Seven Secrets of Highly Creative Meetings

Are your company’s training sessions designed to inspire maximum creativity, innovation and productivity? In a successful session, participants are actively engaged, groups are collaborating successfully and energy levels are high. You’ll improve overall quality and get results that ultimately contribute to the success of your organization.

ARAMARK Harrison Lodging (AHL) conference centers and park and resort destinations have helped hundreds of companies introduce fresh and unusual ideas to energize their sessions. By partnering with AHL, companies benefit from flexible and creative thinking that opens employees’ minds and gets ideas flowing— resulting in peak performance and dramatic results.

Don’t expect this article to give you the usual dry academic concepts. Our goal is to share with you ideas that have sprung from real-life situations where goals have been met in new and exciting—and sometimes unconventional—ways.

1. Book a venue with a new view
Choosing a destination is one of the first—and most crucial—choices. Instead of something typical, planners should consider how location might broaden participants’ horizons—literally. Even a small change of place—or pace—gives a different perspective and a refreshing sense of separation from everyday routines. So if your company typically sends groups to the city, try the experience of a country setting with wooded surroundings and invigorating recreation.
If you normally spend your workdays in suburbia, a vibrant urban environment offers a stimulating alternative and opportunities to enjoy a dining, athletic or cultural event.

A good example of an inspiring alternative is ARAMARK Harrison Lodging’s Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas. Located on the Arizona/Utah border, this breathtaking landscape of dazzling red rock canyons and turquoise blue water is popular for managerial retreats and incentive groups. Here participants get down to business on the Resort’s luxurious houseboats equipped with every amenity from fridges to fireplaces.

The experience is exhilarating. Lake Powell’s Director of Sales Sarah Bailey explains: “There’s nothing better than seeing our business guests arrive with white knuckles wrapped around their briefcases, then seeing them leave after a week on Lake Powell with sun on their faces and much more relaxed! Groups love the unusual experiences here, from the four-course meals served on a tiki-torch-lit beach to teambuilding rafting trips down the Colorado River.”
A houseboat venue is all about thinking outside the box—or the four walls of a hotel room. It’s the kind of thinking that can launch a truly creative session for your organization.

2. Try teambuilding with a twist
Most destinations will lack the thrill of Colorado River whitewater. But there are still plenty of ways to infuse groups with enthusiasm and create an atmosphere of collaboration and fun. Conference planners from AHL properties around the country shared these ideas to keep your team’s energy levels high:

Include opening activities that help participants get to know one another and kick up energy and enthusiasm for the session.
Groups arriving at ARAMARK Harrison Conference Centers feel energized about their meetings immediately when they experience a special welcome at check-in, receive motivational messages tucked into box breakfasts and participate in high-energy team-building activities.

At a recent meeting, when the company president joined the session, his arrival was memorable. An enterprising ARAMARK Harrison employee had created a huge replica of the company’s new logo on the grass as a landing pad for the CEO’s helicopter. Everyone was thrilled to see their brand-new logo featured center stage.

Introduce games and activities to your group. Here’s a simple but useful exercise from ARAMARK Harrison Conference Centers planners. Called “New Glasses,” this activity can help participants look at the session’s topics in fresh ways.

Simply buy each participant a pair of silly glasses and hand them out before the meeting. Ask them to put on the glasses when they feel they are falling into old ways of looking at the world, or they may ask any other person to put on the glasses when they are expressing old habits and viewpoints. This is a fun and effective way to help people leave their biases and old perspectives behind.

Instead of the same old cocktail reception or “I trust you to catch me before I fall” exercise, try something brand new like fire-walking. When Tom Clancy, Chief Learning Officer of EMC, brings together new employees at an ARAMARK Harrison Conference Center, he plans an activity where participants actually walk on hot coals. Tom reports this unusual event, typically something his employees haven’t tried before, is a fantastic way to build camaraderie.

Another unusual idea comes from Harrison Conference Center & Hotel in Princeton, New Jersey, where groups have partnered with local charities, rolling up their sleeves for a day in a soup kitchen or a Habitat for Humanity homebuilding site. Doing good together brings their team members together.

www.aramarkharrisonlodging.com

3. Comfort counts
Do your creative juices flow freely in a windowless conference room where the furniture’s uncomfortable, the temperature’s too hot (or too cold) and the buzzing fluorescent lights overhead are too bright? Of course not. To feel creative and ready to learn, we need to feel comfortable first.

Fortunately, comfort is something you never worry about when your company chooses a bona fide conference center, like those offered by ARAMARK Harrison Lodging. For anyone unfamiliar with their advantages, here’s a brief primer. Real conference centers are approved by the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), an industry group with more than 30 stringent standards that ensure quality in all aspects of the meeting experience.

At an IACC-approved conference center, you’ll find a distraction-free environment that’s equipped with everything you need to be comfortable, focused and productive. Features include everything from ergonomic furnishings and adjustable controls for both lighting and temperature to an ample supply of meeting materials and chilled bottled water. Continuous refreshment breaks are convenient to the meeting room, plus you have excellent technology resources and the services of a professional conference planner. Beyond the meeting room, your employees enjoy delicious dining with lots of choices, a comfortable guest room complete with work desk and Internet access, and so much more.

If this all sounds fundamental, it is. Absolutely. And don’t stop with the environment. Casual meeting attire can help participants feel more comfortable and more productive, too.

4. Transform an ordinary room into a collaboration room
Most conference rooms are designed for meeting presentations, but it’s easy to turn them into spaces that spark collaboration. The key is communicating with the conference planner so he or she can modify a center’s space and services to meet your company’s goals. Here are just a few ideas from resourceful AHL conference planners:

At the Warren Conference Center & Inn, a historic property just outside Boston, the conference team customizes spaces for clients who want to host productive brainstorming sessions. Sofas and big, comfortable chairs are grouped around a glowing fire to provide a relaxed, informal atmosphere that invites creative thinking and collaboration. This same space has been transformed to look like a movie theater, complete with popcorn and snacks, to create a mood of anticipation and fun for a key presentation.

Helen Morton of AHL’s Skyland Resort in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains also transforms spaces at this Resort’s historic Conference Hall. Her team often combines two breakout rooms, both with fireplaces, into one large, relaxed living room with comfortable sofas and chairs. For Helen’s clients, this setup is a welcome solution when the session requires an alternative to more formal draped tables and chairs.
Technology can enhance meeting and learning environments in different ways.

Even something as simple as utilizing a sound system to pipe in classical music can help expand minds during brainstorming or learning sessions. Many AHL locations, such as Babson Executive Conference Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts, have a room designated solely for video conferencing so groups unable to travel can access the facility and obtain real-time updates. Technology like web cams can also bring in creative minds and ideas from those who might be unable to attend in person. To take advantage of these possibilities, use your conference planner as a resource. He or she is an expert in how technology can be used to inspire and share ideas.

Finally, be ready to capture all those new ideas! All AHL meeting venues equip their rooms with an abundance of materials—easels, sticky notes, colored markers, etc.—to encourage everyone to express ideas, build on ideas and make new connections between ideas. It’s an effective way to encourage high-energy collaboration and visually shape those new ideas into real possibilities.

5. Find a theme for your team
A theme generates enthusiasm and gives participants something to rally around.
It should reflect your company’s goals and help set the tone for the duration of the session. Whatever the focus of the meeting, a theme helps keep it “top of mind” throughout the event.

With a theme in mind, you and your conference planner can creatively incorporate it into many aspects of the meeting, including decorations, props, music, food and beverages. Even if the budget is limited, creativity with a name, color and simple props can go a long way to making any session fun and memorable. It’s simple and economical to liven up a meeting room with inexpensive themed items that create a sense of camaraderie and excitement as participants walk though the door.

Your AHL Conference planner can suggest innovative ways to incorporate a theme and further the goals of your meeting. When a group at The Conference Center at Marlborough in Massachusetts requested an informal icebreaker, the staff turned the dining area into a replica of the Cheers TV Bar. The result was a relaxed, fun atmosphere that immediately encouraged conferees to mingle and get to know everyone in the group.
Another option is to select a destination that has an interesting theme of its own.
AHL’s Mesa Verde National Park, for example, is the nation’s richest archeological preserve with over 4,000 ancient sites and spectacular cliff dwellings. This natural environment creates wonderful opportunities for themed events and activities.

Judith Swain, Sr. Director of National Sales for ARAMARK Parks & Resorts, reports how Mesa Verde creates a memorable environment: “The delicious menus highlight traditional and regional foods, while meeting settings incorporate native American artwork and pottery. And best of all, attendees can gather for breaks or after-meeting cocktails on a patio overlooking Soda Canyon’s wildlife and glorious sunsets.”

6. Reward everyone’s efforts
When wrapping up an event, it’s rewarding to recognize how individuals and teamwork contributed to the success of the session. Finish with a flourish and acknowledge everyone’s focus and hard work.
When the best is saved for last, no one will want to miss the grand finale. The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, recently hosted a sales meeting for a large group from around the country. The Inn is adjacent to the University of North Carolina campus and used this proximity to great advantage by hosting the gala at the University’s planetarium—a perfect venue for its “Reach for the Stars” theme! The evening began with the elegantly attired guests walking the “red carpet” to the planetarium’s entrance as “paparazzi” captured their photos.

Inside, guests were given top hats and tiaras and treated to a glittering reception amid gorgeous ice sculptures carved into shimmering stars. As the evening progressed, the stars theme continued during a wonderful sit-down dinner, awards presentation and dancing to live entertainment.
By the end of the evening, this group truly felt like the stars of the show—and of their company. This upbeat mood even carried over to the next day, when photos of the evening’s festivities were projected onto a large screen during the group’s wrap-up session. Imagination and a sense of style transformed what might have been a typical awards dinner into a magical evening that rewarded guests with a great time and memories that will last forever.

7.Measure and share results
Upbeat, energetic meetings are likely to produce exciting, tangible business results. Make sure your planners build quantifiable goals into the meeting and then follow up with participants after the event to let them know how well goals were achieved.

Typically, meeting success is gauged by asking participants and organizers to evaluate how well it conveyed information, improved communication, increased morale, and so on. While these intangibles can help measure a meeting’s success, there is an initiative within the industry to calculate a meeting’s return on the investment (ROI) of both time and money. A recent partnership of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) with the ROI Institute based in Birmingham, Alabama, promises to make measuring tangibles in the meeting industry a reality.

Stay tuned to the progress of this initiative and the tools it may offer you to measure the success of your sessions in more depth. Remember that creativity and enthusiasm remain high when individuals know their time was well spent.

ARAMARK Harrison Lodging has been planning successful training and learning events at its conference center properties for years. Now, with the recent integration of ARAMARK’s national parks and resorts division, the company offers even more opportunities for stimulating and productive learning environments.
“The world of corporate learning is very familiar to our company,” explains Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jeff Weggeman. “At all levels of our organization, we’re attuned to our customers’ needs, staying informed about learning trends and always innovating to enhance our learning environments. That’s why many ideas in the articles were contributed by meeting planners at our properties.
They are learning every day what works best for our customers when they want to create a high-energy environment for meeting and training events.”

Resources: Links to Topics in this Article

ARAMARK Harrison Lodging
http://www.aramarkharrisonlodging.com

Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas
http://www.lakepowell.com

International Association of Conference Centers
http://www.iacconline.com

Mesa Verde National Park
http://www.visitmesaverde.com

Shenandoah National Park
http://www.visitshenandoah.com
Article with more details about ROI for meetings:

“The Fifth Element,” By Suzie Amer
Successful Meetings, April 01, 2005
http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/articles/article_display.jsp?vnu_
content_id=1001262529

Meeting Professionals International
http://www.mpiweb.org