08 Jul 10 Pitfalls on the Road to a Successful Meeting/Event
The following is a list of sentiments and ideas that many people have when planning meetings and/or events that should be avoided whenever possible:
• Who needs to eat? The answer is that everyone need to eat, and letting stomachs rumble is a sure way to ensure that nobody is paying attention to anything but the planning of their next meal. If you are planning a lengthy meeting or event, plan on talking to caterers or buying snacks.
• I get up at 4 A.M. so can everyone else! Just because you get up at the break of dawn to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle does not mean that everyone else does or even can. In some cases it may truly be a case of different lifestyles, but in other situations the early bird may be offended those taking care of young children and/or the infirm/elderly by implying that a 7 A.M. meeting is reasonable.
• Caffeine is a stimulant, and that is akin to offering a drug. Those that need caffeine to make it through their day can be indulged at very low prices. Imposing unwanted ethical beliefs on meeting and/or event participants is unlikely to go over well. At best, it will look cheap. At worst, it may look preachy.
• A penny saved is a penny earned. True, but it takes money to make money, so be willing to make an honest assessment of whether or not buying folding chairs instead of office chairs for a meeting is a good idea.
Tags: Break Of Dawn, Caffeine, Caterers, Early Bird, Elderly, Ethical Beliefs, Exercise, Folding Chairs, Healthy Lifestyle, Honest Assessment, Lifestyles, Money, Office Chairs, Participants, Paying Attention, Pitfalls, Sentiments, Snacks, Stimulant, Stomachs
14 Apr 10 Breaking the Ice on Your Next Meeting
Raising the energy level of an early morning meeting can be quite a challenge. People head for the coffee and tend to gather with familiar faces. This can make things a little awkward for new people in the group and makes it difficult to generate new group dynamics. The right icebreaker can shake things up a bit and get people interested in what is to come.
One fun way to create new groups and start a team building activity is to distribute bits of a building set among the participants. People who hold Legos go to the Lego station, anyone with a Tinker Toy piece heads to the Tinker Toy table, and so forth. Each team has 15 minutes to create a model of a concept on the day’s agenda.
The exercise could focus more on introducing relative strangers to one another. Break the group into smaller parts using the same method, this time using small pieces of candy. This time the group members play 2 out of 3, meaning they write down 3 things about themselves, 2 of which are the truth and 1 that is a lie. The more outrageous the items, the more fun group members will have separating truth from lies.
Tags: 15 Minutes, 3 Things, Breaking The Ice, Candy, Coffee, Energy Level, Exercise, Familiar Faces, Group Dynamics, Group Members, Lego, Morning Meeting, New Groups, Participants, People, Play 2, Relative Strangers, Small Pieces, Team Building Activity, Tinker Toy
05 Jul 09 Creating an Idea Factory
When you have an event to plan, the last thing you want to do is run out of ideas. Here are some ways to ignite the creative fires when you’re tired, pressed for time, or your creativity is running on fumes.
Map It
Word your problem concisely–three words or fewer–and write it in the middle of a large sheet of paper. Place related words or concerns around it and connect anything that is related with a line. Continue doing this in layers until you hit the right word or term. There is software that will help you do this if you would rather be on the computer. Do a web search for “mind mapping software” and related terms. (more…)
Tags: Candy, Creative Fires, Creative Problem, Creativity, Exercise, Experiences, Maple Syrup Factory, Mapping Solution, Mind Mapping Software, Music, New England, No Doubt, Participants, Possibilities, Right Solution, Running On Fumes, Synesthete, Web Search, What The Heck
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