Meeting Support Institute

Article about Maarten Vanneste's book "Meeting Architecture a manifesto"
in Meetings - Autumn 2008

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A presentation for a meeting industry audience.
It informs about technology based on the Meeting Support Institute membership.
Ideal as a pannel with technology providers.
Sam Smith coordinates and has a presentation to introduce the topic.
Each panelist gets time for a short presentaton.
A Q&A session is moderated, facilitated by Sam Smith.

Meeting Participation Technology

Where does participation fit?

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Amazon.com Review
Arguably the best book ever on what is increasingly becoming the science of persuasion. Whether you're a mere consumer or someone weaving the web of persuasion to urge others to buy or vote for your product, this is an essential book for understanding the psychological foundations of marketing. Recommended.

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
The materials in Cialdini's Influence is a proverbial gold mine.

Book Description   Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say “yes” to another's request). Written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research, Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say “yes.” Widely used in classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion.

The American Robert Cialdini is professor in psychology and marketing at the Arizona State University. He is seen as the global authority in influencing.At conferences, that is what we try to accomplish: influence participants so they change behaviour and have an impact. Cialdini has defined six principles of influencing others, of which a few can be applied as techniques during meetings and conferences. The most interesting one is the commitment and consistency principle. You can read more about this and the other 5 principles in the book “Influence, the psychology of persuasion” (see books in the MSI KNOWLEDGE BASE).  The commitment principle is easy to apply at meetings.

Put the record on when presenting someone a cabernet Sauvignon, Rock will do. The wine will be more robust and taste stronger than if presented with no music. The same wine will taste much milder when enjoyed with a romantic ballad.  Listening to music can influence the taste of wine. ‘Cognitive Priming’ lies at the base of this effect, according to researchers at the Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh. Specific music stimulates specific areas in the brain and when the brain gets additional stimulation by the taste of the wine, both sensations, influence each other: the wine tastes differently.

When we say tools, we mean "anything we can do for or bring to" the meeting to influence the content side of it (learning, networking, motivation).
These tools can be concepts, people, creative, technical or technological tools.

Five large groups of tools are CHATTY tools:
C Concepts: - formats, techniques, methods, processes- theme, slogan, communication
H Human: - stage facilitators, speakers, actors, - backstage technicians, ...
A Art: creative, look&feel, design, photography, video
T Technical: Equipment AV, set, flipcharts, pen & paper, post-it notes
TY TechnologY: - computer related / specialty tools- internet related / on line activities

These groups include all potential tools and services one ould deploy at meetings or conferences.

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:

from the book Meeting Architecture (Vanneste, 2007)

When we say tools, we mean “anything we can do” for the meeting content (learning, networking, motivation). These tools can be concepts, methods or techniques too. It can be creative, technical or technological tools.