Multi-city meetings are becoming a game-changing format

There are so many reasons why multi- city meetings could become the next big thing in the meeting industry. It will at least become a new niche market and it may even be disruptive to certain segments of the business. So all of us had better pay some attention to this phenomenon. Key issues like the environment, safety, stress, time constraints and money are all driving the setting up and planning of meeting and events. For these key reasons many of our conferences and meetings are under pressure and travel bans are not our preferred solution. Accordingly, many of us have done webcasts and recording of presentations. As a result, many of us therefore now under- stand the limitations to watching content alone as against real meetings in groups.

Mix of both

Between the extremes of watching a presentation and a real meeting, hybrid meetings have appeared as a mix of both. These combine a real meeting with online individual ‘viewers’ more or less involved or engaged via social media or a chat box. Sometimes a group of people gather in a room to watch the content. And these remote viewers sometimes even get some ‘stage time’. All these formulae have been an add-on to the ‘real’ meeting. Second class passengers. However much we have done to involve them, we now know it is never the same thing as a real meeting. Multi-city meetings may start to change that. In the past I have watched a few multi-city meetings produced like a big TV-show with audiences in theatres around the globe. They were top-down, expensive productions taking up to a dozen crew members and a truck of equipment per location. In the many multi-city meetings that I have witnessed over the last year, the new thing is that all the participants are treated as equals. Each city is equal.

Highly interconnected groups

The meeting is constructed of highly interconnected groups of active participants in venues in different cities, countries or even continents. Each group remains a group, a real group, that gathers in a hotel, a hospital or university: any kind of venue. Within each group the dynamics are those of a real meeting: learning, networking and motivation. There are real coffee breaks, real conversations, real presentations, real lunches and dinners. All these groups are connected with ever cheaper, smaller and better technology. Participants tend to say “It felt like we were all in the same room.” And that is essential: besides the individuals that are together in one room, all the groups feel a togetherness, not seen with any hybrid format before. Now it is up to us to play with this new format and discover its potential. One thing is clear, never was it any cheaper than today, with compact, affordable and professional equipment. When more locations are offered more people will show up through the local com- munity in that city. Yet less travel is needed and less accommodation, which means that cost, out-of-the-office time and footprint go down, while safety and convenience go up.

Save money

The multi-city format combines the best of both worlds: real meetings while limiting travel. As technology becomes more portable and innovative, there will be a decrease from 7 to 2 to 1 technician per location. At such a low cost, it will become a way to save money, while standardized packages will make it easy to plan. If DMCs like Kuoni, hotel chains like IHG or companies like Hard Rock Café embrace it, nothing will stop meeting organizers from organizing at least some of their events in multi-city format.