Meeting Support Institute

Let's consider that participants have two main take-aways from meetings:

1. Learning is what participants learn, the knowledge they acquire, the skills they improve etc.
2. Networking is about who they meet or to what extent they develop or improve existing relations, build teams, start or improve collaboration etc.

The factor that will help participants to remember, apply or advocate these results, largely depends on how motivated they are. Without motivation, nothing really may happen with what a participant learned. A highly motivated participant may however generate a lot of change with a few learning results simply because he is highly motivated; believes he can make a difference and really applies what he learned...
This brings us to this formula:

(learning + networking) x motivation = meeting turnout

Motivation of participants at meetings is therefore crucial and must be one of the key attention points (besides Learning and Networking) for meeting organizers. There are many things a meeting organizer can do to improve the motivation at meetings and conferences. The meeting Architect is the person to help them with analyzing, designing, excuting and measuring the motivational elements in their meeting. This short list is a first step for meeting organizers to analyze and guide their efforts to motivate participants. The list is called PERFECT because motivational efforts should aim for perfection.

Motivation at meetings must be PERFECT:

P Professional - in preparation and execution
E Expertise - has to be present for the top down speakers
R Respectful - of participants value, knowledge, expertise
F Fun - by innovation, variation, use of activities and technology
E Evaluation,- of leraning and networking by testing, examining, surveying to increase retention
C Continued – communication and activities around the meeting turnout after the meeting
T Tied - to the next meeting so the participants feel that the previous meeting is not forgotten

By spending time to analyze, design, execute and measure motivation based on the PERFECT acronym, meeting architects and meeting planners will increase motivation and therefore get much better application, impact and RIO from their meeting investments.