The entire world has gone through a seismic shift, not only in the way that we do things, but in the way that we think. Many companies have undergone transformational change practically overnight to embrace working from home and other flexible working arrangements. Many of which would have taken some organisations years to complete, with many possibly never considering adapting their way of working.
The pandemic has caused significant change at a speed like nothing seen since the industrial revolution. Now is the time to look to the future, embrace these changes and understand how things may be different long term, and start planning for them.
Engaging teams who are now working remotely, or on a hybrid working model (working from home majority of the time and the office one day a week for example) is going to become a lot more challenging for HR professionals, managing directors and CEOs. Teams who would have collaborated pre-pandemic may no longer be in the office at the same time anymore. Social interactions will also be affected, teams who may have socialised outside of work (going to the pub for a drink after shift etc) may no longer happen.
Many companies started to migrate away from events and social calendars for their teams as it was thought that these were not required to enable their teams. However, this could not be further from reality.
Why should businesses be investing in inspiring, creative, and engaging events?
Many companies underestimate the power of a strong engaging event for their teams, but now is the time to seriously consider how beneficial they are to not only your teams, but your business.
As work culture has changed (possibly forever), it’s important to bring together your team in one place to enable creative conversations, team building and social interactions once enjoyed in an office environment. We are not talking just delivering a boring 4,000 slide presentation for 8 hours here!
Putting together an active engaging conference agenda with social elements will prove to be invaluable in bringing together your team. Enabling them to network and make them all important connections they would have made in the office.
An event is a great way to keep your team up to date with what is happening in the company. Middle and upper management can deliver the company’s performance statistics, year end results, and future plans. By using technology such as voting systems you can encourage attendees to engage with presenters and offer up their own opinions. This has shown to be invaluable in getting teams onboard with future plans and developments.
Panel discussions are a fantastic way for attendees to pose live questions to a company’s management team to gain guidance and knowledge. This helps to break down the barriers sometimes encountered between teams and management experienced in the new digital way of working.
To add extra flare to the event, a keynote presenter with connections to your industry will offer up something different for your teams. For example, if you operate in the retail industry, having a keynote presentation by Mary Portas will be perfectly tied to what you do. She will offer up some of her knowledge and experience that your team members will be able to take away with them and use in their day-to-day jobs.
We’ve got a really great conference system in our head office; can’t we just do a video call with all our team members?
Sure, you can, there’s nothing stopping you, but let’s take stock of things here. We’ve all been doing video conference calls for the past year and a bit. Whilst some can be seamless, some can be absolutely disastrous with technical issues gaoler – and there’s nothing worse and disengaged than being on a call where there are loads of technical problems.
Whilst video calls can be convenient for middle and upper management teams, as well as more friendly on company budgets; they just do not match face to face events.
You also need to consider how your team may feel and how they may view a video call as a means of communicating with them.
A video call doesn’t require a lot of resources, planning or investment by a company, and team members know this. They also don’t demand the attention that middle and upper management would prefer with team members’ environments having a direct impact on their attention span and engagement.
Whether it is a company awards dinner, or a full day conference with evening dinner; spending time, resources and investment into a truly engaging event will make your team feel valued and invested in.
Speak with our team to find out how we can support you and your team to deliver an unforgettable engaging event for all your company to enjoy.
