If the economy itself isn’t bad enough, circumstances in which legitimate business meetings are being perceived as excessive are negatively affecting the meetings industry even more.

Rick Bell, with createabilities, inc. in South Florida, has noticed a trend that might be a simple solution for businesses to stay connected with their customers without being criticized for spending excesses – it’s the vendor/customer or supplier business meeting, a.k.a. the facilitated roundtable of executives. These are smaller customer focused meetings that remain business oriented in nature, but also have a social, interactive component.

The goal of these meetings can be two-fold…first to continue a dialog, and second, to engage stakeholders in the business relationship to participate in charting a successful course through the difficult times. Companies can draw together major customers or suppliers into facilitated meetings designed to provide a forum for discussing and solving specific business challenges. For example: oil companies talking to retail store owners, consulting businesses pulling together executives from vertical industries, private sector businesses engaging public sector buyers, retail companies interacting with customers and their suppliers, etc., all in an effort to stay connected with one another in legitimate business meetings until economic conditions improve.

Remember that all TEAMNet Partners can help you with orchestrating tasteful and reasonably priced off-property evening special events where participants can also interact on a social level.