Location, location, location 

Where you hold an internal meeting can often be wherever is free, but if you’re inviting external guests, or hiring meeting space in a new venue, where you host is more important. Find out ahead of time where your hired space is in relation to things like bathrooms, water points, and any on-site catering such as a breakout room or coffee spot. Are you close enough to pop out of the meeting to grab a drink without having to schedule a break in the agenda to make it back without missing a crucial point? If not, consider arranging catering ahead of time to ensure you have tea, coffee, water and light snacks available in the room to avoid breaks and distractions. 

Now that the focus is on virtual meetings, believe it or not, location is still just as important – as well as timing. Make sure you’re using a digital platform that can handle the amount of people you need in the ‘room,’ as well as the right compatibility for your operating systems and capabilities – just because you can customise your background to look like you’re at the beach it doesn’t mean it should be your go-to platform! And think carefully about what time you’re hosting your online meetings, be flexible enough to work around your teammates or peers with childcare arrangements, different lunch break preferences or when your global colleagues are signing on without any distractions or prior commitments. 

Set an Agenda 

Speaking of breaks and distractions – a meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map. Important topics may be squeezed in at the end or forgotten all together, and without a list of items to follow small talk can overtake the meeting and leave you with more questions than answers - stats show that sticking to an agenda can cut wasted meeting time by 80%! Setting an agenda and circulating it before your meeting also not only sets the tone of the session but ensures the right topics are going to be covered, and the right people will be there to cover them. Agendas are especially important if you have colleagues or clients attending your meeting remotely, and ensure every participant has a chance to raise concerns, comments and suggestions, wherever and whoever they are. 

Too many cooks 

Alongside a concise agenda, successful meetings need a streamlined attendee list. Whilst it can seem helpful to have as many different voices and viewpoints tackling a topic in a meeting as possible, this can also create noise and confusion that leads to a second meeting needing to take place to decipher the first. If a colleague or client wouldn’t be the person you’d turn to to solve a problem in a crisis, you won’t need them to guide you in a meeting. If they won’t bring data, debate of deliverables – don't send an invitation! 

Oh, sorry! 

We can all be guilty of starting a point with “sorry, I don’t know if this is a silly question,” or “sorry, me again, it’s just that..” - if you’re sure enough in the relevance your point to raise it to the room, deliver it with confidence. Your expertise has been called upon to attend the meeting for a reason, so try not to hide behind modesty and shyness to get the most out of the discussion, and for others to benefit from your guidance and wisdom too. 

Other articles you might be interested in…

A five-point plan for healthy staff meetings

Event & meeting trends for 2020

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