The thinking stems from the understanding that meetings are more than logistics and hospitality. Those of us who depend on this sector must understand that value is only added as a result of the outcomes of the meeting.
So how does that affect organisations who supply services and facilities to meetings? We need to take a holistic approach to any meeting and realise that its success is dependant on an array of factors. Understanding those factors and how to influence them is the new task in our industry.
Interestingly for me I see this development as an expression our own strategy and reflects the steps we have been taking in Sundial over the past 12 years.
We have always recognised that the environment we have created is more than a hoteliers simple approach to hospitality. Understanding our clients and their objectives has been central to our success. Responding to that understanding has set the agenda for our development and resulted in initiatives such as The Sundial Virtual Conference Centre - an online venue established well before web 2.0 to enable 'meeting' and interaction before and after the physical meeting (or indeed instead of). Ahead of its time, our online venue has now been superseded by the many online communities and corporate intranets but I believe it did help show the way.
Our innovative and responsive strategies have also produced initiatives which are now central to the Sundial goal to become 'The Perfect Partner for Meeting Planners'. Listening to our clients objectives for their meetings has produced simple ideas such as our unique 'Sunetic Walls' as well as full service solutions such as Teamscapes team building and SOS meetings management.
I guess you could say that we at Sundial Group are evolving into Meetings Architects.
