Animations: a response to the challenges of your event
Sometimes seen as mere moments of relaxation during seminars, entertainment - whether in the form of team-building (*) or incentives (**) - is a major factor in the success of your events. By supporting and reinforcing the strong message of your meeting, they are the perfect accompaniment to your event strategy, making a lasting impression and changing attitudes.
However, structuring a balanced agenda is no easy task. Surround yourself with experts who know how to find the right animation formula(s), the ones that will enable you to achieve the goals you've set yourself more quickly and with greater impact. It's also good practice to ensure that these experts have adopted an ethical charter in line with that of their client.
When the company gets into the game
As we all know, play or the playful approach to things scientifically has a number of beneficial impacts on the human organism. It increases brain size, improves spatial location and increases the volume of grey matter (***). Play helps develop memory and logic, stimulating decision-making, organization and cognitive skills. Curiosity and concentration are also greatly stimulated. Last but not least, by creating emotions, play creates vivid memories. And everyone has unforgettable memories of their childhood games.
So it's no coincidence that the corporate world has embraced games as a way of boosting professional stakes. At seminars and events, entertainment has become an indispensable means of getting messages across and leaving a lasting impression.
Serving event objectives
The organization of a seminar is always structured around one or more objectives, which must be clearly expressed in advance by the Business Sponsor, consultants, facilitators and event project manager. And, of course, the events must be adapted to each objective. Each objective - whether educational, operational, behavioral or mental - must be matched by a specific event. That's why it's important to ask yourself the right questions before proposing the right event: "What are we trying to achieve? Unite? Shake things up? Surprise? Reward?"
When it comes to conveying messages and changing behavior, games are the vehicle that really makes change happen. The interaction inherent in our activities (escape games, team sports challenges, brainstorming sessions, etc.) is essential for changing behavior. Through play - in teams or individually during skill boosters - we create awareness, implementation and anchoring. This anchoring is all the more important when the game has been emotionally charged.
The fundamental job of facilitators is to create a reassuring environment, a springboard where participants' emotions can be released and resistance lifted one by one.
It's a whole architecture, a global design, that needs to be imagined for your events. Because when it comes to animation, it's all about relevance and timing.
A musical score
Tempo, rhythm, breath... a professional event often resembles a musical score.
Alternating between plenary sessions, animations, sub-committees and incentives is a subtle but effective art. That's why it's a good idea to get help. A sports event during the 11 a.m. "slack period" or an interminable plenary session just after lunch are all false notes that will diminish concentration and therefore the positive impact on the objectives sought.
In the same vein, incentives, or pure moments of relaxation such as evenings, meals, musical aperitifs... are also essential entertainment for the event. These moments often provide an opportunity to "digest" the various highlights of the day, forge professional and extra-professional links, and share your feelings about what you've just experienced. This informal sharing has as much impact as the event itself, and contributes to the success of the day.
This musical score must also be in tune with the people who play it. Each population, each target, each nationality and even each team within the same company has its own codes and culture. It's imperative to know them and take them into account.
What about feedback?
A successful event is one that perfectly serves the purpose of the meeting or event. How do we measure success? By listening to participants tell us about their experience of the event, both during and afterwards. This "hot" and "cold" feedback enables us to formalize the feedback and adjust the cursors for the next event.
Place your bets...and win!
Whether they take the form of team-building or incentive activities, events vary in format, rules and aesthetics according to the objectives to be achieved, but they all carry motivating, unifying messages that are real success boosters.
Playing together. Talking together. Building together and finally meeting each other: this is the real added value of entertainment at corporate events.
Article written in collaboration with Carly Abramowitz, founder and CEO of CA Consulting Goup, partner of the Serge Kampf les Fontaines Campus, and Edith Combier, Center Manager of Capgemini University.
(*): playful group activities to build, develop, federate or reinforce.
(**): activities to reward and please
(***): Research presented at the 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Conference