Businesses are seeing an advantage, more than ever, in having face-to-face, in-person meetings. After a long hiatus during the pandemic, companies are rediscovering that the need to connect and rebuild relationships enhances collaborations more than any digital method used to fill that gap.
“There’s a demand for people to reconnect after a period of time where connecting in-person was significantly more difficult,” says Gregg Mervis, President and CEO of the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau.
While there are many creative ways to facilitate productive in-person engagements, there are some setups or event practices that get in the way of making personal connections at business events and should be avoided.
Smart Business spoke with Mervis about the importance of personal connections in business and how — and how not — to facilitate them.
How can business leaders facilitate more personal connections at their events?
To get more face-to-face meetings at in-person events that lead to the creation of personal connections, business leaders should focus on things as simple as logistics, flow and seating between and within meetings. For example, the way that breaks in engagement and interactions take place can put people in a position for serendipitous connections. Those can lead to stronger collaborations and, ultimately, enhance productivity.
At venues, event planners are staging thematic meetings that utilize the other assets and resources within the immediate area where the event is held. It means getting out of the venue to go next door to a coffee shop or have a breakout in an ice cream parlor, or take clients on a behind-the-scenes tour of an art museum. That unique utilization of assets creates additional flow of conversation, meaningful idea exchange, and gets people excited. It also creates opportunities for people to make elevated connections that enhance their learning.
The number of guests attending an event is still an important factor in its success — typically the more people, the better. But there is something to be said for boutique-type meetings or breakouts. Those often go by subject matter or skill set where people break down into smaller groups to dig deeper into the subject matter. These can be held within a big event and offer a lot of impact from drilling down within subsets of a topic with fewer people, which can lead to deeper connections.
What can get in the way of personal connections and should be avoided when planning events?
There are several setups or event practices that get in the way of making personal connections at business events and should be avoided. But the one that tends to be the biggest block is over scheduling. Moving from the content straight to the end of the event means no free flow time in between sessions for people to connect and reconnect. Though meetings are meant for people to learn, they also provide an opportunity for people to make connections by communicating. That can’t happen if no breaks are provided.
Why should business leaders ensure their events include opportunities for more face-to-face interactions?
In-person meetings offer the chance for a serendipitous collusion of ideas. Something as simple as having a cup of coffee with someone while walking down the hall into the meeting room can lead to productive interactions that are rare to nonexistent through Zoom. Those serendipitous collisions of ideas provide for a great way to broaden and go deeper into relationship building. The value that might come out of having such face-to-face meetings are hard to measure, but impossible to replace even when utilizing the best communication technology. ●
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