Every business owner or office manager is irritated by the sight of a large group of uninterested and sleepy employees after an extensive period of planning a business seminar or a training meeting.

These meetings require a lot of work to take place smoothly and their purpose is surely not to make employees fall asleep. Furthermore, planning and carrying out these seminars and networking sessions needs plenty of money.

The steps that need to be taken include booking the location, hiring guest speakers, and providing refreshments, so the person in charge has to spend time and money. So, it appears that all your efforts were a waste of time if the employees start to get restless or to fall asleep.

This negative scenario can be prevented if you pay attention to the following tips for keeping your guests awake and interested.

Keep It Interactive

Any business presentation will contain discourses and demonstrations. What tranquilizes an audience the most are a darkened room and a  slideshow that seems not to end. For your employees to remain engaged, you need to interact with them.

You should suggest to your participants at the respective business seminar to ask questions during the presentations and not at the end of the lecture. In this way, your attendees will share the responsibility for engagement with your guests, as it is normal.

The promoted lecturers should also interact directly with the audience, request comments and question attendees during the presentation. As in class, once the public realizes that it’s very probable to be called upon to state an opinion or answer a question, you can bet that they will pay attention to the discussion.

Team Building Through Physical Activity

To avoid getting bored by the combination of a darkened room and an endless slideshow, teambuilding exercises should take place to teach employees to collaborate and build self-confidence at the same time. This kind of activity gets people out of their chairs and moving, beeing active and getting the blood flowing.

For example, separate your staff into groups and decide that each group gather in a circle. Then, using a medicine ball as a speaking device, have them throwing it back and forth to make them sharing ideas about a significant promotion or a business opportunity. If the exercise becomes more alert, your employees will be more engaged and ideas will flow more openly.

Small Group Dynamics

Big events with lots of people may intimidate some of your employees and make them feel uncomfortable to speak freely or respond to questions. So don’t assume that they can’t offer anything to the discussion.

You will observe that by organizing your employees into small groups, they can express themselves more comfortable and apply their skills and insight to the topic discussed.

These kind of smaller group activities are a good way to segment long seminars and maintain your employees’ attention with the day’s events and your ambitious plans for the company. In this type of exercises, make sure there is a principal moderator who continuously moves among the participants to ensure that they are focusing on their assigned task.

Breaking Up the Monotony

No matter how dedicated an employee might be, he will feel overwhelmed after a day packed with powerpoint presentations,  demonstrations and lectures. You should think about some opportunities throughout the day for the participants to recharge their batteries so they can be ready to engage the next presentation.

For example, include some light entertainment in the day’s schedule:  a game or two (which can double as teambuilding activity), a break for some refreshments or even a hired comedian. For the attendees to pay attention and actively participate in your business seminar, consider providing them a few entertaining distractions throughout the whole day to revitalize and recreate.

These work meetings don’t have to be boring and make you sleepy. Thinking about what you’ve invested in your event, it is essential to keep your guests focused throughout the day. Just follow the suggestions specified above and imagine ways to keep your participants active and engaged during your entire business event. Your seminars and training sessions will be more rewarding and your employees more inventive and efficient.

WHEN THE IMPRESSION MADE BY THE LIMOUSINE SERVICE AT THE AIRPORT IS YOUR FIRST OPPORTUNITY TO SET THE TONE FOR YOUR MEETING OR EVENT, COUNT ON ROYAL COACHMAN TO MAKE THE BEST FIRST IMPRESSION POSSIBLE.

No matter how high the number of participants you’re planning for may be, be sure that you can depend on Royal Coachman ‘s experienced meetings & events specialists. They will oversee every aspect of your ground transportation requirements starting from preliminary planning, budgeting through reservations, on-site coordination, traveler communications, quality assurance up to final cost analysis. We’ll accompany you every step of the way so that every transportation required by your event makes the best impression possible with our well-appointed New Jersey limo bus.

Be 100% sure that we’ll provide you and your guests with the finest service available.

Posted in: Groups and Meetings