Get outta the office (or hotel)

Think different to boost engagement

Not to put a dampener on hotel conferencing, when you do have to get people together, hotel function rooms are great for this.

But I challenge you to break the cycle ocassionally.

Meet in a different venue for a change.

Shift the agenda, change what people are expecting and reap rewards with renewed interest and connections.

Community Theaters

Not only are these great for practical activities - I use them for public speaking training and improvisation skills workshops - but they are unique and different to a stuffy auditorium. Try a team planning day with no PowerPoint. Use the stage, lighting, props, costumes and theatre setting to communicate and develop plans and strategies. I've used six different theatrical venues in Melbourne in the past year alone and love their rustic, creative and rich environment. 

How many characters have walked the boards there?

Theaters are great venues to talk about change, performance, stepping up, or running through or rehearsing large scale communication plans and strategies.

No catering hassles. Bring in your own catering or have the team eat local.

Sports of all sorts

Tennis courts, basketball courts, netball, volleyball... team building activities, sure. But these venues are wonderful creative platforms to stage and facilitate team events, meetings and planning sessions.

You can set tables up on the court - pending the venue's rules - but they help take the team out of the staid hotel environment and put them in another space, physically and mentally.

I've made great use of

• Football club rooms and social rooms
• Rowing clubs
• Life saving clubs
• Yacht clubs
• Golf clubs

Restaurants and cafes

We know hotels and clubs often have function rooms but so many restaurants do too. Depending on group sizes I've used a few different restaurants across Australia. The food is often very good (it’s what they do after all), and some venues can often have the most wonderful outlooks.

Get natural light into your rooms. You owe it to the humans participating.

Too many big function rooms are windowless, soulless, urgh, dull!

Museums, studios and galleries

When there are pieces of art or exhibitions adorning the walls, use the floor space. Set up tables in an environment reeking of creativity, history, intellect and inight.

So inspiring! Link in to a theme and you're away!

A memorable conference event and meeting in a motor museum comes back to my mind!

Community links

Connect to the local community by hiring community facilities like art centers, community centers and community halls, visit hospitals, child car centers and other community providers in your catchment area or local neighborhood.

We could get religious for a moment and that would open a whole range of other opportunities - and cans of worms - but many religious halls, churches and meeting spaces are brilliant!

If it's BIG...

If you're saying, yes but our group of 2000 delegates won't fit in a community theatre, then book out the CBD arts theatre that holds 2000! Book the sports stadium that seats 2000. A memorable conference dinner for me was in Barcelona, a gala dinner on the grounds that Olympic football had been played on just weeks earlier. Now that was BIG and it was tres cool.

Out there … way out there

Take your 2000 delegates outdoors. It can be done regardless of the weather. Like the financial institution that took its team of a few hundred into the harsh Australian outback. It can be done.

I’ve been to a wonderful training workshop and meeting in a shearing shed in regional Australia complete with flip charts and post it notes on the corrugated iron walls.

There was another rough outdoor community conversation held in a big wall-less shed in outback Australia. It was soon to be a cow shed, to keep the cows cool in summer and warm in winter so they could chill out and produce better prices at market. The cows weren't arriving for another two weeks. It was ours before it was theirs. Most memorable! And the topic need not be about cows or farming. It could be about expanding market, sustainability, connecting with our customers. Or helping our customers chill out so we get a better price at market!

Warehouses, factories, distribution centers, storage facilities

Think laterally and creatively. If you're going to the trouble to dress a hotel venue and theme up gala dinners and presentations, then create the meeting space wherever you like. A local venue that is vacant and up for lease proved to be a wonderful space for a design thinking, collaborative team workshop. They were able to work in an environment where 'anything goes'. We were able to break the conventions of how you need to behave when you're seated at a table in a posh hotel. 

Planes, trains and automobiles

There’s an old steam train you can hire in my city, Melbourne that is so cool for a team event – not just a party, but talk about the journey of change, shifting focus, stying on track… aaah the puns!

An old DC3 plane also takes off from our city airport for a wonderful perspective. Talk about a ‘helicopter’ view or taking a bigger perspective! Get the team up there so they can get the view!
You can always have a mobile meeting on a bus or a boat or enjoy a slow and strategic cruise up a river, across a bay or simply anchor in a safe harbour.

All quiet now...

Libraries, meditation retreat venues and other types of retreats in the hills can be inspirational, quiet, reflective. A pleasant shift from the ‘blah blah blah’ of all-talk workshops and conferences.

Anything is possible with some creative thinking and the willingness to get outta the office or hotel.

Go on! Inspirational environments are waiting for you and the team.