Meeting Preparation

Since this stage builds the foundation for the meeting itself, Meeting management software automates the following tasks, empowering meeting professionals to properly prepare for a meeting.

• Scheduling the Meeting
• Building the Agenda
• Assigning Pre-meeting Tasks
• Distributing the Agenda

Scheduling the Meeting

There are meeting management software tools available that are fully integrated with popular email clients such as MS Outlook and screen sharing programs like GoToMeeting. This makes scheduling a meeting as easy as booking a standard Outlook calendar appointment. Some meeting management software contains usability features that help you schedule meetings. The system will search attendee availability during your selected time, and if certain attendees are not available, it will suggest available alternative times.

Assigning Pre-meeting Tasks

Unprepared attendees might as well not even show up for the meeting. In some cases it is the hosts fault for not providing notice on what the attendees need to bring to the meeting. Regardless of fault, meeting management software lets hosts assign pre-meeting tasks to attendees. Some software solutions take this a step further by sending out reminders and tracking the completion of the pre-meeting tasks prior to running the meeting.

Distributing the Agenda

As we all know, a meeting is only as good as the agenda. The problem is that some attendees are reading the agenda for the first time right before the meeting begins. This is not only ineffective, but can increase the lack of engagement and preparation from meeting participants. Distributing the agenda prior to a meeting allows attendees to review and make suggestions if required, and gain an understanding as to what will be covered during the meeting.

This also assists in meeting preparedness and to determine if it is necessary for a particular attendee to join the meeting. Meeting management software automates the distribution of the agenda to all attendees, and allows online access for attendees to preview and review the agenda for an upcoming meeting.

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