meeting

Stuck for ideas for your business meeting in London? Here are some suggestions for an out-of-the-ordinary meeting.

1) Fancy a walk and talk?

Staying seated around a table in a meeting room is the best way to stifle all the participants’ creativity and energy.

That’s why many company bosses are opting for “walk and talk” meetings, following the example of major names from Silicon Valley, such as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. They have no hesitation in using and abusing this more relaxed format for business meetings. And it works. 

 

2) Why not go for a stand-up meeting?

A business meeting standing up? There’s an idea to raise a smile! And yet there’s no doubt that it is one of the best ways of boosting employees’ engagement and encouraging them to share information and ideas. Standing up actually makes participants more active. They are therefore bound to be more inclined to work together and join in with discussions. Plus, this more dynamic position focuses the attention! No more passive attendees slumped in chairs, eyelids drooping — everyone is present and focused.

 

3) What would you say to a World Café?

No, it’s not a hip new London café, but an innovative method for hosting a business meetings that gets every employee involved. The idea is simple: to generate ideas and encourage innovative thinking through lively round-table discussions.

In practice, it involves splitting the group up, ideally into 6 tables of 3 or 4 people, to discuss a selected topic for a limited amount of time. Each table has a host, who leads the discussion, and ambassadors, who contribute to it. After a specified amount of time, each person changes tables to take part in other discussions on other topics. After several rounds, participants share their ideas and work together to create action plans.

 

4) Have you considered brainstorming for an out-of-the-ordinary meeting?

Brainstorming is a group problem-solving method that calls on each participant’s inventiveness and spontaneity. Participants hold free and productive discussions in order to gather as many new ideas as possible and encourage everyone to contribute.

5) An out-of-the-ordinary meeting: what about team-building activities?

Team-building activities such as chair races, minefields etc. present an opportunity for social interaction with your employees during a business meeting. These activities not only help to develop group cohesion, but also strengthen team spirit. Not least because it will be easier to get your message across. As an added bonus, your employees will have great memories of this out-of-the-ordinary meeting. This will make for a friendly work environment that will optimise everyone’s productivity.