Finding ways to elevate attendee well-being is the new gold standard
Prioritizing wellness in meetings and conventions is rapidly evolving from a nice-to-have feature to an essential component of creating a productive and positive meeting. Today, meetings and convention planners have an opportunity to enrich their gatherings like never before to ensure attendees are well cared for from head to toe.
Creating moments of wellness does not have to be extravagant. It’s more about making space and being intentional about creating simple and meaningful moments for attendees.
Let’s explore five innovative and cost-effective strategies to increase attendee well-being throughout your meeting.
Tip. No. 1. Make Space for Meditation
Every attendee in your meeting is fighting a battle that nobody else knows anything about, and they are carrying that into your event. Meditation is the opportunity to take three minutes to acknowledge that and give space for people to get in the right headspace to intake all the great content from your event.
Read More: Mindful Meetings for the Full Mind
Meditation simply is intentional moments of time to pause and reflect. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just set a three-minute timer, put on some soft instrumental music and give some prompts for your attendees to think over.
Read some suggested prompts for meditation exercises here.
The brief amount of time spent doing this activity will yield high results in the cognitive load that your attendees feel.
Tip No. 2. Focus on Designing Moments of Connection
Harvard researchers embarked on a more than 85-year study to see what makes people live a happy life. What did they find, you ask? Positive relationships keep us happier and healthier like none other.
Since we are in the industry of bringing people together, many of whom have yet to cross paths with each other, this is an invaluable opportunity to create moments of connection amongst a wide diversity of attendees.
This can materialize in a variety of ways— networking breaks, relaxed social lounges and engaging breakout sessions can all provide opportunities for spontaneous connections to occur.
The impact and legacy of your meeting extend beyond the ideas and concepts that attendees carry home—it lives on in the deepening of relationships and new connections that persist because of your event.
Tip No. 3. Create Ways to Engage with Those Nearby
Depending on the room arrangement, there could be an opportunity for attendees to engage in conversations with the people around them. But this takes some intentionality.
Begin by posing a question to the audience, like asking attendees to identify their key takeaway from an earlier session. Allow one minute for reflection, and then ask individuals to share their takeaway with two others that they don’t already know.
Read More: How Customized Generational Engagement Can Benefit Meeting Profs
Implementing this strategy can serve multiple purposes. By taking one minute for individuals to ponder the question, you are creating a moment of meditation. And then by encouraging people to talk to someone they don’t know, you’re creating a moment for new connections to take place.
Keep in mind that extroverts typically find it easier to share, whereas for introverts, it comes less naturally. That is why providing a minute of time to reflect is so important. It not only allows time for individuals to formulate their responses, but it also provides time for introverts to gather the courage they need to converse and engage with someone new.
Tip No. 4. Produce Wellness Content to Consume On Demand
Exercise has been shown to improve mental health and well-being, but not everyone is going to be excited or willing to attend the 6:30 a.m. yoga class at the start of a very busy day.
What if there was an opportunity for people to exercise at their preferred intensity level and find time “on demand” that fits perfectly into their schedules?
One way to achieve this would be to create a “Wellness Walk,” featuring a short audio recording that attendees can listen to whenever it fits within their schedule—such as the walk from the convention center to the hotel at the end of the day’s meetings.
Think of this like a short 5-10 minute audio podcast packed with wellness-focused content designed to uplift and inspire attendees during your meeting.
This can serve as an additional wellness resource that you can equip people with to elevate wellbeing throughout the meeting at their own pace and on their own time.
The beauty of this approach is that it can be implemented at little to no cost. Free services such as “SoundCloud” can store the recordings or by leveraging existing platforms such as your meeting convention app to store the audio files.
Feel free to create your own content or explore the option of having a professional speaker produce a 5-10 minute segment, listed within the speaker’s contract if you’ve enlisted a keynote speaker.
Tip No. 5. Designate Wellness Zones
Another way to promote wellness within your event is to create wellness zones and other programming within the footprint of your event. This could be a lounge or relaxation zone. Or the local spa having an activation zone to provide 15-minute massages. Or maybe it’s a lounge area that is “tech-free” with no laptops or smartphone usage allowed.
This is also a great way to embrace the meeting place destination and come up with a wellness offering that serves the purpose and at the same time, gives a personal nod to the local destination.
Together, by focusing on wellness within our meetings, we are ushering in the future of meetings where people leave intellectually filled and emotionally and mentally supported.
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Nolan Nichols specializes in interactive and engaging keynotes and workshops that focus on increasing workplace belonging and personal and professional wellbeing.
As a Fortune 500 speaker, Nolan has mastered the art of storytelling to move teams forward in creating a sense of belonging and connection in the workplace under a shared vision while embracing our diversity of differences. He is a featured speaker in Caesars Wellness Menu. For more information, visit aMillionDreams.info
