The Full Guide On Conducting A Professional Business Meeting

Any company meeting holds significance when it comes to producing results and reaching specific goals. Your meeting needs to be conducted properly and effectively if you are to reap mass gains. Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to properly carry out a business meeting…

1. Make a list of attendees - Start by making a list of everyone you need to attend (as well as any optional attendees if applicable). You need to consider which departments are involved/affected by the agenda of your meeting. Make sure there is at least one person from each of these business departments present – this needs to be an individual with the authority to make decisions.
2. Check who is available - Check everybody’s schedule in order to come up with a date and time that is suitable all. There is nothing that spoils a meeting more than a lack of attendees.
3. Choose a host - Determine where you are going to host the meeting. If your business does not have a suitable conference room then you can always hire one. You can use a room scheduler to help you with this and keep on top of everything.
4. Will the meeting be online or offline - Are you going to be incorporating a teleconference? If you need to communicate with someone who physically cannot be at the meeting then you must consider the time zone they are in. It is usually best to avoid scheduling a meeting early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
5. Write an Agenda - The next thing you need to do is set up a thorough agenda. This is imperative. Make sure you highlight all of the key meeting points you are going to discuss or address your attendees about. Don’t make your agenda too complicated – limit it to a few key points so that you keep focus. And you should always have a clear goal in mind. What are you aiming to achieve from this meeting? This could be anything from the resolution of an issue to coming up with a fresh idea for your company. Everything you discuss should be done so with this key objective in mind.
6. Run the Meeting - Now all the preparation has been done it is time to conduct the meeting. Make sure it starts on time otherwise you will look extremely unprofessional and you will dent your attendees’ schedule for the day as you will run over the time limit.
7. Stick to the agenda - Never steer off the agenda you have put in place. If you notice that the subject topic is starting to go off track then you need to rein it back in.
8. Elicit Feedback - You should encourage input and feedback from those in attendance. How are you to achieve your goal if you merely talk to your guests yet you don’t seek their opinion? However, you should never force answers. Ask a question and let anyone who wishes to answer do so. Don’t put someone on the spot. If you do this then they will merely be providing you with an answer for the sake of it.
9. Summarise the Meeting - And finally, you need to summarise the meeting before concluding. Go over the key points and reiterate any assignments that may have been given. This ensures people leave with the main issue of the meeting ingrained in their mind.

[image credit - https://pixabay.com/en/startup-meeting-brainstormi...]