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The ability to create a lasting impression that becomes a talk of the town event is the dream of all planners, whether it is from the end-user’s perspective or from a professional meeting planner’s perspective. After more than four decades in the industry, I believe that attention to detail is one of the few key ingredients to a successful meeting. From initial proposal and conceptualisation to execution, every process requires different levels of attention to ensure a seamless meeting programme. The ability to create a lasting impression on the meeting is another key success factor.
A sophisticated meeting programme goes beyond pure meeting elements only. It also involves a creative opening ceremony, themed lunches and dinners, perhaps a themed meeting, team-building, a gala awards dinner, and social program. It’s crucial to weave all these elements together to ensure the meeting messages are communicated clearly to the participants. A planner’s capability to create a memorable opening sets the pace and participants’ expectation for the rest of the meeting as well as peripheral elements such as social programmes.
In recent years, the platform of organising meetings has changed. Many corporations are now incorporating their corporate culture code, corporate values, etc into their meeting themes. Messages such as corporate citizenships, environmental friendliness, and social responsibility are some of the messages to be communicated to the participants in addition to business goals or short-term objectives. I recall a programme we organised where the sponsoring company wanted to convey five core corporate values to their managers. Our special events team had to weave these core values in the daily meeting programme as well as every evening event. One of the challenges was to produce opening video production for the opening ceremony. We had to select the right combination of music, dance and video animation to both deliver a programme objective as well as to underscore the corporate commitment to their core values. The opening ceremony created a benchmark that set the pace for the rest of the meeting and created a lasting mental image for the participants. It became the talk of the meeting after the programme completion. We incorporated a local culture (Feng Shui) theme into the five values where it created a lasting impression. In today’s business, globalisation is fast becoming a common business practice for most multinational corporations. A flattening world has resulted in different product components being manufactured in different parts of the world and assembled in one location. Many corporations are gradually looking into building a theme to their meetings to convey the corporation’s value, culture and new practices to their management team from different parts of the world. This change of scene and platform has inspired many of us to explore new avenues and creative ideas to meet the clients’ needs. It’s important for us to understand the nature of the clients’ business in order to incorporate the right message, creative ideas and synergy to bring the different groups together. It’s critical to have a team of talented special events and conference production personnel who possess the required skills to develop creative events that include branding exercises or conveying a core theme of the meeting objectives – from registration, daily meeting programme, theme dinners, social tour programs, team-building activities, the design, themes and activities revolved around the brand or core theme. During the execution phase, it’s crucial that a meeting planner pays great attention to detail because this will determine the success or failure of a meeting programme. Ensuring a seamless execution both front and back end is equally important. Meeting managers need to react to every crisis calmly as well as solving every on-site issue and crisis.
A few years ago, I was invited as a guest to a meeting that my team put together for one of our clients. Three hours prior to my departure, I received a call from my team that the local suppliers were unable to obtain fresh asparagus which was listed in the printed menu that was prepared in advance. My team advised that they had found a supplier in Singapore who was able to sell 10 kilos of asparagus to us. My Singapore office team had everything arranged and I was to carry 10 kilos of asparagus to the particular destination that I was supposed to be at. It was a memorable treat for me because my staff arranged VIP treatment for me from the airport all the way to the venue where I was suppose to drop off the asparagus. At the end of the evening, all guests were raving about the success of the evening and how wonderful the food was. The meeting planner was unaware of the drama that went on behind the scenes. By working closely with our suppliers, ensuring they are able to deliver their promise to our clients, is equally important. Client and supplier relationship plays equally important roles in creating a memorable meeting. As an organiser, it’s important that our suppliers understand our ideas to produce a seamless programme. It is also equally important that the suppliers adhere to the same high quality and standard that we have. Thus, working collaboratively with our suppliers will attribute to a successful programme too.
For information contact Robert Guy, regional managing director, Pacific World Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia, on bobguy@pacificworld.com.
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