How to Run an Effective Meeting and Organize It Successfully

08 Oct 2024

Meetings have been around for a long time, but in the last few years, many organizations have looked for ways to maximize effectiveness and minimize length.

Below we look at meetings in the modern workplace, including how hybridized workforces have changed our definition of a meeting, and how to better organize and run them.

What is a Meeting?

Formerly, meetings were in-person, in the office, and included you and one or multiple other people. Today, a meeting is a one-on-one or group gathering, that may take place online or in-person or both. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that a meeting’s purpose is intentional and related to improving a facet of the business, like brainstorming new campaigns, discussing product updates, analyzing trends and insights to plan ahead, etc.

So with meeting format changes, how can you successfully organize and run an effective meeting? Are there best practices for certain types of meetings?

Time-efficient planning is important for a successful meeting.
Organizing a meeting begins with preparation and consideration.

How to organize a meeting – 5 best practices for organizing team meetings

When organizing a team meeting, you can still use the steps above, but also consider that a team meeting may be more casual in nature. Team meetings are great ones to take offsite and encourage team bonding and creativity as well.

Some easy best practices for team meetings include:

Consider setting weekly team meetings to ensure teammates are consistently collaborating, communicating and connected
Decide as a team the best day to have your team meeting and how often you need one (weekly, 2x week, bi-weekly, etc.)
Schedule your team meetings in advance for the same length of time and day(s)
Try to limit team meetings to 30 minutes or 1 hour with longer sessions focused on more important objectives like brainstorming or campaign development and shorter ones for check-ins and status updates
Know how to handle poor meeting etiquette

Organizing business meetings online, in the office, and with hybrid teams

When a hybrid workforce is in play, organizing meetings can get tricky with three locations to consider. The goal with each is to quickly locate and secure meeting rooms or workspaces and secure the resources you need for attendees in advance, as well as any services. A meeting room and workspace booking tool can help with meetings you need to have online, in the office or with hybrid teams. Here are additional resources and things to consider for each location.

Online: If the meeting is completely online, make sure all the invited participants have access to the right digital communication tools including videoconferencing and document or file storage applications. You’ll also need to ensure those tools are accessibility compliant.
In the office: For meetings in the office, booking rooms, resources and services in advance is easy with meeting and conference room booking software. For those impromptu meetings on-premises, desk booking screens and digital conference room signs can help to create instant meetings that automatically sync with employees’ email servers. For example, Add-On Product’s digital conference room sign products work with Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 so anyone can book, confirm, extend and end meetings directly on the sign.
Hybrid teams: Meetings with hybrid teams may take place online, in the office, or in both places simultaneously. For hybrid teams, a mobile booking app that lets colleagues see each other’s workspace bookings can help teams coordinate for on-site meetings and brainstorm sessions. Room scheduling software designed to help streamline meeting and conference room scheduling and management is also helpful when organizing a larger group session (especially if you also need to book catering, projectors, or other services and resources).