Take your conference to new heights
Maybe you’ve read our previous post about how to plan a great conference in London. Maybe you haven’t – yet you already feel like you know what you need to do. In either case, we believe there are certain key strategies that you can implement to take your conference to new heights. And one of them is using unique meeting breaks strategically – while we will touch on the second idea afterwards. Bringing things back to meeting breaks; it’s clear – with the barrage of information that tends to overflow the room, guests can become distracted or tiresome during a conference – especially if it’s an all-day event.
Short breaks between 10-15mins at most break the tension that’s been bubbling up in the room, and during key moments, they help guests relax and absorb all the information that’s been shared. Besides, they allow guests to communicate with each other, helping promote a social atmosphere that’s conducive to networking.
One of the key things to realize is that you will two types of people in any conference. They are either naughty or nice ¬¬- while that might seem like a strange proclamation to make, let’s explain why that is. So when you construct your meeting breaks in the planning phase (which you will have to), you want to give guests two ranges of options that accommodate both types of guests. For instance, when they come to the counter looking for something to snack on, you’d ideally want the more so called naughty items such as whisky shots, butter cakes, Nutella doughnut sliders to be presented together.
On the other side, you’ll want to present other items such as freshly sliced fruits, kale chips, and gluten free oat cakes together. This way, the two categories don’t get muddled up – and allow guests to pick what they want quickly. Now you don’t want to necessarily make the idea that the bad groups and good foods have been separated because that would only cause division between guests. Rather, you want to make them separate, yet very closely adjoined, that way all guests can gather round.
Additionally, consider sending a “What to expect” email to all attendees. While surprise is a factor that you want to retain, you also want to give guests a general preview of what to expect. Doing this will mean that guests who are considering dropping out, might be tempted to change their minds after reading the email. And when all your attendees do arrive, provide them with name badges that are clear to see.
Meeting breaks don’t have to be a boring affair. Tea, biscuits, and coffee just don’t do it anymore these days – especially if you’re hosting a first-class conference event. So why should you care so much about these meeting breaks and the food and drinks you serve? Consider this… People have travelled a distance to make it to your event, some have travelled hours. And even for those who live nearby the conference venues in London, they’ve come in expecting something. By dazzling them with even the minutest details, you’ll be giving them the sense of novelty and surprise – that they’ll associate with your message and conference. Perhaps that makes it clear… the details are ever-so important.
We hope the essence of this post has inspired you to make your conference as great as it can be. While we’ve used the example of using meeting breaks to leverage your conference into something extraordinary; the same can be applied to all parts of the event.
