Could a ‘Cell Phone Daycare’ be the answer for 100% engagement at your next event?

This week I was talking to our wonderful friends over at FOCUS Brands and don’t you know, the “Cell Phone Daycare” came up! Though some of the names have changed over at FOCUS Brands, the ‘Cell Phone Daycare’ lives on! Here’s the original story from 2013. Enjoy…

We are always on the lookout for the most innovative and effective conference and meeting ideas to share with the franchise community and recently, we were WOWED by Karen Samples’ BRILLIANT idea of a “Cell Phone Daycare Center”.

The executive team at FOCUS Brands invested in bringing Greg Nathan and Karli Furmage of Franchise Relationships Institute in for a 2-day custom Franchise Relations Boot Camp for 5 of their brands. From the newest Franchise Business Consultants to the Brand Presidents – every person responsible for directly supporting franchisees was in attendance.

To make sure that the team got everything they could get out of the experience, Karen, who manages FOCUS Brands meetings and conferences, came up with the ‘Cell Phone Daycare Center’.

Of course, leave it to the amazingly organized Karen to have each ‘Center’ color-coded by brand and each slot numbered for easy retrieval.

“I know this will be hard for most of you,” she explained with a smile. “But just like sending our kids to daycare for the first time, we know they are safe and we’ll be able to pick them up at the end of the day and all will be well.”

To make sure that business was still being taken care of, Karen scheduled more frequent breaks and made them a few minutes longer than normal to allow meeting attendees to check messages and return calls and emails. But when it was time to be back in the room learning from Greg and Karli and interacting with each other, the digital ‘kids’ had to go back to daycare.

The bottom line? When the Franchise Relationships Boot Camp was in session, everyone in the room was fully engaged and the room was buzzing.

I personally think this is the very best meeting practice we’ve seen in years. GREAT JOB, Karen! And thank you for allowing us to share this with the franchise community.

How might this idea work at your next franchise convention?

More soon…

Katrina

P.S. Send us your clever event ideas! We’re all ears and would love to share your successes.

Cell phone daycare

“We have worked with SPEAK! for many years to help us find the perfect franchise-savvy, keynote speakers to inspire, educate and ignite our franchise owners at our annual convention. Our speaker this year was a perfect fit and a great find. We never would have found him without the team at SPEAK! If you are not working with these guys, you should be! They make creating a great experience for our entire franchise system so easy!”

– Steve White, COO & President
PuroSystems, LLC

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Seth Mattison, Franchise Business Keynote SpeakerFranchisee Wheel Of Excellence