Maarten Vanneste

My electric adventure in Brussels

2011-06-12T00:30:00.001+02:00

I had left a bit late so I stepped on it. The trip from Turnhout to Brussels is about 90km so I was going to be late. I looked forward to seeing Beate Ewing again, a meeting professional I respect and a dear friend. We would have dinner together and since she came from Washington, DC (with one day in London, and one in Paris on the way over) I knew she would be hungry around 7pm and tired around 10pm. So I sent her a text message: “Not sure I will get there on my battery. Must have a plug to charge to get back”. She assumed I was talking about my phone, but I was talking about my new electric car. Top speed of my Citroen C-Zero is 135km/h but the battery was going down so quickly I decided to drive 90 behind a lorry. “7:30 is more likely” I texted Beate who was waiting for me by now in the lobby of ‘Le Meridien’ hotel. I know Brussels by heart, so I drove straight onto the drive way to the entrance of the hotel where I was quickly signalled to ‘stay out’ by the big guy at the door. It’s probably because a C-zero is not a very impressive car; these door men probably prefer to have 6 liter V6 engines at their front doors… I lowered my window greeted the guy politely and said ‘This is an electric car and I have to recharge or I can’t get back home’ I had 30km left and the trip is 90km so I was a bit nervous about my car’s potency. ‘I’m visiting a guest of your hotel and I only need a normal power plug. Can you tell me where I can recharge’? I was hoping that he would allow me to stand in one of his front-door-spots and show me the pug. He gazed at the front door, but looked at me and said with a smile: ‘The public parking next door actually has 3 spots to charge Electric cars. Just drive back and you will see it, as soon as you drive in, next to the entrance’. We now were both happy. He successfully made this too-small-to-be-on-my-territory car turn back and I had good hope to be able to return home that night.
And yes, like the man had said, a square, mini car with green letters screamed to me ‘I’m ELECTRIC!’ as it was chained to the wall with an orange extension cable. I parked myself next to my car’s buddy and saw that the system on the wall had a free plug, but I needed a key to activate it. So I went to the guard, who didn’t seem to understand my request at first, then came out and immediately produced a little frown on his forehead. His company just rents the space to an organisation that has a few electric rental cars. So he had no key to activate the system either. I knew that by now Beate would have ordered a glass of Champaign, and here I was, suffering with a stranger in this hot underground space. But the little Asian guard didn’t seem to give up just yet. He pulled the cable from the car that was charging, only to see it was not compatible with the one on my car. As he looked around clearly trying to think of a solution, I was losing faith. However, on the other side of the guard’s office there was another special space. He showed me the 15 Segways from a city service that were stalled there for the night. All of these electric two wheelers were plugged in a mix of extension cables, cable rolls and extension sockets charging all 15 batteries. The guard pointed proudly to one free plug, but I remembered the warning never to use an extension cable. My battery needs so much electricity it risks to melt thin cables or overheat sockets. The guard understood my predicament: I needed to charge or I would not be able to go home. This seems to make total sense to men making a living from cars. With a brave gesture he unplugged the main cable ending the Segways’ charging cycle. Finally I could charge my car and he even allowed me to stand outside the normal parking places so my cable could reach that plug. Finally I could breathe again; in about 3 hours I would surely have enough juice to drive the 90km back home.
The evening went perfect; we enjoyed some international cuisine, great conversation and a coffee in a cool place. The 4 hours charging time that this lovely evening had allowed for, made me feel adventurous so I took Beate for a spin before returning home. As all other passengers before her, she loved the car: its silence, its power and the fact it uses no more oil.
On the way back home I thought about the fact I didn’t have pay for the electricity. A free fill for my car; what, a unique and generous gesture, from a stranger. Although it’s probably worth only about one Euro, this is at least one good thing of being a pioneer.
I wonder how long it will last…

2009-12-16T10:22:00.001+01:00

Thanks for voting me into the C&IT ‘Power 50’ list. Am I the only ‘mainland’ European on that list? http://ping.fm/E8Jza

2009-12-06T23:03:00.001+01:00

just got blown away by ‘Fuse’ from Hudson Mohawke. Music in synch with brain waves: you hear it once and it pierces heart & mind. Heavenly.

2009-12-05T00:09:00.001+01:00

I need your vote for the UK ‘Power 50’ that lists the 50 most influential people in the meetings industry: www.citmagazine.com/go/power50

2009-11-24T22:55:00.001+01:00

Our industry maintains status quo?
http://ping.fm/DKPJI

2009-11-18T10:04:00.001+01:00

playing music or singing adds croup cohesion: http://ping.fm/clm9V

2009-11-14T19:00:00.001+01:00

The smartest dinner at EIBTM, Barcelona. Be part of the next big thing http://ping.fm/FhGGr

2009-11-08T09:30:00.001+01:00

Badge takes picture of everyone you meet at a conference... http://ping.fm/VGpyg

Make meetings work for the owner

2009-10-14T00:04:00.002+02:00

I recently saw an interview with Frank Gehry, the Canadian architect that built the Gugenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert hall in Los Angeles. When asked what it is that makes his work so special, Gehry says “I only create a building that works for the owner, on time and in budget.” This is an interestingly simple answer for the world’s most famous architect.
Maybe this is just what Meeting Architects also should do; creating a meeting that works for the owner on time and in budget. “That works for the owner” actually means a few things:
First is “that works for the owner” as in “that works for me”, or I like that, I’m happy with that. Obviously that is an important goal for any architect; to make the owner happy, so he will have a smile on his face whenever he talks about the building and whenever he mentions the architect. Good for publicity, such a happy client.
Second is “that works for the owner”, like in “it does what it needs to do”. That is obviously much more important. In this way the building creates value for the owner, the visitors, and the users of the building. Here lies the difference between good architecture and great architecture. If a building is beautiful and functional, you have spent your money well and your ROI is guaranteed.
Same thing with meetings and events, things don’t stop with creating a spectacular stage act or a beautiful performance; no that is only to make the owner and guests happy. The real challenge is to create value, to design the meeting so it supports the objectives, serves its purpose and works for the owner.
The end remark from Gehry in this interview was also an interesting one:He described how the computer is giving more power back to the architect. Since designs are now becoming so precise, in 3D and include a lot of engineering information, the architect remains in control of the construction he designed longer than in the past. Gehry says “this brings us back to the ‘master builder’, the ‘archi-tect’ again. In the past few decades, construction companies and owners took control during construction and the architect was not included in the actual building work, he was reduced to a designer.
Again, in our work as Meeting Architects, we should try to be involved or even in control of the execution. If we leave the execution of the meeting to another team, chances are that the curves you have designed turn into straight lines, and important details are seen as trivial gimmicks and removed from the plan.
When Meeting Architects design meetings that work for the owner and remain in control during execution, maybe one of us will grow into the Frank Gehry of the meeting industry.

2009-10-07T10:27:00.001+02:00

Pretty woman, dumb man…
Should we separate man and women at our meetings and conferences? http://ping.fm/9uGrx

2009-09-23T09:15:00.001+02:00

SMMP: Truth vs. Fiction (visionary article)
http://ping.fm/tsnOi

The meeting iIndustry is an operational industry and it should embrace that.

2009-09-21T00:39:00.002+02:00

For over a decade we now have heard about the ‘seat at the table’, ‘strategic meeting management’, ROI etc. All very interesting topics, but the vast majority in the meetings industry have not walked far with these things.
I believe that the explanation is simple: Meeting planning is an operational world and the hearts and minds of most of the people are not into C-level stuff.
“Strategic” is the corporate wide plan or the organisation’s global plan. In the corporate component of meetings this is about consolidating, managing and controlling spent in meetings. Not very operational and certainly not the stuff most meeting planners are made of. Meeting planning is an operational world where you manage projects, hands on. Of course one negotiates, contracts etc., for the project at hand, not making policies, creating rules and regulations for procurement let alone controlling them.
The seat at the table is a fable. Only in pyramid marketing organisations will you have a CMO, a Chief Meeting Officer. Very few places are vacant and most of our people are not dreaming of ever becoming part of the boring boardroom. This is not what they like! Meeting planners like projects, planning and organising events, designing exceptional experiences, not designing corporate strategies!
ROI is great, it’s methodology essential to know. But how many meeting planners like numbers so much they would spend days doing the math? This is not them! They are social, creative, and structured planners, not number crunchers.
This being said, some meeting planners have the talent and grow into leadership, taking on the responsibility o leading the conference team. This takes them away from the operational side but still not provides them with strategic responsibilities. In many corporations, the meeting planner works for a team manager, reports to a marketing manager that reports to a director that reports to a VP or an EVP who is close to strategy.
Not many have the will or the ambition to become an executive; most even fear talking to the CEO, in many case the distance is too big. And by the way, they do this job because they liked it in the first place!
When we look at the ROI methodology, it actually is all there. Understanding the five levels is essential, but working on the lower levels could prove effective. As a reminder, these are the five ROI levels for meetings:
5 ROI4 impact3 action2 learning1 satisfaction
C-level is interested in ROIThe CFO may create a strategy around itThe Procurement team or financial managers my do the workThe meeting owner is interested in the Impact (Level 4) which he should communicate upwards so the finance people can use it to calculate ROI.
The meeting owner could understand that this Impact is the consequence of Action (level3) which he should communicate downwards to the person designing the meeting so the learning (level 2) is designed for that desired Action that will lead to Impact...
And with level 2, we are getting close the territory of the meeting planner. This professional mainly focuses on designing for satisfaction (level 1); creating a great experience is what they mostly do. This is very operational work, as is designing the content, its form and delivery - to improve the Learning. Helping the meeting owner with a better design sits close to the day to day work of the meeting planner and therefore is something most planners will like. Especially the senior meeting planners that don’t want to become managers of teams or buyers, let alone executives. Most planners like their jobs and maybe we can keep them doing their jobs (longer than the usual 10 to 15 years) by adding an intellectual challenge: a new realm of smart but operational work. They will flourish and remain valuable members of this industry, not leaving our associations dissatisfied as they become senior planners. My advice to the leaders of the industry is to study their members and if 80% are operational and like their job; don’t try to change them into strategists! Let’s make them happy again, and proud of their work, by expanding their operational work and increasing their impact on their projects’ effectiveness. Let’s get in charge of content, content, content…
If our industry is an operational one, let’s embrace that fact, let’s not hide it and try to be more than we are. We are the essential operational component of meetings, a fundamental profession that makes it possible for other people to meet and really change the world.
Maarten Vanneste, CMM
Sunday September 20th 2009

2009-09-20T22:40:00.001+02:00

How incentives, morality, ethics & wisdom connect… from TED. http://ping.fm/vQu7X

2009-08-17T14:21:00.001+02:00

Book promotion, schools only: 1.000 copies of 3rd print of 'Meeting Architecture, a manifesto' at big discounts. www.meetingarchitecture.com

The meeting industry has 2 challenges … and one solution

2009-08-09T23:34:00.004+02:00

1 THE EXTERNAL CHALLENGE: THE VALUE OF MEETINGS IS NOT CLEAR TO ALL

A he AIG effect: Meetings are seen as fun, not work. They take place in expensive resort hotels with palm trees and swimming pools. It is perceived as a disgrace and waste of money.
B Maybe it is because meeting planners or even meeting teams don’t really address or express the true value of meetings and therefore meetings are still seen as not important; they are perceived as not contributing to the bottom-line and thus easy to postpone or cancel.
C current meeting professionals are mostly not really involved in managing the core value of meetings (the meeting content), so they don’t speak the language of the meeting owners. The meetings industry is therefore seen as the hospitality industry.

Meeting are seen as a waste of money.

Part of it is probably true.
Have we spent too much on the decor, on the destination, on the venue and not enough on the serious business in the content side of the meeting? Maybe we are through the hospitality aspect of our business too closely linked to incentive travel? Meetings obviously need a venue, but where does the venue fit in the value delivery of meetings?

Whatever it is, we need to address this perception problem in the long run by changing the face of the industry. Changing the language is important but it will not do. I see the word design appearing in advertising that has no further connection to the content side of meetings.
We need to change on a deeper level, a broader scale and in a global way.

MAP™ is a standard operating process (SOP) that will create atmosphere and knowledge inside organisations that is different from today. Meeting departments that follow a course on the MAP™ start working in a different way and speak different language with their (internal) clients. They facilitate the process of developing the content side and design of the meeting with the organising team and meeting owner. This makes all parties involved see the higher value in meetings and as a consequence they will be prepared to spend more time on the identification of objectives and the design of the meeting.
This is good business practice when spending vast amounts and it will ultimately provide all of the involved with the language to respond to attacks like the one on AIG.
If the CEO and CFO of AIG would have implemented MAP™ as an SOP for the content side of meetings, they would have all been more prepared to answer any journalist’s questions or critique.
The ability to explain what the value of meetings with the credible language based on experience, is an essential benefit from applying MAP™.

Meetings are seen as not important; “they do not contribute to the bottom-line”. Meetings are therefore easy to postpone for a year or two when it is crisis.

Meetings are in many cases organised as last year. Because we lack the procedure, meetings are not (re) designed on clear objectives. More and more large organisations demand a document describing the contribution to the bottom line for all meetings organised with their money. There is however no SOP to help create such a document. Meeting owners spend hundreds of thousands on large group meetings and usually only have a short briefing, based on top of mind knowledge. Such incomplete and short briefings don’t lead to the right design, the right offers from suppliers and don’t create the desired or maximum possible outcome (ROI) for the investment.
TARP[1] companies have to describe their objectives as soon as they spend more than 75.000,- on a meeting. Nobody however told them how to do that.

MAP™ is an SOP that does just that. It helps people to think and work within certain boundaries and supported by a new and growing syntax and templates it facilitate the process.
The identification and prioritisation of all objectives, followed by a responsible meeting content designing based on those objectives is precisely what MAP™ does.

MAP™ generates better, more detailed and prioritised objectives that lead to better briefings, better design and ultimately more ROI.

MAP™ is the SOP that equips users with experience and language to counter the AIG effect. In organisations it leads to better understanding and expression of the core value’s of meetings by all stakeholders involved in the organisation.

2 THE INTERNAL CHALLENGE: THE MEETING PLANNER IS LOOKING FOR DIRECTION

Meeting professionals are confused about their future, their career; especially our more senior meeting planners. Not in the least as a consequence of the crisis that renders them dispensable.

· The meeting industry still wants to be strategic rather than operational.
· The seat at the table is still portrayed by the industry as desirable although not many have found it.
· Strategic is still presented as the focus although most meeting planners are perfectly happy in operational environments.
· Senior Planners, when they have seen it all, can only move into procurement or lead the team (if there is one)

MAP™ opens the door to a new career path that enables meeting planners to remain close to their beloved projects. Rather than making them look for strategic or management options, MAP™ helps planners to enhance their operational work by including the content side and the design of meetings. That is obviously of strategic importance to every meeting, but is remains comfortably distant from the C-level (and politics), the seat at the (boardroom) table and the organisational strategy.
MAP™ jump starts meeting planners into facilitation of project meetings with all stakeholders.
MAP™ opens up the educational scope for meeting planners in a vast way so they have plenty of innovation and challenges to keep them intellectually active for another decade.
MAP™ provides the senior meeting planner with the methodology and the syntax for an additional career choice: Meeting Architecture. It adds to the career options that senior meeting planners currently have. Senior meeting planners can today only choose between :
- Leading a team or a meeting department which makes them managers
- procurement which takes them away from the work they love, planning for and operations at meetings.

This new career option will be a fit for many senior planners that do not desire to become managers or move closer to the C-level. This new option keeps them at the operational level and allows them to expand it into the content side which will lead to a wider impact, a closer relation to the meeting owner and a higher real and perceived value by all involved.

MAP™ provides a kick start into the content side and at the same time it allows for an evolution in knowledge, skills, etc. The knowledge and the toolbox for meeting architecture will increase and grow over time making the future Meeting Architect more and more skilled and able to provide solutions for the range of challenges they meet. This allows for a gradual and incremental process evolving from a Facilitator, right after the MAP™ course, to a consultant or even a Meeting Architect after a few years.

In two sentences:

MAP™ is a Standard Operating Process that is used to improve the content side of meetings and design / execute meetings based on objectives so it contributes more to the bottom-line.

Meeting planners immediately become facilitators in that process using MAP™ and it’s syntax. Meeting planners can evolve by continued education into valued consultants or ultimately Meeting Architects.

What people say about MAP™

You're creating syntax for our industry. You are developing a system that will help producers and planners to place themselves in a position of being integral to their clients meeting development.

Gary Pagano, MTV Networks, NYC
Director of Special Events

I took the MAP class at the WEC in Salt Lake City. It was the BEST class and that class alone made the whole WEC a success for me. It seems it is a MUST for anyone who plans meetings.

Victoria Johnson, CMP, CMM, Underwriters Laboratories Inc. USA
Manager, Meeting Services & Sourcing, Global Sourcing

[1] TARP: companies that got State money to bail them out of the bad credits they owned.

2009-08-03T00:31:00.001+02:00

Starting to work on the Irreducible Units of Practice for the Meeting Architect.

2009-07-07T01:37:00.001+02:00

Meeting Architecture dinner: Sunday 12th, 7pm, Cucina Toscana, Salt Lake City. (MPI #WEC09)

2009-06-30T15:10:00.001+02:00

ROI Week 31 Aug - 4 Sep, Dublin. ROI, Meeting Architecture, Online ROI, Survey Design, ROI certification... http://www.eventroi.org

Today I saw a man cry...

2009-06-30T01:11:00.003+02:00

Today I saw a man cry.
He lost 80% of his 2009 business because of perception based postponing. He had to let go more than half his team… Clients that worked with him for a decade or so just dropped him and his entire team like a piece of useless debris.

His 20 year passion died with the brutality and senselessness of the cancelations.
“Sorry” sais the client, “but we will be back next year” as he cancelled two of my friends biggest corporate conferences.
But will the client find his supplier back, next year? A broken man, symbol of a broken industry, may find new purpose in his life. The pain of getting branded “useless in 2009” and the unbearable task of firing friends in a small team is not easily forgotten.

How much talent is wasted? How many great staff have we lost forever? How big is the mental damage to the meeting industry? And how long will it take to get back on track?

We are not the only industry suffering, that much is clear. The Automotive industry was hurt even harder. Individual families postponing the investment in a new car is one thing, but management taking decisions based on potential media criticism and public perception is another. Passionate believers in the power of meetings would expect the opposite decision of management: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Especially in times of crisis, meetings are part of the solution and cancelling should not be an option. Redesigning the conference, changing the format, spending less are all acceptable, but cancelling?

Anyway, this damage is done. Not only to my European friend, but also an agency on the US west coast and many others are suffering double digit negative growth and have to fire half their team or worse.
In some instances it will clean our industry from some of the lesser players, but in other instances it implies real damage to valuable assets that may be beyond repair.Let’s hope the better players in our industry are able to recover as the demand returns. Let’s hope my friends on both sides of the Atlantic find back their faith and manage to crawl back up from the black hole their clients have put them in.

Let’s hope that management sees the negative effect of cancelling their projects and last but not least, let’s hope our industry learns from this crisis and acquire a grip on the real value of meetings, their content side and the power to change. I believe that a growing general understanding of the value of meetings is the only thing that will protect the meeting industry against the next crisis. And we all know one is coming, in 10 to 15 years.

Let’s use the coming decade to arm ourselves in a global collaborative effort and create the discipline, the certification, the degree’s in Meeting Architecture to design the most effective meetings ever. We can surely make that happen by 2020 so never again we get pushed aside in the way we were in 2009.

Maarten Vanneste, © 2009

2009-06-25T23:09:00.001+02:00

Free copy of the book 'Meeting Architecture' by Spotme at MPI’s #WEC09. Come to ‘Meeting Architecture Process’ on Monday, July 13, 2009 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM at the MPI WEC, Salt lake City, Utah.

2009-06-22T00:36:00.002+02:00

Let’s do the ‘Freudian walk’

Freud has lost some of his influence in the psychiatrist’s office. Psychoanalysis, the technique of probing long and deep into the mind of a patient is no longer used in up to date practice. It used to be the system of interpretation and therapeutic treatment of psychological disorders. These days new techniques have replaced the old one. Patients now hear they have to stop complaining and start running, or do other physical activities. They are told to leave the past behind and to get going with their lives. No more endless sessions of soul searching on the couch.
Today I learned from reading an article in a psychology magazine why the patient was put on the couch instead of seated in front of the psychiatrist at his desk. This may be the good part of an old technique we could recycle for use in the young industry of meetings and conferences…
Freud had seen that with face to face (and eye contact), patients had trouble speaking the truth, admitting some things or expressing their fears. Eye contact was intimidating and he soon discovered his patients would speak more frankly when this face to face was avoided. Freud used to walk with patients so their noses would be in the same direction and patients now would much easier reveal the unpleasant details, or mistakes made in their past. For practical reasons like the weather, the walking was replaced by the couch so the patient would face up and Freud would sit sideways, next to the patient, still avoiding eye contact.
From the Meeting Architect’s perspective, the initial technique of walking remains a potential tool for designing meetings. If a client has two groups with a difficult or delicate conflict, walking in pairs may be the perfect tool. The ‘Freudian walk’ could be just the thing for two groups that need a discussion that may otherwise lead to a fight. If a topic is tense and two groups, for example buyers and suppliers, blame each other, discussion in large groups may be difficult or even bad for moral. Creating small groups helps, but when facing each other, one may not be totally open and truthful to the other. This is when you can send people in pairs for a ‘Freudian walk’. Depending on the weather and the size of the conference centre or hotel you could also do this inside. At certain junctions, you put a sign to direct the walkers and on the sign, you add a topic or a question to feed the conversations. After a 20 minute walk, they arrive at the coffee break area for more conversation and gathering for a plenary feedback session…
I will certainly propose the ‘Freudian walk’ to a future client with a case that fits and test it out. It sounds cool, but how good will it work? Anyone with experience is welcome share it.
Maarten Vanneste, June 21st 2009.

2009-06-15T23:42:00.001+02:00

“When we meet, we change the world.” is the slogan from the upcoming MPI conference in Salt Lake. I hope MPI will keep this slogan after July 14th and even better; share it with the industry. It is without a doubt the best slogan ever to describe the essence of the industry.

2009-06-14T17:23:00.001+02:00

Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
ScienceDaily (June 12, 2009) — We've all sat through one of those presentations where the animated slides are more interesting than the speaker. Bold and brassy titles slide into view, tasty slices of pie chart fill the screen one by one, and a hail of arrows spikes the points the lecturer hopes to highlight.
http://ping.fm/oEk4c

2009-06-13T11:35:00.001+02:00

Help us to keep Meeting Architecture in Wikipedia; this is what's happening:
"Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome and appreciate your contributions, but all Wikipedia articles must meet our criteria for inclusion (see What Wikipedia is not and Deletion policy). Since it does not seem that Meeting architecture meets these criteria, an editor has started a discussion about whether this article should be kept or deleted."
You can go to Wikipedia, to the article Meeting Architecture and leave at least a comment on why it should be kept there and why this is important for our industry... Feel free to edit and ad or change things...
Thanks, Maarten

2009-06-10T12:35:00.001+02:00

Next week: Abbit has 47 wireless microphones in use at 3 meetings in Madrid, Berlin and Brussels...

2009-06-09T22:50:00.001+02:00

Meeting Design Summer Course: For all those who have a professional interest in Meeting Architecture - 3 days of in-depth learning, exploring and experimenting - 19-21 August 2009.
Location: The Crowne Plaza Caserta, a design hotel in the beautiful Southern Italian town of Caserta, close to Napoli/Naples, Italy. www.meetingarchitecture-education.org

Memorable experience supports the message. Or not…

2009-06-05T16:35:00.000+02:00

Today I received documentation from Wallmans in Copenhagen. This is the venue where I experienced the best ever MPI closing event: at the European MPI conference in 2007.
The venue is like a permanent circus dome and we got some of the best and most creative acts I had seen in a long time. Not again Cirque du Soleil or the ballerina on a rope, but real powerful, original, creative and genuine circus acting. Wallmans provided me in 2007 with a professionally organised and powerful experience and today in 2009, with an envelope with professional documentation.
Great marketing from a great venue.

I have one doubt though.

Their leaflet titles: ‘We provide the setting to make your message memorable.’
I would like to debate that claim.
Memorable yes, absolutely! But the message? I’m not so sure about that.
I most probably can’t professionally qualify my own memories, but I sense that this wonderful experience hinders my ability to connect to other memories from this conference. It is so dominant that I have a hard time to think about to the conference, the things I learned, the message from MPI…
This is far from scientific, but I would question the phrase that is used so often by many of our industry friends about creating ‘memorable experiences’, and how that is such a good thing…
Is this really driving the message?
Can we overdo the ‘experience’ thing?
Can out brains handle all that we feed them?
Is there a positive or supporting connection between message and any great experience?
Does the disconnect between message and ‘experience’ decrease the value of a conference?
Can an experience be in the way of your meeting’s objectives?
Is an experience a good thing for any meeting?
Is experiential marketing based on the old, inner brain, and must we not feed the young brain to create a valuable impact?
We should address these and many other questions so we can again improve the real value of what we do and increase the perception of professionalism in what we do.

I guess this is about finding the balance and doing the right things based on objectives, about spending every euro in the right activity so it supports the meeting objectives.

I am seriously interested in seeing our industry apply scientific research to this topic so we may ultimately boldly and truthfully make such immense claims like “… making your message memorable”.

Wallmans made their point. I remember their message. Well done!

© 2009 Maarten Vanneste

2009-06-04T08:45:00.001+02:00

Tony Carey, I will miss you my old friend and mentor. The meetings industry looses a great man, a beacon and a word smith with a larger than life voice. No-one can ever fill the void you leave.

Two kind’s of “Strategic” in Meeting Management?

2009-05-31T12:26:00.000+02:00

When the meeting industry is talking about “strategic” it never gets very far or ends in confusing or conflicting definitions from individuals with different background. After hearing many talk, over the past few years, about “strategic”, ‘we need to be more strategic’, Strategic Meeting Management etc, I think I am beginning to understand. There are actually two kind’s of ‘strategic’ circulating …

The organisational (as in corporate) strategic and the project (as in meeting) strategic. These two versions are mixed and mingled, used in conversations left and right in ways that depend on who you talk to.

1. Organisational strategic means there is an organisation wide strategy towards meetings.
2. Project strategic means that there is a strategic approach towards a meeting.

Organisational strategic (1.) means that the CEO and the CFO have a look at how the company organises, spends, generates value and measures outcome of meetings. We usually refer to this as strategic management, good business practice, procurement, a seat at the table, etc. The work happens at several levels in organisations:

1. Strategic: created by executive C-level

A strategic plan
a vision
a mission
etc.

2. Tactical: Based on the strategy the C-level and departmental managers develop tactics like

structure of the internal department
procurement policies
risk management guidelines
general branding guidelines
etc.

3. Operational: the tactics trickle down to the operational level as tools and techniques developed with the meeting department manager and used buy the operational meeting planner

contracts
procedures
Etc.

The strategic plan leads via tactical implementations to operational effects; it go’s from C level, via management to operations. It focuses on general business practices like procurement, risk management, brand management, etc.

Project strategic (2.) means that an operational individual or the organizing team has a good “strategy” in place to manage their project. This is usually described as “goal oriented”, “well designed”, “aligned with the organisations (marketing) strategy”, etc. On a smaller scale and limited timeframe, the same three steps can apply: strategical, tactical and operational.
1. Strategy: One thinks long and hard about why the meeting is organised, sets goals and objectives, and sets the desired results (participant action).
2. Tactics: the key elements and basic design of what this will look like
3. Operational: the detailed planning, execution of the meeting and the measurement of the results

But maybe we need to stop using the word Strategic here?

Organisational strategy is exists in large organisations, where you have a board that is designed to work on corporate strategy. Less so if you are a small or medium sized organisation and you have only one client meeting a year and maybe a team dinner. Even less, if you are a one man band independent planner. Not a lot of organisational strategic thinking here, but the role of this individual in small organisations lies in the ‘project strategic’.

I guess we would clarify things if we call ‘project strategic’, ‘Meeting Architecture’ and leave the word strategic as in ‘strategic meeting management’ to the larger corporations and their organisational wide strategic management.

At the end of the day, what ‘project strategic’ means is that we manage the content and format of the meeting in such a way that it generates the desired results: accelerated or enhanced participant actions. That is what Meeting Architects will do, whether they are specialised Meeting Architects focussing on the content side of meetings (in small or medium size organisations) or senior meeting planners with combined logistics and content management skills (in one man bands).

Two kind’s of “Strategic” in Meeting Management?

I would hope not, and I say yes to one kind of ‘strategic’: the real strategic that is corporate wide as discussed and supported by the C level in (large) organisations. Adding the term Meeting Architecture or Meeting Architect will clarify things and take away the confusion around the word ‘strategic’.

Strategic now only applies to ‘corporate wide strategy’ where it actually belongs and Meeting Architecture is the intellectual operations on the content side of meetings, aiming at increasing the value and, at best, aligned with the organisation’s strategy.

Maarten Vanneste, CMM

© May 2009.

The business travel manager: our older brother is out-there, looking for us …

2009-05-16T11:27:00.000+02:00

The Paragon Partnership is a group of travel management organisations including NBTA and many other international and regional organisations. The Paragon Partnership held its Second European conference in Paris this spring and I had the privilege to speak there with Dr. Elling Hamso in a combined general session. He introduced ROI, I presented Meeting Architecture and Elling closed off with some purchasing models. I was nervous, thinking that travel people have less of an interest in Meetings. I thought travel managers would feel Meeting Architecture is not really for them, too much for meeting by meeting, hands-on work.
To my surprise they were the most positive audience I have ever had.
So now I’m trying to get my head around this. Why is it that travel managers seem to be more interested in Meeting Architecture than the average meeting planner? One thing I understand is that many of them in the travel management are procurement, or close to procurement and therefore have a more overall, organisation wide interest and view. Today, travel spend is under control as far as individual (corporate) travel is concerned. They have purchasing models, contracts, technology, on line systems etc. The travel industry in that sense is a more mature industry than the meetings industry. The travel managers and certainly their department leaders are in that sense - of managing large company wide spend - closer to the executives. The corporate executives know them and kind of understand what they do. And more and more these executives are asking the travel managers to look at the travel spend in meetings and events, a spend that is much less “under control”, less centralised. Therefore, these travel people are now looking at the meeting industry and trying to understand more of it. They are looking to add the Meetings spend to their portfolio and leverage their buying power even more.
The presentation Dr. Hamso and I did opened their eyes to the two track procurement approach. On one hand there is the classic model of standardised products (Commodities) like seats on a plane and hotel rooms, and on the other hand there is the made to measure design of form and content of the meetings. Every time the audience is different, the messages are different, the objectives change. In order to reach a good return on investment, it is not just about savings on the cost side (the large contracts with Airlines, Hotel Brands etc) but also on doing the right things on the ‘content’ side of meetings. Here it may be more an issue of professionalising, spending more resources, mainly time, and designing the best possible meeting – spending in the right things – every time. … and this is where Meeting Architecture – the discipline, and MAP™ (Meeting Architecture Process) –the standard operating Process, have a role to play. Meeting management and the Business Travel management industry by extension are clearly eager to join the ride of meeting architecture. And I, for one, welcome them. Their skills and strategic minds can only be an asset for our industry. If the meeting industry welcomes the guidance of this ‘older brother’ it will grow up faster and be better armed for whatever challenges lie ahead.
San Diego here we come! The next milestone in this process is the first ever MAP™ one day course at the NBTA conference in San Diego www.nbtaconvention.com . This is where MAP™ will be explained to a class of travel and meeting managers as the standard operating process for managing the design of meetings based on objectives with maximising ROI in mind. A pre conference read, the theory behind the model, the templates and exercises will make participants able to use or explain MAP™. MAP™ will be the first packaged and trained SOP enabling large corporations to spend wiser and create more effective meetings. I cannot wait to see who will be among the first participants and the first ever MAP™ master class.

news kills

2009-05-03T10:45:00.001+02:00

When we see the massive attention the Flu (Mexican/Pig) get's with only a few fatalities globally, so far and 4000 fatalities this year with the seasonal flu in Belgium alone.
When we see the media attention one cute looking kid gets while hundreds of kids disappear each year.
When we see the lack of attention The Darfur drama gets, while Palestine is constant in our face.

One wonders, what is the mechanism behind information and how we manage it as a community, a country, ...

I don’t think there is always a deliberate orchestration.
I don’t think it is because one story is less important than another.
I can’t believe it is because an African life is less valued than a middle east one.

So what is it?

What is it that is choking a nation (today it’s Mexico) economically based on something that still seems to be a just another case case of ‘probably not but let’s be safe, just in case’.

What is it that causes more death by suicide and heart attacks because of anxiety than the deaths this news is trying to avoid.

I know our old brain curiousness is sensitive for information about danger; it has helped us to survive in the old days. This is why it is a naturally selected human characteristic intrinsic to all f us.

TV however is not adapted to that part of human nature. The distance information travels makes it, for that old brain mechanism, not relevant. To survive, we needed to know where the bear was in walking distance, not where the crocodiles are on another continent. If our neighbouring tribe was in misery, that news would enable us to go and help them so they could help us when we needed it.
The fighting in Gaza, the hunger of a Billion and the fires in Australia. Too far, but they still trigger our old brain mechanisms generating adrenaline. And than even more adrenaline because we cannot do anything to really solve all the problems in the world.

TV is also abused by organisations to self sustain. This is the survival mechanism of organisations: WHO thrives thanks to the new Flu, and every time the word pandemic is used on CNN, their budget increases with one million $. No big deal, but still, not the right way to control and manage information.

Although I don’t have the answers to all questions, on suggestion I will make: TV and other global media need a health warning, like cigarettes. The media create so much anxiety, fear and stress that lead to a rise in blood pressure that ultimately kills thousands. As long as we do not know how to manage information, I would suggest to have this on the front of each newspaper:

Health warning: News kills.