BizBash Best 2020 - 33

Sponsored content

tips

5

for Enabling
Authentic
Collaboration
at Events

1. Give attendees the option
of finding 'their' space. Mix
seating formats so people
can choose to sit on a couch
with others, or perch on a
stool, or be next to others in a
row of chairs, for example.
2. Choose a venue with
capped capacity. The larger
your attendee list gets, the
fewer chances people have
to meet and spend time with
each other one-on-one.
3. Matchmake. Just pairing
a few single attendees
with multiple people in the
audience they may want to
speak with before the event
through email introduction
can be a massive upside
for the liveliness of your
audience day-of.
4. Learn from family style.
When considering meals,
choose items that can be
shared in small groups-
something that works for
food as well as beverages
(think: empty water bottles
and glasses on tables to
be self-filled from a central
water tap).
5. Create places for
serendipity. Sometimes
the best conversations are
born out of proximity and
in semi-private rooms.
An arcade game console
connected in a conference
room can give people
breathing time to relax and
interact socially in between
presentations.

STARTWELL

Here, C.E.O. and founder of StartWell Qasim Virjee dives into detail on his
Toronto, Canada-based business-then offers up his advice for enabling
authentic collaboration at events. 786 King St. West, 647-799-5566, startwell.co
Located in
downtown
Toronto,
Canada,
StartWell is an innovation
campus which houses
over 50 companies
through three buildings,
totaling 20,000 square
feet of heritage real
estate. Founded to give
local entrepreneurial
teams a happier place
to do their life's work,
we have taken an
experimental and agile
approach to defining
our service and space
offering, which has
allowed for integrating
office, meeting, and event
space in a single place.
As Toronto's only
dedicated corporate
offsite venue, our events
platform at StartWell
includes a turn-key
space for 200 people
that is accessorized by

private meeting rooms,
semi-private lounge and
library areas, as well as
an in-house espresso
bar and podcasting
studio. Throughout,
we've learned to
integrate tools that
enable social interaction
and serendipity for our
guests and members,
which make it easy to
form relationships and
collaborate with others
in the same room or
across the world instantly
using built-in turn-key
technology.
In hosting over 100
intimate corporate offsites
per year, we've learned
that no matter what the
reason for producing an
event, they all involve
bringing people together.
The magic that happens
when people gather with
purpose is unique to the
experience they share and

can result in great things-
from new relationships
to innovations that
can create massive
opportunities for
everyone involved.
Whether due to tight
production timelines or
difficulty streamlining
communication between
stakeholders or anything
else, it's too often the
case that event planners
don't consider how
important it is for events
to cue attendees to
interact authentically
with each other.
However, designing
social interaction on
the event floor can be
straight-forward. It's all
about remembering that
the people attending
your event want to be
together-something that
should involve sharing,
self-expression,
and delight."
http://www.startwell.co
BizBash Best 2020

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