Here are a few tips to make your meeting more effective:
Prepare for the meeting: consider what you need to discuss and what
you want to get out of the meeting. Write an agenda and send
it round to the attendees before the meeting. If you are using
the MeetingPod, you can load the agenda into the system and guarantee
that everyone will have a copy of the agenda. For other meetings,
you may want to print a few spare copies in case people forget to bring
theirs.
Choose the right audience: having a meeting that’s got the
wrong people in it leads to lost time and vague decisions. Having
the right people in the meeting means that you can reach the outcome
you hoped for the meeting. If everyone does not know everyone
else, then it’s a good idea to have name plates to help people
know others’ names. Peoples’ names appear automatically
on the MeetingPod.
Clarify decision points: don’t presume that everyone around
the table has followed the discussion or agrees with what has been
decided. Summarise the discussion and clarify all the key decision
points. The MeetingPod lets everyone around the table see a record
of the proceedings, typed in by the meeting’s host.
Keep to time: everyone around the table has got something to do after
the meeting, so it’s only fair to keep the meeting punctual. Although
the MeetingPod won’t stop your meeting from overrunning, it can be
useful for those who are pressed for time. If people log out of
the meeting before it has finished, they will still get the full record
of the meeting e-mailed to them once the meeting finishes.
