When you think of business meetings, what comes to mind? Do you envision a group of people sitting in a crowded room wasting their time? Many people think the same way. However, meetings should be productive times for the business or group.

This book is designed and written to help you improve the quality of your meetings. The information contained here in will improve meetings for both leaders and participants. We begin with meeting basics that explain what a meeting is, what a meeting should be, and how to evaluate whether you actually need a meeting. There are many different types of meetings and we will discuss those in the second chapter. Several keys to effective meetings are deciding what to discuss, knowing the purpose and goals for your meeting, who will attend and where the meeting should be held.

Extensive planning is necessary to have an effective meeting. We discuss your initial planning and preparation. An effective agenda needs to be developed, so we discuss agenda planning in detail. Several checklists and a series of questions are included for your use. Many meetings get started badly and never improve. So, we discuss the proper way to start meetings. Once the meeting is started, it needs to be conducted in an effective manner. Many tips and suggestions to conduct your meeting will be offered.

The attendees at your meeting must be considered. The better you know the people in attendance, the better you can mold the agenda to be effective for these individuals. Some people at the meeting have various responsibilities and we discuss what they need to do before, during and after the meeting. This includes people in attendance, people who make presentations and speakers who are part of your meeting.

All facets of business require effective communication and your meeting is no different. We'll discuss how to promote positive communication, along with how to get feedback and what to do with it once it's given. Successful meetings generate participation from the people in attendance. We share a variety of techniques to encourage participation.

Will you have handouts, posters or other tools in your meeting? Chapter 12 discusses which tools to use and how to make them more effective. This may include preparing information in them and learning how to display the information in the proper manner.

Every person who has ever conducted a meeting knows there are potential problems. We’ll discuss techniques to handle these problems. Some of these can include: conflicts, disruptions and keeping the meeting on track. After problems are identified they need to be dealt with or eliminated. We’ll discuss various creative ways to solve problems within your meetings.

Successful meetings need a definite conclusion, resolution or ending. In some cases you need to reach a consensus. Other times, you just need to find the proper way to wrap it up and give the people in attendance a feeling of completion. Once your meeting is completed, it is invaluable to evaluate and assess your performance and the overall success of the meeting. Many meeting conductors like to gather feedback and there are many ways to do this. We discuss feedback checklists and how to use them to your best advantage. Checklists, questionnaires, room layouts and much more will be included along with the text of this book for your use. I included a section with meeting terms and definitions in the Appendix to clarify some details about these terms.

This book is written for the meeting conductor. But, keep in mind that participants can learn a lot from this book and they will gain a better understanding of the effort and skills that are required to run a successful meeting. The content of this book will enable other people to step up and offer to prepare and conduct meetings. Does your boss appreciate people who show initiative? This could be a good way to help yourself stand out from the crowd and to become valuable to your employer. Now, let's turn the page and start learning how to have effective and successful meetings.