Hosting a conference can be stressful, but it is an essential in order to keep things going smoothly in the workplace. By following a few quick and easy tips, you can get the most out of your staff conferences without having to spend a lot of money.
Offer Cheap Snacks
Although some people believe that serving food at a staff conference can cause a distraction, it can actually help to boost everyone’s morale and can help to bring the group closer together. Therefore, it is a good idea to feed everyone at your staff meeting, but you certainly don’t want to spend a lot of money on food.
Instead of serving everyone a meal, choose a few small snacks that can be purchased affordably. Juice, water, tea or coffee should be sufficient for beverages, and you won’t have to pay a lot for these items. For snacks, consider offering small sandwiches or cheese and crackers.
Keep it Short
One major expense of holding staff meetings is the amount of time that you are paying employees to be there while they are not getting work done at their desks. Therefore, you want to keep the meeting as short as possible while still making it informative. Meetings should typically be less than an hour unless you are covering major topics, and some meetings can be much shorter than an hour.
Skip the Paid Speaker
If you think that hiring a motivational speaker or someone else to speak at your staff conference is a good idea, you should instead take a look at your other options. Hiring these speakers can be expensive, and a lot of people do not learn much by hearing these speakers talk. Instead, consider coming up with something to say yourself or have another staff member say a few words.
Give Quick and Useful Information
In order to get the most out of your time and your budget, consider sharing quick, simple and informational tips with your group. Using bullet points to come up with these blurbs will help you to get straight to the point. Not only will this help you to keep the attention of everyone who is at your meeting, but it will also help you to save money because you can cut down on the length of your meeting without skipping any important information.
Let Everyone Get Involved
If you speak and do not allow other staff members to talk much, everyone will quickly zone out, and you won’t get much accomplished at your meeting. Not only is this a waste of time, but it is also a waste of valuable man hours. Instead, share the information that you need to share, and allow other staff members to make comments or ask questions. Try to keep everyone to the point so that your meeting will not last too long: For instance, you can have each person hold a small ball or other small item, and the person who is holding the item is the only person who is allowed to speak. This will allow you to address questions and issues that are plaguing your employees without spending hours of valuable time on your staff conference.
Wayne is a casual writer specialising in business news and business advices. Wayne works in a Sydney accounting practice providing smart tax-saving advices to his clients.