It was good to be back in Copenhagen and this time for two mind blowing events – MIND and Meetovation! After the #BeeSustain tweet tour back in October which was about sustainability and responsible thinking, that was time to discover the Danish meeting design with Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau, Visit Denmark and all their partners who welcomed over 70 international meeting planners and media (including myself) in Copenhagen. The Meetovation is a Danish meeting design concept and its primary aim is to create a better ROI on meetings through four pillars: active involvement, creative set-up, local inspiration and responsible thinking. If you haven’t heard about MIND and Meetovation before don’t worry, it might be because MIND is (relatively) new, only in its fifth edition and the Meetovation training course in its second for international planners.

While the MIND event was about discovering Copenhagen as a meeting destination through the concept of Meetovation, the Meetovation training was about the actual theory behind it, teaching us techniques and methods, and how to implement them at our own events to increase ROI.

Return On Investment on Meetings

During my bachelor degree I spent over eight months on defining ROI of events. My bachelor thesis was on measuring ROI of Hosted Buyer Programmes for European MICE destinations using the case study of EIBTM. Over these eight months, I read and analysed lots of theory on the topic, on both financial and non-financial ROI, interviewed Convention Bureaux (though not Copenhagen), Reed Travel Exhibitions, ROI experts and Hosted Buyers and my results were less satisfying as expected, one of the reasons being that ROI doesn’t being measured at all by some. After identifying that, I had to find ways how to measure event ROI, how to narrow the gap between financial and non-financial ROI and find ways how to maximise it. Having this background on the topic of ROI, I was eager to learn and experience the concept of Meetovation.

As Bo Krüger, one of our event facilitators said “meetings are expensive, they cost us time and money… the return on meetings objectives is to make us money or save us money”. So how can we measure it? Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with 100 pages of bachelor thesis, but share with you really cool, innovative, inspiring and easy to remember techniques Visit Denmark has developed to position themselves as not only the greenest European Capital, but also a destination that is leading the way in business events. It took me eight month to research the topic, Copenhagen proved within five days how it actually works.

While in Copenhagen, I shared with you lots via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and now that’s time to tell you more about our activities, venues, education and networking sessions and latest trends in meetings design we have experienced while there. I will share with you some of our experiences that included the four elements of Meetovation – active involvement, creative setup, local inspiration and responsible thinking.

How to get higher ROI on meetings?

An example of a Meetovation itinerary in Copenhagen:

Active involvement

Involve and engage your participants by splitting them into groups to foster teambuilding, creativity and learning. Consider a cocktail teambuilding activity at the Park Inn by Radisson where the participants need to come up with a new drink concept – including drink’s name, design, how to how to drink it and so on.

Creative set-up

Don’t limit the event to one conference room, play with the space set-up and atmosphere and allow space for flexibility and collaboration or use different rooms throughout the event. You can foster creativity by conduction brainstorming sessions in rooms such as the “Brain Box” in Radisson Blu Falconer Hotel Copenhagen or allowing attendees to come up with their own room design as we’ve experienced at the Hotel Bella Sky Comwel.

Local inspiration

Share with the participants why the destination has been chosen by integrating the local culture into your event so that the expereince will be remembered both on professional and personal levels.  Two of the highlights were ‪‎MIND opening session in Tivoli Congress Centre where we celebrated the Danish Christmas with traditional food and traditions and visiting the Danes at their homes. I was touched by their friendliness and warm hospitality.

Responsible thinking

Organising meetings with responsible thinking in mind is good for the environment, the participants and your budget. See how you can give back to the local community by using local products or working with a local charity. Such an example is the Copenhagen Street Food where proceeds from the festival go to supporting the Thorshøjgaard farm. Each 5 DKK from every bottle of water sold at the Copenhagen Street Food will go to the foundation. In September this year the festival has donated 400,000 DKK to the foundation to help out to restore damage caused by adverse weather. Another element that you can integrate is a short revitalisation between the meetings to boost energy levels. One of the exercises we had at the Radisson Blu was very simple – to pass the tennis ball in groups of 3-4 without letting it fall. I didn’t expect it but was actually fun.

That’s all for now and see you soon for more event inspirations! Have a fabulous weekend!