When Karen Gordon got tired of sitting in unproductive meetings a few years ago, she started taking notes on how to improve them.
The Belleville resident and self-described "corporate veteran" launched GO Where Meetings Matter, a creative conference center in Pittsfield Township, in August 2015. GO's six available conference rooms and common area feature ergonomic furniture, stimulating colors, and atypical table shapes, all meant to keep people comfortable, alert, and engaged. Located on Washtenaw Avenue a mile east of US-23, the business counts the nearby University of Michigan as well as Detroit-area auto suppliers among its regular clients.
Gordon spent the last 10 years of her previous career at Ally Financial (formerly known as GMAC) heading up special projects before going into business for herself.
"I lived in meetings, and I knew they could have been and should have been productive, but a lot of them weren't," she says. "So I started thinking about how to build a better box to have a better meeting."
With the help of some entrepreneur friends, she started brainstorming about her ideal space in which to brainstorm. When a survey of local creative conference spaces came up empty, she started her own.
Her first order of business for the new space: no banquet chairs.
"If you think about it, they're only made to be sat in for 90 minutes," she says. "They're meant for a meal, not an eight-hour meeting."
Another difference at GO, according to Gordon, is the common area itself, where client meals are served and small talk can lead back to business in an organic way that doesn't typically happen behind conference room walls.
"Where the real magic happens in a meeting is when people meet outside," she says.
Unlike hotels and traditional conference centers that charge a low, per-person base rate and then lots of add-ons for amenities, Gordon says GO's pricing is all-inclusive. Clients still pay per attendee, but that fee includes use of the room, technology, supplies, beverage service access, a continental breakfast, and snacks. Clients are also free to bring in catering for lunch if they want.
"I wanted to do everything I could to create the environment so the host of the meeting doesn't have to think about anything but the participants and their content," Gordon says.
GO was recently certified as a woman-owned business by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. Gordon is also one of five finalists for an
Inc. Magazine essay contest that could win her a one-page spread in the magazine's May issue and a video on the Inc. website. Voting is open through midnight on Sunday, Feb. 12.
Eric Gallippo is an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer.
All photos courtesy of GO Where Meetings Matter.
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