Things To Remember When Planning A Meeting

Every now and then, we are encountering people all around us. But still there comes a time when mere conversations are to be set aside and the degree of formality increases. In such cases, meetings come into play and so is the need for things to remember when planning a meeting. Meetings are usually formal in nature. They can be routine meetings on a weekly, monthly or annual basis or they may have to be arranged on an emergency basis demanded by the situation. No matter what type of a meeting, for the person in charge, there are some crucial points to keep in mind. Following is a list of some of the important things to remember when planning a meeting:

ü The topic: the topic of the meeting is like a compass. It directs the entire session. So, it should be chosen very carefully so that the results are satisfactory and generate enough information which will serve great purpose. The meeting room: the room where the meeting is to take place must be of much comfort to the participants. So choosing a suitable meeting room is one of the most important things to remember when planning a meeting. It should not be too big or too small in size. The table should be neat; no load of files should be there. There should be as many chairs as the number of participants. If such things interrupt in the middle of the meeting, the meeting loses its flow.

ü Temperature: temperature is a very important aspect of the meeting room. But it is very difficult to decide which temperature is optimum. Some people naturally are more capable of withstanding the cold and some are not. So, if the temperature is set too low, some participants will not be able to pay attention as they are not physically comfortable and vice versa. So, as an arranger, it is difficult to decide what temperature to set. So, the best solution is that the temperature should be around 22 to 24 degree Celsius which is preferred by most people. Often ignored, this is one of important things to remember when planning a meeting.

ü Providing summary on the topic of discussion: if the meeting is on a very urgent basis, this step is often very hard to follow, if not impossible. But for routine meetings or those taking place within next 24 hours rather than 15 minutes, the topics to be discussed can be printed out and provided to every participant. Under every topic, subtopics providing concrete ideas can be mentioned so that the participants can comprehend and follow properly. If such instruments are used, participation rate enhances greatly.

ü Visual representation: as we know that a picture is worth a thousand words, visual representation of any situation can explain more easily in a timely and efficient manner. So, presence of multimedia projectors for making presentations and showing figures, tables and graphs is another crucial thing to remember when planning a meeting. The person arranging a meeting also should not underestimate the importance of a whiteboard and a marker. Although electronic presentations are crucial, whiteboards come in very handy to draw right in front of the participants what’s going wrong and what right. Hypothesis can be drawn and probable graphs can be drawn on the board.

ü Moderator: a moderator is very crucial in making a meeting fruitful. A good moderator helps keep track of the meeting and does not let the meeting He/she also encourages everyone to come up with their valuable opinions and judgments. A meeting can only be successful when there is spontaneous participation from everyone, when people themselves are willing to, self-motivated to participate rather than being persuaded (or in some cases may be intimidated!). Hence to prevent chaos, A moderator is a must apart from others things to remember when planning a meeting.

ü Refreshment: although this topic is being mentioned last, its importance is very high. Refreshment is considered, by some entity, as an addition to cost. But nevertheless, it must be remembered that, especially for meeting going on for hours indeed require refreshments. No matter how interesting the topic may be, hours of attention put the brain through stress. To put it back on track, a little refreshment does the trick. So, refreshment should not be ignored to save a little cost when provision of it can strengthen the participants, physically and mentally.

These are some of the things to remember when someone is planning a meeting and is willingly anticipating success. Most of these, if not all, if followed properly will increase the chances of the meeting being a success. Nevertheless, there are other nitty-gritty stuffs that should be taken care of with a little care. Thus, planning meetings should not be that hard after all.

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