This will make me get out of my office chair in 2012!

on Wednesday, 11th of January

“How new media adds value to business meetings”

Catching up to talk business … During a New Year’s drink, during a meet up at Starbucks or during a professionally organized business event. Through a strong influence of social media and an increasing workload, the ways in which we connect has changed tremendously. On the eve of a New Year, three young entrepreneurs met each other in the heart of Utrecht [The Netherlands]. Each one of them is professionally involved in the form and content of what they call ‘contemporary encounters’. Together they outline the contours for 2012; They’ll tell us their thoughts on how new media can contribute this coming year to encourage people to leave their offices and to meet others.

It needs trust to share ideas

One thing is absolutely clear, despite all mobile and online resources that we use to communicate with each other, the need for personal contact remains. “In fact, in an economy where innovation is increasingly important and in which we make and establish contacts quicker every day, the need to meet face to face increases equally. If you don’t trust somebody, you are less likely to share your ideas”, says Robert Daverschot [29]. Together with the company ‘Shakespeak’ he facilitates mobile interaction during the meetings. The audience uses their mobile phones to respond anonymously to the speaker via text message, [mobile] Internet and Twitter. An application that enables to start a dialogue with your audience easier and which helps you to discover what their real thoughts are.

“Event-stretching”: a sustainable commitment

Over the years the preparation for business meetings and events has become more intensive, for both the organizers and the visitors. The list of the event attendees are provided in advance and attendees start their online networking before the event takes place. The actual meeting day is indeed a social peak occasion, but has simply become just one of the contact moments around a theme. Felix Lepoutre sees a rise of informal networks that are being built right after a meeting. 

Lepoutre [27], co-founder of LetMeLinkYou, developed an app that helps to connect people with each other using various online platforms. ”The technology we provide is just an enabler, in the end you are the one responsible for making true contact”, says Lepoutre. The Internet entrepreneurs like to call the range of contact moments around a meeting “event stretching”: because we are having contact before, during and after a meeting and all these moments spin around one specific topic . “Once these contact moments are being facilitated in a clever way, it will help your organization to achieve sustainable commitment”.

Corridor’ inspiration

The event landscape has changed. Nowadays knowledge can be found everywhere. From that perspective, the thought of someone explaining a group on how things are or have to be done, is outdated. Each person has his own experience, a unique point of view, which leads to valuable input. Therefore the place where we find inspiration increasingly shifts from podium to corridor.

“This means you have to facilitate both the offline- and online contact within your audience” says Jasper van Blerk. “The program sometimes is even of secondary importance: as long as there is enough time to see and talk to each other”.

In 2009 Van Blerk [35] started together with his partner, “twoppy”, a platform that allows event organizers to create a smartphone application for every event in just a few minutes [let’s say a digital event schedule for the mobile phone]. Visitors can use the app to consult all information about the event and in addition to this, they can also get in touch with other attendees.

Co-create with the user

There are many online products and services that are being co-created: the manufacturer together with the consumer or the service provider with the client. Van Blerk anticipates more and more meetings will be setup in close cooperation with the visitor. “Ask them who they like to hear, in what form and what needs to be the desired outcome”. By letting your audience participate in product development, you’ll create stronger commitment, you’ll get ‘fans’. ”To gain a strong community, it is extremely important that you provide them with the right tools. It is highly supportive to the process of “event-stretching”, says Van Blerk.

Once the event has started; how do you keep up the involvement? “Monologues don’t fit into an era in which people continuously share their thoughts and knowledge”, says Daverschot. If you keep doing this during an event, you will observe commotion being caused in the back channel; people tune out and turn one-on-one on the topic at Twitter. Therefore it makes more sense to instead facilitate the conversation. The audience is not only happy to respond, but they also generate rich content that is of strategic importance to the organization. “One of the most interesting meetings I found was when a CEO asked his colleagues: “What do you think about my style of leadership?”. Daverschot laughs and says: “I can assure you that it created involvement!”.

A full circle - the event organizer’s turn …

Clearly there are many occasions where new media can make business meetings more interesting and more effective. Now it is the event organizer’s turn; they are the ones that can embed innovations and put them into practice. The support for this thought is currently to be found with SME’s and yet much less in larger corporate organizations. Inspired professionals jump into the space that is left once event organizers do not match the needs of contemporary meetings. “You are well able to profile and brand yourself as an organization, not by sharing your own vision, but by letting your community lift it to a higher level,” says Lepoutre. This way brings more fun, you get inspired to get out of your chair!

In short, if it is up to these three young entrepreneurs, this year is going to be a truly innovative and interactive year! “We invite everyone who shares this thought, to lift their glass and to feel free to catch up with us” A toast is brought … “to many valuable meetings in 2012”!