On Target Living, an East Lansing, MI-based performance and wellness company, often works with meeting groups to deliver educational sessions about health and wellness.
Education is key to making sure that your attendees aren’t just healthy at your meeting, but that they continue to be even after the meeting is over. If you’re concerned that placing too much of an emphasis on health and wellness at a meeting may detract from the meeting’s objectives, or be met with criticism, consider this, says
On Target Living’s Matt Johnson, business development director and peak performance trainer. “Sometimes, we get really caught up in different meeting goals, like sales, marketing, training, etc. But if we just spent as little as 30 minutes getting people to improve their health and wellness by educating them about it, all the other items on the agenda will be more beneficial,” he says. “Don’t worry about health and trying to figure out how it relates to your meeting; health always relates to what someone is trying to learn, grow, and accomplish.”
Johnson and his father, Chris, the founder of East Lansing, MI-based On Target Living, along with their team of coaches, often deliver demonstrations and keynotes at various meetings that educate audiences about ways to be healthy. Back in 2009, Denise McGinn invited Chris to deliver a keynote speech at the annual meeting she planned for the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Facility for approximately 360. Whether speaking on a stage, leading fitness classes, chatting with attendees in the lobby, or handing out helpful grocery shopping lists, Chris made an impact on attendees, says McGinn. “Even weeks after the event, it really resonated with the attendees. The fact that they’re still talking about that meeting means that they got his messages, and their lives have changed as a result.”
Tying an organization’s wellness program into a meeting makes it even easier to emphasize the benefits of being healthy.
Chicago-based Equity Residential’s health and wellness program plays a central role in shaping the agendas for its leadership summits. “Total Wellbeing has been part of our corporate culture for at least five years,” says Beth A. Cooper-Zobott, director of conference services for Equity Residential. “It includes fitness classes for physical wellbeing, and even classes on investments for financial wellbeing,” she explains. “Because Total Well Being has been part of our planning, it’s built into the budget, and it makes it easier for me to give people healthier options.” Each of her three leadership summits includes a trade show component where partner vendors from health insurance, dental insurance, and even financial companies are waiting to interact with employees and educate them about all aspects of their health.
“Having worked in the healthcare industry, I had a unique perspective on wellness,” says Joann A. Chmura, a strategic meeting manager based in Trumbull, CT, who’s had nearly 20 years of experience as a corporate meeting planner in the health insurance industry. “Instead of just saying you’ll have healthy alternatives or have a yoga stretch break, you really need to educate people as to why they are doing this at the meeting, and show them some tangible results.”