Executives Committed In-Person Meetings

An October 2015 survey by Meetings Mean Business of 150 executives from the finance, healthcare, consulting and manufacturing arenas found that face-to-face meetings generally help their staff close deals, improve networking skills and grow professionally.

Today, let’s focus on the survey results and key takeaways from these results as you and your team plan for 2016 and beyond.

Survey Results on Face-to-Face Meetings

• 93% believe F2F meetings help them close more deals
• 91% think collaboration is better in a live meeting
• 89% stated meetings help build their network
• 86% believe in-person meetings are better for employee engagement
• 80% of the respondents believe attending an in-person meeting or event yields more success than attending a virtual meeting or conference
• 73% think company training is more effectively accomplished in-person
• 37% plan to spend more money in 2016 on F2F events

Survey Breakdown

If live meetings are impetrative to closing business, then it makes sense whether you travel to the client or they travel to you to be equipped with state-of-the-art technology from iPad rentals to LCD projectors for PowerPoint presentations and everything in between. Having the ability to show videos, pull up presentations and take qualitative notes can help bring the meeting to life and provide the much needed information you need to close a prospect.

If there is one word that I believe will change the meeting landscape in 2016, it is collaboration. Tools like the Microsoft Hub are going to take it to a whole new level. The ability to have 10 touch points and bring in presentations, spreadsheets and virtual experts and record all of your findings on the cloud, makes the Hub a strong contender in the collaboration and brainstorming world.

Networking is nothing new for F2F meetings; it is impossible to shake someone’s hand, read body language or start to build long-term relationships over the phone or via a webinar.

Whether you are completing a team building event, introducing gamification into a company meeting or asking for feedback about new procedures and policies, engaging employees’ in your meeting is key to helping them build trust, have fun and retain information about complex initiatives.

While there are many benefits to virtual meetings (i.e. time and money savings, on demand access of information) there are also many drawbacks (i.e. inability to feel part of the group, can’t meet new people). Therefore, if possible, always hold meetings and conferences face-to-face.

Live training allows the trainer to constantly poll and assess whether the employees fully understand the delivered materials. One question may spur on others which can lead to valuable discussion and changes to how the material is presented in the future.

With budgets on the rise, now is the time to consider technology improvements such as:

• Tablet rentals to replace program binders, load presentations, implement learning apps including polling tools
• Collaboration equipment instead of flipcharts and post-it notes
• Digital signage to replace posters and paper

Hartford Technology Rental Can Help with Meetings

Not sure which equipment is right for your next meeting or event? Contact us today online or give us a call at 888-520-5667 to learn more about ways we can make your attendees in-person meeting experience matter.