We understand there's more to events planning than just booking the venue - travel arrangements, local attractions and the weather forecast may all need to be considered. So we've created a collection of links and information that should make life easier for anyone responsible for meeting planning.
Get more out of your meetings
With budgets under extra pressure it's even more important to get the most out of your meetings. To find out how we can help our guests become more productive, we asked people about their attitudes towards meetings and found that 40% of people lose concentration after just 20 minutes. Our research found that the biggest cause of meeting fatigue is business jargon. People say corporate chatter makes harder to understand what's being said in a meeting and in general annoys them.
To stop people switching off we're urging businesses to cut back on corporate jargon. Based on the UK's most hated business jargon phrases, we've created a top ten list along with the Holiday Inn plain English alternative.
| |
Worst business jargon |
Holiday Inn alternative |
| 1 |
Out of the box |
Think differently |
| 2 |
Touch base |
Make contact |
| 3 |
Blue sky |
Limitless thinking |
| 4 |
Incentivise |
Encourage |
| 5 |
Brain dump |
Transfer information |
| 6 |
Downsizing |
Reduce |
| 7 |
Synergy |
Working together |
| 8 |
Ducks in a row |
Organised or prepared |
| 9 |
Face time |
Meeting |
| 10 |
Leverage |
Use |
Getting rid of pointless jargon will help you keep a captive audience throughout your meeting.
Read on for more helpful meetings tips:
- Have an agenda and make sure you stick to it. Stay focused so others do too.
- If discussions move away from the agreed agenda, schedule them for another time to help the meeting stay on track.
- Start and end your meeting on time. If you're the organiser, get there early to make sure everything is set up and you're ready to leave on time.
- Appoint someone to be in charge of taking notes and capturing any agreed actions during your meeting.
- Take regular breaks during your meeting to get people moving and help them stay alert. This also provides time for people to check phones and email.
- Encourage active participation in the meeting - think about having a Q&A session or an open discussion during the meeting.
- If you are using PowerPoint, make sure your slides are visually interesting and easy to read - the less words on a slide the better.
- Think about what refreshments you order so your guests are kept alert.
- Follow up on actions as meetings should always be results orientated.
- Finally, ditch the business jargon and try our Holiday Inn alternatives for a more productive meeting!