austin, Texas. I checked in with him by phone to specifically ask for advice for the event industry.

JE: Barry, what is your advice for the event industry?

BM: The event industry really has to ask itself at this point “what service do we offer”. People buy when they are in pain and nothing replaces real life meetings. That is what you offer! We talk a lot about virtual friendships but they will never take the same place. That said, of course the industry has to adjust to the new economic realities, lower budgets and different styles. There is real opportunity out there. Besides real life meetings, companies should also offer virtual meetings through communication technology and social media.

JE: Our industry has been hard hit. Our own work force is demoralized. What do you suggest we can do?

BM: Happiness is difficult to achieve at this point but the crisis has actually motivated a lot of people to try harder for whatever they want to achieve. As a company owner or manager you should communicate with your work force and find out what goals they have personally and share the company’s goals and go from there to find common ground. Many employees are looking to further their education. Many people retrain and learn new skills. Companies benefit from that. The better you communicate the better your employees are going to feel.

JE: What do you recommend if a company has already folded?

BM: Retire, hopefully! (laughing). If that is not an option, consider taking a job in another company or possibly even start fresh with another enterprise of your own. The key is networking in this situation. Get out there and let people know what you are looking for. Use the phone, social media, the Internet, mingle. Do it all.

JE: What do you think about the recovery?

BM: It is getting better. There is less bad news out there. You don’t hear so much negative business any more on the 10Pm news. People’s psyches are getting better.

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Barry’s books are: “You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business”, “Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success” and the new release “BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World”.