Alternative places to host a meeting

They say variety is the spice of life. From switching up your breakfast to listening to different Spotify playlists – if you’re not constantly injecting a bit of change in your life, creativity could go out the window.

The same goes for meetings. Here at Action PR, we thrive from having fun, interesting things to discuss in meetings. When visitors come in to the office for example, one of the first things they always mention is our exercise-ball chairs. They’re fun, they’re different, and (most importantly) they’re bouncy!

But sometimes, even bouncy exercise balls won’t do the trick for keeping creative thoughts flowing for innovative chats with clients, visitors and even journalists. We try do as many external meetings as possible, which includes anything from a lunch or coffee meeting to a Hot Yoga session!

Here are some of our favourite (alternative) places to host meetings with other businesses, clients and prospective contacts:

Supper Clubs

We host industry supper clubs where we invite operators to join us for an evening of great food, wine and discussion with their peers. This is usually when there’s been new insight to launch so everyone goes home having learnt something new. This is also our way of introducing news to our contacts whilst also helping them network with one another. After all, you’ll be amazed how many people often run in the same circles in an industry yet never cross paths and PR is about joining the dots…and that’s never easier than over a bottle of wine and good food!

Exercise sessions

But, we never forget our roots – fitness! As an office that is passionate about staying active and making sure our clients come out in the best light, we spend a lot of time taking journalists to meetings at our clients’ studios. This includes everything from a tough Speedflex class (see here) and even the thoroughly sweaty Hot Yoga classes. After all, nothing breaks down the professional boundaries like mopping up your sweat after a good session!

Spa

A little bit of show-and-tell can go a long way during a meeting. So, when talking to press about some of the facilities that different studios and fitness centres offer, we like to let them experience some for themselves. The centres with spas are particularly fantastic at getting journalists out off their ‘nine to five’ mindset and to talk openly about lots of different things when they’re well and truly relaxed.

Restaurant / Experience

Then there are some of the more obvious options – restaurants and bars. When doing a meeting in a location like this, it’s important not to pick overly busy areas and times. Unique places like Sky Garden are great for breaking the ice and providing talking points during the evening but also accommodating enough for a good meeting. There’s also some in our office who have had really wacky meetings in places like Café de Paris – talk about a showstopper!

Leisure Activities

Finally, the trend for doing a leisure activity whilst holding a meeting is getting more popular too. Things like mini-golf and going on a river-boat cruise on the Thames are fun, interesting and take you outside of your normal mentality – making it a creatives paradise!

Hopefully some of these suggestions show that meetings don’t always need to structured in the normal, office-environment way. There are so many ways to hold a meeting, still stick to the agenda but get more of an experience on the way.

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