Organizing a corporate seminar can be a real headache. This type ofprofessional event combines several dimensions: strategic of course, marketing and human. It’s an opportunity to bring all your staff together in a setting that’s out of the ordinary. It’s also a good time to take stock of your activities, present a new roadmap and congratulate the team. But are you fully aware of the parameters you need to take into account before, during and after your seminar? Here we share with you the keys toorganizing a unifying and inspiring corporate event .
Organizing a corporate seminar: putting all your assets on your side
The success of a corporate seminar depends on the logistics, resources and techniques used. Here are the criteria to be taken into account before the event.
Prerequisites
The first condition for the success of a corporate event is attendance. Even if your employees are required to attend, that doesn’t mean they’ll be inclined to take part. The choice of date, place and time will therefore have a major impact. Make sure you choose a time that doesn’t intrude on your employees’ private lives, and a central, easily accessible location.
Selecting the right venue is a further step in getting everyone on board. To put your teams in the best possible frame of mind, think :
- capacity ;
- comfort (seating, acoustics, temperature) ;
- equipment (video, giant screen, microphone, lectern, etc.);
Now that the skeleton is in place, let’s discover the crucial elements that are often missing from a corporate seminar.
Ensuring real disconnection
“Smartphone owners experience an interruption every 7 to 20 minutes”.
The Factory of the Digital Moron – Michel Desmurget
Our quality of attention is directly impacted by the amount of distractions perceived by our brain. Similarly, our ability to memorize is negatively influenced by a noisy, hectic environment. The more you can keep your audience out of distractions, the more they’ll listen.
There are simple ways to get your teams away from the constant demands of customers, colleagues and the people around them. When organizing a seminar, it‘ s essential to get away from the company’s walls and cut yourself off from the business.
Also make sure you eliminate as many distractions as possible, such as phone notifications or emails. How can you do this? Invite your staff to put away their computers and tablets, and switch their phones to airplane mode or mute and vibrate.
Alternate periods of concentration and rest
A company seminar involves several hours of presentations and discussions. So as not to lose the attention and interest of your teams, you’ll need to offer breaks. Short breaks within the room itself, followed by a longer, more festive moment of sharing in an adjoining room.
Take inspiration from thePomodoro method and the human biological rhythm to orchestrate your meeting: 1 h 30 of concentration followed by 15 min of relaxation. To save time, rent a flexible room or one with a meeting area combined with a sofa corner. You can also make life easier for yourself and organize a tailor-made seminar by calling on an in-house events team.
Organizing a seminar: objectives for the big day
You’ve worked diligently to prepare this great mass, you’ve found the perfect venue, now it’s time to tackle the content. Here are our recommendations for successfully conveying your ideas and desires for the company.
Getting your message across
A seminar is an annual event that provides an opportunity to take stock of the past period’s activity. It is also an opportunity to share changes within the company and objectives for the future. There are techniques for introducing and transmitting this type of information, which is particularly dense and vital:
- Variety of media (bullet points, images, video, statistics and figures, before/after);
- hiérarchiser les informations et sélectionner le support associé en fonction de la courbe d’attention :
- beginning of the upward curve = capturing attention with numbers ;
- pic d’attention = message le plus long, complexe et important ;
- end of productive work period = facilitate memorization with meaningful visuals (image, pictogram).
- challenge and encourage participation;
- integrate and highlight good results by name.
Clarifying the corporate vision
A seminar starts with a stocktaking exercise and ends with a kick-off meeting for the new year. But what’s the point of objectifying your resources, setting priorities and deadlines if nobody understands the purpose? Start by clearly communicating your vision for the company. Explain where you want to go and why.
This presentation of a company’s strategic direction is all too rarely shared, even though it contributes greatly to the sense of belonging and loyalty. Providing an overall vision of the company’s activities and future gives meaning to everyone’s work. This quest for meaning is a very marked phenomenon that drives many employees to retrain and leave their jobs.
A professional seminar: what’s at stake for your business
A corporate event must have a long-term impact on your employees’ investment and state of mind. To achieve this, you can count on a clever mix of business meetings and leisure activities.
“We spend 15% [i]of our waking life working”.
Olivier Babeau, economist and founder of Institut Sapiens
Motivate your teams
The physical and mental well-being of your employees is a factor to be taken into account on a daily basis as well as when organizing a seminar. There are many ways of creating a new dynamic within a group during a business event, for example:
- organize a convivial event in a pleasant setting (spacious, well-lit);
- congratulate and honor certain achievements and those responsible for them;
- marquer les esprits régulièrement tout au long de votre intervention avec des notes positives, telles que :
- signing a new contract ;
- of permanent hires ;
- le passage à la journée de 4 jours ;
- deployment of teleworking ;
- new benefits.
- conclude by setting a new date to confirm the changes and provide visibility for the future.
Developing collaboration
In a context where remote working is on the increase, where your teams are scattered over different sites or travel regularly, the company seminar is the perfect opportunity to get together. This type of event and the accompanying entertainment help to strengthen group cohesion.
Leave time and space for festivities to encourage exchanges and build trusting relationships. The options are endless, but will always revolve around food and drink, a trans-generational ingredient that allows people to get closer together.
Organizing a company seminar is an opportunity to bring your teams together to define a common, meaningful project. Thanks to this article, you’ll have a better understanding of the elements to take into account throughout the process, the levers to activate and the benefits to be gained. Get to know your most important resource – people – better, and design a corporate event that lives up to your ambitions.
Stay connected!
Article written by Elorri Thicoïpé
[i][i] https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/emploi/carriere/vie-professionnelle/sante-au-travail/travaille-t-on-vraiment-seulement-15-de-notre-vie-comme-l-affirme-le-fondateur-de-l-institut-sapiens_3775761.html