Meetings are defined differently by organizations yet sometimes meetings are not defined at all. Some people differentiate between meetings and events while others use the terms interchangeably. Meetings may be referred to as one or several days in length. Meetings often include numerous events that must be integrated to provide a seamless experience for the attendees. No two meetings or events are alike.
Whereas a meeting may be a workshop, project team meeting, training session, retreat, or conference, an event may be a client reception, town hall, entertainment event, a team-building activity, a fundraiser, or dinner event. Events are often a few hours to one day in length. Yet, multi-day events may often be the most challenging and offer the greatest return on investment as with the case of planning for a golf invitational that includes high profile clients. Meetings and events are further defined by the Convention Industry Council and other organizations.
What are the 7 Reasons we have meetings?
- What is the meeting objective?
- What is the general purpose of the meeting?
- What do you hope to accomplish?
- What is the expected outcome and how will it be measured?
- Do you require a baseline of information before the meeting/event starts so that you can compare the information to the after-meeting/event results?
If we understand the purpose of the meeting and the expected outcome, then we can plan the meeting with an understanding of the expectations and plan for success.
Meetings or events are generally held to communicate, motivate, educate, celebrate, generate revenue or regenerate the workforce. The following table describes some meeting types, the purpose or goals of the meeting, a question to ask to develop ideas on measurement, and sample measurement ideas. Many organizations require that the meeting sponsor or budget holder be responsible for ensuring that the meeting/event expenses are valid, reasonable and necessary to achieve the desired business objectives.
You may also want to offer virtual meeting options to replace or complement meetings when the objective is to communicate, educate or generate revenue. Whereas, it is more challenging to use virtual technologies to motivate and celebrate.
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Debi's 7 Reasons why we have Meetings
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Meeting Type Examples
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Goal or Purpose of the Meeting
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Question to ask to understand how to measure the outcome of the meeting or event
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Measurement Ideas (not all inclusive)
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Business, committee meeting, project meetings, executive meetings, etc.
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Communicate
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Was the communication used and understood?
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Measure the effects of the communication efforts.
For example, if a business meeting was held to discuss a new project, the measurement could be the success of the project completion as evaluated by the project sponsor.
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Product Launch
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Motivate
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Did the attendees change or improve behavior through motivation?
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Measure the effects of the improved behavior such as the familiarity of the new product or service before and after the meeting. Later, more measurements could be tracked such as increased sales of the product or service.
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Training session
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Educate
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Did the attendees learn something that would reduce cost or risk, improve productivity or quality, or generate more sales?
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Measure the effects of the education, including an increase in productivity after learning the new skill, or an increase in sales after learning about the product or service.
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Retreat, incentive type meeting
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Celebrate
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Did the attendees feel appreciated?
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Measure the effects of the perceived value of the celebratory event. The measurement could be the increase in accomplishments throughout the year or the perceived feeling that the attendees had during the event.
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Focus groups, Feedback meetings, Advisory councils
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Evaluate
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Did the attendees evaluate the service or product as expected and provide the needed feedback?
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Measure the depth of the attendee feedback or the level of participation in advisory councils.
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Product launches, Sales meetings
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Generate revenue
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Did the event help generate more revenue?
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Measure the effects of the leads generated, resulting sales or revenue generated.
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Recruiting activities
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Regenerate the workforce through recruiting
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Did the organization hire more staff?
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Measure the effects of the recruiting and interviewing efforts: the number of subsequent interviews held or the number hired who attended the job fair.
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Debi Scholar© 2011.
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Be sure to track all of your meetings and events through your meeting management technology system. If you want any help measuring the effectiveness of your meetings and events, contact me.
A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.
Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...
Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT
• Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (2011)
• Meetings Management Mover and Shaker as selected by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
• Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
• Best Meeting Practitioner as selected by Business Travel News (2007)
*Debi is proud to be a regular contributor to Business Travel Executive Magazine.
*Debi is proud to be one of only seven 2011 Editorial Board members for Hotel Business Review at http://www.hotelexecutive.com/ for Conferences & Meetings.
*Debi created two LinkedIn groups (GBTA SMM and T&E Plus) that now claim over 2,000 worldwide members combined.
Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference
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December 1 – EMC Venue’s MEET
January 10 - PCMA
January 11, 12 - MCAF
February 23-24 - GA MPI
March 1 - VA MPI
March - Meetings Technology
