The way we work has changed dramatically in the past five years. Now, hybrid work is the norm, with more than half of all employees spending only a few days in the office every week. Indeed, the rise of hybrid and remote work has driven office vacancy rates to record highs as companies shift their approach to managing increasingly distributed workforces.
One area where this shift is readily apparent is in the meeting and events industry. A recent survey by Fast Company and Convene Hospitality Group (CHG) found that 50% of companies plan to ramp up the number of offsite meetings, training sessions, and events during the next two years.
“In a hybrid business model, getting everyone together is critical to the success of that business,” says James Frankis, CHG’s senior vice president of product. “It gives companies the ability to actually create culture by having people meet and connect.”
ELEVATING YOUR EVENT FROM DRAB TO FAB
While the appetite is high for bringing employees together, it’s not enough to simply bring everyone to a dull conference center where the main event is a speaker scrolling through a PowerPoint deck. “[There’s] nothing worse than sitting in a convention center/conference room,” wrote one survey respondent. “How do you expect creativity in a space like that?”
So how can event planners go from drab to fab? The key is to focus on vibes. For survey respondents, a good vibe can be friendly and inviting; it can be wildly immersive and experiential; and it can be specifically designed to foster stronger connections with other attendees. More than 60% of respondents say one-of-a-kind experiences are what make a meeting or event more memorable.
Above all, good vibes can help generate what Frankis calls a “return on experience.” Do attendees feel like the event was so great that they want to come again next year? Will it make them feel more engaged with the content and more connected with their fellow employees? “If you deliver a great product and a great experience, everything else will follow,” Frankis says. “In my view, all the other metrics flow from people saying, yes, we had a great experience.”
RAW BARS AND MASSAGE CHAIRS
CHG runs three-dozen venues in the U.S. and the U.K., from a bespoke Manhattan social club to a 68,000-square-foot multi-use space on the River Thames. The company is outfitting many of those venues with features such as high-end multimedia technology, full-service kitchens, and flexible cocktail bars.
It’s also seeing more clients bringing in full-scale production companies and agencies to help create a powerful end-to-end experience for attendees. They’re pushing the boundaries of what these types of events can look like, whether it’s amping up the quality of food (such as live oyster shucking), offering onsite bodywork sessions, or transforming white-box space or a former retail location into an immersive and memorable meeting spot.
For some C-suite execs, a focus on vibes may seem like an unnecessary—and even over-the-top—use of resources. But Frankis argues that vibes may very well be the antidote to hybrid workplaces where face-to-face interactions are becoming less common. “Humans are social creatures,” he says. “We want to be around each other and want to be in buzzing, exciting environments. And to me that’s a huge part of what vibes is all about at these events.”