Preparing a Meeting
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Meeting Planning is the core activity that corporate event planners do. Meetings can be small executive meetings lasting 30 minutes with as few as two participants, to a week-long multinational meeting with 1000 people. Many people faced with this challenging project want to throw up their hands in despair, and often there is a stigma of “pointless meetings” when getting down to the organisation. It is true, some meetings are a complete waste of the participants time. No wonder they fidget impatiently and can’t wait to get out of the meeting room. However, a well planned and well organized meeting can turn into a productive team or project session, or become an important flow of information. This article shows you the basics of planning an effective meeting. WHAT Are We Planning?
A successful meeting starts with a defined meeting goal. Just because you always have a meeting on this day, or at this time of year. What outcome should this meeting have. How should participants feel and what message should they have received when it is over? Be very concrete here. Setting your goals at this point in time will allow you to evaluate the success of your meeting afterwards, showing you where time and money were well spent and where there is room for improvement.
WHO is the Target Group?
How many participants are planned for? How many will be invited? If you have no background information on how many accepts per invitation you have, make a guestimate. An internal meeting with required attendance will have near 100% “invitation acceptance rate”, whereas a shareholder meeting may only have an acceptance rate of 2%. Try looking into past events to see if you can find out the approximate rate.
WHERE and WHEN Should the Meeting Take Place?
If this is a small, informal, internal meeting, the meeting place is easily found. It may be your boardroom or another meeting room in the office. Make sure to book the space well in advance so there are no conflicts.
Should you be planning a larger event with internals and externals, or a meeting with international participants you may be required to rent space. Hotels and conference centers are the first thing to come into mind, but you may want something a little out of the ordinary. Museums, Zoos, Libraries, etc often have meeting space that they rent out, and make your meeting stand out. Check out our Venue Checklist for help choosing a location.
Before setting the meeting date in stone, make sure that the key players and the decision makers can attend on the chosen date. Also check events going on – workshops, external meetings and events, trade fairs and exhibition, school and major holidays (especially ones that move around, like Easter).
Small internal meetings often have the most success first thing in the morning, before the phone starts ringing and other distractions pop up. Meetings after lunch tend to be sluggish and slow, and meetings towards the end of the day often have some or all of the participants anxious to get away on time.
Even if you are planning a larger meeting lasting a whole day or more, think about this timing for your agenda planning. Put the most complicated and difficult topics first thing in the morning, and the least complicated between 1 and 3 pm.
HOW: What is the Agenda?
Putting together the agenda will mean getting input from the key players of the meeting. A well thought out agenda can mean the difference between making and breaking the success of your event. The agenda should be short, sweet and to the point, not taking up more than one A4 page. Make sure the agenda includes the objective of the meeting, date, time, length, location, as well as the program points including breaks. List everything in logical order, making sure to allot each program point enough time. Running over the allotted time is every meeting planner’s nightmare. Never “stuff” the program full, always leave enough time for breaks, with 5 minutes each hour, and 15-20 minutes every two hours the norm.
Make sure that all speakers know what they are to bring to the meeting, letting them know what technical equipment is available and what their needs are. Never assume someone will bring a copy of their presentation – make sure they know they are responsible for it! This often goes for the bosses...
Assign participants roles, as required. Every participant should have an active role in the meeting, where possible. Think about the minute takers, timers, greeters, etc.
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