Things fall apart in austerity times – will the centre hold?

Decisions, decisions – desperate times calls for desperate measures. As Governments across the globe exercise their new vocabulary “cuts, cuts and cuts”, it is “all systems go” for unions and “down tools for workers”.

When the UK coalition government blamed the recession on its predecessor and rolled out its cost-cutting measures, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King quickly assured them that the blame lies with the financial institutions. Nevertheless, this was not enough reason for the Government to lay down the axe. The epidemic has now spread across Europe and unions have planned a general strike on Wednesday following a bid to force the 27 European Union nations to deposit billions of euros with Brussels that would be forfeited in the event of failure to tighten national spending.

Ironically, it is not just workers who are resisting the new austerity slogan. UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox leaked a letter he wrote to the Prime Minister to the media on Wednesday. The letter, spelt out the “grave consequences” for the capability and morale of Britain’s armed forces of the government’s proposed defence cuts.

Oh dear – some may argue that Liam Fox’s letter could be attributed to “sour grapes” especially as Mr Fox, unsuccessfully challenged Mr Cameron for the Tory leadership. Critics of Mr Fox will therefore say that he is proving to be a difficult minister to control, clashing openly with the Treasury over the funding of the Trident nuclear deterrent and has written ahead of a meeting of Mr Cameron’s National Security Council which discussed the cuts on Tuesday and leaked it to the media.

However, the protests are real and John Monks, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation says that members of his organisation need to demonstrate to voice concern over the economic and social context, which will be compounded by austerity measures of Wednesday's mobilisation.

Nevertheless, something must be done to bring down government debts and strategies need to be put in place to clean up the post-recession books. The question is whether a backlash from workers and senior ministers will help? News emerging from the European Central Bank (ECB) are also not very good. The ECB’s annual report on the banking sector, published on Wednesday, concludes that while the sector’s return on equity turned positive in 2009, the recovery has been uneven and substantial risks remain.

So, while airlines face huge EU bills for damages and workers resist the pay cuts, businesses cannot secure lending and the property market remain stagnant, things are really falling apart in austerity times and the centre cannot hold.

Meetovation - Where Smart Brains Meet

They tried it on children and created geniuses and now the Danish are revitalising meetings with colour and ideas and injecting brain food into the process to speed up the decision-making.

Have you heard the one about Return on Meeting Investments (ROMI)? Well, the Danish have embraced their creative skills and initiated a service to eliminate boring meetings – they call it meetovation. Meetovation is designed to end boring one-way communication and traditional meeting room layouts. The idea is to aim for a better ROMI – and increase your sustainability.

However, it is not all about boring meetings in Denmark, they also ensure that it is environmentally friendly and that participants attain some form of intelligence so as to enjoy the meetings too. For this, a team of Danish brain researchers and cooks have researched far and wide and discovered how food affects the way the brain works. Apparently, nuts, chocolate, curry, tomatoes, beetroots, garlic, honey, maple syrup and green tea stimulate the brain. So avoid sugar, meat and fatty foods and excessive coffee and you are on your way to becoming Einstein; serve these at your meetings and your participants will stay awake throughout the discussions. There is strong evidence that omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil can lower cholesterol, help stave off Alzheimer’s disease and make us smarter, so this is high on the menu too.

To create a successful meeting, set up a lively meeting room and then drum in some invigorating activities and bingo you are sure to close the meeting with some sensible corporate decisions.

How do they do this? – For meetovation, it is all about Participation, Flexibility, Responsibility, Evaluation and Relocation. The key issue here is that participants are encouraged to engage actively and have a new creative approach to a far more flexible use of conference facilities. The shapes of the meetings are different than traditional meetings. The Danish are convinced that breaking with one-way communication is a liberating experience for delegates and organisers alike. The Meetovation project has been created by VisitDenmark, the Official Tourism Organisation of Denmark, in co-operation with experts from the regional meeting and congress agencies, professional facilitators, manager advisors and meeting organisers as well as a wide selection of Danish conference centres, hotels and culture institutions. The project is co-financed with support from the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

Chefs, meeting planners as well as conference and meetings destinations across the globe are now working together to ensure that food served at meetings help people to stay sharp throughout the day. They are also introducing creative processes into meeting setups.

Executive Traveller Magazine: Thrifty days ahead for Business Travellers

Executive Traveller Magazine: Thrifty days ahead for Business Travellers