Professional Services Automation What Is Meeting Management? A Comprehensive Guide By Olivia Edens Professional Services Automation No comments May 17, 2024 You have a lot of projects in the works, but it feels like miscommunication is slowing down your workflow — that’s where meeting management comes in. Stop questions from going unanswered and keep your tasks on track by prioritizing communication. Meeting management helps users lead productive meetings by providing scheduling assistance, task management and collaboration tools. Compare Top PSA Software Leaders Break away from the “this could’ve been an email” mindset with simplified agendas, easy-to-use meeting templates and real-time team collaboration. In this guide, we’ll cover how meeting management tools help facilitate efficient meetings, from the planning stage to the follow-up responsibilities ensuring you meet your milestones. What This Guide Covers: What Is Meeting Management? Importance Phases Goals & Outcomes Benefits of Meeting Management Tools Popular Meeting Management Software FAQs Next Steps What Is Meeting Management? Meeting management is the process of preparing for productive meetings. With meeting management skills you have the tools to set up meetings, organize presentations and streamline communication on assignments. While improv works great for comedians, project managers will prefer going into meetings with clear goals. View agendas, create schedules, take detailed notes and chat with coworkers in real-time to keep progress moving. Importance Just like prepping for a cruise to the Bahamas, planning your meetings in advance is essential. After all, you can’t just arrive at the airport ahead of your trip without an airplane ticket and nothing in your suitcase. Like a trusted travel guide, meeting management helps plan and organize all the details for you. Focus on strategizing effective team discussions to get results. If you’re new to leading meetings, proper meeting management techniques provide added support throughout planning team discussions, staying on task and resolving communication issues. Accurately delegating assignments sets your meetings up for success. Phases Before deep-diving into meeting management’s goals, let’s examine the process of conducting meetings. Pre-planning Phase one in planning a productive meeting is establishing your objectives. Once you decide on the main points you want to talk about, you can assign speakers and create an agenda. There are different team meeting templates and agendas that are easy to use to keep you on track. After you finish your agenda, you can print and distribute it so your staff can prepare for the meeting or add it to their calendars for easy access. Scheduling Now that you’ve covered your meeting “what,” it’s time to pick the “when.” Google Calendar is one example of a scheduling tool. You can create a calendar event, add guests, then click find a time to see everyone’s availability. Once employees RSVP to the calendar invite, you’ll see who can or can’t attend. If you’re having trouble finding a time that works for everyone, you can always record and send a video version of the meeting or a recap with transcribed notes. Conducting You’ve got your agenda, your time’s set and your RSVPs are in. Now it’s time to host your meeting! It’s best to hold in-person meetings in shared spaces where people feel comfortable, like a conference or break room. Recording meetings is an excellent backup. There’s a lot of great video conferencing software available for anyone unable to attend (or attending remotely). On top of that, having a professional background during meetings is key. Users can opt for a virtual background or make sure you’re using a solid color wall as your backdrop (avoid distracting clutter). Setting up Follow-ups Conducting a meeting and following up go hand in hand. Send a follow-up email to summarize the meeting’s key points and ensure everyone has clarity on their responsibilities. Follow-up emails also help decide when your next meeting should be. Add your meeting notes, share slides and (if applicable) add video links so people can refresh on meeting topics as needed. Compare Top PSA Software Leaders Goals & Outcomes Setting Priorities When driving, you start by knowing where you’re going – if you didn’t, you’d get lost quickly. Similarly, every meeting has clear goals, like directions to a new destination. Your first goal in meeting management is deciding the main topic and creating an outline that turns your goals into outcomes. Creating Measurable Goals It’s not enough to just talk about your goals. You have to turn them into measurable milestones. That’s where SMART goals come into play. Making your goals SMART means making them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Instead of making generalizations like wanting to stay within your budget, narrow in and be specific. Let your team know the exact budget, how much it’s been exceeded in the past, the new target amount, how it affects them and how soon you want to see this change happen. Detecting Bottlenecks in Productivity Meetings are an opportunity to see which projects finished ahead of schedule and which might have missed the mark. Every department can share its successes and take a closer look at anything hindering progress. Certain deadlines might be too tight or some departments need more resources. Gather reports so you can see any setbacks and restructure as needed. Finding bottlenecks on completed or current assignments reduces these obstacles going forward. Getting Feedback Your staff is more than just an audience during meetings. Taking the time to hear your employee’s ideas, questions and concerns boosts morale. Employee feedback is an excellent resource, helping you refine processes, address issues and curate a collaborative work environment. Driving Results Meetings can reenergize teams (mid-meeting coffee helps, too). If your team works remotely, it’s a chance to get to know each other better. Think of some great openers, like a work-appropriate joke or icebreaker question. Getting everyone together helps visualize goals and motivate team-driven results. Compare Top PSA Software Leaders Benefits of Meeting Management Tools When you’re in charge of managing meetings, having the right tools at your disposal makes a big difference. Let’s look at some key benefits. Track Assignments and Monitor Progress Like a friendly tap on your shoulder, automated reminders direct you toward the tasks that need your attention the most. You can assign action items during or after meetings, keep track of individual assignments and set automatic notifications for impending deadlines. Gain insight into potential productivity bottlenecks by having outstanding tasks populate automatically on the next meeting agenda. Sort tasks using tools like kanban boards to visualize what’s next on the to-do list. Enhance Accountability and Communication Better managing your meetings positively impacts your workflow. Automated reminders, real-time collaboration tools and generated project checklists ensure deadlines don’t get missed, questions don’t go unanswered and your productivity won’t suffer. Use interactive chats or shared boards during a meeting for real-time collaboration. Employees can add comments or annotations as needed without pausing the session. Provide a platform for improvement by letting employees submit feedback after meetings. Schedule Meetings Gone are the days when large, shared office calendars were the go-to option. Today, accessible digital solutions have evolved to replace them. The right meeting management solutions sync with your company’s Outlook or Google Calendar to find times that work for everyone. These features increase visibility, reducing the number of no-shows and avoiding rescheduling multiple times. Prepare beforehand with meeting invite features, including attachment sharing, notes and full agendas visible to all attendees. Embed calendar links directly into emails for quick access. Employees can even join from their mobile devices! View Notes and Share Recaps Attendance tracking makes a note of who made it instead of taking time from the meeting for a roll call. Integrate with Google Calendar, Google Docs, or Slack for easy access to necessary documents while the speaker runs through critical points. With video recording, real-time captions and automatic transcribing, sending a recap to anyone who missed the call is easier. Note-taking tools summarize the conversation by recording and transcribing dialog for you. Popular Meeting Management Software With more people working either hybrid or fully at home, video conferencing software allows you to lead meetings wherever you are without missing a beat. However, like running a good meeting, deciding which software is best for you takes time and effort. Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of popular video conferencing solutions available today (in no specific order). Compare Top PSA Software Leaders TeamViewer TeamViewer is a cloud-based platform for team collaboration. It provides tools to share files, view tasks and set up meetings. Drag and drop documents for secure, easy access between coworkers. Transfer information safely with integrations, including Dropbox and Google Drive. Stay connected to clients and coworkers with chat and video calling. Free Trial: Offers a free trial. Free Version: A free version is available for personal use. TeamViewer chat dashboard. Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Join.me Join.me is an online platform for planning and conducting meetings. It provides tools to connect with coworkers from different locations, including remote whiteboards, screen sharing, chats and dial-in phone numbers. Personalize meetings to fit your business needs for up to 250 participants and record all meetings for future reference or training purposes. Free Trial: Offers a free trial. Free Version: Not specified. Desktop view of Join.me’s platform. Price:$$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams is a unified communications-as-a-service provider (UCaaS) with video conferencing, instant messaging and direct call routing for efficient team communication. Enhance accessibility with file and screen sharing from different locations. Quickly interact with clients and coworkers to organize projects, complete tasks and gain insight into workflow progress. Free Trial: Offers a free trial. Free Version: Free version is available. Chat view in Microsoft Teams. Source Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top PSA Software Leaders FAQs How does meeting management work? A meeting without a clear outline is like a football team without a game plan. Meeting management helps you plan, organize and lead meetings. It improves productivity by simplifying the planning process. It creates a platform that boosts team communication. Meeting management skills keep everyone connected whether your workplace is in-office, remote or hybrid. Using meeting management strategies ensures conversations are concise and impactful. How do I know I’m ready for a meeting management solution? Modernizing your approach to keep up with your competitors is an absolute must. That’s why proper video conferencing solutions are essential. Here are a few key signs that your business might be ready to implement software to manage your meetings Inefficient cross-team collaboration Missed deadlines and overdue tasks Coworkers feeling a lack of communication Low attendance and multiple rescheduled meetings Poor record-keeping Lack of accountability Compare Top PSA Software Leaders Next Steps Getting everyone together for a meeting might not be as exciting as gathering the Avengers, but it doesn’t have to be boring. And with the right tool in place, you can your meeting management from ordinary to superhero status. Looking to sharpen your meeting game? We’ve created a free report so you can easily compare top video conferencing software. What aspects of meeting management would be most helpful for you? Comment below! Olivia EdensWhat Is Meeting Management? A Comprehensive Guide05.17.2024