Inspire Employees At Your Next Annual Meeting

Many companies hold annual meetings to engage, ignite and inspire individuals to perform and achieve at their highest potential.

Below are some ideas to ensure a successful and productive annual meeting.

Theme it

Theming can boost the impact and success of your annual meeting. It gives the meeting a direction and links activities together. Think of theming as what gives life to your message.

It’s important to consider the type of theme for your business. When morale is high, you can be more creative with your theme. Steve Martin, trainer and keynote speaker, said the best theme he ever witnessed was “A Night at the Oscars.” Teams were tasked ahead of time with creating videos that depicted a day in the life of their role.

In low-spirited times, consider themes that inspire growth such as, “Better, Stronger, Faster” or “Agents of Change.” If your business is going through a merger or acquisition, choose themes that promote teamwork such as, “Winning Together” or “Connect, Collaborate, Differentiate.”

Build a Tower, Build a Team

Annual meetings are prime opportunities to foster collaboration among teams. Select a team-building activity to match the demographics of your participants.

For example, a team of recent college graduates might relate better to an outdoor challenge, while a more experienced staff may engage better with a problem solving or business simulation activity. Present teams with a challenge, ask them to build something representative of the organization or pose a problem to solve by providing clues.

Stimulate the Senses

We live in a world surrounded by media competing for our attention. Take advantage of technology to engage your audience. Use music, video, multimedia presentations, photo collages, lighting and sound effects to reinforce your message and introduce activities. Be sure your media choice supports but does not overwhelm your message. Use slide presentations sparingly and set ground rules with speakers to use no more than five slides each. 

You can avoid monotony by varying your presentation approach throughout the day. Try incorporating Q&As, panel discussions, small group breakouts, mini-breaks, team presentations, exercises, feedback and voting.

Make it a Game

Employees enjoy the challenge of overcoming obstacles presented in electronic games. Consider including simulations, business games and competitions throughout your meeting. Test their mental capability and incorporate some physical activity in the games.

Games often have critical learning elements. For example, hold a quiz show in which employees answer questions on a certain topic for points or prizes. Opt for a mix of questions that stimulate laughter and learning simultaneously. Create a game to support your meeting theme, such as the “Amazing Race to the Top.”

Tell the Story

Stories convey the meaning of concepts and ideas. They explain how things work, help us make decisions, understand our place in the world and create our identities as individuals and organizations.

Harness the power of storytelling in your annual meeting. Craft the story of your organization and its vision—where you have been and where you are going. Ask individuals to share their success stories and their visions for their teams through the use of analogies, pictures and images. Identify behaviors to emulate by using stories. Invite your top performers to be interviewed in a talk show program format by an experienced moderator. Panels of this nature are usually an effective way to convey stories around best practices and lessons learned.

Elise Margol is the instructional design manager at Accelerated Business Results.

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