Greenlight Guides

Planning an Annual Meeting that Wows

Seven strategies for planning and running a flawless annual meeting

First quarter often means planning an annual meeting, a time to look back on the successes and challenges of the previous year and look forward to the goals for the next.

Annual meetings can be daunting to plan, with large guest lists, long agendas and important speakers and participants. Use the following tips for planning an annual meeting that achieves all your goals, no matter what your challenges might be.

• Identify a unifying theme and plan accordingly.
  Your theme might be as involved as a catchy slogan with matching swag or as simple as a goal to grow business in the coming year, but assigning a unifying theme to your meeting will help keep your presenters and participants on track and reinforce the message you want them to take away. Make sure the message you choose is tailored to your attendees.
• Prepare an annual meeting script.
  This document lists every event, action and task in detail and in order – from meeting the florist for setup to when and where each speaker will present during the day. Be as specific as possible and leave no detail out, no matter how small! Once your script is complete, distribute copies to everyone involved in the planning and execution of your meeting, including your vendors.
• Make your attendees want to participate.
  This is the holy grail of annual meeting planning! But it doesn't have to be as difficult as you might think. Serving food at the beginning of an event and drawing for door prizes at the end is a simple way to help ensure continued attendance. Unique favors and gifts can make attendees feel appreciated and remembered (see our Secrets of Swag article for ideas). And engaging, interesting presenters with well-publicized topics can entice participants to come and stay.
• Break up presentations with entertainment.
  Long meetings need to be broken into manageable chunks to maintain attendee energy and attention. Try including a variety of entertainment between presenters and choose things that correspond with your theme. This could be as simple as a DJ playing upbeat, theme-appropriate music during breaks or more elaborate entertainment like magicians, comedians, musical performers or anything your imagination can conjure up.
• Ensure the comfort of your presenters.
  To maintain a positive impression of your company with presenters – no matter who they may be – be sure to plan ahead for all contingencies. Test all AV equipment the meeting and ensure that the presenter can be heard and seen from everywhere in the room. All setup should be completed well before presenters arrive. Provide water at the podium and have food and other amenities available in a staging area for your presenters before and after their talks.
• Encourage attendee participation.
  Rather than asking your audience to simply sit and listen for the entire duration of the meeting, schedule Q&A sessions, roundtable discussions and networking events to keep your attendees actively involved.
• Debrief.
  It's important to take time out after the meeting is over to discuss what worked, what didn't and why. Be sure to document good ideas, successes and challenges so that you will have notes when it's time to plan next year's meeting.