Tag-Archive for » meetings as connections «
Recently I wrote Meetings And Events As Systems Thinking: The Contact Sport.
I talked about viewing each meeting or event within the larger context of a system using the analogy of a sports season.
Here’s another way to think about your annual conference, event or meeting: part of a community ecosystem.
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a collection of organisms and the environment in which they live. Ecosystems contain dynamic interactions between plants, animals, microorganisms and their environment. These interactions work together as a functional unit and everything is interrelated.
Ecosystems can vary greatly in size. Some examples of small ecosystems are tidal pools, a home garden, or the stomach of an individual cow. (Yeah, that’s gross but it shows the variety of ecosystems. And, we’ve all attended conferences that felt like all the content and experiences were regurgitation—and not in a good way—of stuff we’ve already had.) Larger ecosystems might encompass lakes, farm fields or forests.
So now, take that concept of the ecosystem and consider your annual face-to-face meeting. Attendees at your event are part of a larger community. The face-to-face meeting is just one event in a specific time that is part of the larger series of community events and experiences. Dynamic interactions occur between attendees, customers, employees, exhibitors, members, sponsors, vendors and the conference organizers throughout the entire year.
Instead of seeing the annual event in isolation as a one-time occurrence, conference organizers could view it as one touch point within a variety of touch points. Then, the event professional might consider connecting that annual event to other face-to-face and virtual events. Conference organizers would think about integrating content through Webinars, blogs, eCommunities and enewsletters. Event organizers might think about yearlong over-arching themes, users’ experiences and global outcomes.
In this model, organizers would build an integrated, spiraling experience across four seasons and the customer would have many opportunities to digest, ponder and consider the content. Learning and retention would increase. Attendees would design customized experiences with multiple ways to connect with others and the content.
So how do you plan such an event?
Valeria Maltoni identified the components of social integration. Applying her model to the community ecosystem for events, it might look like this:
- the community planning and engagement team (includes content, marketing, meetings and technology members)
- meetings/events experience delivery team (these are the folks that would design online and face-to-face experiences and include player from AV, education, entertainment, logistics, speakers, tradeshow, etc.)
- attendee touch points (webinars, conference eCommunity, eMarketing, online chats, virtual experiences)
- content and experience development
Final thoughts: Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain in balance. Ecologists see an ecosystem as a fundamental life-support service upon which human civilization depends.
It’s time to view the annual face-to-face event as a way to help create a more sustainable community. Don’t see each meeting or event as an isolated production unit that produces specific outcomes that only occur once each year. Instead, view them as ways to generate the life-blood, pulse, oxygen, water, and nutrients for sustainable growth of the community ecosystem. Then you’ll create a healthy community wanting to consume each experience you provide.
So, how could you plan your next event differently with an eye towards creating a sustainable community ecosystem for all of your stakeholders and players?
One of my favorite bloggers, Valeria Maltoni, has an interesting article on Marketing As Systems Thinking.
Valeria says social media and relationships are contact sports.
If social media and relationships are contact sports, then conferences, meetings and events are the athletic fields, gymnasiums and playgrounds for player-to-player and player-to-object contact.
Wow, that’s a powerful analogy. If social media and relationships are contact sports, then conferences, meetings and events are the athletic fields, gymnasiums and playgrounds for player-to-player and player-to-object contact. Sometimes, the conference organizers define the rules of the game. Sometimes the audience makes its own rules. Sometimes, the rules are up for grab and spectators may view it as a collision sport instead.
Using the contact sports analogy, meetings, events and conferences become the venues for contact and connections. Connections like:
- attendee-to-attendee
- attendee-to-organizer
- attendee-to-exhibitor
- attendee-to-mission (whether the organization’s or meeting’s mission)
- attendee-to-content
- content-to-attendee’s emotions
And as Valeria states, connections and relationships are extremely valuable.
So these contacts can become mediums for rich community and industry connections. They can also become the catalysts for community improvements and change, especially those that impact a profession or industry.
Segue Way to Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems thinking attempts to illustrate that events are separated by distance and time. Small catalytic events can cause large changes in complex systems.
Many meeting professionals view the annual conference, or any event for that matter, as a silo, a one-time isolated occurrence. They focus their energy, time and tasks on organizing and implementing details for that one event. Once the event is finished, the organizer moves on to the next event, sometimes the following year, or perhaps another event within that year. Each event is isolated and viewed as an end unto itself.
Rarely is the event seen as connected to other events or experiences. Usually, the events professional only considers contact with attendees as a means to an end: getting the attendee to register, pay, show up onsite or consume an established conference path for the experience. Some savvy organizers consider ways to enhance the attendees’ connections onsite. Yet often, once onsite, the contact sports aren’t structured or facilitated with the exception of a motivational message from a coach (general session speaker), set time for networking and more messages during breakouts.
Now, let’s view the face-to-face annual conference, meeting or event through the lens of systems thinking. Considering the contact sports analogy, the annual conference, or homecoming game, is only one game within the sports season. Instead of viewing that one game out of context of the year’s season, organizers consider the whole season. They would view each contact or connection with the attendee for the whole season. They would view each game’s contacts, as part of a larger system of connected games of relationships. Each game (event) would bring new opportunities to apply previous learnings, experience new ones and work on plays and strategies. Ultimately, the whole season counts, not individual games. Although each game is related and connected. And the players for each game are prepared, focused and ready to make contact.
What would happen if the conference organizers viewed each meeting within a larger eco-system of the attendee’s community experience?
What if meetings professionals considered all the contacts and connections and planned the event with a focus on enhancing those connections?
So what do you think?
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