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BUSINESS ENTERTAINING, MEETINGS & TRAVEL
From pig roasts to big screens, suggestions for more memorable meetings
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Business New Haven
8/23/99
By: Susan Banfield
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Company executives in Batman costumes presenting a skit about a new toothpaste. A Star Wars-themed function featuring food on satellite-style platters suspended from the roof of a tent. A meeting in an elegant 19th-century mansion with participants' suggestions written on a large electronic white board and then, with a push of a button, e-mailed to everyone present.
These are just a few of the approaches area companies are using to make their meetings more memorable, and hence effective.
In these days of MTV, large-screen home entertainment centers and IMAX theaters, what does it take to hold employees' interest at a company meeting?
There are several schools of thought on the subject.
In the 1980s and '90s people went for extravaganzas, glitz, spectacles, says Melinda Lovelace, a producer with Alden Event Productions in Bristol. These are fast becoming a thing of the past, she has found. In general companies are not putting as much of their budget into meetings, she says.
However, many involved in meeting planning still find that the creative touch, even if on a more modest scale, pays huge dividends by way of meeting effectiveness. When you cater to a group creatively, a positive outcome is more likely to follow, says Sherri Powers, catering sales manager at the Omni New Haven Hotel.
Food is one area in which creativity is still relatively cost-effective. Having a smart caterer thematicize your food is no additional cost, says Jeffrey Rapoport, managing director of Jordan Caterers & Event Planners.
Jordan's will even costume and make-up their serving staff to carry out a theme for only a small additional cost. Some of the themes the Cheshire-based company has done recently have included a Star Wars theme, in which the waitresses were all dressed like characters from the movie and food was suspended from the ceiling of the tent on satellite-like platters; an Oktoberfest theme complete with roasted suckling pig and beer from a local microbrewery; and an Annie theme for which all the waitresses dressed up like Little Orphan Annie.
Even without a theme, there are many ways in which the menu and presentation of food for a meeting can make things memorable. Powers tries to give her clients something just a little bit different. Instead of the usual continental breakfast or morning bagel spread, for example, she will offer a fresh fruit smoothie or a waffle display. For lunch, the typical deli spread might be replaced by theme buffets, such as Italian or Oriental. Afternoon snacks such as fudge brownies or a make-your-own-sundae bar, she finds, spark interest.
Rapoport adds that upgrading the service to china and real flatware can dress up an event. He also likes to decorate with lots of potted plants and herbs, an inexpensive and unexpected alternative to the usual expensive floral arrangements.
In addition to working with the food, selecting an unusual location is another easy way to make a meeting special. As off-premise caterers, Jordan's specializes in suggesting unique locations. They find that water and shoreline sites are especially popular.
Jordan's has done meetings on boats on the Connecticut River (supplied by Deep River Navigation), and a number at the Savin Rock Conference Center on the shore in West Haven. Another unusual location that should prove very popular with meeting planners in search of something out of the ordinary is Long Hill Estates, an historic mansion once belonging to the Wadsworth family and now owned by the town of Middletown. The mansion is being converted into a premier conference and banquet facility.
Although the trend these days may be toward less extravagant, more modest events, Alden finds that most companies still find that a theme helps to make a meeting more impactful. The Batman script, complete with costumes and liquid smoke, was one of Alden's more elaborate recent productions, but producer Lovelace notes that there are many little ways in which a theme can be carried through a day or two of meetings.
Lovelace says that music is very important in this regard, and she frequently customizes songs and writes new lyrics for clients. Alden also offers the services of speechwriters to help presenters weave a theme into their presentations.
Another growing school of meeting planning stresses not so much creativity, but the latest in technology. Many companies these days are finding that their most effective meetings are those that take advantage of the sophisticated audio-visual equipment that is now available for purchase or for rent.
At People's Bank, for example, Chris Martin, People's marketing manager for credit cards, says that larger meetings these days are very polished, very high-tech shows.
Videos are still enormously popular, says Lovelace. They can do a lot to make a meeting memorable, especially when shown on a large screen.
Everybody goes to the movies, notes Kevin Collins, vice president of sales and operations at HB Communications. So big-screen presentations have a nice, impressive impact.
There are a number of ways now in which even a simple video can be made more effective. There are projectors that can project onto a large (ten- by 14-foot) screen from a short distance (as little as 14 feet), thus making large-screen presentations possible even in small rooms. Good sound equipment can also spice up a video. The audio component should be loud and in stereo, says HB's Collins.
Increasingly, videoconferencing is being incorporated into meetings, adding a sense of immediacy as attendees are able to see live instead of canned video presentations by distant execs.
Very sophisticated computer-based presentations are also possible, thanks to the advanced versions of PowerPoint and other similar programs, and to the new portable projectors that connect to laptops. The latest PowerPoint allows for a true multimedia presentation, incorporating animation, video and audio.
The new projectors also allow presenters to log on to the Internet and project Web sites onto a large screen. In addition, these projectors are so bright that most room lighting environments need not be altered (so the audience doesn't fall asleep, Collins point out).
Electronic white boards are another high-tech device that can do wonders for audience involvement and retention. Spreadsheets or other graphics from a computer file are projected onto a large white board. The presenter can then use a special pen to change things on the projected image or write notes (the boards have optical character recognition built in). He can also use his finger to highlight and drag things.
Finally, once a particular frame has been annotated and edited on the board, he can save the changes to a file and either print copies of the new version out or e-mail it to participants.
Whether you choose the creative or the high-tech route, there are a host of options available today to meeting planners looking for ways to spice up their company's meetings.
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