As event professionals, we’re constantly hunting for new ideas that could help us design better meetings. With this in mind, we browsed through the TED archives and discovered a few amazing videos that will give you a dose of inspiration.
Give them a watch. We believe these ideas are worth adopting at your next event.
1. Thank you and goodbye, medieval business meetings
In this video, meeting design pioneer Eric de Groot introduces the concept of elementary meetings. These meetings (parties, weddings, celebrations, etc) tap into a set of conventions that people can inherently relate to.
When we apply these elementary principles to the business environment, we can create meetings that not only feel more natural but also encourage collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Why watch this video?
Watch this thought-provoking video to get a glimpse on how strategic meeting design can transform your meetings and make them more fun and productive.
2. Successful networking: The ultimate guide
Over 75% of delegates cited networking as one of the main drivers to attend events. Unfortunately, it’s often overlooked in the event planning process.
In this video, Christopher Barrat explains his simple formula for winning friends and fostering business contacts. Saying that “networking can be learned,” he demonstrates a set of tactics for building interpersonal relationships effectively.
Why watch this video?
Grasp the basics of networking psychology. Understanding how people build connections can help you optimize the event breaks and sessions and create much-needed networking opportunities for your delegates.
3. The art of facilitation: Changing the way the world meets
“The way you design a meeting shapes the behavior of the participants,” concludes professional facilitator and the speaker of the next talk, Jay Vogt.
Jay argues that facilitation can transform the way we conduct meetings and their effectiveness. Crashing conventional presumptions, he demonstrates that we can make our jobs more effective with meetings.
Why watch this video?
Watch this video for facilitation tactics to redesign your next meeting in order to create a plethora of creative ideas and bring the best out of your participants.
4. How to avoid death by PowerPoint
When used well, presentation slides can be a powerful visual aid helping underline the core message. David JP Phillips outlines the principles of how to turn a stockpile of facts into an exciting utensil for powerful delivery.
In his talk, David presents six practical tips that will help you improve your presentations instantly. His insights will give you a better picture of how, why and where delegates should put their focus during presentations.
Why watch this video?
Learn what it takes to create great slides so you can help your speakers create engaging presentations that will captivate your audience.
5. No more flipping meetings
The US economy loses $37 billion on unproductive meetings every year.
College dean Brent Stubbs is one of the warriors fighting to improve this unflattering figure. He shares a story about how he has flipped his staff meetings and now starts with a question for his colleagues: “So, what do YOU want to talk about?”
The idea behind it comes from the concept of the flipped classroom: you pre-record the meeting material (report) in a form of video/audio and send it out to attendees before the actual meeting takes place.
Reviewing the materials beforehand reduces the time needed for broadcasting information to the minimum so you can dedicate more time for discussion.
Why watch this video?
Learn how to leverage the meetings for crowd-sourcing valuable ideas from your participants. Don’t waste time on disseminating information; harness the crowd knowledge instead.
Header photo credits: TEDxSomerville licensed under CC-BY 2.0
