The Ultimate Meeting Management Checklist for Guaranteed Learning

If you were to ask those in your company what the purpose of your meetings were, they may not always have an answer for you. The problem is that many of the meetings held within corporations and small businesses can be seen as a ‘waste of time and resources’, and often leave attendees ‘wishing it was an email’. This is one of the most common issues facing meetings today (both in-person and virtual), and it is also one of the easiest things to solve! There are ways to ensure that your attendees will learn something new and gain valuable insight from your meetings (and be glad it was not just an email)!

Our Details! team has spent time researching and attending sessions about ‘learning meetings’ that will help to improve conferences and larger meetings, ensuring they offer more of an educational experience. So, whether you are planning a live event or going virtual, here is your ultimate meeting management checklist for guaranteed learning and to help your attendees get more out of the experience!

Change Your Set-Up 

If you are able to hold a meeting in-person, you want to set up your room in a way that allows people to interact with each other. Change the layout and set it up so that people can talk to everyone, not JUST the person beside you. Because when you are 6 meters away from someone with a table between you and the room is FULL of people talking, you are limited to discussions with only the person closest to you. Alternatively, if you are hosting a virtual meeting, then it is crucial to pick a platform that allows for you to put people into groups so they can have similar conversations as they would in a physical room. Moving people into groups and alternating the groups regularly allows for the opportunity to gain insight from various minds rather than just one.

Use the Crowd’s Expertise

What better way to learn from the professionals in the room than to have an opportunity for experienced attendees to share! Providing opportunities for people to share their own resources and experiences is a great way to guarantee learning for others. Begin by letting people introduce themselves and give them time to get to know one another (it is easier to get people to talk to each other when they have had a chance to know WHO they are talking to). This way people feel more comfortable opening up and sharing!

Give Them Time to Digest

How many presentations have you been to where they finish talking and immediately ask if there are any questions. At this point you are often still trying to understand what was just said, and if you don’t come up with a question fast, then you will miss out on your chance to ask. Instead, give people 5-10 minutes to reflect on the presentation and the meeting as a whole. If you can, break up into smaller groups to allow for discussion. How does what they learned apply to them? What was useful and what was confusing? What would you like more information on? Task your audience to focus on how the presentation will be useful rather than letting it become a time to talk about the weather or upcoming weekend plans.

Have a Facilitator

One of the best ways to ensure your attendees are learning at a meeting event is to have someone taking over the meeting management and facilitating the time. This person should be someone who is friendly and high energy and will captivate your audience’s attention. They should speak loudly and clearly, offer opening remarks, and provide questions that are carefully thought out. The key to this role? Someone who can LISTEN! They must be able to listen to what attendees are saying, incorporate some of what they hear in the smaller group discussions back into the larger ones for everyone’s benefit. The same goes for an online meeting – have someone dedicated to the chat online who can facilitate the discussions in the right way.