May 2007 • Volume 27 • Number 5 • The Meeting Professional

Column: That’s the Plan

Innovative Ideas for Successful Planners

On the Outside Looking In

By Joanne Corby

 

The meetings industry conducts business no differently than any other industry. But is it time to change the way we conduct business? In 1999, GE’s then-CEO Jack Welch contended, “Outside-in is a big idea, we’ve been doing business inside-out for over a hundred years. Forcing everything around the outside-in viewpoint changes the game.”

 

Outside the Box

To look or think “outside the box” (doing business inside-out) has become a cliché that has structured the way we do business. We use this when looking for new ideas, finding better ways to plan a meeting or when demonstrating our value. Think about it the next time you’re sitting at a corporate table. Who will be the first person to shout out, “Let’s look outside the box!”? Everyone walks away from the table in different directions, more than likely because they’re all focused on what they think they should be looking for or doing for the meeting. We’ve used this phrase so freely that we’ve adopted it as a way of doing business. Well, it doesn’t work.

All we’ve created is a lot of people heading in different directions. It’s time we stop doing business inside-out and turn things outside-in. 

When it comes time to plan a better meeting, provide educational value and demonstrate a return on investment (ROI), the outside-in viewpoint is key.

Improving Educational Meetings

The list below provides outside-in ideas that might not be feasible for every meeting; however, every meeting can be improved by implementing one or more of these tactics.

Define and Determine Objectives. Asking what the meeting objectives are is an important first step. Ask if the clients have any objections to you creating the conference or educational program around the needs of the attendees by only providing topics with the overall meeting or organizational goal built-in. Have the clients provide topics they want covered or that they believe propel them closer to the goal and hire educators who have knowledge on those topics. At the beginning of each session, attendees should be asked, “What do you want to learn about this topic?” Don’t do this prior to the conference or meeting. Let the educators create the learning objectives on the spot based on the outsiders’ perceptions (attendees) sitting in front of them. There is nothing more frustrating to an attendee than sitting through a program that had nothing to do with what they needed to take away from the educational experience. Remember, at the risk of sounding insulting, not all clients know what they need to achieve their goals.

Get to Know Attendees. Ask attendees a “nothing to do with the conference” question during the registration process and post the results at the general session or at the closing session. Or incorporate the results in a networking activity. It doesn’t matter how you use the results—the point is to have fun. The question can be “sponsored” or it could be about the organization, last year’s meeting or a thought-provoking issue.

Create Strong Partnerships.  There is nothing more satisfying than having a repeat customer, whether you’re a planner or a supplier. Strengthen relationships you’ve had success with. Ask yourself if you are working with a core group of people or if you know enough about the people in your Rolodex to create the right educational meeting for your client.

Team Up with Trainers. There are a lot of knowledge trainers out there. However, a lot of trainers aren’t knowledgeable about every topic. Know topics about which trainers are most knowledgeable so you can easily manage defining and determining objectives. A basic idea of attendee knowledge is important to have but becomes apparent to knowledge trainers after they query attendees as to what they want to learn about the topic. Too often trainers have planned for a session and either have a different mindset from attendees in the room or find out midway through the program that attendees were expecting something else.

Create the Right Environment. The level of schedule flexibility largely impacts the environment. There are times when less is more. Attendees, trainers and sponsors gain nothing if participants rush off to another portion of an event prior to completing the first. For an educational event, less time between sessions is better than less session time. However, if networking is one of the event’s objectives, fewer sessions are better than less time between sessions.

Understand Adult Learning. This is complicated, especially when factoring in multiple generations and cultures. One of the most valuable benefits of the outside-in viewpoint is that the focus narrows to those individuals right in front of you, giving planners and trainers/educators an analytic tool. Proper use of the tool will develop on-the-spot interactive training opportunities.

Consider the Training ROI.  One of the best ways to gauge evaluations is to link it to the objectives, beginning with the end in mind. We often mistakenly develop an assessment tool that is standard for an entire meeting or conference; however, there is no need for an assessment tool to be standardized, especially if you want to establish ROI. For effective educational meetings and conferences it is worth including an additional 15 minutes on the schedule to allow time for trainers to reconnect to the program topic expressed at the beginning of the session.

Turning things outside in is doing business from the outsider’s perspective. In doing so you will create educational meetings and conferences where inspirational posters and sayings aren’t needed.

 

JOANNE CORBY is president of Melbourne, Fla.-based U Expansion Inc., an MPI Platinum Series speaker and a member of the MPI Greater Orlando Area Chapter. She can be reached at joanne@uexpansion.com .