HOW IS EVENT MANAGEMENT EVOLVING WITH LATEST TECHNOLOGY?

Whilst they may vary in size, events today can mean anything from small business meetings to large-scale exhibitions.

The expectation of savvy visitors to events has changed significantly. As a result, event organisers need to step up and adapt to new demands quickly to avoid missing out.

A significant element of this is the evolution in the use of technology both by the audience attending events, causing event managers to ensure their event can cater for the demand, with all available facilities and resources.

Mobile
One of the most significant trends we have seen in the last five years is the increasing use of mobile technology by visitors in the form of tablet and smart phone across the spectrum of meeting venue attendees, for both social and business events.

This is right from the initial booking process – with all options from number of visitors through to food and beverage requirements – alongside video conferencing and marketing materials all available to easily schedule for the conference. This needs to be available on a 24 / 7/ 365 basis.

Even during an event, increasingly today, centres have introduced apps to offer all the details in one place, but these must be carefully created to be easy to navigate and manage for the benefit of the user and the event management.

Reception Meet and Greet

Right from the entrance, visitors expect to be formally greeted in the most efficient way possible, to ensure there is no impact on their visit.

Events must have the right staff management on the door, alongside the right technology to ensure visitors can be seamlessly welcomed, presented with an ID badge where appropriate and directed to the right location for their event – whether it be a meeting, conference, or even a wedding.

On site Wi-Fi

With the reliance on tablet and mobile technology, during a visitor’s experience of an event there is now an expectation of quality WI-Fi to be available at no extra cost to the user – it simply cannot be a premium service offering.

This is also particularly prevalent with increasing numbers of events offering apps which can be downloaded and used for latest literature of the event itself, exhibitors and also offering live q&a sessions for conference alongside opportunities for visitors to communicate with each other.

Visitors must also have facilities to charge mobile and tablet devices and there must be an allowance for the meeting community to engage effectively using their mobile devices, as a clear driver for the future.

Finally, the trend blurring networking and socialising in business is well established and this means event managers need to examine the meeting spaces made available for informal collaboration and discussion.

Social collaboration

Increasingly, events need to provide their audience with the digital experience people expect to receive. This is in terms of communication and to engage with fellow participants and the facility event coordinators.

Firstly, visitors need to be met with digital panels and signage so that they can easily identify their meeting and where it is being held.

Increasingly commonplace in events now are also social walls with real time and live interaction and leaderboards to embrace social collaboration and the sharing nature of social media.

AV and video conferencing is another aspect for events of today to adopt, with the flexibility to offer facilities at short notice and often in informal settings. Again these require high bandwidth and compatibility with tablets and mobile phone technology.

Food and Beverage

Event organisers must be the first to acknowledge that the days when guests would arrive and queue up for the average lunch in a meeting experience is well past its sell by date and any venue chosen must be able to accommodate.

Today’s event, meeting or social gathering has a high expectation in terms of food and beverage, with a much greater sensitivity to healthy eating, better information on food additives etc. as well as the right portion sizes. And they are the first to use social media if expectations are not catered for!

Another aspect of today’s event management is the acceptance of different dietary requirements, including vegan and vegetarian, but also increasingly lactose, gluten and nut intolerances, and ensuring allowances are made to guarantee to the visitor a great dining experience.

So if you are looking at events, in terms of attracting and retaining the right clients, here is a checklist that you should consider:

• Is your reception / meet and greet facility using right technology for meet and greet secure visitor check in, visitor badging where appropriate and increasingly today, an app to provide the visitor with all meeting information in interactive digital format
• Do you provide high quality wifi access from all locations in building on a complimentary basis?
• Are you providing meeting information as well as path finding and room level meeting details in digital format using latest AV / signage technologies.
• Do you have live social media walls comments on your event?
• Do you offer an event app?
• Is your food and beverage offering up to the mark, catering for the expectations of the conference attendee as well as giving the choice and flexibility to cater for dietary requirements
• How is your event laid out? Does it cater for meeting space and informal flexible space for social engagement and collaboration which meeting attendees require during significant parts of the day?

NFS is a leading provider of innovative technology solutions for events. The Rendezvous suite of software delivers fully integrated veunue management and combines the operational efficiency with the integration with the key components required in today’s digital age.

For example room panels, reception signage, visitor management online registrations, room layout planning and a comprehensive food and beverage epos management solution.

Just as a final thought, if you really want to look forward, where is this technology going to fit into your event management?

For the answer, alongside any further information on event management solutions, please visit www.nfs-hospitality.com

THE GROWING CONNECTION BETWEEN HOSPITALITY AND FACILITIES

In the hospitality industry, the frequent adoption of new approaches in customer service has been driven by changes in consumer behaviour as well as the availability of new technologies.  

A great visitor experience has many similarities to making a positive customer impact in the hospitality industry. Successful facilities management seeks to deliver a comparable experience in the corporate world.

Today, consumers have become exposed to a wide range of service experiences through travel, online booking, together with hotel and restaurant visits, which have created high levels of expectation as well as influencing their sense of what good levels of service actually mean.

A key factor in the delivery of a great service experience is the use of technology, which ranges from smartphones, tablets and other web based technologies, supporting services such as customer loyalty programmes. These technologies enable the digital experience to be realised across the spectrum of service delivery.

Both hotels and restaurants have raised their game quite significantly, especially when it comes to the front of house and the guest experience. These expectations are now being carried through to the corporate environment where the visitor reception facilities team needs to adopt the same standards and have access to the same technology. 

So what are the best practice front of house ideas that the corporate world can embrace from the hospitality market?

The Experience

In the consumer world, the best customer experience is one that satisfies to the point where the brand becomes a preference and a long-term commitment is obtained from the customer, who then recommends the brand to friends and family.

Across the spectrum of hospitality and the corporate world, being able to provide staff and visitors with a friendly but professional welcome is now ‘the norm.’ This is delivered through appropriate front of house recruitment and training, and increasingly the use of technology.

In a corporate environment, FM teams with access to specialist meeting room booking software can equally greet guests with knowledge of who they are, to whom they are expected to meet, meeting room allocation including digital signage to guide them to their location, security clearance access and technology requirements, including Wi-Fi and AV or access to video conferencing facilities.

So what should a good visitor experience feel like from the Facilities Management perspective? A warm welcome, recognition, personal service, awareness of needs and the relevant information provided immediately to the individual visitor.

Speed and Efficiency

Typically, businesses have good information available on both staff and visitors arriving at a facility. As in a hotel environment, the front of house team should be using this information to provide a seamless and efficient process at the check-in point.

In a restaurant too, the dining experience is changing with the control now held by the consumer who is able to select from the menu, choose a dining seating experience and even pay up front, all through mobile technology such as Apple Pay.

For Facilities Managers to deal with staff and visitors access to the right information about the individual is critical. Secondly, the use of digital technology such as signage to communicate meeting details and direction to the relevant facilities. Thirdly, the use of room scheduling software software to engage service providers in a fast and efficient manner, potentially through mobile devices to handle the vast number of changes that can be a common facet of meeting arrangements.

Security

Collectively the challenge is to balance maintaining the highest level of security whilst delivering a hospitable and friendly welcome.

In the hospitality market, card based technologies are increasingly used to provide secure access. The next generation of secure access will be made possible by the wider use of mobile phones for key functions including access to bedrooms, in room entertainment and of course the mini-bar!

In the corporate world, card technology is also widely used today and works well when there is good integration between the visitor management system and access to rooms and meeting spaces.

Best practice in the corporate world combines the innovative use of technology with the human touch at key points in the process, to deliver both the welcome and the security required for members of staff and visitors. 

Exceeding Expectations

In the hospitality industry, the guest experience that exceeds expectations is always a great way to guarantee a return visitor.  Even if our expectation is not delivered, how the business deals with a complaint is equally likely to influence our decision to pay a return visit.

Leading hospitality businesses now have staff dedicated to obtaining feedback and responding positively to any negative experiences. This proactive approach is seen across the consumer spectrum, including the manner in which hotels or restaurants respond to negative reviews on Trip Advisor.

So why does the corporate world have to take feedback and response seriously?

Today’s customers are having their service expectations reshaped by advances in consumer technology, and will become increasingly frustrated when having to engage with brands that don’t perform to the same levels as the competition.

The checklist for great service delivery:

1. Understand the client and their service requirements and expectations.
2. Have access to the right information about the client, ideally on a mobile device with the latest meeting room management software.
3. Tailor the personal experience– how the client might be welcomed when engaging with a quality hospitality business.
4. Use technology to support service delivery, capture the right information, including feedback when service targets have not been met.
5. Where possible, embrace the latest technology to deliver a seamless experience in sensitive and complex areas such as security and facility access.
6. Get the basics right, with simple issues like the provision of Wi-Fi access to staff and visitors, without the need to be asked.
7. Adopt a proactive approach to client engagement to identify how well expectations have been met in all aspects of the experience.

NFS is a leading provider of technology for the hospitality market as well as providing technology to help Facilities Managers deal with room and desk booking together with visitor management and the delivery of a range of services used in the corporate world such as catering and video conferencing.

TAMING BIG BROTHER IN THE WORKSPACE

I’ve been talking with a number of larger companies recently about the technologies and HR issues surrounding their desire to want to track where their employees are. Their reasons range from security to productivity to space planning.

The ability to know where people are at all times feels like one of those “wouldn’t it be cool if” things that the world is heading towards… so close you can almost touch it.

Invariably, though, these discussions go around and around and end up in the same place: do we really want to go there?

But what if it turns out that what the facility managers, CFOs and workspace designers want to know about employee movement and activity is actually the exact same thing employees want to know for themselves?

Where’s Joe?

It’s easy to get caught up discussions about things like colleague finding and contingency planning for emergency evacuations.

Yes, there are ways to know exactly where Joe and Cathy are at any given time. It’s do-able and quite useful to know.

When Joe checks-in to a huddle space, desk or room, we now know where Joe is… and Joe is presumably ok with that because he was the one who “signed in” to the room.

Beyond that, however, Joe probably doesn’t want his whereabouts tracked throughout the day where he’s not specifically putting his name on a space or resource for his own benefit.

What’s in it for me?

Creating more flexible, proactive and collaborative spaces for employees is one of the hot topics at the moment.  What if a sensors primary visible function was to serve those purposes, giving employees information they can process for their own benefit?

Creating a smoother day where employees can find a quality space to work with the right equipment, reserving it online with desk booking software can then pave the way for corporate decision-makers to get some cool stuff too…like how many people are where and when – and maybe even why.

We know great space utilization pays off (see this case study).

Ultimately, being able to give management enough information about utilization to make seriously better informed decisions about the amount and quality of square footage the company needs is a huge leap forward… certainly a good “crawl” on the way to walking and running.

Employee Focus Provides Benefits

So maybe the best way to deal with Big Brother may be…not to.

Stop trying to track “who”, and start empowering everyone with useful, real-time data on how many, where, when and why, backed up by useful desk booking software.  Even companies on small budgets can do this now.

What are you waiting for?  Embrace your workspace.

5 REASONS WHY TOGETHERNESS WILL RULE THE WORKPLACE IN 2017

In 2017, it’s unlikely, or against the odds, for the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series a second year in a row especially after a 100 year hiatus. And I’m also not betting on Elvis impersonators disappearing from the Las Vegas strip anytime soon. But the most unlikely things have been happening since 2016, so I’d better add ‘probably’ to both of those statements…

In the world of workspace predictions, though, I’m thankfully on more certain ground. I’ve identified 5 important trends that will make a real impact on workplaces over the next 12 months – and could see us celebrating togetherness like never before.

1) The growth of the blended workforce – Forbes estimates that 40% of workers will be freelancers in a few years time, working hand-in- hand with full time and part time staff.

“With many freelancers working at remote offices, the ability to manage without borders is going to become a critical skills globally,” the magazine says. This trend will create growing demand for workplace booking and scheduling software that allows workers to see and book available workspace.

2) Peer collaboration as a job perk – Peer involvement always rate high in surveys as a reason people enjoy their job, but in 2016 employees reported not feeling very connected to their coworkers.

Workplace technology that encourages peer-to- peer collaboration – for example, making it easy to use videoconferencing – will play a big part in creating happy working environments that encourage talent to stay in 2017.

3) Automation – It was predicted that it will cost jobs, but a new report says less than 5% of jobs can be fully automated by adapting currently demonstrated technology.

Instead, automation will take the grind out of mundane tasks and free up more time for staff to work together. For instance, co-ordinating meetings across multi-locations is far easier now, with software notifying delegates automatically if time or venue changes.

4) Here comes Generation Z – This is the first year young people born after the mid-Nineties will enter the workplace. Digital-savvy millennials have already had a real impact on workplaces with their taste for flexible working.

Generation Z will be even more demanding – they’re the first generation to care more about flexible working than healthcare coverage. For them, mobile access to workplace facilities such as booking desks and collaborative space is beyond important.

5) Co-working. London now plays host to more co-working spaces than anywhere else in Europe, and shared space will continue to grow there and in the US as well. Managing such a fluid environment will see office organizers and schedulers reaching for the latest technologies to make sure their expensive real estate is well-used and easily accessible.

So what does 2017 look like in the workplace? Less packed with mundane tasks, for sure, with lots more opportunity for collaboration, peer integration and easy flexible working.

That’s not a bad picture when it comes to staff satisfaction, retention and productivity. And who knows? The Chicago Cubs might even roar again – but not counting on Elvis impersonators deserting Las Vegas anytime soon.

CLICK HERE for More Information on How Room & Desk Scheduling Technology can Connect Your Workplace.

MY PERFECT MEETING – 10 QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK YOUR BUSY TEAM

An awesome 220 million meetings are held every month in the US at an average salary cost of $338 per meeting, according to recent figures.

But the same survey – by decision-making platform Attentiv – showed that employees feel a third of all the time spent in those meetings is wasted.

Do the math…that’s a lot of expense for nothing.

So why do we set up meeting after meeting, only to fail to achieve an efficient outcome?

Employees’ top complaint is that they never see published results from their meetings. They also complain that during the meeting, some individuals dominate. Both problems require questioning or confrontation, and often a culture change in the organization.

But the next biggest objection is that meetings are too disorganized – and that’s an issue that can be tackled much more easily if an organization has the right kind of tools.

So we’ve compiled a list of the 10 questions you should ask your busy team about the meetings they organize and attend – and we’ve made some suggestions that could help save some of that costly wasted time.

1) How easy is it for you to quickly find a suitable space for your meeting?

2) Do you need to call anyone to book a space?

3) Have you ever booked a room at an external venue because it’s simpler?

4) Are meetings in multiple locations or time zones hard to organize?

5) Have you ever chosen not to use video conferencing? Why?

6) Have you ever missed a meeting because the time was changed?

7) Do you ever see empty meeting rooms in your building?

8) How easy is it for you to find the correct meeting room?

9) Have you ever had the start of a meeting delayed because the room was missing some equipment?

10) Is it complicated to arrange catering for your meeting?

Some of the answers you receive may give you concern – and there are some where you definitely need to act quickly.

1) How easy is it for you to quickly find a suitable space for your meeting?

If a majority of your team answers ‘Not easy’, you have a huge problem on your hands. Today’s workspace needs to be flexible, providing facilities for both formal and informal meetings, and for agile workers who drop in and out of the office.

If employees cannot find the best space to work, and have to wander around the building, it hinders their productivity – and the frustration created also causes a well-being issue.

It’s worth exploring the capabilities of meeting room scheduling software, which gives employees immediate online access to locating and booking workspace – no more delays, and plenty of time saved.

2) Do you need to call anyone to book a space?

In many organizations, meeting room booking is still in the hands of administrative staff, which is a time consuming job for those whose day could be spent more profitably dealing with more important issues.

Having to call someone to book a room also adds a level of complexity and can act as a deterrent to busy workers. The self-service functions of meeting room scheduling software provide an answer that’s much more in keeping with modern office practice.

3) Have you ever booked a room at an external venue because it’s simpler?

When a busy person can’t get what they need one way, they’ll go down an easier route – and that can be an unnecessary cost to your organization when internal space is unoccupied.

4) Are meetings in multiple locations or time zones hard to organize?

Sure they are, if you’re trying to call a lot of administrative staff and a lot of attendees across a lot of locations.

But a scheduling system helps employees easily locate the office spaces they need in each location, with appropriate equipment such as AV and VC. And if the meeting changes, it will automatically make the changes across all time zones and inform each attendee.

5) Have you ever chosen not to use video conferencing? Why?

It’s estimated that difficulty organizing meetings in remote locations is one of the major factors why many people fail to make the most of video conferencing facilities.

The time and cost saving benefits of this technology are well known, so if your team describes the above referenced reason, you are spending unnecessary money.

6) Have you ever missed a meeting because the time was changed?

It’s likely that your employees will answer in the affirmative; it’s a common reason for meeting inefficiency. Technology that automatically keeps attendees up to date is invaluable in solving this issue – and if it integrates with digital signage, it also makes sure attendees can locate the meeting.

7) Do you ever see empty meeting rooms in your building?

No-shows do occasionally happen – but with office space rentals becoming more expensive all the time, your business cannot afford for this to happen.

A meetings scheduling system will monitor attendance and release the room back into availability if noone shows up; used together with desk sensor technology it’s also a great way to make sure hot desks are being actually used.

8) How easy is it for you to find the correct meeting room?

This can be an issue if you have attendees coming from another location or from an external organization, so use digital signage to guide them to their destination quickly and effectively. This wayfinding should integrate with your room and resource booking system.

9) Have you ever had the start of a meeting delayed because the room was missing some equipment?

A leading area of frustration and a real drag on productivity – think how much a ten-minute delay in a meeting of seven people costs in salary alone.

Keep an up-to-date inventory of important equipment such as AV, video conferencing, projectors etc using your meeting and resource scheduling system, so employees can book everything they need for their meeting in one transaction.

10) Is it complicated to arrange catering for your meeting?

There’s nothing trivial about this question. Catering – even when it’s just coffee – provides vital fuel for attendees in an intense meeting, and catering software should always be integrated with your meeting booking system.

That way, employees can book catering at the same time as the room, and the catering software enables them to define exactly what their requirements are. Integrating your catering software with the scheduling system will mean caterers are automatically informed about meeting changes at the same time as attendees.

And there’s one further question – one you need to ask yourself.

Is investing in the tools to make your meetings more efficient really worth it?

America meets a lot, as the survey points out. And when it comes to saving time and keeping talented employees happy, it’s not hard to identify the ROI.

LOVING MILLENNIALS IN THE WORKPLACE? NOW GET READY FOR THE CENTENNIALS

Workplaces around the world have spent a lot of effort in the last couple of years getting used to Millennials – digital-savvy workers born in the 1980s and after.

They love flexible working, they like to move on in their careers and they absolutely adore technology, so Millennials are a genuine force to be reckoned with in our offices.

We can cater for their demand for hot desking and collaborative workspace space by using meeting room booking software, providing access to it via mobile devices and Outlook integration.

They need as much help as they can get. Research shows that 40 percent of Australian millennials – like their cousins elsewhere in the world – say anxiety is their number one personal issue.

But now we’ve got things perfectly set up to make Millennials fully productive in their work, there’s an even younger generation coming along. And guess what?  They’re different again.

Centennials, born post-1996, will be 25% of the global workforce by 2025. Their entire lives have been supported by technology – they may even find it difficult to believe that the internet didn’t always exist. To Centennials, phones have never been anything but smart.

They’re not really aliens from Planet Weird, though.

Every workplace manager is going to have to prepare for dynamic group of young people, and it’s going to be crucial to understand what helps them to do their best work.

So here’s the 5 best ways to welcome Centennials to the workplace.

1) Support mobile working: 

Centennials are glued to their mobile phones, just like Millennials.

They are the generation most reliant on social media, but when your Centennial colleague is on their mobile all the time, they may actually be working – communicating with colleagues by text and taking notes in meetings.

This makes it even more crucial to give them access to important workspace technology such as meeting and desk booking software via a mobile device.

Good workspace scheduling tools are now available as cloud-based options, allowing workers access from wherever they have an internet connection.

2) Enable their agility:

Nearly everyone appreciates a sense of control over their own working day – a survey by FlexJobs in 2015 showed that 85% of Millennials actually want to telecommute 100% of the time.

So organizations who don’t provide the opportunity for flexible working will probably not be able to attract or retain the newest talent.

But putting flexible working into operation in an efficient manner doesn’t just mean creating hot desks. It’s important that workers have access to desk and resource booking software so they can identify available workspace online easily and book it.

Modern workspace scheduling systems make use of occupancy sensors that can show when desks and meeting space are free, displaying it in real-time so staff can book an appropriate place to get down to work.

3) Appreciate multi-tasking skills: 

This youngest generation finds it second nature to shuttle between devices and locations. Make the most of their multi-tasking abilities by providing them with easy access to all the resources they require.

Don’t resent what seems to be a short attention span – these young workers are actually keeping track of many things at once. The fully connected workspace is their natural element.

4) Encourage their collaberative tendencies:

Centennials, even more than the slightly older Millennials, have been weaned on social media. When you add this to the always-on culture that has been engendered by smartphones, it has given them a genuinely collaborative nature that is hugely productive at work.

Many offices provide collaboration tools including video and audio conferencing but sometimes their staff don’t use them because they feel they are difficult to use and organize.

Technology can overcome the obstacles. For instance, scheduling software makes it easy to book everything for a video conference in a range of locations or even countries.

If any of the arrangements change, the software automatically informs the invitees – and if no-one shows up, it releases the space for booking, meaning fewer rooms or desks stand empty.

5) Hang onto their unique talents:

Centennials (like Millennials) are renowned for moving from brand to brand – and they extend that free-ranging attitude to where they work.

So creating a workspace that’s fulfills their sense of independence is well worthwhile, promoting wellbeing and satisfaction in their job. It’s an impressive way to encourage recruitment and helps to retain the services of talented staff.

And don’t forget – not everyone is this young:

Everyone is working for more years now, and Centennials could be working alongside many older generations.

Happily, what benefits them will also benefit their co-workers, because a properly connected workplace is an enjoyable, collaborative and productive place to spend time.

In 2017, analyst Deloitte examined global human capital trends. “The successful organizations of the future will likely be those that can move faster, adapt more quickly, learn more rapidly, and embrace dynamic career demands,” they found.

It looks like everyone needs to be a little more Centennials when it comes to our workspace ambitions…