It might sound counterintuitive, but wandering minds are one of the keys to a truly successful convention.

By Tom Mason

It doesn’t even come close to the definition of five star service. Hungry participants at a recent hotel industry convention in Saint John, New Brunswick had to dig their own potatoes and fish their own shrimp out of a bucket before they were allowed to sit down to eat. They loved it. The conventioneers were playing out roles in a topical but highly unusual themed “survivor” convention, modeled after the hit reality show, an idea developed by Gail Bremner and her company Aquila Tours. “It’s all about doing something different in a cost-effective way,” Bremner says. “Something memorable.”

Memorable definitely. The modern convention has come a long way from the days of the three day wine-and-dine-fest. Delegates today are just as likely to attend a kite making workshop or sand castle competition as a cocktail mixer or a marketing seminar. Entertainment and learning are effective partners, not distractions, says Lynn Buckley, the president of Agenda Managers Inc., a Halifax-based company that specializes in all types of corporate event planning. “To stimulate creativity, you have to give minds a chance to wander. What we try to do with our conferences is to take people out of their comfort zone. Get them to start thinking outside the box. If you have an interesting, offbeat venue your people will learn more and retain more.”

The staid meeting halls and boardrooms of traditional meetings can be counterproductive, says Buckley, injecting a sameness into conventions that invites boredom and retention problems. Keeping things interesting can be as simple as using the pool facilities or other nontraditional part of a hotel for a breakfast meeting, or it can mean orchestrating an elaborate theme that winds its way through a whole conference. Buckley has even turned conventions into intricate performance art pieces. On one occasion she issued convention goers tickets to Neptune’s du Maurier Theatre, but instead of the promised play the event turned into a dinner reception complete with jugglers, magicians and other performers who delivered marketing-related vignettes to the audience. She sent another corporate group on a road rally. A complex set of directions led them to a train station in Windsor, and a private trip aboard the Evangeline Express to a meeting in Wolfville, at the home of the president of Acadia University.

No space is off limits for Buckley’s meetings. Canadian naval frigates, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, even the downtown Halifax boardroom where Bill Clinton and the other G7 leaders met in 1995, all have been pressed into service by her company. And one of the most effective meeting spaces can be the private home. “Private residences can be an incredible venue for a small group. The homeowner doesn’t even have to be a part of it. Something like a university president’s home or a luxury home on the water can create an environment that really gets people’s juices flowing.”

Buckley says corporations just don’t have the time or resources any more to stage meetings without razor sharp agendas. “There are too many other ways to get together these days — videoconferencing, teleconferencing, email. To get people to travel to a conference, you really have to offer them a good reason to meet, with a clearly defined outcome. It’s got to be much more than just a big social event.”

Buckley is constantly looking for ways to top her last conference. As we talk, she muses about a new idea that just occurred to her, one that involves filling a hotel pool with synchronized swimmers that would act as the focal point of a breakfast reception. It’s one of a dozen new ideas she’ll come up with today. “I don’t go anywhere without thinking about the place as a possible meeting venue. I’m always sizing things up. I’d love to do something on an oilrig in Halifax harbour some day. Or a visiting cruise ship. The sky’s the limit.”

Keys to a Successful Conference

  • Establish clear and definable goals and objectives for the conference.
  • Establish a good system of evaluation during and after the conference.
  • Offer appropriate follow up in the form of mail-outs, newsletter updates,
  • Make sure everyone works together.
  • Keep communications open with the media. Get them involved in spreading the word.
  • Keep delegates focused on the task at hand.
  • Establish good opportunities to network.
  • Find ways to think out of the box.
  • Have fun