World Tour to unleash the power of well-designed face-to-face meetings

During the first half of 2023, MindMeeting & Partners holds a World Tour of small-scale book launches, celebrating the publication of “Meetings, by Default or by Design.” The sessions examine the new role of face-to-face meetings in the light of the post-pandemic balance of meeting delivery channels. The World Tour collects data, due to be released during IMEX Frankfurt, in May. 

To give a broader meaning to their new publication, entitled “Meetings, by Default or by Design”, the authors Mike van der Vijver and Eric de Groot are embarking on a “World Tour”. It consists of small-scale, purpose-designed gatherings. Each of the launch sessions investigates the added value of face-to-face meetings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For now, confirmed launches are due to take place in Spain, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Belgium, Dubai, the UK, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, with talks under way in Poland, Rumania, Sweden, Germany, the US, France, Singapore and Malaysia.

The author’s hypothesis is that face-to-face meetings will require clearer objectives and more purposefully, well-designed programmes to unleash their specific strengths in a new balance with hybrid and online. In addition, Mike and Eric believe that this added value is perceived differently in different parts of the world. But how exactly?

The launch sessions shed light on that by conducting “live” research data from participants, all selected in view of their decision-making roles in organising meetings.

The new book, which comes ten years after the publication of their first book “Into the Heart of Meetings”, provides practical design solutions for such purpose-designed meeting programmes. “Meetings by Default or by Design” is a workbook offering improvement suggestions for meetings and events on forty different topics, ranging from meeting objectives to openings and closings, and from dealing with elephants in the room to spicing up content.

Together with their “crash-tester” Martin Sirk, the authors will report back on their findings during the IMEX trade show in Frankfurt in May 2023, as well as in subsequent other international events.