News

10 Sep 2009 No such thing as a free lunch?

We noticed an interesting concept put forward by John Lewis this week; they suggested that internal events, held to communicate with key stakeholders, including staff do not necessarily have to be free.

A novel concept to think that staff would pay to attend an internal conference put on by management, however coming from a world-leader in employee involvement in the business, it cannot be passed off as inconceivable. Jon White, manager for Leisure Benefits and partner Choice at the retail giant claims “Its about finding the right price point for certain events”.

The idea rests on the belief that charging will ensure attendees, put money back into the company and mean greater levels of interest, concentration and cooperation from the delegates on the day, who will all want the most they can possibly get out of the experience.

Although we may argue that all this can be achieved by identifying the key motivations for the event and tailoring each event to the audience to ensure the greatest ROI, in todays climate this could be a way of creating much needed revenue.

Send this news item to a friend...