A Fresh Approach to Staff Conferences

"We spend more time than ever communicating, yet I feel less informed"

We live in a world full of devices that enable us to communicate more quickly and to a wider audience, yet as the quote above suggests, our employees often struggle to understand and grasp a key vision.

The annual Staff Conference provides a unique opportunity to share key messages with the entire workforce, whilst also affording the chance to raise motivation and for staff to get to know one another better.

Our recent work with housing associations has been described as fun, motivating and inspirational. The programmes are based on experiences that bring groups together and identify ways to move the organisation forward, in preference to back-to-back PowerPoint presentations. Instead we get teams developing film storyboards to promote their organisation, building "talent totem poles" to identify key talents and skills among their colleagues or discovering how teams can outperform individuals through group juggling.

Fresh Tracks has become the provider of choice to a number of housing associations and we are continuing to develop new and fresh ways of working with these groups. Here are some of the highlights from our work with this sector:

Following recent changes within the organisation including office moves and the appointment of a new Executive Director, South Wight Housing Association held a staff development day. Fresh Tracks put together a varied programme that included "getting to know you" exercises and discussion sessions as well as our hugely popular Chocolate Challenge in which teams create boxes of chocolates from raw ingredients. "The Chocolate Challenge was a huge success with the staff; it incorporated all our aims for the event, which were to improve communication and team building, help staff get to know each other better and ultimately for staff to enjoy themselves and have fun together" (Margaret Wright, Executive Director, South Wight Housing Association).

As part of London and Quadrant's annual staff conference we ran workshops on the theme of trust. The conference theme was "Facing the Future" and around 800 staff attended. The workshop explored the effect that trust has on personal and organisational performance through the use of the team game Saboteur and the compelling example of the highly successful and trusting restaurant that doesn't give its customers bills, it simply asks that diners pay what they feel their meal was worth.

Heart of England Housing Group also asked Fresh Tracks to prepare a programme for their staff conference and, having explored various options with the senior management team, we created an itinerary that included table hosts made up of the organisation's 'rising stars' to lead teams in a number of creative and mental challenges. A training day for these table hosts before the conference ensured that they were familiar with the programme and could play an active role as facilitators throughout the day.

Final sessions looked at goal-setting and team performance before feedback and reviews encouraged participants to have their say. An awards ceremony ensured the day ended on a high. "The day was much more than just great fun, it made it a great way to launch ourselves towards being a great organisation to work for." (Wendy Temple, Group Chief Executive).

One of our biggest programmes was for Southern Housing Group. Fresh Tracks has worked with this organisation for many years, so in putting together a programme for their entire staff - around 900 people from all over southern England - we knew we could include a range of fun and different activities. Starting with the theme of 'buried treasure' to highlight the range of skills, experience and knowledge within the organisation, we developed a full day conference programme that included treasure chests instead of conference packs, a pirate galleon on stage and a treasure hunt around the venue after lunch.

In between presentations that focused on recent success as well as plans for the future were energiser activities and a lively motivational presentation from Nigel Risner that included audience participation and lots of laughs.

Concluding with prizes and goodie bags, the day was a fun and energetic one.
"I am writing to thank you for the planning and organisation of our staff conference on 9 May 2006. We have received very positive feedback from all parts of the Group. You and your team played a huge part in the success of the day." (Jackie Carter, Central Services Director).

These are just a few examples of our extensive work in staff conferences and with housing associations. We're always looking for new challenges, so why not let Fresh Tracks put something fun and a little bit different together for your next conference?

‘It’s not just babies who sleep without a worry – Fresh Tracks clients do too’.

Contact Fresh Tracks on 01920 822 220 or mail@freshtracks.co.uk to find out more.