On with the show!

Monday, 02 November 2009
Great meetings are like a good show: they have a drama and a flow that makes them effective and therefore worth people’s while. Oh, and don’t forget the coffee!

Adding value through good design

In putting together such an event, you have to design the meeting process (this looks like an agenda or a running sheet), get the logistics in place (like catering and pens), and make it sparkle…


❦ Graphic courtesy of Simon Kneebone (the artist) and Institute of Cultural Affairs: Australia.

Design is about making it happen – going beyond tips, tricks and methods to a session that gets the group to a result. To do this, you need to work through two things: the format of the session and the experience of the participants.

The first part is about thinking through the structure of the session. What are the practical (tangible outputs), rational (new thinking/awareness) and experiential (how people will be different) outcomes? What actual sequence of process steps will deliver those outcomes? What will you do and say?

In the second part, you design two related journeys for the participants. One is towards agreement. It goes from individual thinking, to working in small groups, to the whole group building a shared understanding. Journey two is toward action. It flows from context to workshop to reflection, with each transition highlighting further change, urgency and committment.

Staging is about bringing it all to life – an effective production calls for the best script, stage directions and props. Five key aspects of this are:
  • Space – eg: venue location & layout, lighting, seating and decor.
  • Time – eg: appropriate scheduling and disciplined time management.
  • Eventfulness – eg: being culturally sensitive, changes of pace, just having fun.
  • Product – eg: tangible outcomes documented and delivered rapidly.
  • Style – eg: your own presentation and way of relating to the group.
So, what’s your experience of making events sparkle? Please, go online and post a comment.

Go well!




David Jago

Download this article as a PDF.