Checklist: Before the meeting

 “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Benjamin Franklin

 

 

Well prepared meeting is a success to a highly productive one. Especially when you plan your first meeting – think twice of all steps. After the first meeting you will already have some good experience and preparation for next meeting will be much easier. Follow these steps to get ready for an online meeting:

 

SET THE GOAL

Always have an overarching goal of the meeting, introduce it with all participants. It will not only help in preparing agenda, but also help during the meeting in cases when it starts to go into the wrong direction, you can then always remind this goal and get back on track.

 

DEVELOP AGENDA

It might sometimes get tricky with setting up an agenda for an online meeting. It will be easy for a 1- 2 hour meeting with only some speakers, but when it comes to a whole-day meeting with multiple speakers that includes discussions, you’ll need to think ahead and oversee all distractions that can come into your plans.

  1. Set the time – be clear on the time zones, as this is confusing sometimes. Keep it convenient for all participants (e.g. don’t start the meeting at 8 AM EET, when it is 7 AM CET). Add not only common abbreviations (CET, EET etc.) but also cities e.g. We start at 9.30 CET (Berlin, Stockholm, Warsaw).
  2. Prepare the time slots – keep in touch with all speakers beforehand and discuss how much time they will need for their presentation, discussion, announcement etc. Ask all speakers to be as short as possible but always keep in mind that an online meeting can take more time than a regular one. Talk to speakers about the interaction with the audience – if they plan any Q&A round or discussion between multiple speakers and think together how much time is needed for that. Be smart and add some extra 5-10 minutes for each speaker, so that you have some time.
  3. Think of the breaks – Always plan the breaks. Short 5 -15 minute breaks should be planned after each 1.5 - 2 hour time slot. Lunch break at least 1 hour long around the actual lunch time. Keep in mind – shortening the breaks during the meeting can help you to get back on the initial time table in case when discussions last longer than planned (it happens most of the times). A lunch break shortened from eg. 1 hour and 20 minutes to 50 minutes can give your meeting 30 minutes of extra time. Don’t shorten breaks when you are not behind the agenda.
  4. Technical check – add in the agenda video and sound check. 15 minutes before the actual start of the meeting ask everyone to join and check all technical issues – sound, video, screen share etc.
  5. Plan the discussion part

 

PARTICIPANTS' QUESTIONS DURING A MEETING - WHAT TOOLS YOU CAN USE

This is challenging for an online meeting as you can’t keep an eye contact with participants and read their body language. During the online meeting it is not suggested to interrupt the speaker too much. Therefore, you can use a chat function, where participants can send their questions and moderator can ask them after the speaker ends the presentation. What could be the options?

 

1) A CHAT OPTION WHERE PEOPLE CAN ASK QUESTIONS.

Solution: Slido.com, menti.com or a chat on your online meeting platform

If the chat function on the online meeting platform works well, use it to ask questions. In case it is not good enough, think of some alternatives. Audience interaction tools (slido.com; menti.com etc.) can be used free of charge with some limitations. You can open there a meeting room, participants can enter by opening the webpage and entering the special code. In the Q&A section they can leave a question or comment, you can also open a poll (3 is a limit for the basic version) and see right away what are the crowd’s thoughts. Great option when you need an answer from all participants right away. Both platforms are smart phone friendly, therefore participants can join the meeting via computer and the discussion on their smartphone or tablet.

Find out more: www.slido.com www.menti.com

 

2) YOUR TEAM HAS TO DEVELOP A DOCUMENT TOGETHER

Solution: Use Google documents to work on one document where everyone can comment, add their thoughts, make corrections etc.

 

3) TO CONDUCT A QUESTIONNAIRE

Solution: Use Google Forms to conduct a questionnaire with multiple questions. You’ll need to prepare it before the meeting and then spread among the participants.

 

INVITE PARTICIPANTS AND EXPLAIN THE RULES

When inviting participants, additionally to the regular invitation text add practical information about online meeting technical solution (what platform is used, what needs to be installed etc.) as well as other rules, for example the use of any other platform for a discussion (see discussion part) etc. You have to decide on all rules that needs to be taken into account, a general rule that equals already to an unwritten online meeting etiquette – turn off your microphone when you’re not speaking as this helps to prevent any unexpected background noises.

 

GIVE TASKS TO YOUR TEAM

Before the meeting, decide who is responsible for moderation of the meeting and who writes down the notes for the summary. You can also have an additional person responsible only for the technical issues. Depending on the scope of the meeting, these tasks can be split up by several people and can also be done by one person.

  • MODERATOR’S TASKS

Main tasks for the moderator are almost the same as in the face-to-face events – keep an eye on time, invite speakers, organise a discussion, check the slides on the screen and operate with the presentation, follow the questions on chat, Slido.com or Menti.com and ask them to speakers etc. Also, moderator has to remind speakers to turn on the microphone and solve technical problems that can arise.

  • RAPPORTEUR’S TASKS

Rapporteur’s main tasks are taking notes of the main messages discussed, decisions made, deadlines agreed and other relevant information from the meeting. You can ease the work of taking notes by recording the meeting (if the system allows that or by using a voice recorder).

 

TEST YOUR ONLINE MEETING SYSTEM IN ADVANCE

There are many online meeting systems in the market – also some free of charge. Most popular among them are Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Whereby and others. It is advised to test your online system before the meeting (especially in case you are using it for the first time). Ask your best colleague to test it by setting up a meeting and check the video and sound quality. Read the technical requirements for the platform you use, some have limitations regarding the maximum number of participants, lengths of a meeting etc.

 

SHARE THE PRESENTATION BEFORE THE MEETING

Ask the speakers to hand in their presentations at least 3 days before the meeting. This will allow you to make one presentation for whole meeting and send to all participants in advance. It is suggested that all participants already check the presentation, prepare questions and enter the meeting with some background knowledge. Your speakers might not be that advanced in using online meeting platforms and the function of screen share, thus to save time use one presentation for the whole meeting and ask the moderator to be responsible for the slideshow.

 

PORTFOLIO OF PARTICIPANTS

If you plan a large-scale online meeting where most of participants don’t know each other very well, ask the participants before the meeting to send a picture of them and a very short introduction of them (1-3 sentences). This information you can spread with participants before the meeting so that they know who is who.