The Miller Tanner Associates’ (MTA) difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that brings our corporate meetings and events to life for our clients. Today we introduce you to Key Account Manager Diana Reed, our Pennsylvania-based associate. Diana brings a level of exceptional customer relations expertise that truly demonstrates MTA’s core values.
Meet Diana Reed
Tell us about your current role with MTA?
I partner with existing clients and also work with new customers sharing our event services and virtual capabilities to ultimately align with their overall meeting goals and objectives. I truly love the opportunity to share my operational background and help provide strategy to our clients.
What did you do before joining MTA?
I spent 11 years, starting with operations, as a coordinator and worked my way to becoming a clinical event manager, where I managed programs both domestically and internationally. I later joined the sales team through my organic growth within certain key accounts to serve as director of business development. Additionally, I worked with another meeting planning company as an account manager where I led a team of twelve people and managed one of the company’s largest accounts producing both clinical and commercial events within the pharma industry.
What makes MTA stand out as an event planning company?
It’s the people, of course! We truly are a team, especially during the last year when many of our clients had to pivot to virtual trainings and events. Our team at MTA supports one another regardless of what department and we are all willing to put in the long hours to ensure our clients are happy and their events are successful.
“Our balanced approach of outstanding customer service and superior technology is truly unique and the best in the industry.”
Diana Reed, Key Account Manager
I also love that our team can accommodate our clients’ ever-changing meeting needs no matter what it takes. Our balanced approach of outstanding customer service and superior technology is truly unique and the best in the industry.
What’s a favorite city you’ve visited and why?
I absolutely love London, England. I have so many former colleagues there and love the chance to meet them any time I can get across the pond! Sydney, Australia was pretty amazing, too. I would love to go back for holiday.
What are your special interests or hobbies?
I truly have a love/hate relationship with running. I often travel with friends to run races throughout the U.S. I secretly love reality TV and cooking shows, although I despise cooking!
Key steps in the planning process for a national sales meeting
How to prepare for both in-person and virtual sales meetings
How the right team of professionals can streamline planning and elevate the overall event experience.
When it comes to corporate event planning, few occasions are as important – and as rewarding – as national sales meetings. With the potential to serve as a catalyst for employee collaboration and motivation, these meetings play a starring role in the story of a company’s future success.
For sales leaders, communicating and connecting with teams that are usually scattered across the nation is a valuable opportunity. Ideally, your national sales meeting should be a time to:
Share individual, team, and company successes
Demonstrate how each team has contributed to organizational sales goals
Outline priorities and plans for the upcoming year
Establish sales objectives for teams to support effective planning for quarterly workloads
Communicate expectations clearly
Foster collaboration among teams and the sales staff as a whole
Build excitement and boost morale
Encourage a positive, motivating approach to upcoming goals and tasks
Are you feeling a little overwhelmed by that list of event goals? Don’t be – with smart planning strategies and the right support, you can get ready for a national sales meeting that will check all the right boxes.
How to Plan a National Sales Meeting
National sales team meetings are different from any other type of event, but your approach to the planning process will be virtually identical: organized, purposeful, and well-informed. The details might vary somewhat, depending on your company’s specific goals and needs, but best practices for event planning remain the same.
Let’s go over the most important steps to take when planning for a national sales meeting so you have an easy-to-follow route to a fantastic event.
Start planning early
If there’s one point we can never stress enough, it’s that you need to give yourself plenty of time to pull off the best possible national sales meeting. The planning process should begin at least six to eight months before the event date. And if you want to get started even earlier than that, then you’ll really be ahead of the game.
In fact, at Miller Tanner Associates, it’s not unusual for us to hear from clients just a few days after they wrap up a national sales meeting. They’re still flying high from the success of their meeting and are ready to jump right into planning the next one.
There are so many key details to consider, from your sales meeting theme and the agenda to location and vendor selection, and the last thing you want is to end up in a time crunch at the end. For an event of this caliber, even seemingly minute details can have a big impact – so why put yourself under the added pressure of a too-quickly ticking clock?
Identify the objectives of the meeting
Figuring out the purpose of your national sales meeting might seem like a no-brainer. After all, isn’t the entire point to highlight the big wins from the past year? While it’s true that the basic goal of a national sales meeting is to communicate higher-level content to the entire team, like a detailed summary of sales successes, there should be something more. Once you pinpoint clear objectives for the event, you’re much better equipped to move forward with planning the annual sales meeting agenda.
Here’s an example of this concept in action: say your company aims to increase sales by 15% by the end of the year. So, the meeting objective might focus on helping sales employees determine what they will need to do to help achieve this goal. Setting weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly benchmarks, as well as individual, measurable goals for each employee, are tasks that will naturally make sense for your agenda.
Choose a fun and creative sales meeting theme
The best national sales meeting themes can do it all: celebrate, motivate, educate, and inspire your team. Ideally, the theme of a national sales meeting hits the sweet spot between creative and purposeful, connecting to the overarching objectives while bringing in an element of fun.
As you plan a theme for your annual sales meeting, you might have a basic idea of the direction you want to go. For example, maybe you want to focus on building growth-oriented mindsets, or perhaps you’re zeroing in on team building and collective success. We’ll help you translate your sales meeting theme ideas into a fully fleshed-out event that goes above and beyond to create an immersive experience for attendees.
Partner with a professional corporate event planning team
By this point, you’ve likely realized that planning your company’s annual sales meeting is essentially a full-time job. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of moving parts to consider – and plenty of pressure to succeed – which is why a significant number of companies opt to turn to professionals for help.
Miller Tanner Associates has planned thousands of events for a diverse range of clients, including a wide variety of national sales meetings. We understand exactly how important this event is to your company’s growth and success, which is why we are so dedicated to giving our clients the advantage of our expertise, resources, and manpower. Our talented and imaginative teamknows how to bring creative and unique event ideas to life, setting your team up for an exceptional event experience from start to finish.
Let us handle the planning and execution of your annual sales meeting, so you can focus on being present and connecting with your team in memorable, meaningful ways. Here are just some of the services we can provide:
Event design and implementation, including themes
Project management
Operations/logistics
Travel, hotel, supplier, and transportation management
Risk management
Entertainment, video production, and presentations
Transportation
Site preparation
On-site event management
Budget and financials
Planning a Virtual National Sales Meeting
If you need to take your next sales meeting virtual, there are definitely some special considerations to keep in mind.Engagement becomes even more important while simultaneously becoming much more challenging.
The basic planning steps for a virtual meeting and face-to-face event are essentially the same. However, it becomes critical that you work with a planning professional with experience in large-scale virtual events. Miller Tanner Associates’ virtual event planning experts will show you how to make technology your ally and help you deliver a first-rate experience in a virtual (or hybrid) setting.
Learn how our team recently helped make a virtual national sales meeting a winning success:
Make Your Next National Sales Meeting a Success with Miller Tanner Associates
Your annual sales meeting isn’t just about delivering information and facilitating training – it’s your company’s chance to inspire your salesforce, refine their skills, and unite them in the pursuit of success. And at Miller Tanner Associates, we havea skilled and experienced team that will help you do it all.
Learn more about how we can help you host your company’s best-ever national sales meeting when you connect with our team today!
A lot goes into planning a meeting. It requires organization and preparation, and the simultaneous turning of many different screws to successfully put the plan in motion.
And yet even the best-laid plans can be derailed by the unpredictable.
That was the case for one of our clients, who had to consider canceling their event after the sudden emergence of a public health crisis.
Fortunately, for every incredible meeting challenge, there’s usually an equally incredible solution to overcome it.
Here’s the story of how we helped a client work around a health scare to plan a successful hybrid meeting in one week.
Challenge: Meeting Attendance Threatened by a Public Health Crisis
One of our clients was planning an APAC (Asia Pacific) meeting in Seoul, South Korea.
Within weeks of signing the hotel and meeting contracts, the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic—a viral respiratory illness—peaked and many hospitals in South Korea were closed for decontamination.
Both the site attendees and the corporate attendees were reluctant to attend since there was not a full understating of if/when the outbreak would be contained.
In addition, many investigators and study coordinators invited to the meeting were prohibited from traveling out of the country.
This created some major barriers to holding the meeting as planned.
Seeing no other alternative, the client requested a postponement/cancellation of the meeting.
Solution: Hybrid Event Connecting Attendees in Two Countries
As an alternative to canceling the meeting, we quickly mobilized to offer a hybrid solution that would enable the client to proceed with the meeting—while also providing a feeling of comfort and safety for all attendees.
Utilizing our strong hotel contacts, we were able to negotiate with the hotel in Seoul to receive a 100% refund and void the original hotel contract. This freed up the original funds to be applied to the new strategy.
The APAC meeting was relocated to Hong Kong as the main meeting site, and we also secured an additional space in Seoul for a small satellite meeting.
During the day of the event, 80% of the meeting in Hong Kong was webcast to the meeting in Seoul. The remainder of the Seoul meeting content was provided via local corporate representatives.
As a result of these planning efforts, we were able to accomplish the goal of training all the sites/countries involved in the study while overcoming the travel challenges created by a serious public health crisis.
Overcoming Location and Attendance Challenges by Uniting Multiple Sites
When it comes to planning meetings, sometimes the unpredictable happens.
In the case above, creating a hybrid event provided the flexibility the client needed to help investigators, coordinators and attendees overcome the obstacles of multiple locations to experience essentially the same event and receive the same training.
That’s the brilliance of hybrid events. They enable you to combine the benefits of face-to-face meetings with the convenience of virtual solutions to reach people across different countries and sites.
Whenever you’re facing attendance or location challenges—for whatever reason—hybrid meetings can offer an ideal solution.
Need help putting together an event that people can attend both live and virtually? Talk to Miller Tanner today.
With the possible return of face-to-face events in the near future, many companies are considering how to best move forward with their events later this year and beyond. Senior Global Experiences Manager Kristin Puryear shares her insightful tips on how to plan your face-to-face events while considering both the unknowns and the possibilities ahead.
What are the most common hesitancies companies are experiencing now with regards to planning their face-to-face events?
I think one of the biggest hesitancies is whether the audience is ready and would be willing to accept the invitation. There have been so many safety precautions and innovation to prepare for businesses to resume face-to-face events, from airlines to hotels and everywhere in between. Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) can easily help a customer feel comfortable before moving forward. A big part of this is establishing a clear and honest communication plan with the attendees based on current working knowledge of guidelines and policies at the national, local, and venue level.
Should a client have any doubts, we can organize polling to make sure face-to-face will be well received. If the results prove the audience isn’t ready to travel on site, MTA is happy to offer our hybrid or virtual solutions into the mix.
Based on the feedback we are receiving currently, there is an overwhelming amount of people who are ready to get back to meeting in person. It is very exciting!
What advice do you have for companies considering a face-to-face event this year?
We advise more lead time as we anticipate the demand being extremely high for events in the U.S. in August, September, and thereafter. The rest of the world will soon follow once vaccinations have had time to reach each corner of the world.
Although we know many events shifted to a virtual format in the last 15 months, there are many that were also placed on hold and have been eager to book for some time waiting on a safe window to execute.
Between the backup of events over the last twelve months and the normal demand in the fall months, clients should anticipate a difficult time finding space if they only have several months lead time in sourcing.
Given social distancing guidelines, groups will also be using more space than normal. Groups that previously needed a ballroom for 100 attendees might have contracted a ballroom for 200 in order to include distancing and other CDC considerations at the time of contracting. This is another factor that could make it difficult in finding space with a limited amount of time.
Are hotels allowing any additional provisions for booking?
At first there was lots of flexibility being offered to encourage events to book with considerations to easily postpone or cancel. Now that face-to-face events are returning and we are seeing positive progress as it relates to the pandemic, we anticipate that hotels will be more inclined to offer credits to rebook if a change or setback occurs to encourage future business.
There are factors that MTA can put in place to make the client feel comfortable before officially putting vendor contracts in place and we partner with our customers to make clear decisions throughout the planning process to be as cost reflective as possible for their event.
How are hotels ensuring safety for all face-to-face events?
Here in the states, many, if not all, are following CDC regulations. We have been watching closely and comparing all regulations state by state. As of recent news, it seems like all states here in the U.S. should be open for events at full capacity as of July, 1 2021, so great news if you were targeting to host a late summer meeting or event.
Outside of the U.S., we are tracking all regions and advising clients accordingly. Historically, many of our events in Europe, Asia and Latin America have typically merged countries within each region. We believe and have already organized (yes, this year!) face-to-face events within a single country as a first step. Once some of the restrictions are lifted and quarantine periods are reduced, we should see the events grow and expand to once again become more regionalized.
How can companies best prepare for planning their events this year?
Timing – Get ahead, have a plan, and a backup plan. By now, we all know too well that things don’t always work out exactly as we envisioned. Build in time to know there might be a few detours. Best of all, MTA has contingency planning, including Plan H (hybrid) and Plan V (virtual), to ensure a seamless overall experience should you need to implement a backup plan.
Budget – Work with our team in finding something that works for your project. Keep in mind that budgets might be built out assuming a full face-to-face event, but we can reallocate funds to cover audience participation in a second format – hybrid, virtual, on-demand, etc. MTA has 10+ years of virtual and hybrid experience, so there is no need to look for another vendor when the plan shifts.
Survey – Once your team has an ideal plan in place, survey the audience to make sure they are in alignment before committing to any next steps which might have huge financial implications.
Plan – I believe it is best to plan for the worst-case scenario as far as regulations and guidelines. Hopefully, we continue to move in a positive direction for the duration of the planning window and things will become more relaxed as we move forward finalizing the details of your event. Once all is finalized, plan to give your audience a detailed play-by-play of how the event will look and feel and what is expected of them as an audience member. It is understood that things will look different in 2021, so it will be important to manage expectations before and during the event to provide your attendees with a good comfort level to ensure engagement and success.
Annually, Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) gathers in-person for training and team-building at our MTA Workshop. This year looks a little different. We’ll be following a hybrid event format using a best-in-class experience platform that aligns with our agenda. In addition, we are designing the hybrid event to include all our audiences: North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
We invite you to a behind-the-scenes look at how we are building a hybrid experience for our own annual Workshop! Don’t miss this 6-part series shared by our CEO Marnie Miller Battistini.
MTA Workshop: Why Invest? (Ep. 1 / 3 min.)
Understanding Your Hybrid Audience: Virtual and In-Person (Ep. 2/ 3 min.)
Generating Surveys to Optimize the Agenda (Ep.3/ 5 min.)
Creating an Engaging Agenda and Designing a Customized Experience Platform (Ep. 4/8 min.)
Our 24th year in business was remarkable. A year like no other. But along the way, we seized the opportunity to:
Reflect on our industry.
To redefine what we offered, and how we offered it.
And to re-examine our core beliefs and what’s really important to us.
But that was our 24th year.
Now, we are looking forward to year 25. It’s going to be a milestone year, one where we’re re-envisioning the future of not just our business but the event business as a whole.
We’re looking to start an event revolution.
Thanks to all who have navigated this tumultuous year with us. We’re excited to share with you all that we have in store.
Great virtual ice breaker games can be one of the best ways for team members to get to know each other, build solid coworker bonds, and create a positive culture of collaboration. Even one high-quality icebreaker can set the stage for an authentic connection, something that can be challenging to achieve in a typical work environment. And when it comes to hosting a virtual event, online icebreakers are an especially valuable way to break through the barrier of a screen.
So, how do you know which activities will inspire enthusiasm and team bonding rather than reluctant participation? And are there specific virtual icebreaker ideas that work better in the online format than others? Once again, the Miller Tanner Associates team has you covered.
We’ve rounded up a master list of the best virtual icebreakers for your next event, specifically honing in on the activities that foster collaboration and connection even in an online setting. From the classic to the creative, here are the most effective icebreaker activities for virtual events.
But first, a quick pro tip
Even the greatest team icebreakers can end up being a flop if they’re not the right fit for the group at hand. Think of choosing an icebreaker activity as a match game of sorts: you want something that will suit the interests, skills, and even the size of the group with whom you’re working.
For example, are you planning a meeting for a team of creatives? In that case, look for a game or activity that targets their ability to brainstorm unique solutions, think outside the box, and express their ideas in an interesting way.
With just a little bit of consideration for your participants, you have far better odds of picking an icebreaker that’s an instant hit.
Virtual Ice Breaker Ideas
Draw your… (mood, current location, breakfast, etc.)
Icebreaker questions for virtual meetings can be particularly tricky. In an online environment, many participants will simply type a few quick words into the chat box or give a half-hearted thumbs-up – not because they’re disinterested, but simply because that’s what we’re used to in a world of endless Zoom meetings.
Rather than asking for a verbal answer, try switching it up and inviting them to draw one instead. Many platforms have easily accessible drawing tools, such as Zoom Whiteboard. Give everyone a minute or two to create a quick doodle, then spend a few moments getting a good laugh out of everyone’s attempt at art.
Start a meeting with a team-building coffee date.
Sometimes, the best way to nurture authentic connection is just to let it happen all on its own. An easy way to break the ice is to set up a short block of time (10-15 minutes will usually suffice) for informal chatting before a meeting.
Think of it as a virtual watercooler talk: everyone is free to casually chat about what they did that weekend, the new streaming series they’re loving, the great recipe they tried last night – anything! Scheduling quality time with coworkers without any formal activities can become a regular part of your company culture.
Set up a home scavenger hunt.
Help each other get out of your office chairs and stretch your legs with a hilarious home scavenger hunt, an icebreaker game that’s sure to inspire plenty of laughs. Assign the team a fun, lighthearted task to complete; for example:
Find the most unusual thing in the room
Take a picture of the view from the window nearest you and share it
Go get your favorite travel souvenir and tell us about it
Grab your go-to snack from the pantry
Once the clock runs out, everyone is back and ready to share a story behind the item they brought to the virtual table.
Challenge each other to team member trivia.
If your employees already know each other fairly well, a trivia quiz can be an entertaining way to dig a little deeper. Before the event, collect interesting facts about each participant. Then, set up a quiz – the specific format is totally up to you – to see just how much your staff really know about each other.
Another twist on this idea is the classic game, “two truths and a lie.” In this activity, each participant shares three statements about themselves: one is a lie, and two are true. Other people try to guess which is which, and often, hilarity ensues.
Play “Guess the Desk” to see how home workstations do – or don’t! – reflect various personalities.
For this activity, ask participants to submit a photo of their work desks at home. Then, see if colleagues can guess which desk belongs to which person. It can be fun to see how your team’s various personalities are expressed in their home workstations, especially if there are a few surprises along the way.
Depending on your virtual event platform of choice, you can run the activity via a multiple-choice poll or another format.
Pose a random “question of the day” (or week) for recurring events.
Many of us are attending more than our fair share of virtual meetings these days, and work activities restricted to a screen can become a blur after a while. But this quick icebreaker can encourage team bonding while also boosting morale and warming everyone up for a collaborative chat.
Each day, week, or month, ask participants an interesting, random question. Here are a few to get you started:
What’s the top item on your bucket list?
What’s the one TV show you think everyone should watch in their lifetime?
If you had to be an animal, which type would you be?
What’s one superpower you wish you could have?
Would you rather….?
Elevate Engagement with Next-Level Virtual Ice Breakers
Using the elevated virtual platform, the Miller Tanner Associates team can completely customize the experience within the platform itself. Using measurable data and analytics, we’ll assess interaction and engagement to better understand your attendees’ interests and behaviors. Then, that information can be directly translated into smart strategies for boosting engagement – and in turn, your ROI increases.
When you hire our team for your virtual event planning, the platform is just one of the benefits of working with us. You’ll also have the advantage of our unique expertise and skill, giving your next event that professional touch.
Here are just a few of the ice breaker ideas for virtual meetings we’ve been using within our elevated platforms:
SHAKE
A next-level networking experience, simply exchange profiles with a click of a button. Our team designed an experience that mirrors that of an in-person event including a “handshake” feature, a networking option for attendees to identify mentors and like-minded individuals digitally.
One of the biggest challenges we’ve heard about virtual events is that many attendees miss the opportunities to get to know each other. But with SHAKE, your attendees can put a modern spin on networking.
Post to the Social Photo Wall via mobile within the app! This is an interactive social wall within the platform where attendees can connect, share photos and videos, and interact around the content.
The Social Photo Wall is a great jumping-off point for a variety of icebreaker topics – so you can get as creative as you’d like! Attendees can share their favorite funny video of the week, photos of recent professional accomplishments, or a short blurb describing one of the goals for the year. Because the wall is such a flexible tool, you can utilize it for casual conversation and professional discourse alike.
Attendees can capture branded downloadable photos just like they would as if they were on site. The Virtual Photo Booth adds an element of fun to your event, and is the perfect activity to use during a break. Not only will attendees enjoy the photo booth itself, but you’ll have the benefit of sending them home with a branded gift.
Virtual Break Time
Using interactive avatars, these break opportunities enabled virtual rooms by topic with pop-up video chats. Because each room features a specific topic, there won’t be any lulls in the conversation – there’s already a starting point ready and waiting for them to jump right in.
Friendly Challenge Competition
Attendees receive points and rewards for their level of engagement and interaction within the platform – photos posted, quizzes, fun facts about speakers, etc.
For the event host, it offers the clear advantage of motivation better engagement. And on the attendees’ side, the result is often an experience that’s much more enjoyable. We’ve learned that even the most hesitant virtual meeting participant is likely to discover that once they join in on the fun, the event is far better than they expected.
Set Up a Virtual Slideshow
Run a slideshow of attendees’ life events, both personal and professional milestones and accomplishments, to connect each attendee to one another’s experiences. Even a short slideshow can significantly contribute to the overall morale of the event, helping attendees feel appreciated and “seen.” As a result, they’ll be much more likely to feel enthusiastic about the event and ready to actively engage.
Virtual Brainstorming
Use a whiteboard application to collaborate in a virtual space, and watch productive conversations and problem-solving really take off. All too often, virtual events fail to provide the same collaboration-friendly environment as an in-person meeting. But now, you don’t have to be sitting in the same room to share a workspace. The virtual whiteboard is a place where good ideas can snowball into great ones, all while attendees are making positive connections with each other.
Master Virtual Events with Support from Miller Tanner Associates
The way we gather, collaborate, and learn has changed dramatically in recent times – has your organization’s approach to event planning evolved as well? With virtual events becoming the new standard for a broad range of occasions, there’s an entirely new assortment of challenges to conquer when it comes to planning and executing an excellent event experience.
Miller Tanner Associates has spent more than 20 years as a leader in corporate event planning and management, working closely with clients in every industry and hosting thousands of exceptional events. We explored the world of virtual events long before they became a staple of modern business and have learned and experienced a lot up to this point. Why start at the beginning when you could have the advantage of our knowledge and expertise right now?
Our team is made up of corporate event planners, production engineers, project managers, designers, programmers, and so many others, with each member contributing a unique skill set to support our clients’ needs. If there’s an obstacle, we’re ready to tackle it with enthusiasm. And when it comes to virtual event planning for businesses, it’s a race we’ve been running (and winning!) for quite some time.
When you’re in need of the best virtual event planners in the business, ones that can bring your event vision to life, Miller Tanner Associates is the team to call. Reach out to us now to learn more about how to host a virtual event that makes your ideal event a reality.
