A few years ago if someone told me they had hired a party bus for our next board meeting I would have balked. My immediate response would have been, “We don’t have time to party; we have work to do!” These days I’m a lot more liberal in my thinking and wonder why we never thought of it before.
We always plan our monthly board meetings away from the office, usually at some central location where we can congregate with the least amount of travel and traffic. It seems that someone always gets held up in traffic whether that be congestion due to a breakdown or an accident, regardless, there’s always something to block the flow of traffic to our venue.
Their lateness, although through no fault of their own, is still disruptive. It means we have to go back over the agenda items we already discussed before their untimely arrival and everyone knows that the meeting is going to be pushed out…again! Our schedules are doomed for the rest of the day – another late night at the office – wow, I love my life!
We all know these meetings are important and necessary but deep down, I don’t think anyone of us likes coming to them. We arrive all suited up but feeling somewhat frazzled after that mad dash to the venue because we just managed to escape the office building before dealing with yet another “urgent” issue.
We, being self-proclaimed “professionals”, must act as such. This literally means we must pretend we don’t have a thousand thoughts buzzing around in our heads or that we are mentally prioritising our endless ‘to do’ lists as the meeting is declared open.
And what about the person who arrives late? They don’t even get the chance to catch breath before being bombarded with agenda topics that they struggle to comprehend as they make their way to their seat fumbling furiously for their iPad or pen and paper. We all know what that feels like, we have all been that person! I’m just glad in this circumstance that today it’s not me!
I was complaining after the fact to a colleague about the impossibility of the situation. She suggested we hire a party bus. I burst at laughing but she wasn’t being facetious at all. That look in her eye told me she was very serious.
As it turned out, Party Bus, Auckland hire out mobile boardrooms for 30 people or less. Their lounge coach, VIPER, is not only sophisticated and luxurious, it is licensed and must more cost effective than we initially expected.
But, the one thing that really sold me on the idea was the fact that it is the only venue in Auckland where you can get picked up from the office (or anywhere really)! No more worrying about traffic, parking or frazzled nerves.
It didn’t take much convincing. The other board members were open to trying it and we haven’t looked back. We’re officially the “climb-a-board members” (cheesy I know!) and we now look forward to our monthly board meetings.
We can definitely recommend Party Bus as an excellent alternative for your next board meeting.
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