5 Tips for Making Your Meetings More Experiential

By
Barbara Scofidio
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experiential, meetings
The World Café at our Transforming Meetings Summit

Consider these ideas from Prevue’s own Visionary Summit Series for transforming each part of your meeting to make it more experiential.

At Prevue’s Visionary Summits, we are always looking for ways to make our meeting more experiential. Here are a few ideas we have used in the past:

Do-It-Yourself Breakfast

Have attendees make their own smoothies, just like at home—except it’s unlikely they have all these ingredients in their refrigerators! At our Summit breakfast at PGA Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, we had dozens of ingredients at the ready, from berries to greens to Greek yogurt, along with a line of small blenders.

Name Badge Fun

We brought in the master of play, Sharon Fisher of Play With a Purpose, to the opening reception at our Summit at the Hyatt Regency LAX to create an icebreaker around… movie stars, of course! Attendees listed on one side of their name badges the name of a star they have always been told they look like. Then people got to guess and score points for prizes as they mingled.

Comfy Seating

We transformed our Meet Well event at MGM Grand in Las Vegas into what almost looked like a living room, with white leather couches, seat cushions, foot rests, coffee tables and other comfy seating, and attendees were given a pair of slippers as they entered. It reinforced the meeting theme of relaxation and wellness, and immediately got people in the groove.

World Café

At our Transforming Meetings Summit at The Gray in Chicago, Patrick Parker-Roach of Thoughtroads replaced the standard roundtable format with café tables with checkered tablecloths, flowers and crayons for writing, then had people brainstorm and rotate tables so they had a chance to share ideas with many people in the room. His partner, Joni Parker-Roach, created a graphic recording of the key findings when the table heads reported out.

Family-Style Lunch

The Hilton Westchester helped up create a family-style lunch with two long farm tables pre-set with Asian noodle salad, and attendees were able pass the proteins, such as chicken and salmon, as well as embellishments and dressings. This pretty lunch was so simple—and fun for all.

Prevue’s Experiential Meeting Design Summit September 30-October 1 at The Garland in Hollywood will be focused entirely on ideas for making your meeting more experiential. There are still a few spots left, apply today!

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Barbara Scofidio
Barbara Scofidio is Editor of Prevue and heads up the Visionary Summits, our exclusive conference series targeting senior-level meeting and incentive planners. In her 30 years in the industry, she has become known for her passion around greening meetings, growing awareness of human trafficking and promoting CSR activities as part of business events. She is currently a member of SITE's Women IN Leadership committee and the media liaison for FICP's Education Committee. She was the first member of the media ever to be invited to sit on a committee by GBTA, where she spent three years on the Groups and Meetings Committee. She has also been an active member of SITE for 30 years, chairing its Crystal Awards committee and acting as a judge. Before joining Prevue in 2014, she served as Editor of Corporate Meetings & Incentives (MeetingsNet) for more than 20 years. She has a BA in Literature/Rhetoric from Binghamton University. Barbara is based outside Boston, in Groton, Mass.