What Should You Do Before A Business Meeting To Make It A Success?

By Felicia 7 years ago

What you do during the business meeting is vital for the success of the event but what is done before it is even more important. We have so many different meeting types that are possible. Some are one-off events while others are recurring meetings that are scheduled for a long time frame in the future. No matter the case preparing properly is something that counts. Always consider the following in order to make the best possible moves before the business meeting.

Meeting Purpose

Properly determining the purpose of the meeting should be among the very first things you do. This is important since it influences all the other things that you will do. Always write down and even display purpose in a concrete and clear way when the meeting starts. This should be visible for participants. For instance, you can add it on flipchart paper.

In many cases we do have different meeting purposes. In this case you want to focus on a structure, with the main point being the one that is highlighted.

Picking A Meeting Time

The most important thing about picking meeting time is finding when all people that should attend can make it. Daily activity patterns should be considered like work, parenting and dining time. When there are not many that will be able to participate at the considered time, why is the meeting a good idea?

Finding Good Venues

You want to find a venue that is going to comfortable accommodate all participants while not being too large. Renting huge walls and having just around 20 people appear is definitely disempowering. This should be avoided. Venues have to be completely accessible and you need to consider how the participants are going to arrive there. Is there enough parking? Do you need wheelchair access?

Announcing Participants

People that are going to participate should be aware of the business meeting as ahead of time as possible. When the group is closed this is quite simple as all you need to do is to talk to the people. When the participants come from different environments, you want to be sure you have enough time to set up a proper contacting campaign. People can easily set up automated appointment reminders but only if they actually know that the meeting will take place as ahead of time as needed. Basically, you want to think about the following:

  • Who is going to be invited and how to contact them.
  • Publicity that may be necessary in order to attract people that would be interested but that you do not have direct contact with at the moment.
  • Invitations have to include all the important details: when, where and business purpose, together with contact details about the organizers.
  • Never rely just on email since it can easily get lost.

As you can see, there are not many things that you absolutely need to think about. However, they are much more important than what many think. If you fail to properly plan the business meeting you are surely going to have problems meeting the goals you set up.