Wellness
CMW Health & Wellbeing is powered by Caesars Entertainment
What happens when we stop filling every minute?
MPI CORRESPONDENT PAUL COOK ARGUES THAT LESS COULD BE MORE ON THE EVENT FLOOR
T he meetings and events
industry has become much better at talking about wellbeing. Once an unheard-of term, now early-morning runs, breakfast yoga sessions, and movement breaks during the day are an increasingly common part of conference programmes.
Sometimes though, despite the best intentions, it can feel a little misguided. Not everyone relaxes by running, not everyone wants to do yoga at 7am, and for some attendees the best wellbeing activity might be sitting quietly with a coffee or having an unplanned conversation.
Perhaps the bigger challenge is not what ' s added to an event, but what is left out.
Meeting planners are under constant pressure to demonstrate value. Clients want strong content and engagement. Sponsors and exhibitors have paid to be in front of an audience. There’ s an understandable desire to make every minute count.
But, does every minute really need to be programmed? Particularly when an audience is already overloaded by information.
Heather Dow, senior manager for Events & Management Plus Inc., a member of the MPI Foundation Global Board of Trustees, challenges planners to distinguish between‘ rigorous’ and‘ onerous’ programming.
“ Rigorous programming is intentional, progressive and outcome driven. Onerous programming simply fills time. Some of the most meaningful learning at conferences happens in conversations between sessions.”
Creating space for reflection, movement and organic connection doesn ' t reduce impact, it increases the power of the message.
This makes the conversation with sponsors an important one. If we believe that connection, reflection and recovery help create better attendee experiences, then some of the most valuable time at an event is also the hardest time to sell commercially. These are those times when nothing is formally happening. Rachel Benedick, chief revenue officer for MPI and an advisor to the Global Wellness Institute’ s( GWI) Meetings and Events Initiative, makes the business case for reconsidering the approach to sponsors.
“ Much comes down to how we evaluate the success of an event. If the only metric is,‘ How many leads did I get, and how fast?’ we unintentionally design experiences that are non-stop, transactional and exhausting.”
While business outcomes remain critical, the path to them is more nuanced than before, especially when multiple generations with different perspectives attend our events.
“ The better we get at honouring both impact and restoration, the stronger our events will become,” says Benedick.
There is another side to this. Event professionals can spend weeks building towards an event, deliver it at full intensity and then move straight into the next programme. The pressure to maximise every working hour can be just as strong as the pressure to make the most of every attendee minute.
David T. Stevens, co-founder of Olympian Meeting and chair of the GWI Meetings and Events Initiative, has learned to maintain wellness the hard way. In his opinion it’ s not about being perfect.“ What works for me may not be what works for someone else.” It’ s personal, but it matters.
And it’ s the same with designing wellbeing into events. One size doesn’ t fit all.
Regardless of whether people are attending an event or working in the meetings industry, being intentional about wellbeing may not mean simply giving more. Sometimes it means giving them permission to do less, because when you take a human-centred approach it can produce much better outcomes. n
ISSUE 144 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 29