Boardroom Boredom

- Two in five employees spend meetings daydreaming about what they'll
eat for dinner
- A third admit regularly nodding off in meetings
- Crowne Plaza launch Think Box innovation to brighten up the
boardroom 

Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts today announce interesting findings on boardroom behaviour showing employees are switching off in meetings preferring to think about what to eat for dinner rather than focusing on performance. Over 1,000 businessmen were questioned about meeting behaviour revealing they are seen as a source of intense tedium that is resulting in a dazed and unproductive workforce.

The results come as Crowne Plaza announces its Think Box campaign where new product innovations will be developed and distributed into selected meeting rooms to combat meeting fatigue.

42% of those questioned said they spent meetings daydreaming about their next holiday with a quarter stating they sit through meetings whilst making mental selections from that evening's TV guide. Almost a third admitted they had fallen asleep during a tedious meeting with 35% saying they frequently catch themselves on the brink of dropping off.

Strategies for staying awake include doodling (59%) and fiddling (52%) with a third revealing they have an annoying habit of fiddling with a pen when their mind wanders off topic.

Interestingly, 83% of employees said they treat meetings a bit like a long call with a relative, only paying attention for the first half when they expect to hear all the bits worth knowing. More than half said looking out of a window is the biggest distraction and 73% say if the person conducting the meeting has a monotonous voice then it's unlikely they'll pay any attention to the agenda at all.

To beat this meeting boredom, Crowne Plaza has signed up a number of creative and business leaders called the ‘Crowne Plaza innovators'. These innovators will be creating different products and services for hotels across Europe to directly benefit business travellers using Crowne Plaza hotels. These bespoke items will be developed specifically to look at injecting new enthusiasm into business meetings so that they maximise productivity and brighten up the boardroom.

The first innovator is Roger von Oech, an author, inventor and speaker who specialises in establishing methods and creating products to improve creativity in meetings. As his innovation, Roger has designed a ‘Think Box' which will be distributed into selected meeting rooms.

Crowne Plaza and Roger von Oech have identified three key hurdles faced in meetings and each Think Box contains three different items, designed to
troubleshoot these problems, which include loss of focus, lack of creativity and achieving meeting goals. Each Think Box will contain the following:

- Inspire Boards: these boards will contain different brain teasers and have been designed to get people focused at the start of a meeting.

- Ball of Whacks: a tactile tool to release nervous energy, prevent distraction and to reinvigorate creativity during a meeting.

- Think Cards: for when a problem is reached and cannot be solved, the
cards are designed to get a new perspective on the issue being discussed.
The Think Cards offer alternate ways of looking at things to find results.

In addition, a dedicated Think Tank microsite www.crowneplazathinktank.com has launched to support the innovators and will contain various business tools, including news feeds and regularly updated tips and advice from the innovators.

Gavin Hawthorn, IHG's VP Business & Relationship Marketing, said: "These results give us a fascinating insight into boardroom behaviour and are proof many meetings are not stimulating employees and therefore becoming ineffective and unproductive.

We are delighted to announce the Crowne Plaza innovators to combat this problem and inject renewed enthusiasm into meetings by introducing Roger's Think Box into our hotels. Crowne Plaza hotels are designed with the business traveller in mind and dedicated to offering our guests an inspiring space to think whilst staying with us. We wanted our pioneering in-hotel innovations to offer a real benefit to those staying and doing business in our European and Middle Eastern hotels."

For more information about the innovators or the Crowne Plaza Think Tank campaign please visit www.crowneplazathinktank.com

For further information please contact:

Andrew Smith
PR Director EMEA
Tel:      + 44 (0) 1753 410 346
Email:  [email protected]

Suzanne Seyghal
PR Manager EMEA
Tel:       +44 (0) 1753 410 247
Email:  [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is one of the world’s largest hotel groups by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, almost 4,000 hotels and more than 590,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites® and Hotel Indigo®, and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club® Rewards with over 37 million members worldwide.

IHG pioneered the travel industry’s first collaborative response to environmental issues as founder of the International Hotels and Environment Initiative (IHEI). The environment and local communities remain at the heart of IHG’s global corporate responsibility focus. IHG is the first major hotel group to have measured the environmental and carbon footprints of hotels that operate under our brands globally and is in the process of setting reduction targets.

With more than 1,600 hotels in its development pipeline, IHG needs to recruit around 150,000 people over the next few years to meet its global expansion plans.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media