Meeting Planning and Corporate Service Responsibility
This is the time to think about giving back ….Among the benefits of being a member in a company, trade association or a community is the opportunity to receive such things as employment benefits, professional growth and development experiences or the sense of safety and security within your neighborhoods and relationship building within your community. If you are among the decreasing amount of people receiving such wealth, there are ample opportunities to give back, share or stimulate those in need. Giving back, playing it forward or simply put helping those in need is something we all could do just a little bit more of.
Think this article is about meeting planning? Indeed it is, but the case needs to be built. Corporations, Associations and yes, even groups of friends, church goers or people that enjoy certain sports, tend to travel to all kinds of global destinations. Just think if each group gave up or collected $10 from every attendee and left something behind in the chosen community what a better place the world would be. This type of feeling is being embraced more and more by corporations and associations. Some examples are more akin to team building so there can be duel benefits for example:
Build a Bike ~ groups go into a community and determine what children organization has a need for bicycles. Regardless of the time of year, (summer, Christmas) the group can be broken into groups of 5 or 10 and each group’s challenge is to build a bike for charity. This becomes an exercise with the group where your natural leader will rise to the top, technicians will develop and step forward, those creative folk might add the final touch with certain decorations and voila there is a final product, a leave behind for the community in a big way. Most groups are 200-500 people and just think, that is a lot of bikes.
Experience ~ Here is another, instead of a high dollar dinner for a group of 300, a company decided to hire a caterer, worked with a nice retail clothing store, closed the store to the public and provide each of the attendees a gift card for $100. As they shopped throughout the store’s multiple levels and in some specific departments, they dined on creative and themed food station. Days prior at registration, each attendee was given a name and a picture on the back of their name badge. They were originally instructed to bring a T shirt from their respective destinations for a child in the community of their meeting. These were collected at registration. They didn’t know that they were shopping for a specific child within the community (part of a homeless shelter). This new twist made them really think about their purchases and how to stretch their dollars. This concept of giving first without knowing what you may get in return has always moves the attendees. At the end of the allotted shopping time, desserts were being served as the children joined in the group and had to find their match. This provides for such personal pleasure while being sponsored by your employer.
Making it a better place ~ Groups can swarm in on a remote location, rural community and make it better by building a home, a church or a recreation center, they can take a few hours and plant trees or spruce up a community park. Work with the local animal shelter and have your group volunteer for even a few hours clearing the kennels, socializing with the felines, actually walking the dogs or bathing and combing or brushing the animals make the heart beat a little stronger. Many companies and associations are adding these types of activities to their programming to provide the attendees an opportunity to not only experience the destination in a unique way but also to leave a mark on that community. Meeting planners across the globe are challenged with adding such activities to their agendas and have created wonderful experiences for the attendees.
This is our world, our communities, whether corporate, trade association or community based. Invite your group attendees to spread the wealth so to speak and participate in these activities so it will indeed make the world a better place.
