Northstar

PLANNER'S PORTFOLIO | MEETING STRATEGIES 12 MAR-APR 2018 MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS • MCMAG-ASIA.COM PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Words Andrea Doyle From having participants drive content to placing "plants" in your audience, disruptions make meetings memorable. Not all disruptions are destructive. As a matter of fact, some may help you break out of your meetings rut. A disruption is a surprise element that triggers and sustains interest and attention, often leading to transformative experiences. "Disruptions are really ways to make traditional education more 21st century -- meaning it is more hands-on, exploratory, peer-oriented, integrated, and memorable," explains Sharon Fisher, CEO of Play With a Purpose, an interactive learning company. With that in mind, here are 30 ways you can disrupt your meeting using methods attendees will never forget. 1. MAKE IT INTERACTIVE. Fun is an eective way to disrupt meetings. "Who says general sessions have to be all about sitting and watching either endless speakers, or some kind of entertainment?" asks Fisher. "Why can't they be interactive, participatory, and high energy?" 2. LET MUSIC STIR EMOTIONS. For a recent insurance client, Fisher arranged for 350 of its attendees to bang their way into a musical frenzy. "Everyone in the audience was given a musical tube that played a specic note, then in a Guitar 26 Ways to Disrupt Your Next Meeting Hero--like game, thumped their tube to create beautiful music together," she recalls. 3. ENCOURAGE GRAFFITI. For another meeting, Dale Hudson, knowledge and events director, IMEX Group, collaborated with Fisher to create an exploratory learning center during IMEX America, and the PlayRoom was born. "It was an instant success. An entire day of hands-on learning was created where the attendees experienced interactive education, including walk- the-walls learning, which is a way to stir up conversations about a specic topic with things like stick-ons and grati, experiential learning games, and corporate social responsibility and networking activities," says Fisher.

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