Everyone, at some time or another, has been in the middle of meeting madness where everything that can go wrong does. People are asking questions you have not quite researched and cannot answer. The equipment in the room is not functioning, or you have not figured out how to use it. Furthermore, the people who are paying attention are just about to tune out as well.
More than being a host’s nightmare, your meeting has resulted in pure pandemonium. Unfortunately, successful meetings are what most professionals hope to achieve but often fall short of because of lack of planning. Planning, in addition to other factors, is at the root of the most engaging meetings. Even so, planning this type of meeting can be accomplished.
Continue reading below to learn how you can host your best ever office meeting.
Finding A Meeting Place
While you can hold a meeting in any room, certain spaces are conducive to business meetings. When looking for space, you want rooms that provide all of tech’s bells and whistles but also have a variety of functions. Rooms that have smart stations that contain both video and audio capabilities make it easy for presenters to convey their ideas to presenters. Also, rooms that have access to the internet can also aid in helping presenters convey ideas to participants.
While reserving space that is functional is important, you also want a room that is comfortable as well. Servcorp meeting rooms, for example, provide attendees with all of the amenities needed to hold a good meeting. Alternatively, rooms that are cramped or do not provide appropriate furniture can make a meeting intolerable. Worse yet, your participants might tune out, thus defeating the whole purpose.
Keep Time Limits
While Australia is an island-continent, and you can pretty much set the tempo of your day, hosts looking to capture the attention of their attendees should set time limits for each topic while remembering to set aside a few minutes at the end for questions. Meetings that last more than a few hours can result in you losing the attention of the audience. Furthermore, your time is as valuable as that of your audience, so not reining in the amount of time spent on each topic can send a message to your attendees regarding your consideration of their time.
Draft An Agenda
Another way to avoid going on tangents during meetings is to create an agenda. Your agenda does not have to be detailed but create something that lets your audience know the purpose and mission of your meeting, but more significantly, the direction the conversation is going. Furthermore, an agenda provides structure to meetings that can often go in any number of directions.
Actively Engage Participants
Australian business etiquette dictates that there is a certain amount of conviviality in the course of business. Use this characteristic to your advantage in trying to engage your participants. Whether opening with an icebreaker or breaking them up for cooperative activities, use these opportunities to actively engage participants. Plus, these activities can break up the monotony of a boring meeting.
Keep Record Of The Meeting
While just an administrative task, recording the meeting’s events is one way to collect information, information that could be vital later on. Furthermore, by providing meeting minutes, those who did not attend can get the information and then ask questions regarding topics of interest. These minutes can be audio or video-recorded or hand-written if a note taker is available.
Organising An Engaging Meeting
Hosting engaging meetings relies primarily on planning and foresight. By providing structure to a meeting, hosts set the stage for presenters to convey any messages to the audience effortlessly. More significantly, well-planned meetings engage audience members making them more effective.
