By Alex Palmer

Molly Merez wanted to make her event more engaging. As executive director of Ticket Summit, she oversees an annual conference that offers education and networking programs for about 600 attendees working in all areas of the ticketing industry, from box office managers, to event promoters, to developers of ticket-selling software.

But while the programming covers a wide range of industry issues with top-notch speakers and workshops, Merez felt the attendees could be getting more out of the sessions.

“We have a very high return rate so we have to be sure to have new content, as well as fresh content formats,” says Merez. “So, last year, we experimented with not just the traditional panel sessions, but also roundtables.”

These roundtables upended the division between speaker and audience, seating everyone at the same level, with a smaller group of just 20 to 25 attendees participating in each session. Chairs were set up in a circle, with an additional horseshoe of chairs on the outer edge, facing the speaker. The tone was more informal, with the speaker interacting with attendees as more of a dialogue on topics such as pricing strategies or mobile ticketing, rather than a one-sided presentation.

“It created a more intimate experience,” says Merez. “You deliver the information, but don’t come across as a distant person.”

The new format was a huge success. Both attendees and speakers reported getting more out of the sessions than a lecture-style information session. It was impactful on more than an educational level: the smaller, more interactive groups also facilitated greater networking opportunities. For this year’s conference, Merez has expanded the concept to take place during breakfast as well.

Merez is not alone. Meeting planners and companies are finding that removing divisions between event attendees and those running the program can create a much richer experience for all involved. Whether turning lectures into roundtable discussions, removing hierarchical barriers, or creating a more fluid conference itinerary, planners are embracing a more flexible approach to creating events.

Removing Physical Barriers

As Ticket Summit demonstrated, the structure and design of a meeting space make a major impact on how inclusive it feels.

Cassie Brown, chief experience officer for Charlotte, NC–based TCG Events, suggests placing the stage or podium in the center of the room, with surrounding screens overhead so that everyone has a better view.

“Does it cost more? It may, but it will engage your audience far more than even the most costly centerpieces and tableware,” she says. “Shift, and invest your budget where it makes the biggest impact.”

Johnnie Moore, co-founder of London-based meeting planning company Creative Facilitation, adds that research has shown that by personally discussing a topic, information sticks with a person much longer than just hearing about a topic. This makes it more valuable for the organization hosting an event to encourage dialogue, rather than one-way lectures, whenever possible.

“If you have the person speaking set up on stage and the audience in a very low position, it makes sense that all they feel they can do is ask a question,” says Moore. “It puts them in a position of ignorance, which can be a very constraining format.”

Creative Facilitation has made breaking down meeting barriers central to its work with clients such as Johnson & Johnson, BBC, and National Public Radio. The group borrows theater and improv techniques to get meeting groups moving and interacting more closely with one another.

This includes giving participants their own work to do during meetings to break out of the sense of being passive spectators, as well as “getting beyond words” by pulling in photographs, drawings, or found objects to express ideas. Creative Facilitation’s approach also extends to the room’s furniture.

“Tables are the simplest barriers to get rid of. If you get rid of the big table, people have to move around or talk in small groups,” says Moore.

Removing Hierarchical Barriers

Just as there may be physical barriers between people at a meeting, psychological barriers can prevent the openness that might be ideal for certain programs. Moore points to an anecdote by consultant Matthew E. May about a company of 75 that he worked with that held an event in which employees from all levels of the corporate hierarchy were in attendance.

He broke employees into groups and challenged them to rank 25 items that would be most important to survival if you crashed on the moon. To make things interesting, the lowest-ranked member of each team was told which was most important (an answer was supplied by NASA) and had to try to convince the rest of the group of the solution, without telling the others it was correct.

“None of the groups managed to get the information right,” says Moore. “It highlights how hierarchy can blind people.”

While hierarchy is essential for the running of an organization and ensuring responsibility at all levels, when it comes to the goals of a meeting, from problem-solving exercises to morale-building interactions, a strict focus on titles can present a hindrance.

Andy Satter, CEO of New Paltz, NY–based leadership consultancy Andrew Satter & Associates, agrees, emphasizing that a meeting that aims to open up the conversation between attendees at all levels should be designed with that in mind.

“If my intention is to create a meeting where people from all parts of my organization — regardless of role or seniority — have a chance to interact, I will eliminate stages, fixed theater-style seating, and all other symbols of hierarchy,” he says.

Satter also recommends interaction between all levels of the organization, with “C-suite folks sitting down to break bread or engage in a small group dialogue” with members of the staff with less seniority. This can be particularly potent when members of the team are eager to meet with the senior executives.

That has been the approach taken by marketing and advertising agency gyro. Each year the company invites all members of its team to take part in The Academy, a three-day workshop that brings together approximately 30 employees from across the world. The Academy gives them the opportunity to be mentored by some of gyro’s top leaders, including CEO Christoph Becker.

“The Academy is a builder of change agents,” says Becker. “We basically train, every year, our best to become instigators of change. We create a stream of thinking that pushes us to evolve and innovate on all fronts.”

The participants are flown to Sweden where they work together in part of a weeklong training course conducted by educational company Hyper Island, learning principles of business leadership and how to utilize the latest technology.

This silo-free approach has infused almost every part of gyro’s company culture. In May 2011, London-based gyro and Cincinnati-based HSR merged to create gyro in its current form — the largest independent B-to-B agency in the world with 17 offices around the world and 600 employees. To ensure all of these moving parts were functioning as one complete machine, they instituted “UNO” — the concept that “nothing comes between a client and an idea that could transform their business,” as the agency’s statement reads.

This basic goal led to changes at every level of the company’s operations and incentives, from investing in more face-to-face meetings (or at least Skype conversations), to teaming up gyro members across countries and time zones. This includes monthly “UNO Shows,” where the entire staff gathers to catch up on the work that is being done across the company, giving kudos to team members who have done outstanding work.

“The UNO Show is crucial to our culture because we are what we do,” says Becker. “We celebrate our best creative work, the excellence of our hard work every month.”

Loosening the Agenda

Another kind of barrier that planners are knocking down is the traditionally strict divisions on the conference schedule itself.

TCG Events’ Brown endorses a more fast-paced approach, saying that giving speakers — even the CEO — too much floor time can kill a meeting’s energy and lose the interest of attendees. And often even five minutes can be too much if the program and presentation fail to be tightly organized.

“A two-minute, professionally designed video that features the CEO and any guest speakers has a far bigger impact,” says Brown.

Besides creating a more open conversation, Ticket Summit’s roundtable format also shortened the length of each session. While they had experimented with 40- and 60-minute panel discussions in the past, the organizers knew that the small number of attendees at each roundtable required that they also make the length of time shorter — much shorter.

“Each roundtable session has a 15-minute interval and then attendees rotate,” says Merez. “I tell the speakers we want them to deliver a lot of content in a short period.”

This can extend to the way an event’s itinerary is planned outside the meeting itself. A popular offering for meeting groups holding their events in major cities are Go City Cards offered by Smart Destinations. The cards give attendees the ability to create their own agenda in a city, choosing among dozens of activities.

For example, planners hosting a meeting in New York City can offer attendees the Explorer Pass. Before or after the scheduled meeting, visitors can present their pass to take a Food on Foot tour of the city’s culinary offerings, traverse Central Park by bike, or see the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

These activities are all outlined in a full-color guidebook provided by the company, allowing attendees to create their own agenda depending on their interests and the time they have before their next meeting session.

“People who attend meetings, like any group, have a variety of interests.  The Explorer Pass allows meeting planners to give attendees the ability to choose the attractions that suit their individual interests without having to make arrangements with all of the attractions directly,” says Cecilia Dahl, founder and president of Smart Destinations.

In addition to New York City, Go City Cards are available in Boston, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oahu.

Whatever the approach, whether removing the traditional stage and lectern, encouraging interactions between employees regardless of seniority, or giving attendees greater freedom in setting their own agenda, the goal is the same: Engage employees on their terms.

“This way people aren’t stuck in chairs — they get to network, visit with vendors, or relax and get away from the crowd,” says Merez. “These are people on the go, and we’re really trying to cater to that and deliver content fast.”

Read the original article in Successful Meetings.