When cycling to the station in Cambridge yesterday morning past the railings covered with posters advertising a vibrant yet fringe (for some, controversial) cultural scene, I thought what makes a place memorable?

Is it the physical setting (eg The Lake District, a Indian Ocean beach, The Alps)?

Is it the quality of Architecture and how that fits in a particular place (eg the heart of Paris between the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, Circular Quay in Sydney, The skyline of New York, the spires of Oxford, The Backs in Cambridge)?

Or the culture and vibe of being somewhere (eg London, Melbourne)?

So what is the (cheesy?) business analogy I will draw? What about considering all three of these when fixing an important meeting (and remember meetings are the DNA of organisational life and don’t have to be like this):

1) What sort of outdoor spaces will you have nearby – a park, a view. I recall a Scandinavian colleague who always wanted a ‘Learning garden’ the group could work in at some point nearby

2) What sort of human-made facilities will you (ideally) need – maybe informed by this list

3) And, crucially, what can you do to get the right vibe and interaction regardless of what you have chosen for the setting (which links to the other 6 Ps, other than place, from our 7P meeting planning framework – )

Tags: culture, meetings