My World
You can take
a horse to water…
JONATHAN BRADSHAW HIGHLIGHTS THE HUMAN FACTOR AND RAISES
THE FUTURE POSSIBILITY OF ATTENDEE TRAINING
t was April 2005 when the
thought first hit me.
I was in Hall 8 of Messe
Frankfurt, walking down
one of the aisles of IMEX - the
international trade show I was working
for at the time. It was 3pm and the noise
was incredible; everywhere I looked
people were interacting: discussing,
debating, gesticulating, negotiating,
smiling, sharing, influencing and
convincing and it was then, as I surveyed
this sea of human connectivity, I realised
the dichotomy of the meetings and events
industry: while its objective was to create
experiences that facilitated face-to-face
interaction for professionals in other
industries, the industry was itself
powered by the ability of its members to
connect, interact and communicate
effectively at the myriad of international
trade events on offer.
Put simply, I realised that the success
of the exhibitors in Frankfurt was not
wholly based on the quality of the
products or services they were
promoting – but instead on the people
skills of the staff these businesses had
sent to Frankfurt to promote them.
Looking back, there is no doubt my
experience on that sunny spring day
almost 14 years ago led me to the
professional situation I find myself in
today – working with a small team of
organisational psychologists, speaking
and training within businesses
internationally on the behavioural
science powering world-class people
skills. It’s a subject we call Meetology®
and one that has a huge impact on ‘My
World’ and, if you open your eyes to it,
you’ll find it powers how you enjoy, and
indeed perform in, your world, too.
Let me illustrate my point:
I could tell you about the time last year
when our Head of Research, Associate
Professor Dr Paul Redford and I were
flying to Rome to deliver some training.
Upon check-in at the airport, we got into
a great chat with the airline
representative – a fact which I believe
was directly related to the upgrade we
Jonathan
Bradshaw is an
international
speaker and trainer
Creator:
Meetology®
Web:
meetology.com
Twitter:
@meetology
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then both unexpectedly received.
I could tell you about the friendly
conversation I had with a fellow
passenger in a café at London’s Heathrow
Airport a few months ago. Of course,
how could I know that Andrew was a
Harvard Business School Senior
Teaching Fellow and someone who has
since been a great help in advising me on
how to run the business.
Or, finally, I could tell you about the
time, just a few weeks ago, when awful
weather led me to being stuck overnight
in Dallas airport. The rapport I built
with a hotel representative led to her
offering me a room in an onsite property,
while others whom I saw losing their
cool with her ended up in a hotel over 10
miles away.
We humans are built to interact and
the fact we are social creatures is a
powerful argument for the events
industry to use, because what you deliver
facilitates an important human need.
However, could you help your
attendees even more? In an industry
seemingly obsessed with ROI, I wonder
how long it will be before event
organisers offer people skills training to
their attendees too. Perhaps the defining
factor of the most successful events of the
future will be that they arm those
attending with the behavioural skills to
better connect, interact and communicate
- after all it is human interaction that
powers the success of every business
event your industry delivers.
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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