Read Book review from Elling Hamso    Dr. Elling Hamso, Managing Partner, European Event ROI Institute

 MEETING ARCHITECTURE 

Manifesto for a new profession 1.The meeting industry
In 2007, the meeting industry is a Multi billion dollar industry that exists around the outside of meetings, the shell, and not it’s inside. The destination and venue take all the space as a natural consequence of an industry that resides inside the tourism (and hospitality) industry. This is a fact, not a judgment. This is a great and well organized industry of large and multinational corporations that work very professionally and lay out the foundations on which meetings can take place.
For this side of the MICE industry there are large tradeshows, dozens of magazines, bachelor and even master degrees etc. The people that work on the client side are called meeting planners; the people that plan the meeting logistics in an increasingly complex world. The Contracts, the travel, the multicultural, the food allergies, the knowledge about venues, quality, etc. More and more, these people hold a degree in let’s say conference management, or a designation like CMP.
On the other hand that is the little brother called meeting content, or meeting substance or meeting objectives. However you call it, it is about the real reasons why a meeting owner organizes a meeting or conference, the objectives for his participants, spontaneous or by design.
For this core aim of meetings, there is no industry, no tradeshow, no magazine and no degree. The shell exists, but there is no substance.
Some fragments of substance can be found left end right, spread out over the HR industry, training industry, event industry and the marketing or communication industry. But for an industry that is in the Top 50 of the US’s GNP contributors like the meeting industry it is at least an intriguing observation that it is not home to a specialized profession in what everyone agrees is the most important part of meetings. There must be hundred of little companies and thousands of individuals working behind the scenes and hidden inside larger entities. AV, production, facilitation, format designers, communication support etc. All of them on their own with no professional or other association to connect them.
The industry is very good at setting up wonderful dinners and great shows, but has little knowledge about facilitating the valuable processes like learning, networking and motivation, that happen inside meetings. A conference spending 200k on an opening show and with little or no support in the educational sessions is not an exception.
The Mice industry actually is under pressure from different angles: ROI, regulations, ethics, procurement. Etc. The meeting industry is urged to show value to corporations and has only recently started to do so. 911 again showed the industries vulnerability which shows need for stability, in other words: demonstrated quality, measurable return and strategic value.
To elevate meetings and conference from it current cost position into a strategic asset, the content side of meetings will need to be addressed. The tourism ‘leg ’of this industry is strong and healthy and can make this happen, inside the meeting industry: It can help to develop a second leg so the industry stands more stable and can start the sprint to its next phase of development.

2.Meeting Content
Meeting Content is everything that happens at a conference and has an influence on the minds and hearts of the participants. We are not talking about the topical content: it is not about the content of an expert’s presentation but about the total content, the substance the insides of the meeting. And we are also not talking here about the hospitality side of the meeting.
Our taxonomy for content is threefold: Learning, Networking and Motivation. These three represent distinct action terrains on which a meeting organiser must focus his attention. The Meeting Objective Matrix ® is a document that lists all potential objectives for meeting and provides a simple structure to get organised. The meeting owner is always a temporary professional (often spends only 5% of his work on meetings) and often chaos reigns when the meeting needs to be designed. A meeting owner welcomes help and support from a simple framework to think and work in a more structured way.
 All potential objectives can be sorted and quantified in a blank version of this matrix and smart objectives can be distilled.
Learning can be approached as top-down, peer-to-peer and bottom up learning. Cognitive science, Marketing and communication, neurology, musicology etc. all have a say in how learning at conferences is influenced.
Networking has different approaches: social versus business or peer networking. Introverts vs. extraverts react differently, sociology plays and many challenges need to be addresses to exploit the networking potential.
Motivation is another big topic in which psychology plays and many issues need to be addressed.
In each of these, one will find many objectives that need to bee quantified and qualified: this is the investigation phase; what are the meeting objectives, all of theme and in order of importance.
 
While the meeting planner has a full time job with the meeting logistics, who takes care about this investigative phase? A third person may be a solution, but would the work on the meeting objectives be a second full time job?
 
3.Meeting Content Support
Meeting content Support or Meeting Support is everything a meeting organiser can do before, during or after the meeting to support the learning, networking and motivation objectives at meetings.
 
There are about 1.500 different tools that can be deployed at meetings for which the taxonomy is called CHATTY: Five categories of tools are defined along side of hundreds of knowledge items.
CHATTY stands for
Concepts like unconcerned, open space, LEGO serious play, Pecha Kucha, etc.
Human tools like facilitators, actors, speakers, etc.
Art tools like design look and feel, video clips, set design, etc
Technical like AV, stage, signage etc
TechnologY like cyber cafe, networking devices, RFID, on line brainstorming etc.
The Meeting Support Matrix ® lists a large amount of these tools and the blank version is the structured note pad to list all the potential tools that fit the objectives.
Here we are in the Design Phase: how do we design the meeting so it supports the objectives.
For good meeting support, one can choose to work with specialised Meeting Support technicians, Meeting Support Managers that lead the team.
The Meeting Support Institute was founded in 2006 with the goal to create a platform for all companies or individuals with one or more services and for meeting organisers to find ideas and suppliers. The goal is to be all inclusive and holistic in this approach so meeting organisers get to choose from the list of all options for each objective.

 
4.The meeting Architect
 
Looking at the enormous list of potential objectives and even more potential services to support these objectives for meetings we feel there is the need for a professional that understands this area of meetings and knows how to design it with good and wide knowledge of all tools and services that may be applied to meetings. This profession is called meeting architecture. A meeting architect stands besides the meeting planner and may fro some senior planners open up a career choice.
A meeting architect is a professional that knows all there is to know to assist the meeting owner in being successful on the content side of the meeting.
Like with a normal architect, the Meeting architect goes’ through 4 phases: Investigation, Design, Execute, Assess: IDEA in short.
INVESTIGATE: An architect talks to the family about life styles, hobbies, composition, cooking, dining habits etc.
DESIGN: the architects makes drawings and presents big ideas that evolve into final plans with a budget.
EXECUTE: The architect is present during construction to monitor and guide the construction workers.
ASSESS: the architect measures and checks the quality of the building: is everything according to plan?
The meeting architect goes through these phases as well, with the meeting owner. He or she needs to know some psychology, some cognitive science, sociology, neurology, etc. to make the right choices when designing a meeting.
 The meeting architect has dozens of books to read on Facilitation, AV, Production, Music, etc. and signs up for magazines, tradeshows and associations, some of them different from those for the meeting planner, the meeting logistics professional.
The meeting architect and the Meeting planner are complementary and together, they form a team for a meeting owner. Two people with different skills, different knowledge and backgrounds.
A meeting architect provides the holistic, all inclusive approach and will investigate the objectives, designing, execute and assess the meeting based on the objectives.
 
5.A master degree in Meeting Architecture
When analysing the potential workload for a meeting architect, it becomes clear there is a vast curriculum with potentially dozens of text books and op to 2 years of studying to graduate. The amount of knowledge needs to be developed  as a separate degree because it is impossible to add it to the existing degrees in meeting management that currently focus for 95% on meeting logistics.
In order to make it happen, in a number of universities, existing faculties (like cognitive science, group dynamics, etc.)  need to sit together and  gather  lots of existing knowledge,  before ‘translating’ it for meeting use.
Obviously this will take a time consuming process but starting with a summer course now, can be a  good stepping stone.
The students that may do this can come from the meeting management courses or from Marketing or communication courses and they clearly will have a need for continuing education, not in the least because science and technology evolve rapidly.
Once graduates or masters in meeting architecture appear in the market, they may have a increasing effect on the meetings industry and how meetings are organised. The influence can only be positive in the sense that they add value make the industry complete and will increase the perceived and real strategic value of meetings.
For participants they will make meetings more effective, for venues more integrated, for speakers more professional, for associations higher sponsor return etc.
The meeting owner needs a meeting architect, the industry is ready for meeting architecture, and universities have the potential to make it happen: we just have engage hundreds, sit down and do it. I hope this book may be an inspiration and a catalyst.

Maarten Vanneste © 2008