Category: Meetings

The face of business meetings changed dramatically in 2020. The pandemic was unexpected, forcing changes in how we work globally. Months later, many are still working remotely, meeting via video conferences, hybrid meetings, or in grand spaces where everyone can practice proper social distancing. 

As we explored in our recent post, Changing the Way We Meet with Hybrid Meetings, a hybrid meeting is a meeting where a portion of the participants are on-site in a safe, socially distanced meeting room set while other attendees are connecting online virtually from around the country or world. 

Today, we’re going to explore why hybrid meetings are so important, the types of hybrid meetings to look forward to, and tips for executing a flawless event.

Similar to most other previously “normal” happenings, the face of workplace meetings has had to change drastically. Physical distancing, changes in workplace requirements, and fluctuations in regulations have required businesses and employees to be flexible and creative to stay on track.

Meetings have a grand purpose — to elevate your business by educating and inspiring your team. This goal can be achieved with proper planning and deliberate execution. Sure, workshops, lectures, and talks are important but so is engagement. If your team engages with one another through interactive experiences, they are much more likely to grow together as a team. One such experience is through food and drink.

Multigenerational meetings may seem to present challenges but in truth, they actually are an opportunity to find ways to help your team get beyond the age gap and find strengths in their differences. Differing styles and tastes can be overcome when everyone has their eye on the ultimate goal of the meeting. Creating a sense of camaraderie goes a long way towards uniting a team, helping them to see past their differences.

Here are four tangible steps you can take to help your next multigenerational meeting be a time of building bridges rather than widening the generation gap. 

Primarily known as the home of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia is so much more than just a college town. Rich in history, plentiful in the Arts, fruitful in agriculture, and abounding in adventure, there truly is something for everyone to enjoy. 

If you’re traveling to Blacksburg for a meeting or conference, plan plenty of time to wind down and process all that you have learned. Here are just a few ideas of things you don’t want to miss when visiting. 

Event meetings are a thriving trend with solid footing to continue upward growth. From teambuilding exercises, TED-style talks, to destination meetings, companies and organizations are striving to stay on-trend while zeroing in on the return on their investment. Sure, a cool business trip can temporarily satisfy a worker’s short term need for refreshment but similar to having dessert for dinner, if there is no “meat-on-the-bones”, their satisfaction will be short-lived.

Extracting the most value from a set meeting budget is an extraordinarily important task. Meetings and conferences are an organization’s chance to connect deeper, to inspire new ideas and projects, and to continue cultivating a powerful work culture. Suffice it say, wise meeting planners recognize the crucial task at hand and are open to new ideas on squeezing out more value.

Communication, teamwork, and creativity are critical for the success of any given business, organization or department. One such way to foster all of these things is through meetings. For meetings to be as successful as possible, they must be engaging. It’s not always an easy task to hold the attention of others in this fast-paced attention-grabbing society, yet that is exactly what must be accomplished!

Anyone who has planned a conference or corporate experience knows that finding the ideal venue is vital. There are a variety of absolute needs to execute a successful conference, and not every conference center is equally equipped.