Top 10 tips to avoid ‘Apprentice’ teambuilding day

On the face of it anyone watching the mess that the BBC apprentice teams made of organising a team-building day could be forgiven for buying into the prejudices around Team-building that were re-enforced.

The reality however for the observant viewer was quite the reverse.  The task was introduced by the show’s host Alan Sugar as “an away-day for corporate clients – not a jolly, you understand, but an exercise in team-building, and communication and listening skills”. 

I can only assume that the apprentice candidates had already switched off at this point because the solutions they provided came straight from the David Brent School of management development.

The briefing meetings with their blue chip clients so clearly re-enforced Lord Sugar’s message about outcomes that when it became clear the 2 teams, Evolve and Endeavour had totally missed the point I began to wonder how much of the program I could endure.

It certainly made good TV but most of all, once I had managed to get over my discomfort, it shows just how dysfunctional teams can become without good communication and listening skills.

Filling a day with activities without understanding how to turn that experience into learning is, without doubt, a complete waste of time and money.  No shock then when both clients on the show asked for significant cash back for a complete failure to satisfy the clearly expressed desired outcomes.

In spite of the show I hope, dear reader, you will still want to explore the opportunity to develop your team through experiential teambuilding so let me provide some thoughts to help you get the most out your investment.

1. Decide how you need your team to improve, what do those improvements look like?
2. Chose a team-building provider with a proven track record.
3. Talk to a senior representative of the provider.  If they haven’t listened to you and cannot give you total confidence in their understanding of your agenda – move on to another.
4. Ask to speak to at least one other client of theirs who is willing to recommend them.
5. Make sure the event includes the services of an experienced facilitator.
6. Meet the facilitator to ensure the chemistry will be right for your team.
7. Only use a provider that can demonstrate results, ideally they should assess and record your team’s performance before, on the day and at agreed intervals after the event.
8. Ensure that ALL of the team attend the event.
9. Create expectations for them in advance; full participation is key – even for the cynics.  A good facilitator will help you achieve this.
10. If it’s worth doing don’t skimp, your team will feel valued if it’s clear you have invested in them.

If you are still sceptical about the value of teambuilding contact me, I will do my best to persuade you and answer your concerns. Good luck. 

For more on Teambuilding check out www.sundialteamscapes.com

A changing landscape for hotels and venues?

A quick dip into recently published news and opinion from the meetings sector seems to indicate that things are changing.  The very good Grass Roots Meetings Industry Report 2013 by Alan Newton hints at a swing in the balance of power away from the meetings buyers and towards suppliers although Alan emphasises that at the moment this is a US led trend.

So what might be behind this trend and can we see any evidence that it might be seen in the UK? 

Looking first at the demand side of the trend, Alan reports that “our clients in the UK, USA and Asia are all showing a modest increase in meetings activity and slightly higher budgets than a year ago.  The mood is quietly positive,’

But what is happening on the supply side?

It will not have escaped followers of the hotel transactions news that a couple of deals have recently been done by UK banks that had found themselves holding hotel assets as a result of their lending binge and the subsequent repossessions following the recession and crash in hotel values.  Big losses have been sucked up and canny private equity and venture capital investors have bought at what might prove to be the bottom of the market. Principal Hayley and Malmaison have both been ‘moved on’ and rumours surround other brands such as DeVere Venues.  As the market commentator Hotel Analyst puts it on page 117 of Sleeper Magazine; “Are we finally at the point where deals start in earnest? The short answer is no. But it seems highly likely that there will be more movement than we have seen for some time.”

This then begs the question what will this smart money do with hotel and venue assets picked up cheap from the banks? Some are now under-invested following their stint under bank ownership but it seems likely their new owners will be far more careful about pouring more new money in without some very careful analysis.  It’s possible that one or two of the worst performing hotels and venues may be moved on or re-developed for other uses.

So what about new supply?  Melvin Gold's UK Hotel Construction Data report says that although there has been a gradual uptick in new hotel openings since the low point of 2010 this has been dominated by the budget sector so it seems fair to assume that the overall supply of meetings hotels and venues is adapting to a lower level of demand.

Availability and rate are very strongly influenced by supply/demand in the meetings sector so maybe there are signs that the landscape is changing.

It will be up to hotel and venue operators to ensure that any hardening of the market doesn’t lead to greed and profiteering and bring our industry into disrepute.  As Alan Newton puts it ‘interesting patterns have started to develop.......(these) may be considered more alarming if they are not managed professionally.’

Although at Sundial Group we have only experienced slight season changes in demand so far I am proud that our high number of long standing and loyal clients can trust us to take the long view and protect our reputation for fair pricing and value for money should these trends indeed tip the balance of power away from the buyer.

Face to Face or Facebook?

Technology has increasingly been forging a role to make business communications easier.  More and more businesses are using email, video conferencing, live chat and social media networks to communicate and build working relationships, all from the comfort of their own desks and, even, homes.

As liberating as this is, there remains, perhaps more than ever, a need for face-to-face meetings to help cement these virtual links and also to provide something more. 

Mary Beth McEuen, @marybethmcuen vice president and executive director of the Maritz Institute, published as part of recent Cornell University research, her observations on how successful leading companies are choosing to use both virtual meetings and face to face ones (as well as a hybrid of the two) in combination to create effective business outcomes. 

Whilst it must be acknowledged that face-to-face meetings require more financial and time investment (and naturally with that, hold the most expectations), they can work better strategically to achieve three key things:

1. Capture attention – particularly when a business wants to initiate something new or different.

2. Inspire a positive climate – helping to catalyse collaboration, innovation and performance

3. Build human networks and relationships – information can easily be shared virtually, but it is people relationships that are the most valuable

They also offer people the opportunity to share and respond to body language and facial expressions, providing more social interaction and bonding, which virtual channels can only go so far to do.  In my view, it is these social, psychological and emotional benefits to real personal proximity that no amount of remote communication can replace.  A shared meal or drink, walk in the grounds or after dinner, ‘hair down’ discussions add texture and trust to relationships that can really transform a team or working relationship.

Also, in an age when multi-tasking is a common part of all working practice and held in such high regard, face-to-face meetings actually serve to challenge the productivity of doing many things at once.  Face-to-face meetings encourage individuals to down-tools and focus their attention on one task or point.  McEuen argues that real meetings enable people to switch off autopilot and open their minds up to new experiences and situations. This helps generate fresh creativity and blue-sky thinking.

With the benefits of face-to-face meetings clearly outlined, there still remains the difficult question of cost. Face-to-face meetings no doubt cost money to arrange, to travel to and also impact the environment. Furthermore, MPI research predicts that large face-to-face meetings will become more complex in their nature, and involve strategic alliances of organisations or consist of multiple formats happening within one location.  Therefore meeting planners will have a harder task on their hands as they work to achieve return on investment.  A focus on strategy, with clear business outcomes has never been more important to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness.

Organisations often give great weight to venue charges when choosing the location for their meetings, sometimes overlooking the overall benefit.  I have no doubt that the comparatively small premium attached to using the right venue to deliver the more subtle benefits of face-to-face meetings is well worth the investment.

At Sundial SOS, we help meeting planners find the right meeting venues for their business needs and budget. A free service; our venue finding team has first-hand knowledge of hundreds of venues across the UK and can support with any element or level of event management.  For more information and guidance on getting the best out of your face-to-face meetings, please visit: http://www.sundialsos.com

What can Strategic Meetings Management Programmes learn from TripAdviser and the coffee drinkers of Totnes in Devon?

So, what is a Strategic Meetings Management Programme (SMMP), why is it important and how are they changing the way large organisations plan, measure and control their meetings?

In truth the principles of SMMP have been around for some time but only in the past few years has the process been articulated and benefits more widely understood.  A great place to start if you want to understand SMMP is the recent HBAA white paper, available at http://bit.ly/VHtwpb

The HBAA report (for obvious reasons) focuses largely on the contribution of specialist meetings management agencies and procurement professionals.  However, at the risk of upsetting these important and influential vested interests, I want to establish that any successful strategy must serve the interests of the meeting ‘owner’ and their audience not the intermediaries, their job is to facilitate the process and add value.

There is an absolute requirement for good practise but the tendency toward mediocrity that an inflexible, commoditised process, designed to make life easier for the agents and accountants must be resisted.

So, what can meetings profession learn from TripAdviser and the Totnes Story?

You may have seen recently that the coffee drinkers of Totnes successfully appealed to mega brand Costa Coffee to stay out of town in defence of their independent local coffee shops. Whilst I am not suggesting that the independent venue sector needs protection I do think that a debate needs to be had about how best to serve meeting planners when developing processes such as SMMP.

The job of procurement is to save cost and the job of agents is to book the best venues but both of these roles should remain subordinate to the needs of the meeting planner.  If this were indeed the current situation how can it be that SMMP ‘preferred supplier’ lists are dominated by the major hotel brands and based on special commissions, volume incentives and availability of automated booking processes?

This may sound like sour grapes from the CEO of an independent venue group but I offer in evidence the proof that independent venues consistently score higher than the big brands in the approval ratings of event hosts.

The only independent, benchmarked, national event feedback system (which compares 20 meeting venue categories and brands and has collected many thousands of client reports) consistently scores the big brands significantly lower for ‘Net Promoter’, Overall Satisfaction and Value for Money. In spite of this clear preference, strategic meetings management programs and the large agency policies and processes push ever increasing volumes of corporate meetings to the big brands.

It’s time that these programmes take user feedback on board if they are going to deliver the best results for their meetings.  Agents and procurement professionals need to realise that they are driving commoditisation, mediocrity and supplier consolidation.  To maintain healthy competition and improvement in quality they have a responsibility to support variety.  Consolidation of suppliers will work against them in the future. Without realising it, the agents are facilitating their own demise, if they cannot add value to their clients by their specialist knowledge of niche providers because they have killed them off they will soon be bypassed - hotel big brands will be only too pleased to deal direct with corporate procurement.

Meeting planners need to learn from the coffee drinkers of Totnes and take back the control of venue selection but they also need to have access to the data about venue performance, maybe it’s time for a meetings equivalent of TripAdviser?

Its interesting to see what affect TripAdviser has had on the individual traveller market and the choices those buyers have.

If you go to the hotel feedback site and look at the rankings for any town or city it soon becomes obvious that people prefer the service and value for money they get from independent and boutique hotels.  Good independent and boutique hotels are thriving.  This is now driving the big brands to launch small scale brands that try to emulate the personality of their successful competitors.  Choice is undoubtedly increasing.

The industry needs to launch SMMP 2.0 and close the feedback loop to drive quality and preserve variety and choice.  The Agent and Procurement processes need to answer to the consumer and reward the best suppliers.

A Rose By Any Other Name

Internationally, a conference is widely regarded as a small to medium sized meeting, whilst the terms convention and congress are reserved for events attended by larger numbers of people; confirmed by a search of ‘conference’ in APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) Glossary from the Convention Industry Council.

Sundial Group has long been involved in the International Association of Conference Centres which represents venues around the world that provide a dedicated environment for small to medium sized meetings. Indeed I have been honoured to hold the post of Global President and in that role built relationships with members from both English speaking and non-English speaking nations. Ironically it is the ‘mother country’ which has the greatest confusion over the use of the words ‘conference’ and ‘conference centre’.

Unfortunately the wider population in the UK tend to use the term ‘conference’ to cover the whole range of meetings. Indeed, we are currently in the ‘conference season’ according to the news channels with the political great and good and their lobbying organisations swanning off to out of season seaside towns. Interestingly the only organisation to use the correct terminology is the TUC which recently held their ‘congress’ in Brighton.

So why does this really matter?

Conference Centres are a specialist and dedicated niche provider which enjoy a loyal following from meeting planners in the know. Unfortunately many people charged with booking a meeting venue are not so well informed and so, like the rest of us in 2012, type terms that spring to mind into their search engine in the hope of finding what they are looking for. Recent research has found that internet search engines are the most popular venue selection process used after personal experience.

Although no doubt technology will find a solution in due course, the 2012 internet is not good with semantic confusion. If you don’t know what a conference centre is when you look for it you probably won’t find it. If you want a dedicated venue for an important small meeting but the first thing that springs to mind when you hear conference centre is the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster (Capacity 2,500) you will probably type something like ‘meeting hotel’ or ‘meeting venue’. These names cover a far wider spectrum of spaces available for meetings and, given the massive SEO and digital marketing budgets of the major hotel brands are unlikely to render a first page listing of the best (in my view) environment for a meeting.

I think we need to start a campaign for the correct use of the word conference. Let’s get the news channels to rename the autumn party political meeting period the ‘convention season’, or, slightly less mid-Atlantic, the ‘congress season’. Come on QE II fess up and rename yourselves a congress centre.

An Event To Make Us Proud

At the risk of contributing more to a surplus of London 2012 content I have an overwhelming desire to record my views as we approach the end of what looks like an historic benchmark in global events.  I was lucky in the first ticket draw, way back in 2011 and in the past few days witnessed the boxing and athletics.  What I hadn’t expected was the quality of organisation and incredible atmosphere.

LOCOG has staged an event to make everyone in the UK meetings industry proud.  To compliment what, in my experience, was faultless organisation and logistics has been an atmosphere of hospitality and welcome that might have seemed out of character for London.

There were almost too many positive angles which, taken as a whole, created this once in a lifetime experience.  The stunning setting and structures of the park (witness the flower meadow in my family photo), the fabulous success of our athletes and the magnificent coverage by the BBC all played major parts. However, the masterstroke was the recruitment of a massive army of volunteers who set an infectiously happy and relaxed tone to the proceedings.

The fact that someone took responsibility for creating this hospitality demonstrates how much smart thought went into the planning.

This confirmed once again that successful events are not just about facilities and content, a host must also take responsibility for creating the atmosphere to complete the experience. 

The single most important factor?

The sun has finally got his hat on, hurrah!  Its wonderful to see our guests at the three Sundial Venues opening windows and doors and taking advantage of the wonderful setting, enjoying the fresh air, sunshine and outdoor spaces.  Seeing people energised like this put me in mind of one of my favourite LinkedIn groups, The Brain Friendly Learning Group, which recently carried an excellent discussion with the title 'The one most important thing about physical learning environment?'. I was fascinated that in these days of presentation technology and connectivity the consensus focussed on natural light and access to the outdoors. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

Stella Collins posted a link to a Neuroscience News article, Let there be light: it's good for our brains, well worth a read.The fact seems to be that there is no substitute for the quality and intensity of natural daylight.  Caroline Lewis added that having to work in a basement was just too depressing and Delia Fletcher is certainly one for the outdoors, encouraging the breaks at her events to hit the exit.

Obviously we don't have a monopoly on meeting spaces with plenty of natural light and easy access to relaxed outdoor space.  However, I will certainly be reminding our teams to highlight the benefits when in discussion with event planners who might also be considering urban venues or letting themselves get pushed into inappropriate spaces such as basements or other rooms without windows.

Meetings Technology to replace Face to Face?

Several publications including Events, Our Industry, Meetings & Incentive Travel and Conference News have covered a recent piece by Zibrant's Fay Sharpe on the 'rocketing use of meetings technology'.

It might be easy to read her claims that ‘up to 20% of ‘ritual’ face to face meetings will be replaced by virtual meetings’ and feel deeply concerned for the events and meetings sector.

However, I believe that trying to attribute specific outcomes to the rapid march of technology is a risky pastime. The combination of mind-blowing advances in technology and financial austerity will indeed cause fundamental changes in the way people work, communicate, share and create knowledge, but not necessarily with the most obvious outcomes.

The broader technology driven picture is that organisational structures are being re-invented. Teams are replacing hierarchies; projects are replacing routine administration and access to data is ubiquitous.

Sundial Group has hosted ‘management training’ for almost 50 years but I have been amazed at how rapidly this is changing. Corporate learning and development was dominated by ‘chalk and talk’. The information age with its immediate access to the world’s data has made most of this classroom learning redundant. This could have spelt the end of management centres but it hasn’t, there have never been so many dedicated venues!

Nowadays corporate development is all about the creation rather than learning of knowledge. Communication is the lifeblood of this way of working. Traditional teaching has been replaced by skills development, team working, creativity and experiential learning.

Strangely one of civilizations oldest events, due to take place this summer in London is helping to accelerate another organisational change. The anticipated disruption to commuters is driving the already established trend of remote working. Some of the most traditional industries and professions have realised that the day has arrived when they don’t need everyone in the office every day. Leading consultancies such as Corpra are developing and testing strategies for this summer that will drive irreversible change.

So what might be the bigger picture for venues and the future for face to face meetings? I believe that organisations will move away from the day to day office based environment but instead will look to bring people together as and when there is a need. They won’t want to maintain expensive HQ buildings capable of housing all office staff at once but they will want to use the most conducive environment, tailor-made for a project to be launched, reviewed or shared and for team face time to accelerate innovation and create knowledge.

Technology is indeed changing how we work but I firmly believe that the human need for physical proximity as an adjunct to the communication experience will be with us for a long time. There may indeed be growth in remote meetings but at Sundial we are focused on how the future will drive a need for the best face to face meeting environment because we believe the need has never been greater.”

The evolution of dedicated venues

The ongoing economic crisis of the past 4 years has driven the most rapid business evolution ever seen. Never before has it been so critical for organisations to embrace change. The challenge is to understand what to change and why.

Speaking as a past Global President of The International Association of Conference Centres (IACC) I have been especially interested to see how our particular niche of the conference centre concept would evolve. IACC members operate in the small to medium sized meetings market (outside the UK larger conference centres are called convention centres). Their bread and butter events are about strategy and communication, management training and in-house conferences, product launches, and motivational get togethers.

It is a long-held belief of the niche providers to this sector (and many of their clients) that a dedicated and focused environment is a better fit for these activities than a hotel or other location that regard meetings business as ancillary.

So how do you test this difference? Hotels focus on selling bedrooms, they regard meetings as a great way to sell a block of bedrooms and have developed meetings facilities and services to enhance their ability to sell bedrooms. The core business of Conference Centres, however, is selling meetings. Their management approach is driven by the needs of the meeting planner. Facilities, operations, staffing and training respond to their understanding of how to add value to meetings.

An interesting industry debate developed exactly along these lines as the availability of broadband connectivity and WiFi became key requirements for meeting attendees. The traditional hotel approach was to identify this need as a revenue opportunity whilst conference centres had no hesitation to install the necessary infrastructure and provide the resource at no charge. In the current highly competitive, over supplied marketplace Hoteliers have had to back down, but I don’t believe this has changed their underlying attitude.

On the other hand, a consequence of more choice for customers has also resulted in conference centre management having to sit up and take notice of the generally superior individual guest facilities encountered at good hotels.

At a superficial level it may seem that the once clear blue water that existed between conference centres and hotels has narrowed or even disappeared. Yes conference centres have upped their game with investment in accommodation and amenities and hotels have listened to their meetings clients’ bug-bears about charging extra for key ingredients.

It has indeed become much more difficult to tell at first glance if a venue is a hotel or a conference centre, even the name over the door might be misleading. Hotels have sectioned off some of their space and labelled it Conference Centre, whilst some traditional conference centres have earned themselves the chance to rebrand as conference hotels, where they are offering dedicated meeting space with high quality accommodation.

To add to this confusion some operators who traditionally ran dedicated meeting venues have lost sight of their priorities and re-organised with a drive to sell bedrooms (even offering loss-leading single overnight specials to the detriment to their focussed environment) whilst hotel brands have taken their meeting planners more seriously and changed their priorities for operations, facilities, staffing and training in response.

However I would argue that ultimately, under the surface of any venue my definition of the dedicated meeting environment differentiator still remains. Does your chosen venue sell meetings or bedrooms?

Fortunately other recent developments make it easier to ask that question and get a truthful answer. Our increasingly connected and transparent world is giving rise of the ‘Thank You Economy’ and is re-establishing the power of recommendation, washing away the principle of blind brand loyalty.

I believe that it is only a matter of time before hotel booking agents and corporate procurement controllers tap into the knowledge that is out there and join the experienced meeting planners who have always been more influenced by the environment and outcomes than the venue / hotel marketing spiel.

At a time when buyers have the upper hand in the supply / demand relationship the dedicated venues have a distinct advantage. They work at understanding how they add value and seek to control the overall environment they provide so that the focus is on the needs of the organisation hosting the meeting.

If you have read the recent Steve Jobs biography you may, like me, see an analogy here with Apple Corporations’ desire to take responsibility for the overall, end to end customer experience. You might even find dedicated venues with Apples’ drive to make that experience the best it can be – if you ask the right questions.

Welcome to the 'Thank You Economy'

Sometimes you hear of a book that piques your interest and as you get into it you realise that the author is on your wavelength. Mick MacKenzie (an inspiring and stimulating guy in his own right) recommended Gary Vaynerchuk's book 'The Thank You Economy' to me. Gary has become a top business speaker in the US but he also translates pretty well into English.

Gary made his name on Twitter as an authority on wine who was happy to comment and recommend without pushing his own business (he is a wine merchant). He understood the difference between 'broadcast' and 'communicate' and the value of content. Take a look at him on CNN and read 'Crush It!'.

In his second book, 'The Thank You Economy' he expands his thinking further - I recommend the audio book version to get the full benefit of his passion.

His phrase, ‘The Thank You Economy’ expresses the opportunity being created for authentic, long-term companies like Sundial Group by the rapid development of the internet. Ironically the impact comes from the one thing that has never changed – human nature. Technology is allowing us to go back to a more natural way of doing business.

It is human nature to build relationships and friendships based on communication and trust. Our world is now connected as never before and we seem to be going back to the ways of our Grandparents and their ancestors when we make our choices. Anyone wanting to sell a product or service today does so in the traditional environment of the small town marketplace.

This new/old world is bringing back the value of reputation. In my view the absolute key to success is in creating advocates and fans; people who value the fact that Sundial Group can be trusted to care about them and their events.

The wonderful thing about our new connected world is that their views are being shared and that, on a one to one basis, they carry so much more weight than the mega budget advertising and marketing people. That 'one to one' small town connection has now become global.

We have always known that Sundial's culture and reputation are our most valuable assets. We have developed our values of Professionalism, Experience, Respect and Quality to guide us in our day to day interactions and decision making. We genuinely want the Sundial Experience for our guests to be great and think that profit is the reward for getting it right not the reason for doing it. This is the essence of The Thank You Economy.

Our obsession with our direct guest feedback systems and willing engagement with powerful influencers such as Trip Advisor for Barnett Hill, Highgate House and Woodside are the tip of the iceberg. Listening to Gary has made me realise how much more there is to do. Thankfully I have total faith in my colleagues at Sundial Group to continue to delight our customers. The trick now is to enable our advocates to spread the word and for us to demonstrate our listening and caring skills in the new/old world.

Thanks Gary (and Mick)

The Chudbus on Tour

What has a retired London bus got to do with a conference centre group?

Sundial Group own and run 3 award winning specialist country house conference hotels and operate in the meeting venue market. Whilst many of our clients book direct we know that we need to establish our presence and reputation with the Hotel Booking Agents (HBA’s) responsible for venue selection and meetings management for many companies.

The bulk of agency business ends up with the major hotel brands but good intermediaries also need niche suppliers to demonstrate their in-depth knowledge of the market and offer variety from the repetitive chain hotel environment.

At Sundial we have worked with agency bookers for many years but we still appreciate that we must stand out from the crowd and establish our credentials to earn their trust. Our reputation for quality is backed up by multiple awards but we also need to be unique and memorable to ensure conscious recall and front of mind awareness when bookers are sifting multiple options, often on a tight timetable.

When designing an agency promotion we needed to be innovative, relevant and memorable. We made it quirky and fun by invoking a special story from the family history of the owners of the group (me and my family).

Telling people about the big Chudley Family, their adventure to America and the national newsreel that inspired the 1963 Cliff Richard film, Summer Holiday created massive enegagement and allowed a picture to be built of a business with history and a real identity and story. Having the present day Chudbus driven by a member of the family who was 2 years old in the newsreel (me!) enabled the development of the story into the present day Sundial Group characteristic of stewardship as a values driven brand. I expanded this background with the spirit of empathy, quality and attention to detail, all pivotal to a business with industry benchmark low staff turnover and high customer loyalty. Visitors gained a real insight into Sundial Group.

Following a screening of the 1959 newsreel that inspired the Summer Holiday film the bus’s on-board plasma screen ran a slide show of today’s superb meeting venue facilities, accommodation, technology, leisure facilities and the fabulous settings of our historic properties.

Members of the Sundial sales teams engaged with our on-board guests to find out about the needs of their own clients, building a rapport which was further cemented through a fun caption competition with – you’ve guest it – prize of a summer holiday!

Whilst all this was going on Jerry Toth, Sundial Executive Chef was outside the bus cooking up authentic Paella, the smells from which ensured every agency team member wanted to come out and find out what was going on. All a bit different from the average hotel sales rep visit to give a PowerPoint talk and hand out brochures.

Each visit was trailed on Twitter (#chudbus), a Facebook page provided photo, news and a channel to continue the engagement; whilst blogs ensured maximum coverage. The announcement of the winner of the summer holiday at the end of the campaign will provide long-term ROI. The story of the Chudbus Summer Holiday has already picked up media coverage from M&IT, Conference News and Venue Directory and more agents are asking to be included on the tour.

Is Hospitality about to be redefined as bribery?

I'm starting to see increasing references to meetings and hospitality in reports of the Bribery Act 2010 which comes into force in April 2011 and wondering if this represents an opportunity or a threat for Sundial.

Publications in sectors such as pharma and financial services are warning companies to consider the need for hospitality audits as a recent article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper also suggested.

The difficulty stems from the interpretation of the act because an offence (both giver and recipient are liable to prosecution) is committed if "intended to obtain or retain business or a business advantage". One might reasonably assume that all corporate hospitality fits this description so could fall within the bribery definition.

However, a House of Lords clarification (?) says “most routine and inexpensive hospitality would be unlikely to lead to a reasonable expectation of improper conduct”.

I get the feeling that this will hang in the air until there is a relevant prosecution. In the meantime my guess is that the wise will be a little more cautious of the high profile golf resort hotel for their meetings and education events. My advice (as you might guess) is to stick to high quality, good value dedicated venues like Sundial.

How has Learning & Development changed?

At Sundial Group we have been asking ourselves how L&D will change following the global financial crisis.

A friend in IACC (International Association of Conference Centres) pointed me in the direction of an excellent piece of research by Duke Corporate Education, 'Learning and Development in 2011, A Focus on the Future'.

The report points to a general reassessment of business strategy to drive efficiency and management focus. The researchers found;

• Values and goals of the business will drive the L&D activities more than ever
• Focus on the capabilities required to succeed
• L&D joining forces with HR and talent development
• Investment targeted at groups who are strategically connected to the company's goals
• Preparing leaders for a more connected and challenging world.

At the same time all business costs are under the microscope and Learning & Development is not immune. Budget cuts require L&D to be done with significantly fewer resources. Travel restrictions contribute additional impetus to finding new ways to enable employees to learn. Improvements in technology, for so long an unfulfilled promise, seem to be offering new, cost-effective methods of achieving learning.

However, the strategic shift from individual competency to organisational capabilities has resulted in a team centred approach which is hard to fit into the new, lower costs, less travel, more technology drivers.

The "Perfect Storm" of 2008/2009 will be remembered as a difficult and challenging time. The results will be long-lasting and the L&D profession will not go back to the old patterns and habits. To quote from the Duke study -

"These difficulties may have done L&D a great favour by focusing us on organisational capabilities that matter, by clarifying how and when we demonstrate value, by re-energising our search for achieving learning in the workplace, by opening our eyes to what learning technology can accomplish today, and by demanding so much more of how we think about our strategies and the learning activities that they produce."

So how might this affect Sundial?

Team working is already with us. Many organisations are capitalising on the technology that enables remote working, knowledge sharing and talent pooling. The rules of behaviour, sharing of values and goals and development of team spirit will be key competencies of successful teams - real or virtual. Organisations will need to develop leadership at every level as we move away from the traditional structures of management and control.

In my view only some of the technology can be used for team based learning and leadership development because human nature demands 'real' interaction to cement experience and build trust.

When team based learning and leadership development does take place there will be heightened awareness of the effect of the learning environment. The ability of a venue to add value will be critical and organisations will demand a far deeper level of understanding from their host. I believe we are ready to rise to this challenge.

Sundial Group is also responding to these changes by developing a division to deliver cost effective experiential learning which enables successful team dynamics and leadership using our well established Teamscapes activities. Indeed for one of our key clients we will be delivering Teamscapes away from our own venues for the first time as part of their national team and leadership development. Its exciting times.

Please do contact me if you would like more information. I would also welcome your comments.

Rate discounting

I am thrilled for our team at Sundial that we achieved the number one venue group in the definitive UK hotels and meeting venues benchmarking for 2009. We also retained our top spot for value for money and it is this result which left me a little puzzled.

2009 was dominated by a trend to cut rates with some of the biggest operators creating a mad scramble to generate revenue. We are not big enough to ignore these market forces and we knew that, as night follows day, expectations would demand we follow suit.

Avoiding the excesses of discounting was a brave strategy and we had to wave good bye to some great customers; their procurement colleagues demanded they take advantage of the deals. Most though stayed loyal and resisted the temptations.

I was pretty sure that we would come under pressure as the market leader for value for money. Strange to tell - we held our UK #1 value for money spot for the year with a final quarter customer approval rating 17% above the industry average. I bet the big boys are puzzled by that. Perhaps they don't realise that most people can tell the difference between unsustainable discounting and real value for money; or maybe buyers just didn't like what they found when they bought cheap?

Meetings Architecture - the future of meetings?

A new movement has been established, named Meetings Architecture, I recommend it's manifesto if you are interested in the future of meetings, http://www.eventroi.org/themeetingarchitecturemanifesto.pdf.

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.

What is it about Sundial?

Subjective customer feedback is difficult to benchmark so industry reports all too often miss the gems that can be found in the free text fields of satisfaction surveys.

We often come out top in the benchmarking 'numbers game' but its the personal comments that say the most. Below, I have picked out a small number of recent examples that I think demonstrate the Sundial Team's attitude.

"It is an outstanding venue, not because of any particular feature or factor, it just provides probably the best 'fit for purpose and value', matched by excellent customer service that I have come across. I stay at or use 50 - 100 venues per year and in this respect, Woodside is unparallelled."

"The Barnett Hill staff are great! Their winning formula is a high-class yet homely (non-corporate) environment combined with friendly yet professional service. Thanks all!"

"Whilst I have said ~"met expectations" this is misleading because these expectations are already very high because of past experiences at Highgate House. There is a sense of "team" and everybody ....catering, gardeners, reception all being a part of a team ethic. Little touches like offering to carry over materials to the room are appreciated. Also a "Good morning" and a smile go a long way so well done!

Why strong values provide resilience in difficult times

This week I attended a thought provoking workshop on personal and organisational resilience. I came away with the view that we can learn a great deal from Darwin's views on the survival of the fittest. Contrary to popular belief, fittest in this case is not necessarily the strongest or toughest. The traditionally British qualities of a stiff upper lip and bloodymindedness may not always serve us well when the rules of the game change. Flexibility and a good peripheral vision are key attributes when learning how to cope with new circumstances.

However, this is also a time when our compass, guided by strong values, is needed to ensure we gain the strength of knowing 'where we are going' and 'how to get there'.

When we formed the Sundial Group some 12 years ago we spent time setting out what we wanted to look and feel like by pinning down our values based on our family business at Highgate House. As we now look at ways to adapt our business in response to a massive swing in the supply-demand ratio in the meetings and venues business its very powerful to know that we are not constrained by our values in formulating our strategies. Indeed, by going back to our values of Professionalism, Experience, Respect and Quality we have the tools to assess the market and seek out the opportunities made possible by the trust we have established with our customers.

At a time when venues fight for occupancy by driving down rate we are focusing even more on the people aspects of hospitality and finding new, exciting and innovative ways to evolve Sundial Group based on the excellent resources (both individuals and facilities) we have assembled. I have just been watching a large group of guests at Woodside working on Teamscapes Canape Challenge under the supervision of Sundial people. The energy and fun were coming through because of the buzz from people working together.

Resilience is about how people react to their environment. I believe that by using our values to keep creating the best possible environment, Sundial will always enable learning and creativity to thrive.