6 minute read
WHAT MAKES A GREAT FRANCHISEE CONFERENCE
Franchisee conferences are usually the most expensive and perhaps the most important of all services a franchisor provides. Greg Nathan offers some tips to maximise their value
A conference with 100 participants can easily rack up over $250,000 in travel, food, venue and speaker costs. The hidden costs to cover 100 business owners and executives being away from their work and businesses for two days (plus travel time) can easily add another $100,000.
If this hasn’t focused your mind, consider that this is equivalent to paying over $20,000 an hour, or $300 a minute! Yet it is amazing how often I see conference organisers fritter this away, with little to show for such a significant investment of time, energy and money from so many people.
In this article I’ll draw on my experience attending and contributing to hundreds of conferences, and share some tips and strategies to help you organise a successful event that delivers a healthy Return on Investment.
Create your vision for success
My first suggestion is to be clear on the purpose of your conference and how you will measure its success. Conferences are usually held for the following four reasons:
Communicate. A conference is the perfect vehicle to share your network’s future direction and generate quality two-way communication about important new initiatives.
Connect. Your conference should strengthen each franchisee’s feeling of belonging to the brand and the culture, and also build greater trust with the franchisor team.
Educate. Conferences are great opportunities for enhancing the knowledge and skills of franchisees on how to run better businesses.
Motivate. Conferences can help people to reconnect with their sense of purpose so they leave feeling recharged and inspired to face the year ahead.
To help you measure its success, ask ‘If this conference goes as well as it possibly could, what will we see happening?’ Write down your thoughts in detail to create a vision for success. I prefer a conference vision that is made up of specific and measurable bullet points as this enables you to later determine whether these were achieved.
When developing your vision for success consider the needs of all the people attending. This is likely to include franchisees and family members, as well as the franchisor team and suppliers.
What franchisees love about conferences
In my experience, there are five things that franchisees love to see at a conference.
An informative update from the CEO that describes significant achievements that are relevant to them, major challenges facing the network and how these are being addressed, and goals for the next 12 months.
The opportunity to interact, network and socialise with other franchisees. This means allowing adequate time and opportunity for them to talk with each other informally at social functions.
Opportunities to engage actively in business discussions where they can share their ideas, as well as ask questions and make suggestions to the leadership team.
A chance to learn practical ideas, skills and techniques that will help them improve their profitability, better manage their teams and maintain their personal motivation.
Opportunities to engage with suppliers where they can discuss new products and get access to special deals. This often takes the form of a supplier exhibition, which is a legitimate way to enable suppliers to contribute to the costs of the event.
What do franchisees loathe at conferences?
Too many franchisor executives talking too much with too many slides. This sort of information is often better provided throughout the year using other communication vehicles.
Franchisor executives boasting about their own achievements (eg. how many units they have opened or how much profit the company made), or talking down to franchisees in a patronising manner.
Having an agenda filled with too many sessions and not enough space for them to relax and enjoy their time away from their business. As a guide around 30 to 40 percent of the agenda should be allocated to recreational activities.
Badly facilitated open forums which become negative and allow individual franchisees to grandstand or dominate. This can be prevented by using robust group processes and a competent facilitator.
Presenters or speakers who lack credibility because they do not understand the business, or their content is not relevant to helping franchisees improve their businesses or lives. This can be prevented by screening presenters and checking their content.
Tips for putting together a great programme
While you may choose to use an external conference organiser to help you manage logistics related to travel and the venue, it is best to keep responsibility for the conference programme in-house.
You know what your franchisees are interested in, and if you don’t, you need to ask them. Outsourcing the programme often results in speakers or activities not hitting the mark.
It is ultimately the content of the sessions and the processes you use in these sessions that will make your conference the positive, memorable event you want it to be. This will stay with a franchisee long after they have forgotten the décor of their rooms or what they ate. A rule of thumb is to invest at least as much energy into the programme as the logistics.
Here are four elements of a winning conference programme.
Constructive open forums where franchisees can raise suggestions or ask questions. My recommended process is known as a ‘Group Scoop’, where franchisees work in small groups facilitated by their peers, to collect ideas, questions and suggestions.
A bright open room where everyone can see each other. A well-lit room with round tables makes it easier to create a relaxed, high-energy atmosphere, which in turn contributes to people’s learning and satisfaction.
Round table discussions on relevant business topics. Prior to the conference talk to franchisees about their biggest challenges and the areas they would love to improve in. Then convert these to round table topics. Use franchisees as table leaders and have one of your team at each table recording the ideas that emerge from the discussions. These can then be collated and circulated as best practice tips.
Panels of high-performing franchisees. These panels work best when facilitated by someone who understands how to ask good questions and draw the best out of the panellists. Panellists should receive coaching on how to share their practical experience with specific examples, rather than feeling they need to teach or motivate others.
In summary, running a conference is an expensive undertaking with a huge upside if you get the agenda and the process right.
About the Author
Greg Nathan is a psychologist, author of the bestseller, Profitable Partnerships, and Founder of the Franchise Relationships Institute (FRI). Contact Greg
info@franchiserelationships.com
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