{"id":4938,"date":"2015-07-31T15:20:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T15:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acendas.sitesbysix.com\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2015-07-31T15:20:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T15:20:36","slug":"the-real-cost-of-a-bad-corporate-meeting-or-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acendas.com\/corporate\/the-real-cost-of-a-bad-corporate-meeting-or-event\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Cost Of A Bad Corporate Meeting Or Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted by Josh Linker on June 24th, 2015 on\u00a0www.forbes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As an author and professional speaker on innovation and leadership, I contribute to approximately 85 corporate meetings and events each year.\u00a0\u00a0 As you might imagine, this is a fascinating vantage point to compare and contrast how these things come to life.\u00a0 I see the good, the bad, and the ugly, and more importantly, the impact that these functions have on participants.<\/p>\n

Corporate events are held for similar reasons \u2013 to energize the sales force, to align senior leaders, to entertain key customers and partners, to rally members of an association to achieve higher performance. \u00a0 Live meetings are critically important in forging relationships, sharing important information, educating team members, and pumping up key stakeholders.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s where the similarities end.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some events, the host does it right. They realize the importance of the meeting, and carefully ensure every moment matters. They realize the impact of how all the little things cascade together into a singular, emotionally charged experience for their audience. Professional meeting planners, who make it their business to create memorable experiences and sweat the small stuff, generally run these top events. These pros can be internal specialists or outside firms who live, breathe, and sleep corporate meetings and events.<\/p>\n

In other conferences, often run by internal team members who are not meeting professionals, I see a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach emerge with surprising regularity. In these cases, the corners are cut, the nickels are saved, but the impact is diminished.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest cost of little fails is that the focus of attendees is taken off the purpose of the meeting. When the speaker\u2019s volume is too low, the music volume is too high and the audio in the video presentation is unintelligible, the entire message is lost. When a men\u2019s large shirt is left as a gift in the hotel room of a woman who wears a small, her morning now includes the extra task of correcting this mistake instead of focusing on the business reasons for her attendance. When a group of 10 arrives to a restaurant and finds that their reservation was made for 8 and they have to wait 45 minutes for a table to become available, a priceless evening of relationship building is lost, at best. What does the oversight of these details communicate and what wake does it leave behind?
\nHaving witnessed both extremes unfold, I decided to do the math for the same 500 person, 2-day sales event:<\/p>\n

Scenario 1: Professional Planning, High quality, do it right<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel and hotel costs: $750,000
\nProduction, AV, facility rental, staging, d\u00e9cor: $250,000
\nSpeakers, content, materials: $250,000
\nProfessional Meeting Planner Fee: $130,000
\nTOTAL BUDGET: $1,380,000<\/p>\n

Scenario 2: Internal Planning, Cut Corners, Try to Save Money<\/strong>
\nTravel and hotel costs: $650,000
\nProduction, AV, facility rental, staging, d\u00e9cor: $150,000
\nSpeakers, content, materials: $100,000
\nProfessional Meeting Planner: $0
\nInternal Team (time, distraction, hard costs): $100,000
\nTOTAL BUDGET: $1,000,000<\/p>\n

Tunnel-vision bean counters would certainly advise curtain #2, which appears to enjoy a substantial savings.\u00a0 The cost difference is black and white, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s re-think.\u00a0 The meeting was held for a compelling business reason in the first place.\u00a0 The investment was made to drive an expected outcome (or you\u2019d never host the event at all).\u00a0 The big picture here isn\u2019t just the costs, it is the return-on-investment and overall gain (or loss).<\/p>\n

For this exercise, let\u2019s assume it was a national sales meeting.\u00a0 In scenario #1, the event is perfect.\u00a0 The staging is gorgeous, the content is world-class, the food and drinks are just right.\u00a0 The 500 sales people are charged up, and know their company is rock solid and has the highest standards.\u00a0 The tone for excellence is set, with inspiring and practical speakers.\u00a0 The little things \u2013 from the pacing of the agenda to the quality of appetizers to the small gifts in each hotel room \u2013 create an emotional experience that is second to none.\u00a0 The sales team returns, motivated and armed for battle, and crushes their $500 million sales goal, returning $100 million in profits and beating Wall Street\u2019s expectations, thereby growing the stock price by 15%.\u00a0 The precision execution, combined with a professional and thoughtful vision, achieved the desired outcome.\u00a0 And some.<\/p>\n

What about Scenario #2?\u00a0 This should be better, since we also saved $380,000, right? \u00a0Unfortunately in this case, the meeting was amateurish since internal team members who are not professional meeting planners assembled it amidst their other daily responsibilities.\u00a0 The team was stretched way too thin on other projects, and didn\u2019t have the experience to double-check the sight lines or request redundant AV equipment.\u00a0 The venue choice and mediocre staging signaled the company doesn\u2019t demand the best.\u00a0 The schedule that started late and ran long communicated the message that details and commitments don\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The boring speakers and sub-par content (which saved a few pennies), made the audience want to nap instead of leap forward.\u00a0\u00a0 The haphazard nature of the event left the audience off kilter, feeling pressure to save the company or perhaps find a new job, instead of being fired up for growth.\u00a0 Here, the results played out quite differently.\u00a0 The sales team performed significantly worse after the meeting for a number of reasons.\u00a0 Turnover increased, costing valuable time and money.\u00a0 Closing rates fell since the team was neither equipped nor motivated for success.\u00a0 Breakout ideas were few and far between, and the lackluster meeting set the tone for a lackluster year.\u00a0 The sales team missed their target by 10%, driving only $450 million in sales.\u00a0 However, the cost structure remained intact so that drop fell right to the bottom line.\u00a0 Instead of $100 million in profit, earnings took a dive to only $50 million.\u00a0 Further, the analysts were brutal when they heard of the miss.\u00a0 A stock sell off ensued, and the share price fell 8%.<\/p>\n

For the sake of this example, let\u2019s say the market cap of our company started at $1 billion.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how things played out in totality:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scenario #1<\/strong>
\nMeeting Cost: ($1.38 million)
\nProfit: $100 million
\nStock gain (or loss): $150 million
\nBottom line: $248,620,000<\/p>\n

Scenario #2<\/strong>
\nMeeting Cost: ($1,000,000)
\nProfit: $50 million
\nStock gain (or loss): ($80 million)
\nBottom line: ($31,000,000)<\/p>\n

So our well-intentioned (yet hapless) penny-pinchers ended up saving $380,000 in meeting expense, but losing over $275 million compared to doing it right the first time.\u00a0 I bet those poor souls \u2013 if they still had a job \u2013 wished they invested in killer content and a high quality venue.<\/p>\n

While this example may be extreme, it illustrates the positive impact that a high-quality meeting can create and the painful regret of a low-quality event.\u00a0 Craig Erlich, CEO of meeting and event planning company pulse220 puts it perfectly, \u201cIt takes years of experience planning meeting and events, doing it over and over again to really become great at it. You need rock solid systems to be prepared for anything that might happen, and you need to be able to react in a flash when things take an unexpected turn, which they always do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you plan your own corporate meeting or event, think about the overall impact, not just the expense side of the equation.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t plan to do it right, skip the event altogether since it may end up doing more harm than good.\u00a0 On the other hand, events can be a powerful driver of meaningful results when carefully planned and executed.\u00a0\u00a0 Cheap out somewhere else.\u00a0 Know the real costs of corporate meetings and events, and realize that a dollar saved may actually be $100 lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted by Josh Linker on June 24th, 2015 on\u00a0www.forbes.com. As an author and professional speaker on innovation and leadership, I contribute to approximately 85 corporate meetings and events each year.\u00a0\u00a0 As you might imagine, this is a fascinating vantage point to compare and contrast how these things come to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Real Cost Of A Bad Corporate Meeting Or Event - Corporate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acendas.com\/corporate\/the-real-cost-of-a-bad-corporate-meeting-or-event\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real Cost Of A Bad Corporate Meeting Or Event - Corporate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Originally posted by Josh Linker on June 24th, 2015 on\u00a0www.forbes.com. 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