Meet With More Success
Attending meetings is a way of life in almost every business, large and
small. Perhaps you conduct a number of different meetings in a typical
work week, or maybe you attend very few meetings yourself but yet, its
part of your job to help plan and coordinate upcoming meetings for your
boss.
To follow are several meeting planning tips that will
assist you in making business meetings more successful:
Meeting Planning Tip #1: Establish a place to meet and make sure
everyone’s informed.It doesn’t matter whether the meeting
will be held in someone’s office, a large conference room, or
offsite...one of the most important things you can do, and certainly one
of the most obvious, is to make sure that you pick a meeting location
that will be available and will accommodate all attendees. If it’s a
conference room, chances are it may need to be reserved in advance.
Also, once you have the meeting location and date confirmed, be certain
that all attendees are notified of the exact date and starting time of
the meeting via email or memo.
Meeting Planning Tip #2: Prepare an outline. Everyone in
business is extremely busy, so its important to have a game plan of the
meetings agenda in advance, helping to ensure that time spent at the
meeting is spent well. Taking a few moments ahead of time to prepare an
outline will provide you (or your boss) with a working script that can
help make the meeting proceed more smoothly and more efficiently. The
outline should include each of the following: an overview of what will
be discussed at the meeting, how long the meeting is expected to last,
and a timeframe for each item on the meeting agenda.
Meeting Planning Tip #3: Create take-aways. Successful
business meetings often include printed documents that attendees can
refer to during the meeting and then take away from the meeting. These
documents drive home the key points discussed at the meeting, helping to
reinforce important ideas.
Meeting Planning Tip #4: Arrange to have any electronic equipment you
may require.Overhead projectors, multi-media presentation
systems and other electronic bells and whistles can add immensely to the
impact and success of your meeting. Determine well in advance of your
meeting what equipment will be needed, reserve it to ensure
availability, and also make certain it is in good working order.
Meeting Planning Tip #5: Use the right products to enhance
presentations.Another aspect of planning for a successful
meeting involves being able to present ideas with the most impact
possible. Oxford® brand offers a wide range of portfolios, report covers
and other innovative, high quality presentation products that will add a
finishing touch to documents and help make a great impression at every
business meeting.
