Posts

How to hold an effective business meeting

,

Meetings are a regular part of the day-to-day running of a business. They enable employees across the organisation to communicate with one another and get tasks done. Businesses should hold meetings because they are a great way to boost morale, develop work skills and communicate important messages. However, if conducted poorly, meetings can be a time waster.

To avoid a disappointing, unproductive meeting, here are a few tips for holding an effective meeting and some tips on what to avoid.

Set an agenda

Be prepared and set an agenda with topics to be discussed and estimate times for each section. Distribute the agenda ahead of time so participants can understand what will be covered and can prepare accordingly. Being clear on timing of the meeting means your participants can plan their day and will be more focused, rather than worrying about what else they need to tick off the to-do list for the day.

Consider taking your meeting to a new location

Gathering at the same meeting room table at the same time every week or month is a great way to introduce boredom and disengagement among the meeting attendees. To encourage employees to interact, think creatively, and have them engage in lively discussions, take the meeting beyond the meeting room. If you are hosting an annual meeting like an AGM or making a special announcement, consider holding the event in a hotel or offsite conference room. The change of scenery will keep your audience interested and encourage creativity.

Use technology

As the saying goes, ‘a picture is worth 1000 words’. Today, with the importance and ease of access to digital technologies, there is little excuse to not use technology to keep your audience engaged. Most people are used to seeing graphics, videos and music to support the words they hear. Incorporate audiovisuals when planning your meeting. Using projectors and Smart Board presentations that encourage interaction are a wonderful change from ‘death by PowerPoint’. Also incorporate time for questions. This shows you are connecting with your audience and can give the floor to the person asking the question, making them feel valued.

Avoid status updates from all departments

Unless there is something meaningful and important that will be relevant and interesting to everyone involved in the meeting, don’t give a ‘week in review’ from each department during the meeting. Unless there is a specific need for help, a request for more resources or the need to share critical information for a larger team discussion, leave it out.  

Don’t forget to follow up

Don’t assume that everyone remembers or took a note of what their allocated tasks were from the meeting. And don’t assume that everyone understood what you were implying or intending to say during the meeting. Have someone take minutes during the meeting, then send out a meeting summary as soon as possible after the meeting outlining the action items for each individual or team, including a due date and clarifying any points that may have been debated in the meeting. Also send this to people who were unavailable during the meeting as they will need to know what was discussed.


If you would like help to set up your next business meeting for success, contact AVPartners.

Holding an AGM soon? Use these tips to help you plan.

An Annual General Meeting, or AGM, is an event held once a year by an organisation looking to give stakeholders, the general public and members a transparent overview of the organisation’s direction and financial outlook. Members and guests can expect to hear reports from the organisation’s committee regarding the achievements from the past year. It’s also the time that a vote is held and a new committee is elected for the year ahead.

AGMs are important events that need to be planned and executed properly to ensure members and guests walk away with a positive attitude about the organisation and its goals.

To help plan your upcoming AGM, consider the following:

The venue

Have a look at what venues you think might be suitable, then arrange site visits so you can determine if a venue meets all of your requirements. Will you need a board room, a large meeting room or a function room? Will you be offering refreshments during or after the meeting? Will there be a time for mingling or networking before or after the AGM, and if so, will that take place in the same room as the meeting itself?

You should also consider the accessibility of the venue in terms of public transport access and parking, through to wheelchair access and other amenities. Once you’ve chosen a venue, set a date and time, and book the meeting or function room, ensuring it’s big enough to accommodate a minimum number of people.

The notice of meeting

With as much notice as is possible and appropriate, produce a notice of AGM for members which provides details about the meeting, including the date, time, venue and information about the election.

The financial reports

Your organisation’s financial reports will need to be produced prior to the AGM. In some cases these reports need to be examined by an independent person or by your own treasurer.

The agenda

Ensure your AGM agenda is sufficiently prepared, and pre-determine whether you want to just go over the essentials, or make it a more compelling event with extra activities so you attract more members and guests on the day.

The election

It’s best to determine your voting system ahead of time so that the process can be seamless at the AGM.

You could simply have a ‘show of hands’, offer private ballots, or even arrange for a neutral third party to count the votes.

The audiovisual technology

Ensure that the venue you hire can handle your audiovisual requirements. They may even have an in-house AV provider, such as AVPartners! There are so many options when it comes to audiovisual technology at your AGM. You may require projectors to display graphs, charts and statistics for all to see, or you may look at webcasting or video streaming the event so that people can still be involved even if they aren’t physically there.

Our AVPartners teams are experts at supporting AGMs of all varieties. From staging to lighting and audiovisual support, we’ve got you covered for your next AGM. Contact us to start your AGM planning.

Why the value of face-to-face meetings shouldn’t be ignored

Now more than ever before, businesses are relying on the use of long distance communication to run their operations. With remote and virtual workers on the rise, technology is making it easier to stay connected with your colleagues or clients in different offices, states or countries. But does this mean that face-to-face meetings and events are on the decline? Not in the slightest!

Four in five people surveyed by Meetings Mean Business believe they have attended an in-person meeting, conference or event that would have been less successful if conducted remotely. As Meetings Mean Business like to say, “great things happen when people come together!”

The benefits of face-to-face meetings include:

Relationships and Engagement

Being face-to-face is one of the most effective forms of communicating and building relationships. It affords you the opportunity to nurture your relationships and engage those around you in a way that simply can’t be emulated online. Face-to-face meetings are where relationships are built upon, deals are struck, and brainstorming is at it finest.

Connection and Trust

While certainly worthwhile, digital communication doesn’t always allow you to build as solid a level of trust between people. In person, you can physically shake the hand of the person you’re connecting with, you might share a laugh and even go to get a coffee together. All of these things build up strong, personal communication which is at the centre of all positive outcomes.

Clarity and Efficiency

Sometimes what we say can get a little lost in translation across online or digital communication methods. People may misinterpret a tone, meaning or message, and go forth with a completely wrong idea. Face-to-face meetings diffuse many misunderstandings straight away, therefore rendering them a more efficient way to get your point across.

Ultimately, the key to getting the most out of your events is to consider all avenues. With so many options available to us, we can choose the best way for us to communicate and build lasting relationships with our colleagues, clients or stakeholders. This may mean holding your event in-person, online or a hybrid of both. Contact us today to discuss your next meeting or event.

4 great benefits of holding an offsite meeting

Considering going offsite for your next business meeting? An offsite meeting is where you bring your team together in a different location to your usual office to hold a meeting, coordinate a strategy day, or deliver training.

Here are 4 great benefits of holding an offsite meeting:

Your team will be focussed

Being offsite means your team won’t be as easily distracted as they may be in their usual work surroundings. This will lead to improved productivity and better meeting outcomes.

Your team will network and bond

There’s no substitute for meeting in person, so an offsite meeting should include time for ‘team building’ – which could be as simple as a nice break with catered lunches, or a little more involved such as morning yoga to start the day. Giving your team a chance to chat and loosen up will allow them to relax and engage in the day’s activities.

Your meeting can be tech-savvy

Holding your offsite meeting at a venue that offers state of the art audiovisual (AV) technology means that you can get creative and leverage this in your meeting. From live streaming through to enhanced projection capability, creative audiovisual can grab your team’s attention and hold it.

You encourage creativity

Whether you are holding your meeting for brainstorming, forward planning, or strategy, chances are being in a new environment will inspire creativity in your team, and encourage new ideas in a way that can’t be replicated in-house.

Talk to us today to plan your next offsite meeting!