Instead of looking for the 'right answers' and imposing them," Boone writes, "they have to search for a path forward and engage people."

Here's what you need to keep in mind as you venture down that path.

New Treatment of Information
Instead of thinking of your meeting as a factory, mass producing education, consider it a learning ecosystem in which speakers, content, and participants relate to each other as a unit. "It is more important than ever to find speakers who do not just feed information to attendees, but interact with them, extracting their thoughts and incorporating all of this into their message," said Gail Heathington, CMP, corporate marketing director for Warren Marketing Services.

A second way to treat information differently is to provide closure. Well-executed meetings include a clear call to action. In his book Know-How, Ram Charan identifies eight behaviors for leaders; one involves "getting the right people together with the right behavior and the right information to make better, faster decisions, and achieve business results." In a learning ecosystem, the right people receive the right information and understand the right behavior to achieve the desired results.

In The Knowing-Doing Gap, co-author Jeffrey Pfeffer writes, "one of the main barriers to turning knowledge into action is the tendency to treat talking about something as equivalent to actually doing something about it." Meetings must turn knowing into doing.

Finally, meetings must serve as an example of the value of experimentation and innovation. In his book The Milkshake Moment, author Steven S. Little writes that "it's up to you to be personally invested in your organization's growth … it's not those around you who are the problem. It's actually the inherent nature of organizations that is your true nemesis. It takes guts to lead others away from the status quo. Growth requires persevering, creative, even courageous individuals who aren't afraid to mix it up."

Learners Are More Challenging to Reach
Planners need to implement their meetings in a way that meets learners' goals and needs and adjusts to their skills and experience. This can be accomplished by offering them choices, adapting the pace to their needs, and ensuring that essential information is clearly delineated from ancillary information. In this age of information overload, meetings must deliver indispensable content.

Further, planners must create environments that are attuned to learners' intellectual and physical needs. "In a meeting environment, all learning is a mind-and-body experience - movement, foods, and attention cycles have powerful effects on learning," said Susan K. Brooks, CMP, president of SKB Event Management LLC. "Physical comfort during the meeting is a priority." Make sure sound, heating/ventilation, and seating are attuned to comfort and that the entire audience has a clear line of sight to speakers and presentations.

Planners should plan ahead for informal learning, and take advantage of breakout spaces, alcoves, conversation nooks, or table groupings to facilitate learning. Never underestimate the power of simple movement: It engages the brain's motor cortex and links to the cerebral cortex, which plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. Movement re-oxygenates the brain and promotes better retention.

Today's learners need places for reflection and retreat from others - as well as places for active engagement. "Some planners think that if they pack in the maximum number of sessions, at the expense of breaks and other activities, they are better serving the attendees," said Cris Canning, CMP, "head instigator" at Hospitality Ink. "But studies show that most learning takes place at the beginning and end of a session, program, or conference."

It's those times that give attendees the opportunity to exchange ideas or explore issues with others. "By providing breaks in the program," Canning said, "attendees have a chance to digest and absorb the new knowledge and plan how they can apply it when they return to the office."

Higher Expectations of Meetings
Today's learners are searching for meaning in the meeting. "Meaning is the 'why' that gives significance to all the 'what's' and 'how's' and helps us make sense of our lives," said Jeffrey Cufaude, of Idea Architects. A well-executed meeting will clearly help participants find value in attending the event by answering the following questions:

• Goal-oriented: "What kinds of things can I do after attending this meeting?"
• Descriptive: "What is this? What does this do?"
• Procedural: "How do I do this?" u Interpretive: "Why did this happen?"
• Navigational: "Where am I?"

Planners can meet and even exceed participants' learning expectations by making sure meeting content is:

• not unnecessarily complex
• consistent with participants' expectations and intuition
• organized and well-paced - learners are able to quickly see the breadth of their options, and grasp how to achieve their goals.

Much of this is the result of careful planning. However, in the implementation phase, planners carefully observe as the meeting unfolds so they can make changes later that day, the following day, or even in real time.

Finally, planners must recognize that participants' higher expectations include organizations' social and environmental responsibilities. "The green movement will radically change future expectations," said Victoria Johnson, CMP, CMM, manager of meeting services and sourcing for Underwriters Laboratories. "Careful questioning during the analysis phase will uncover these expectations; then it is up to a meeting planner to meet these expectations during the implementation of the meeting."

That means following through on green initiatives. If there are recycle bins in the meeting space, for example, planners need to make sure that what's in them doesn't wind up in one garbage bin at the end of the day.

Meetings Seen as an Experience
Meetings need to make an emotional connection. A meeting that touches peoples' hearts is a successful meeting, according to Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic: "[Meetings should] reach people at a deeper level. If it's all intellectual content, you lose a great opportunity." (Read an in-depth Convene interview with George at www.pcma.org/Convene/Issue_Archives/July_2007.htm).

Then there's feedback. Planners should utilize attendee input from prior meetings to help shape the current meeting - and make that fact known at the meeting, so people realize their views are valued.

Make it a point to solicit feedback during the meeting, in order to make both mid-course adjustments while the meeting is under way and longer-term changes afterward. The value of reacting to the here and now cannot be overstated. "Changes and corrections should occur as the need arises and not just in the design and evaluation of a meeting," Canning said. "Just as you wouldn't continue to fund an advertising campaign that wasn't working, mid-course corrections can also contribute to a more successful program."

Sue Tinnish is principal, SEAL Inc., which focuses on improving the content of meetings for associations and corporations. She is director of the Accepted Practice Exchange (APEX) program.
Glen C. Ramsborg, Ph.D., CMP, is senior director of education for PCMA.
The How Adults Learn, Now series is sponsored by the Hiltons of Chicago, www.hiltonfamilychicago.com