Brefi Group will design, organize and facilitate conferences, awaydays, strategy and budget planning meetings to achieve your agreed outcome.

Are you looking for an experienced facilitator to design and run an away day, corporate retreat, strategy or budget planning meeting for groups?

Or is it a conference to organize or a speaker you need?

Using a facilitator enables everyone to participate fully and provides a safe environment in which to confront sensitive issues.

Brefi Group organises and facilitates effective groups meetings, away days, training workshops and conferences internationally. We have worked in North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, often in exciting locations.

We ensure that each event is structured to achieve a previously agreed outcome, but is flexible and responsive enough to deal with whatever arises, whether it be a business issue or inter-personal. We produce lots of flip chart sheets!

Strategy and budget planning meetings

Strategy planning and budget preparation activities every year justify getting away from day to day interruptions.

They also justify employing an external facilitator so that every member of the team can play a full part in the process.

A facilitator will introduce many standard planning tools to strategy planning and budget preparation, including:-

• Brainstorming
• SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
• PEST analysis (political, economic, environmental, social, technological, legislation, regulatory)
• Balanced scorecard
• Scenario planning
• Systems thinking

Corporate retreats

The value of corporate retreats is that they remove the team from outside distractions for a sufficient length of time to contemplate strategic and governance issues, including the team's own development.

Corporate retreats help to solidify a management team or board of directors and enhance its effectiveness by giving members time to get to know each other and to do long range or strategic planning for the organisation.

A regular dedicated time spent at a corporate retreat off-site and away from distractions should be considered essential.

Team away days

Team away days and training days are a popular and powerful means of addressing current issues, developing strategy and improving the performance of individuals and teams. A different environment; no interruptions; a skilled facilitator.

Whether your objective is to get to know each other better, to build a team that works together better, to be more innovative, or to get down to work on a budget or business plan, you will achieve much, much more if you get away for a day or more, change the environment and allow time for the process. If you have the opportunity, an overnight residential element greatly increases the benefit.

Whatever your purpose, a properly planned and facilitated away day will pay dividends. The best investment for any team.

Team building

Team building needs a professional facilitator who understands team processes and can introduce relevant activities and skills training. A fun activity or event is also a powerful learning experience.

Team building for high performance requires a comprehensive approach. Depending on where the team is, this could include learning how teams are formed, psychometric profiling of team members, communication skills, analysis of team processes, and group work on vision, mission and values.

Brefi Group specialises in indoor teambuilding exercises, as well as outdoor activities which support the learning. Here is a selection of some of the skills that support effective teams: -

• Understanding team processes
• Forming, storming, norming and performing
• Communication
• Goal setting
• Developing a team identity
• Developing shared vision, mission and values
• Understanding team roles
• Discovering and interpreting personal profiles
• Setting well formed outcomes
• Negotiation
• Decision making
• Giving and receiving feedback

Outcomes should include well formed teams with shared goals and values, congruent with those of both individual members and the organisation, and individuals with new transferable skills.

Vision and mission

Developing a vision, mission and values is the foundation for long term success. It is a serious business, which takes time, and commitment.

• A vision helps unite people towards a purpose. Creating and living a vision is the role of leaders in organisations. They have to espouse it and help others to believe it.
• A mission statement is a unifying statement of what an organisation is in business to do. It is a key reference point in the planning and implementation of change.
• Values are the beliefs of an organisation, the expression of what it stands for and how it will conduct itself.

Brefi Group has a proven process for identifying and developing vision, mission and values statements, built around Robert Dilts' Logical Levels model.

Scenario planning

Scenario planning is not about predicting the future. It is about exploring the future. If you are aware of what could happen, you are better able to prepare for what will happen.

Scenario planning exercises involve identifying trends and exploring the implications of projecting them forward – probably as high, medium and low forecasts. These can include political, economic, social and technological. As different trends are chosen and different combinations of forecast levels are combined, a whole spectrum of possibilities can be identified.

Conferences and events

Brefi Group can assist with conferences and events from a simple breakfast meeting or after dinner speech through off-site experiences and staff get-togethers to major conferences.

We specialise in design and delivery of exciting learning events, providing structure, content and management.

If you have an upcoming event that requires learning activities with or without internal business sessions, contact us.

If you are organising a corporate event, management course or major function, let us provide you with a keynote speaker, conference organisation and planning.

With three decades of conference activity and a wide range of interests and contacts, Brefi Group is well placed to supply speakers and chairmen for conferences and corporate events.

What do you get?

Brefi Group organises and facilitates group meetings, away days, workshops and conferences internationally. We have worked in North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, often in exciting locations.

Our customer-designed packages include: -

• Venue search, negotiation and booking
• Pre-briefing and agreement of outcomes
• Design and approval of the programme
• Organisation and administration
• Preparation of materials
• Management and facilitation of main event
• Provision of keynote speakers, where required
• Workshops and breakout sessions
• Review, action planning and follow-up commitments
• Photographs and visual record
• Meeting report

We ensure that each event is structured to achieve a previously agreed outcome, but is flexible and responsive enough to deal with whatever arises, whether it be a business issue or inter-personal. We produce lots of flip chart sheets!

How else can we help you?

Since Brefi Group was founded in 1982, we have developed an integrated package of strategy consulting, executive coaching, facilitation and training, which includes processes specifically designed for organisations, managers, directors and boards.

Our approach is to help clarify issues through a process of discovery, engagement and dialogue, enabling you and your colleagues to discover your own answers and implement your own proposals.