It’s Your Party: Choosing the Right Meeting Venue to Create a Most Memorable Experience!

CO-AUTHORS:
Cyndi Maxey, CSP
Kevin E. O’Connor, CSP

Abstract: “It’s Your Party: Choosing the Right Meeting Venue to Create a Most Memorable Experience!” outlines key tips and techniques for pharmaceutical professionals who are charged with meeting management details. Readers will learn key criteria that meeting professionals know to set themselves up for successful scientific meetings: how to tailor the venue to the audience, presenters, budget, time frame and overall goal of the meeting. Important questions for planning, execution and follow up are emphasized.

Suddenly you’re a meeting planner. You may be wondering how you ever got that role, given that your expertise is science and sales and not hospitality management. However, when the success of the next advisory board or product review relies on you, great meeting planning skills will pay off. Consider the last meeting you attended that went without a hitch, and the one that bombed! These are not accidents.
There are three essentials to a smooth running meeting:

1. Be aware that you are creating an experience for your attendees, not simply an event or a meeting.
2. The impact of this experience will be significantly judged by the venue you choose. Like it or not, the quality of the room, the food, and the creature comforts are remembered long after the content of the meeting has been digested.
3. How you personally interact as a host or hostess will dramatically affect the experience of the attendees.

A smoothly run meeting in the right setting puts your client and physician audience in the right frame of mind—positive, receptive, and loyal to you and your organization. If you consider five key criteria, ask good questions, and remain prepared to adjust to last minute changes, you’ll be able to achieve the same great results that professional meeting planners do. And you’ll be able to relax knowing the meeting will achieve its real goal.

Clarify Five Key Criteria for Success
Before you automatically send the first email to the same hotel you last used, consider the following important criteria:

1. The goal of the meeting. What do you want attendees to do or believe as a result of this meeting? What are the desired outcomes?
2. The audience. Who are they and what do they want and need?
3. The presenters. What is their experience level in both their topics and their speaking skills?
4. The budget. Are you working within a budget that is limited?
5. The time frame. How long is the meeting? How long do you have to plan it?

#1. The Meeting Goal Is Critical
While scientific presentations appear to be informational, what’s really happening is much more complex. Ideas are being sold. Relationships are being solidified. Conflicts are being aired. Objections are being tested. What is the “real” goal of your meeting? Is it a new product scientific information dump or is it a platform to allow comfortable networking or progress the image of your company with potential buyers?

One thing is essential—while only a few attendees will remember the information, they will all surely remember the experience of the event. This is vital to understand. How they are invited, greeted, seated and fed is a key element of the success of your information. You are the one who has to impress on the hotel or restaurant the importance of your meeting, its attendees, and the role the venue plays. Leaving this up to the hotel or restaurant takes it further out of your control When errors happen, you are the one who will be evaluated poorly, not the place.

Therefore, knowing why you want these attendees to come is important and everything that surrounds the meeting reflects upon you. It either serves to make the information at the meeting easy to digest or distracts from it.

#2. The Audience Make-up Is Important
Audience size, make-up, and mindset are all important. Consider if the audience is new or if they are they familiar with your organization. Also, the size of the audience can dictate the majority of venue decisions.

Groups of 15 or less can be comfortable at a large board table but when in a u shape they will see each other better and you will have more presentation flexibility. Your faculty and speakers will have more intimacy with the audience as well. While large leather chairs may be impressive, it is important to allow movement around the table to have small discussions and allow ease of access to food and drink. Too small a room will quickly affect morale, as will too large a room. Be aware of the energy in the room. If you need to deal with a large banquet room, maximize the energy by getting rid of extra chairs and using only one end of the room. Take a tip from comedy clubs; you will want your audience close to your presenters. This allows for more interactivity and warmth.

A group over 15 has different considerations. A u shape can still work, but be careful that it doesn’t get so large that people around the u can’t hear each other. Some groups use round tables but only use 5-6 seats instead of the traditional 8-10. This allows all to face the front and have space to write and discuss. Room set-up is your job, not the hotel’s. You care the most. Think through what you want to have happen. Some audiences need to talk and discuss; some need to sit and listen; still others will need room for small break out groups. By the way, having a large room and breaking the group into smaller discussion groups is a highly effective way to keep energy in the audience. Resist the temptation to have other smaller rooms for “break outs.” These are harder to control and the discussions can get untimely or off-track without an overseeing facilitator.

Acoustics are important, especially for larger groups. Check that the venue provides up-to-date sound equipment, microphones and dividers for larger rooms. Many baby boomers are hard of hearing, don’t yet know it, and therefore benefit from a hand-held mike to pass around the audience for comments. Actually, ordering an extra hand-held mike is a good idea—for all ages. You never know when unexpected construction noises or fun in the next room can cause a distraction. The discussion can quickly lose focus when nobody can hear it. Presenters should definitely wear mikes for groups over 15 and, if acoustics are bad or the hotel room is old or poorly designed, a mike should always be considered. Wireless, lavaliere microphones set up and run by an expert audio-visual company are an investment that will guarantee and pay big returns. Don’t skimp on what your audience can see and hear; this is the essence of the meeting.

#3. The Presenters Must Look and Sound Great
If you are working with technical presenters, physicians or internal people, consider their experience level and the amount of access you will have to them before the meeting. Will there be an opportunity to practice? If so, you need to set this up with the venue ahead of time and account for budget and time in the room.

It is very important for all presenters to know the room and it is especially essential for those with key information and little experience in presentation skills. Booking some time in the room the night before the presentation is a good idea. You can troubleshoot any problems that might occur the next day.

#4. The Budget—For Better or Worse—Is Your Partner
Most meeting planners want a bigger budget than they’re given, and they learn to do a lot with a little. For example, in a less costly venue such as a local restaurant, you can trade off shorter travel time, perhaps inviting spouses or partners to share in the meal or entertainment portion. A restaurant attached to a golf course can provide a negotiable, easy alternative to taking everyone off site to eat or enjoy a sport.

You don’t have to order a lot of costly desserts and breads as snacks and meals. Audiences today appreciate fruits, trail mixes, and waters. Alcohol is another option—up to you to negotiate or offer as a beer or wine option only.

You can save on paper handouts by listing important links and websites on one classy paper page. Product packaging and samples can be visual aids instead of expensive four-color handouts. If you have a large budget, you can be classy without being opulent. Again, keep food healthy rather than decadent and keep visuals essential and simple rather than overblown and hefty; audiences appreciate simplicity most of the time because ideas are easier to understand.

#5. Your Time Frame Is Critical for Busy People
Consider the time frame carefully. Mornings are better than afternoons or evenings for attentiveness of the audience. Keep the breaks carefully timed. A ten- to fifteen-minute stretch is much easier to control than a half hour. Make sure the hotel understands the break times and how to manage refills and snacks. A noisy coffee refill has been known to destroy the concentration of the group at crucial content points.

Alcohol will certainly affect the audience, not always for the worse, but think through the purpose and the effect on the meeting. Alcohol is sometimes expected prior to a dinner program. You can decide, however, to change that for better audience attention. Why not have the cocktails after the dinner? Or simply offering wine for thirty minutes prior to dinner will help control your expense and their attentiveness. However you decide to integrate alcohol into the event remember that this is your meeting and you can make the decision to have or to not have. Tradition need not rule your decision-making. From our past experience, many meetings are much better without alcohol even though it has been a staple in the past.
The key consideration for time is that you must respect the audience’s expectation that things will start and end on time, that you will control the over-talkers, and that you respect the busy schedules the audience has come from.

Don’t assume anything
After thinking through the basic criteria, get your checklists ready. Give yourself time. Sales and catering contacts at venues all have three things in common: 1) They are busy. 2) They expect you to know what you want. 3) They have other priorities. An experienced, full-time hospitality professional knows how to ask and answer important questions about the goals of the presentation and the needs of the audience. But you, the company representative, still need to ask. Never assume your contact has thought through every last detail. They know how to structure the event details; you must know how to structure the event experience.

Answers increase the likelihood of success.  If the planner doesn’t know, find out the person to call or email who can help you. If you were planning a wedding, a call to someone who knows your father-in-law well will yield a surprise story as well as a menu or wine preference. In like manner, when you are representing your company project team, do a quick survey of the team via email on an important point. Administrative assistants and project coordinators are always valuable sources of general information about people they work for and with. They do not want to be embarrassed, however—they still have to live with the boss when you are gone! One meeting planner made this call and found out that the CEO coming to the meeting was a fan/fanatic of Diet Mountain Dew. Arranging for that to be available, despite the protestations of the hotel, insured a very big smile from the special guest.

Be aware that wants and needs are not the same. Sometimes a sales audience wants a “motivational” speech, but what they really need are the skills to continually motivate themselves. Other times a more academic audience wants content, skills, and a no-nonsense approach to a topic, but what they really need is a learning environment with some purposeful interactive fun in it. And, of course, there is always the audience who is celebrating with an awards dinner or reception who wants the presenter to say very little so that they can get back to cocktails, dinner, and great conversation.

Ask those who planned the previous meeting. What did they learn? Inquire about the previous month’s sales presentation. Take advantage of the experienced person’s expertise and use it. He or she probably learned something that can be shared to help you. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to make an impact.

When all is said and done it will be your involvement from start to finish that will make your meeting a success. Time and effort and mostly your involvement will make this day a success for them and for you! Remember, this is your meeting!

A checklist to insure this meeting really works for you and your attendees:

• Have you personally visited the site? You are the one who must know the room, the restroom, and the emergency exits.
• Have you personally (and with another colleague or spouse) tasted the food? This should not be left up to the venue. If you don’t like the taste, the audience will like it less.
• Have you personally arrived two hours ahead of the event to make sure all is in order? Attend to fine-tuned details at this time. Think through with your assistant how your audience will enter, how they will be greeted, how they will experience the event.
• Have you personally made sure that every attendee has a nametag and a name tent that can be read at 20 paces? One tip that meeting planners know is to print your name tags on both sides so when they twirl on the lanyard, no one will be embarrassed by forgetting an important name.
• Then, smile and get ready to meet your guests. Your party has begun!