Give Them a (Meaningful) Break

Time is a precious commodity. With events, attendees are giving up precious time away from the office and possibly, away from their families. Because event organizers know that their attendees' time is valuable, their response is often to pack as much into an event as possible to provide the most value in attending. But, as in many areas of life, this "more is more" mentality can backfire. A lack of breaks can leave attendees tired and their purpose for attending left unfulfilled. Without these breaks, there is no time for attendees to absorb information or make impromptu connections. [Tweet "Time is a precious commodity. Give attendees a meaningful break. #GovEventsBlog"]

If the event is organized in a way that encourages interaction with and by attendees, you want to give them the chance to recharge from all of that engagement. A study published in the Harvard Business Review revealed that the most engaged employees are also the ones that burn out the quickest. With this understanding, it makes sense that engaged event attendees will get tired (burn out) as they are being challenged with new ideas and information. So, what should event planners do to maximize both the quantity and quality of the time spent with their attendees?[Tweet "A lack of breaks can leave attendees tired and their purpose for attending left unfulfilled. #GovEventsBlog"]

Of course attendees will want time to check emails and touch base with the office. Building in time for those engaged tasks is important, but be sure to also provide the option to check out for a bit. Planning breaks at your events needs to be as big a priority as planning keynote speakers and menus for cocktail hours. Consider the following ideas for a 'break' from the standard break:

• Take a walk - Organize a walk or other quick exercise to get people moving after a lot of time spent listening and sitting. These walks can be a great time for additional brainstorming and idea sharing.
• Get focused - Think about organizing short meditation, yoga, or even deep breathing sessions to bring all of the brain activity of engaged participants back into balance.
• Have a laugh - Instead of (or maybe in addition to) hiring a comedy troupe to perform a long set at an evening event, have them do quick skits between sessions to get people recharged with a belly laugh.
• Make it a game -Introduce gamification to events through break time scavenger hunts or trivia contests.
• Let them eat - Typically lunch sessions include a speaker. Consider letting people just eat so they can use the time to nourish their body and recharge their brain. To accommodate the post-lunch slump, ease back into the more intensive sessions with a motivational speaker or even smaller, intimate peer-to-peer sharing sessions.

[Tweet "Consider the following ideas for a 'break' from the standard break. #GovEventsBlog"]Even if the event is not structured with more meaningful breaks, as an attendee, you can use many of these techniques to create your own break experience through long event days. Let us know what types of breaks and techniques have worked for you in the comments.