How a business meeting planner can make you more productive

by | Jul 5, 2023 | Time Management

We all know that business meetings can be incredibly productive and useful. We also know that poorly-organised or planned meetings can be dull, unproductive and a waste of the valuable time we could be spending elsewhere. If you think your business meetings could work harder for you, perhaps it’s time to consider using a dedicated business meeting planner to make things more efficient.

What makes a good meeting?

We all know when we’ve been in a good meeting. We come to it knowing what to expect; it’s well-run and managed; we know what our actions are at the end, and we may even have organised the next one so there’s a deadline for progress. It shouldn’t be complicated to arrange a good meeting, but it can be time-consuming, which is why many companies use a meeting organiser to handle the administration and even running the meeting on the day. Here are some things that your planner will consider:

Internal or external?

There are different criteria for meetings that involve just internal people and for those where people are coming into your offices, or you are meeting them elsewhere. Internal meetings need to be just as organised and productive – and in some cases this can be harder to achieve, because people are often less worried about being late, about not attending at all or about their contribution. For internal meetings, the first step is to see whether you need the meeting at all. Many issues can be sorted by email, or by two people rather than 20. If you can reduce your internal meetings, or keep them short and sweet, you’ll be freeing up more of your colleagues’ time to spend on the really important stuff.

Virtual meetings

For those internal meetings where people are working at different sites or in different countries, virtual meetings work best. Using conference calling or video calling, you can have everyone together at the same time without the need for expensive travel. A good virtual meeting relies on technology though, so make sure you have a system and connections that are as high quality as possible, so you can conduct the meeting smoothly.

Why are you meeting?

A good meetings planner will always start by asking what the meeting is for. It’s important to have clear objectives and reasons for meeting. On some occasions – for a Board meeting, for example, or a shareholders meeting, there will be a very clear and recurring reason for meeting. But for others, it’s essential to know why the meeting is needed, and what you want the outcomes to be. This helps with planning, because it means you only need to invite the essential people, and you can tell them in advance what the meeting is about and what they can expect.

Invite the right people

If you are hosting the meeting, make sure you ask your meeting manager to invite the right people. These may be the people who absolutely need to contribute to a decision-making process, or they might be the people who will have to put the plan into action. If your meeting is to wrap up a project, you will need all the relevant project people involved. Try to keep numbers to a reasonable level – managers can attend your meeting, for example, and then feed back to their teams.

Pre-meeting information

For meetings where there is a lot to get through, you don’t want to waste time while people read documents. Instead, professional meeting planners would suggest that essential information is distributed well before the meeting, allowing participants to read and digest the documents, so they can have informed opinions and contribute sensibly to any debate. This will help to make the meeting itself far more productive.

Follow-up

Attending the meeting is all very well, but it’s the actions and follow-ups resulting from the meeting that will make the difference. For external meetings, it’s particularly important that you meet the commitments you made, and that other participants do too. The minutes and actions taken during the meeting can be collated and circulated to all participants by your meeting planner to confirm those actions, together with deadlines and the relevant people involved.

This means that not only is everyone prepared for your meeting and focused during it; they are also aware of their responsibilities arising from it and can get on with the things they need to do.

Getting help with planning business meetings means you can leave everything to your planner – from room bookings to producing agendas and sending out meeting packs. They can give you background on the people you are meeting with, help you to follow up, and make sure everything runs as efficiently as possible. As part of a wider service, they can even help with travel and accommodation for conferences, larger meetings, away days and more.

If you’re short on time, or would like to run more productive meetings, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above. 

Related articles:

Your Details

Please carefully review our 26 service pages here BEFORE rating your experience/skills for each of the following (1-Low to 5-High)*

Rating: 0
(scheduling/arranging meetings)
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
(enquiries, bookings & orders)
Rating: 0
(expenses, credit control)
Rating: 0
(e.g. MailChimp, newsletters)
Rating: 0
(letters, PowerPoint etc)
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
(warm follow up calls and emails)
Rating: 0
(invoicing, reconciliation)
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
(e.g. CRM maintenance)
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
(e.g. WordPress, eCommerce)
Rating: 0
Rating: 0
(proofreading, blogs or posts)

Hours available to work EVERYDAY Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm *

(Chromebooks and Notebooks are unsuitable)
Click or drag a file to this area to upload.

As an employee of Oneresource you will receive benefits like sick pay and employer pension contributions as well as having the benefit of legal protections under UK employment law, which Virtual Assistant agency freelancers do not receive. Starting hourly rate and pension for an employed role with Oneresource provide a net income equivalent to the net income of an hourly VA agency freelance gross rate of circa £15 per hour.

Our virtual assistant roles are best suited to candidates who are not seeking a short-term/temporary role and not looking to replace a full-time level of income. If you would like to discuss suitability compared to your own circumstances prior to submission please contact us.

Our roles are not suitable for applicants looking to establish or supplement their own virtual assistant service.


See how we use your data in our Privacy Policy