We produce a lot of public workshops at our one-of-a-kind retreat center. One of the reasons we put on these events is to say thanks to our guests by giving them loads of great information. These workshops are usually 2 hours first thing in the morning.

We block off our meeting room all day when we host one of these workshops. We noticed that people would hang out for a minute or two and talk after the workshops, but not for very long. We started telling our participants that they could stay after, meet with their teammates (if they brought any), or pull out their laptop and use our WI-FI, or just hang out and do some work. Much to our surprise, people took us up on the offer! We now have a handful of people stay for up to an hour or so after a workshop and just use our space.

Why this is one of our favorite sparks:
We had an unused resource: an empty room. We turned it into a way to serve our guests at no additional cost or inconvenience. The bonus is that it is a wonderful marketing tool for us. The more people experience our space, the more they love it, and the more they want to come back. They also think we are providing them an amazing service by letting them hang out and drink our coffee for free!


Are there unused resources in your company that you could "give" to your customers? As always, your comments and stories are welcomed!