Turf's Up

I've fallen asleep in enough stuffy meeting rooms after a heavy lunch to be receptive to ideas to make the weekly pow-wow more exciting.

But I'm not sure about Crowne Plaza's latest plan, which is to stimulate creative thinking among its business guests by laying fresh, living grass on the floors of its conference rooms.

The idea, according to Angela Whitlock who has penned the book Walk on Grass, is to remind guests of their childhood and therefore 'free them of societal barriers that restrict creativity'. Which is fine until someone turns up with a football and makes a goal out of two whiteboards. And I can't imagine the cleaning staff are going to be too thrilled when they have to fire up the Flymo at the end of a day.

But what do I know? It's only on for a week (until Friday 20 August) and is being trialled at Crowne Plaza London Docklands, Crowne Plaza Glasgow and Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood. And if it's popular, business guests at other hotels may decide the grass is greener at Crowne Plaza and switch. It may even start a turf war as others get in on the act! Ok, I'll stop...