As businesspeople, we rely on meetings to discover and take advantage of new opportunities, collaborate more easily with colleagues and stay abreast of the latest corporate developments. From sealing a deal in a London hotel lobby to discussing new markets in a meeting room in Bangkok, the life of a busy business executive is filled with meetings and the more effective these meetings are, the better the long-term outcomes.
Planning and Preparation
Effective meetings, whether held on neutral ground such as meeting places for rent or in corporate offices, enable geographically and disciplinarily diverse teams to work together more efficiently. Whether managing a time-sensitive software project or the day-to-day operations at a busy industrial plant, effective meetings could help you to achieve key business goals, but only if they are well planned.
- Establish Clear Objectives – By setting clear objectives for meetings, it is easier to keep everybody on topic.
- Distribute Detailed Agendas – Send every participant a detailed agenda at least 3 days before a meeting is due to take place. This will give them time to prepare.
- Give Plenty of Notice to All Participants – Try to give at least a week’s notice whenever possible, to maximise attendance.
In addition to ensuring that all participants are notified well in advance of the meeting date, it is crucial to make sure you invite the right participants in the first place.
The Importance of Time Management in Meetings
The reason many busy executives think that meetings are the bane of their lives is that most meetings overrun and are poorly managed. If you spend all day in a meeting room in Bangkok or Seoul and don’t achieve anything of note, it’s easy to become disillusioned with corporate meetings but it doesn’t have to be this way. Using techniques such as timeboxing (an Agile methodology), it is possible to have short, effective meetings that are genuinely useful to all participants.
Facilitation Techniques
A facilitator can help keep meetings running smoothly and ensure that everybody stays focused. When you have an important meeting in Bangkok before flying to Europe to close a deal, a facilitator could prevent the meeting from overrunning and help keep your day on track. They can also ensure the dialogue remains constructive.
Utilising Technology
Technology is incredibly important in meetings today. Video conferencing tools and collaborative software applications can significantly enhance productivity in all types of meetings. If you rent a room for meeting business colleagues in a foreign city, make sure it’s fully equipped for this reason.
Follow-up and Action Items
At the end of every meeting, it’s crucial to summarise the key takeaways and make sure that all participants know what they need to do next. Issuing minutes with instructions for each participant is one of the easiest ways to achieve these aims.
If you want to rent a meeting room in Bangkok that’s fully equipped with everything you need, contact IW Serviced Office. We have several service locations in central Bangkok.