Mini Open Space – Interactive information management for up to 60 participants
Decide HOW you meet, not WHERE!
Contemporary FlowerPower meeting format or “Flower Meadow 4.0” as an integral part of a high-impact specialist or sales meeting.
It’s the same every year – data overload, a lack of time and a tight budget!
It is often a real challenge to generate a positive, motivational atmosphere at the annual specialist or sales meeting. After all, it is mainly about reviewing and setting company and sales targets, with lots of information being shared and all sorts of data, facts and figures.
The meetings are normally held in relatively modern conference hotels, purely for reasons of logistics, time and budget. Organisers often promise more “drive” with a change of scenery to a hip off-site location or a co-working space, but the way information is communicated at specialist meetings still remains virtually identical – with a full-on PowerPoint onslaught and a gradual decline in attention and motivation by those taking part.
While a change of location to a more interesting venue definitely provides a pleasant backdrop for the participants, the additional motivation factor is not commensurate with the additional time and money if nothing is done about the meeting format at the same time.
Are hotel meetings still contemporary?
Many hotels have now picked up on this trend and made their conference rooms more contemporary and appealing, gone are the days of fine-patterned blue carpets and dark furniture. The obligatory coffee and lunch breaks have also been modernised, with Danish pastries and sandwiches replaced by healthy ‘street food’. What is lacking is a decisive move towards a more contemporary meeting format.
Based on the ‘open space’ process, the ‘flower meadow’ format has been developed for smaller groups in order to allow participants to get involved in learning processes. Within a roughly defined framework, participants have the option of selecting topics and switching between topic groups like a “butterfly” or going more in-depth on a topic like a “bumble bee”.
However, as the schedules at an annual specialist or sales meetings are often tight in order to minimise personnel downtime and communicating year-end results and future company objectives is the top priority, there is often a reluctance to move away from traditional front-on meeting formats.
Are traditional and modern meeting formats cannibalising one another?
By contrast, the traditional version of the “flower meadow” is often perceived by organisers as impracticable, as important company issues are often overlooked or fail to find a majority when topics are selected on site and groups of what are considered more interesting subjects and hot topics are over-full, while important but less exciting company issues are left by the wayside for lack of appeal.
So how can the annual specialist meeting be given more of a buzz without overlooking the need to communicate company developments, sales figures and targets? More freedom of information and movement for the participants, without neglecting what appear to be less attractive topics?
One contemporary and practical option is the integrative implementation of the Flower Power meeting strategy within the MUST DO framework of a high-impact specialist meeting, with as rigid a framework as necessary and as much autonomy as possible.
The framework for a tightly scheduled conference is provided in the form of the kick-off for all attendees, the block of “annual review in facts and figures” topics and the wrap-up at the end of the day with clearly defined strategies and targets from the company’s perspective, also for all delegates.
The space for communicACTION between these two fixed points provides the framework in terms of time and content for the “Flower Meadow 4.0” or the contemporary Flower Power meeting format, which is an adapted Mini Open Space for specialist and sales meetings.
