We've Got to START Meeting Like This!: Creating inspiring meetings, conferences, and events
By Dana Wasson
()
About this ebook
Events, conferences and meetings are necessary and yet very underutilized way to engage and communicate. Using a proven model for thinking about how to approach them so they create a chance for people to network and really engage with the content will make them not only more productive but a lot more fun!
Dana Wasson
Dana Wright-Wasson has been writing all her life. A third generation San Franciscan, she's led hundreds, maybe thousands of meetings. She knows what makes a good meeting work, from good planning and preparation, to shaking things up so people are excited to participate. In her book, We've Got to START Meeting Like This, she gives tips on how to plan and deliver a successful conference or retreat, the special events that bring lots of people together. To Meet or NOT To Meet shares tips for those regular weekly meetings so the right people show up, contribute, and leave prepared to take action. Dana is PASSIONATE about engaging people. She works as a visual facilitator, using large sheets of paper and a colorful palette of markers to help groups tell their stories, find meaning, and take action. She is the founder of a successful consulting firm specializing in employee engagement, strategic planning, and leadership development. When she's not working, she's traveling with her husband, visiting her two daughters, or playing with her Goldendoodle, Mysti.
Read more from Dana Wasson
Talk the Walk: Designing a Clear Path to a World Class Employee Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Meet or NOT To Meet?: 10 Tips for Practically Perfect Meetings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to We've Got to START Meeting Like This!
Related ebooks
Make Meetings Matter: Ban Boredom, Control Confusion, and Terminate Time Wasting Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterview Action: The Complete Set [Books 1-3] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jelly Effect: How to Make Your Communication Stick Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5No More Pointless Meetings: Breakthrough Sessions That Will Revolutionize the Way You Work Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Draw a Better Business: The essential visual thinking toolkit to help your small business work better Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Communication Problem Solver: Simple Tools and Techniques for Busy Managers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Resilient Educator: Empowering Teachers To Overcome Burnout and Redefine Success Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife Hacks to Fast Track Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrunch Time: CPA Firm Survival in a Predatory Environment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMore Great Questions!: Reflections On Career Navigation, Professional Courage, and Project Management Wisdom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSharing Your Story: Marketing Your Book Without The Hard Sell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVisualisation – Presentation – Facilitation: Translation of the 30th German edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeams that Swear: By each other, not about each other Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBack Yourself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAttractive Presentations: A Professional Speaker`s Guidebook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBoring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, or Get Out of More Meetings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Become a Nonprofit Pro: Nine Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Joosr Guide to… Get Things Done by Robert Kelsey: What Stops Smart People Achieving More and How You Can Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfessions of a Freelancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterpersonal Feedback: 3-in-1 Guide to Master Constructive Feedback, Active Listening, Receiving & Giving Feedback Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStart. Scale. Sell.: 75 lessons for business success Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPublic Speaking for Beginners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Innovative Communicator: Putting the Soul Back into Business Communication Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarly Is Better: 15 Effective Communication Skills For Kids And Teenagers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Powerful Team: How Ceos and Their Hr Leaders Are Transforming Organizations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClosing the Influence Gap: A practical guide for women leaders who want to be heard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Swipe-Right Customer Experience: How to Attract, Engage, and Keep Customers in the Digital-First World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Business Communication For You
Get to the Point!: Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's the Way You Say It: Becoming Articulate, Well-spoken, and Clear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Personal Finance for Beginners - A Simple Guide to Take Control of Your Financial Situation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robert's Rules Of Order Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Talk to Anyone: 27 Ways to Charm, Banter, Attract, & Captivate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Start A Conversation And Make Friends: Revised And Updated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Can Negotiate Anything: The Groundbreaking Original Guide to Negotiation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Communicating at Work Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves: Cheat Sheet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Your Story Sets You Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First-Time Manager Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The First Minute: How to start conversations that get results Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for We've Got to START Meeting Like This!
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
We've Got to START Meeting Like This! - Dana Wasson
We've Got to START Meeting Like This!
by Dana Wright
Copyright 2013 by Dana Wright. All rights reserved.
Smashwords Edition.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Requests for permission should be addressed to: dana@startmeetinglikethis.com
This book may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please visit: www.startmeetinglikethis.com
Edited by Michelle Auerbach
Cover designed in collaboration between Nate Tanemori, Marianne Rodgers and Emily Shepard
Layout by Julia Restin
Author photo by Deidre Fuller
The author has made every attempt to ensure that information in this book is accurate, and is not responsible for any loss, damage, injury, or inconvenience that may occur while using this information.
Raves
Brilliant! From Meetup.com to Lightning Talks, Dana stitches all the hot event trends into a cohesive story. A must have for any facilitator’s bookshelf.
—Jesse Fewell, Agile Management writer, speaker, trainer
"Dana is absolutely the perfect person to take this on. She’s had an insider’s view of the good, the bad, and the ugly of many conferences/meetings. If anyone can break down how they OUGHT to be done, Dana is the one.
"Want your conference or seminar to stand out among the pack of meetings your customers and prospects attend every year? Then you MUST read this book. Dana has captured the essential elements to help you bring the absolute best experience to your group. She’s drawn rich content from a collection of experts in this field to complement her own methodology.
And she’s wisely organized her book so you can put it to use right away!
—Steve Ciesinski, Vice President and General Manager, SRI International
"Dana Wright imagined all aspects of creating and implementing a conference in a way that enabled me to visualize what such events will be like. She’s reached out to many others for ideas. She’s drawn on her experiences, both as a conference attendee and as a Graphic Facilitator. She shows up and as she works she observes — as Yogi Berra said, ‘You observe a lot by watching.’
And, when you read this book you’ll experience what can be — as we START Meeting Like This. Get, read, and re-read this book. Demand that the conferences you attend are worthy of you, your time, and your attention. Together we can change the world of conferences.
—Geoff Ball, President, Smart Groups®
Do you want your conference, meeting, or event to be inspiring? Dana has really captured a winning formula to engage the delegate before, during, and after an event; with this approach meetings will never be the same! I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to create a truly engaging experience!
—Patrick Marr, Managing Director, Leading Edge
Most people agree that meetings are corporate rituals that rarely achieve their desired impact. We’ve Got to START Meeting Like This is chock full of cutting-edge techniques to turn a mundane meeting into a truly transformative experience. Read it and pick up practical and pioneering practices that will make your next meeting, offsite, or event an irrefutable home run!
—Jessica Amortegui, Director Global Talent Development, VMware
For change practitioners, meetings can be powerful events to help shift behaviors and generate momentum. Dana has provided a simple framework for thinking through meetings and compiled a list of creative ideas for making these gatherings more effective.
—Vivian Li, Change Implementation Consultant, Expressworks
Introduction
There is a book inside all of us.
I was returning home from a meeting in Chicago when this book was conceived — I had an urge to write down just a few thoughts. When I landed, I realized I had outlined an entire book. Later, I shared the outline with my friend Kathy, who thought it was a great idea. The more people I shared the concept with, the more delighted I became — everyone thought it was a book that was so needed and after all the hundreds of meetings I’ve facilitated or provided graphic recording, I was a great person to channel it.
As I worked on this, I realized that there was an underpinning concept that was the basis for the ideas. One evening at a restaurant, as I waited for my food to arrive, I sketched out the basic elements that became the START Meeting Model.
Write the book you’d want to read.
With every step of writing this book, I gathered information from friends and colleagues who saw meetings the way I did. I have become more and more excited about the concepts that were shared with me. Connecting them together energized me to gather more. I reached out to close friends and then networked, using social media, with colleagues around the world. I was always delighted when people agreed to let me work with their terrific ideas for creating engagement and sharing knowledge.
This book is not targeted at a small audience. There are pieces that meeting and event planners will really relate to. There are parts that will be useful for meeting facilitators as well as graphic recorders. There are sections that are very useful for presenters and speakers. And, there are lots of great ideas for meeting organizers and designers.
My goal is that whoever you are and whatever you do, you will get helpful insights and instantly useful ideas. My hope is that you will have the courage to try some new things and have success that motivates you to try even more. My dream is that version Two will contain even more Best Practices from people that I don’t even know yet.
When my friend Jesse read my early iterations of the book, he said, You’re not writing a book, you’re creating a MOVEMENT!
And, when the movement is successful, we will all benefit.
I listen visually.
When I am capturing information, at first, people marvel at the artistry of what I’m doing. Then, something happens: they understand that it’s not really about the pretty pictures, but it’s about deep listening, about truly understanding process and then synthesizing that information in a format useful to the group. Some call this design thinking. I know, based on the work of Dr. John Medina and others, most of us learn visually. That means that when I am doing my work, I am helping others to make meaning from what they are hearing and accelerate their ability to do something amazing as a result. My hope is that by creating a visual book, you will have the same accelerated learning experience, and be motivated to try new things.
Done is better than perfect.
Sheryl Sandberg, in her book Lean In, said it’s more important to finish something than to get it absolutely right. This is the hardest part of stopping and publishing a book. There is so much more I’d like to include, more interviews to gather information, more ideas to collect. And, if my dream comes true, this will be the first of many books.
But, for now, this is my gift to you. I hope you enjoy reading and learning from it as much as I enjoyed pulling it all together.
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate.
Here’s to you, Bill Wilmot.
Contents
START Meeting Model
Chapter 1: Why Are We Here Anyway?
Chapter 2: And Yet, We Still Have Conferences
Chapter 3: Then Let’s Do It Differently!
Chapter 4: Before They Get There
Chapter 5: Before — Best Practices
Chapter 6: Once They Appear
Chapter 7: During — Best Practices
Chapter 8: Making It Last
Chapter 9: After — Best Practices
Chapter 10: Meeting Basics
Chapter 11: Cutting-Edge Yet Low-Tech Ideas
Chapter 12: We’ve Got Lots of Technology, Let’s USE It
Resources
Acknowledgments
Works Cited
To Mysti,
Who insists on mixing play with my work, and
To Kylah and Allie,
Who inspire me to do my best.
I’m happier for it.
Chapter 1: Why Are We Here Anyway?
This conference was a galactic waste of my time!
It’s official; this conference was a stupid idea!
Why did I even decide to come in the first place?
One summer, I decided to invest in myself. I made arrangements to go to an annual, week-long industry event: a gathering of professional speakers at the National Speakers Association (NSA) Convention. As a fledging speaker, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. I’ve facilitated conferences all around the globe for almost twenty years. This was going to be a BIG conference, almost 2,000 attendees from all over the world, with some BIG personalities — speakers are not known for being reserved or quiet.
Beforehand, I talked with a few colleagues (each an experienced speaker) who were also attending, and they gave me advice:
"Focus on watching great speakers and what they do that makes them great."
"Have in mind three answers you seek."
"Don’t feel like you have to attend everything; remember to take some down time to recharge your batteries."
I even decided