There are problems that all small business meeting planners make. If you are aware of these problems, you can avoid making them yourself.
Listed below are seven of those problems. If you incorporate these ideas, you will make your business meetings better and more effective.
1. Objective
If you do not have objectives planned out before you begin, often attendees come with their own agendas. To solve this problem, set priorities and determine the main objectives of the event. Keep a list of the things you have accomplished while you are planning for the meeting and put them in order of importance. This will help you to prioritize and insure that you have the most important parts of the meeting taken care of before the event takes place.
2. Biting off more than you can chew
Sometimes meeting planners can run into the problem of taking on more than they can handle. The solution to this problem is to reduce any unrealistic expectations before they rear their ugly head. Choose a couple of small objectives that can be discussed in depth and anticipate the next set of events using a timeline.
When you are able to look at the event in smaller bits, you will be able to focus more on what is truly important and what may be less significant so that you can make sure that you have a strong presentation for your business meeting.
3. Communicate Topics
If your attendees are not sure why they are attending the meeting this can pose a problem. To prevent this problem, communicate the topic of the meeting and the objectives well in advance of the actual event. When people are informed as to why they are going to the event, they will be more apt to pay attention to the details once they arrive.
4. Facilitator
If the boss of the organization is the leader of the meeting, people often begin to offer what they think is the “right” answer rather than what is the best answer so that they can keep their boss happy. Before this can become a problem, consider hiring an experienced facilitator to ask the questions.
More than likely, the members of your group will be able to go deeper into the discussion and will feel more comfortable with the ideas that are being shared.
5. Assumptions
Often participants bring their office problems and hierarchies standards to the meeting. When this happens, people are too worried about the order in which they are to speak, who should have the floor and what needs to be done. To keep this from happening, find a third party to establish a survey that gives the attendees a voice and assures that everyone’s ideas are understood.
6. Resolve Matters Instead of Peacekeeping
When problems and arguments arise, some business meeting planners begin to try to keep the peace rather than resolving the issues. The solution to this problem is to go into the meeting expecting some disagreements. Have a game plan to follow and discuss the options for dealing with situations that may arise with other leaders of the organization.
7. Follow-up
The biggest problem faced with business meeting is the lack of a follow-up after the meeting has ended. Participants are left hanging without any further information. To fix this problem, simply send out emails or letters to the attendees giving them a brief recap of the meeting’s events to produce a growth process and to give them something to think about.
There are several common problems that can arise with any small business meeting plan. If you are aware of these problems and have solutions for them, the planning will be much more effective.
What should you do next?
Since you are planning a meeting, learn the golden rules of negotiating with a hotel. You’re guaranteed to save money!