Off-Site Meetings....A New Perception

Although the perception of off-site meetings is a big concern, the intense scrutiny the industry experienced in 2009 will continue to influence how meetings and events are designed in 2010. Budgets will remain tight, there still will be fewer perks for attendees, and planners will continue to downscale F&B, entertainment and activity expenditures.
But some planners may be facing a different, and more intimidating, challenge: Making the case to reinstate meetings that were canceled due to the economy. And, although there has been a lot of talk about small growth,” there is a very real possibility that the economy will take years to rebound. But that doesn’t mean that companies should continue to cancel meetings.
“Tough times are a great time to renew trust, “Leadership Matters. “When employees see the leadership team standing front and center and delivering the message, it demonstrates that management cares about them and considers them essential to weathering the storm. Canceling such meetings sends the message that employees are expendable.”
The value of face-to-face meetings, show that business executives support the need to meet and illustrate the dangers of not bringing employees and company leaders together. They offer great talking points planners can use in discussing why meetings should be reinstated as soon as possible.
“In order to grow, businesses have to invest”. Face-to-face meetings and incentive awards to top performers are among the smartest investments companies can make.
During the recession, the use of technology-enhanced and other virtual meeting alternatives has skyrocketed, so Forbes conducted an insight study with more than 750 businesses this past summer to see if Web conferences, videoconferences and other virtual meetings could replace the need to meet face-to-face.
• More than 8 out of 10 of the executives said they prefer face-to-face contact to virtual meetings.
• The top three reasons those executives preferred face-to-face meetings were because they build stronger, more meaningful business relationships (85 percent); give them the ability to read body language and facial expressions (77 percent); and there’s more social interaction and ability to bond with co-workers and clients (75 percent).
• The less than 20 percent who favored technology-enhanced meetings did so because it saves time (92 percent); saves money (88 percent); and offers more flexibility in location and timing.
• When asked to choose the meeting method most conducive to fostering specific business actions or outcomes, executives overwhelmingly preferred face-to-face meetings for achieving almost every business objective, including persuasion (91 percent), leadership (87 percent), engagement (87 percent), inspiration (85 percent), decision making (82 percent), accountability (79 percent), brainstorming (73 percent) and strategy (73 percent).
• Web conferences were preferred only for data presentation (44 percent) and information dissemination (43 percent), although it held less than a 10 percent margin over face-to-face meeting in those two areas. Roughly 27 percent favored teleconferences for matters of urgency, but otherwise, the percentage of executives preferring the use of teleconferences or videoconferences to achieve business objectives was negligible.
• 87 percent of the executives agreed with the statement “There are tangible business benefits to in-person; face-to-face meetings that outweigh the cost savings of alternative, technology-based meeting methods such as web conferencing or videoconferencing.”
“People don’t want to sit in their office looking at each other on computer screens. That personal interaction — getting together to talk over dinner, drinks or a cup of coffee — is the foundation on which business relationships are built. It’s what drives business, builds employee morale, and gives real incentives for higher productivity.