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Getting into the Meetings Mindset™
It was Sunday March 18th 2007 when it happened. I was in Copenhagen, Denmark at the opening ceremony of a major industry conference. As the music began to indicate the start of the opening session I looked around me and experienced something that I’ve never felt before or since. It only lasted a few seconds – maybe just 10 – but the impact it had cannot be overstated.
Where was I? – Literally, where on earth was I?
I had flown in excess of 200 flights in the previous 3 years, more than 20 in the preceding 3 months and yet suddenly and without warning the adrenaline that generally kept me going seemed to ebb away and suddenly tiredness seemed to sabotage my senses and I was left wondering where I was and what was I doing here – for a few seconds I recognised no one and had no idea even which country I was in never mind which association’s conference I was at.
My head was all over the place; I’d not prepared or given the conference a moment’s thought, I’d not looked at the list of speakers or the social programme, I’d not checked the delegate list and identified who I needed to meet, I hadn’t checked in with myself to see how I was feeling and thinking and made any necessary changes to my mindset that could help me perform better. I’d also been eating badly and had limited physical activity in recent months. In essence I’d not prepared - not mentally, not physically, not practically. I hadn’t got curious about the conference and how I could prepare for it, perform at it and produce from it.
It didn’t last long but in those few seconds the concept of Meetings Mindset™was born.
Consider for a moment the investment necessary for your delegates to attend international conferences. It is likely that the sum of the cost of registration, flights, accommodation and onsite food & beverage will amount to several thousand Euros. Whether this is an investment made by the delegate personally or via their employer, in this climate where every euro, pound and dollar has to be justified in terms of ROI, examining the benefit that a delegate gets from attending such a conference has never been more important.
As a human performance consultant I am fascinated about how people behave. I’m fascinated about how we can use practical emotional and physical behavioural tools to perform better in a variety of situations and my Meetings Mindset™service aims to help more delegates to become perform better thus increasing the ROI of the whole event.
We humans we are used to preparing for occasions where we may have to perform particularly well. Prior to exams, public speaking or even on the sports field it is normal for us to focus on the event and develop physical, mental and behavioural skills that help us achieve better results by maximising our performance. Athletes mentally prepare, set objectives and use visualisation to enhance performance whilst public speakers manage their emotional state and perform better using similar tools. It is common to hear people complain of ‘not being in the right frame of mind’, a ‘bad mood’, not ‘in the zone’. These are all clear examples of where our emotional state affects our behaviour in everyday life too.
I was delighted to be asked to contribute to ICCA’s own Personal ROI Handbook at last year’s General Assembly and Congress in Florence, Italy. ICCA CEO Martin Sirk understands very well the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and to my knowledge he and his team produced the first guide of its type which I think will blaze the trail for similar tools in the future.
So can meeting planners actually affect the performance of their delegates by offering them a service that gets them curious about their behaviour? At the moment, whilst my gut feeling is that this idea of using knowledge of human behaviour to assist delegates is a fantastic idea, I can’t prove it, but am going to use the next 18 months to find out.
At IMEX 2010 in Frankfurt, as well as offering video and text based tips tools and techniques to visitors and exhibitors pre event, I’ll be launching the research phase of the Meetings Mindset™project where I will give more details of how I am going to study the current behaviour of delegates and find out from them exactly what they would find beneficial from the service as it develops.
If you are organising a conference and are curious about the service then please contact me. At this stage I am looking for 3 – 5 large events to use as case studies and trial various aspects at no cost to the organiser. If you are interested please email me at jon@equinoxmotivation.com.
I look forward to sharing information about how this potentially ground breaking service develops.
Jon Bradshaw is professional speaker behavioural consultant.
As a gifted athlete, personal trainer and adventurer Jon has over 15 years experience in mental and physical human performance including climbs on Mt. Everest, Mt. Kilimanjaro and an epic 3400 mile (5400km) bike. These personal experiences, coupled with academic study of human psychology and behavioural science, have led him to create an exceptional portfolio of presentations that have received outstanding feedback from audiences in over 17 countries.
Jon is a platinum speaker for MPI and regular speaks at other industry meetings. He also writes a regular column for MPI’s One+ magazine.
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