How to Arrange a Business Meeting
When you arrange meetings, advance planning and attention to detail help you make the maximum use of your time spent in business meetings.
Be Clear on Your Purpose
If you are arranging a meeting that you will chair, be clear with yourself about what you want the meeting to accomplish. Is it merely an exchange of information, or are there action items to be created and assigned? Is it a getting-to-know-you meeting or a roll-up-the-sleeves to get things done sort of activity? Perhaps you’re trying to close a sale, finalize a contract, make a purchasing decision or accomplish a host of other possibilities.
In any event, let participants know in advance what the meeting is all about and what you hope to accomplish.
If you are arranging the meeting for your boss or someone else, get as much clarity as you can regarding the purpose of the meeting so you can include that information in your communications.
Create an Agenda
An itemized agenda, while not an absolute necessity for every meeting, is a beneficial tool for focusing discussions and moving things along at an acceptable pace.
Lay out not only the agenda steps, such as introductions of the meeting members, but also allocate a time budget for each step to help prevent the meeting from aimless wandering. Where appropriate, also identify a lead for each item. For example, an agenda might look like this:
• Roundtable Introductions (5 minutes, everyone)
• Quarterly Sales Results (15 minutes, Jack)
• Brainstorming New Marketing Opportunities (30 minutes, Cheryl)
Manage the Calendar
There are often one or two key participants who must be at a meeting, so the schedule needs to work around their availability and calendars. This can sometimes be managed semi-automatically through scheduling software in programs such as Outlook, but not every organization makes use of tools like these.
For your scheduling decisions, stay alert to factors such as the time zones of different participants who may be joining over the phone or by video and of the obscure holidays that people tend to overlook.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
The more you take care of ahead of the meeting, the smoother it is likely to go. In particular:
• Distribute needed materials in advance and have extra copies at the meeting.
• If you are making a presentation, prepare your talking points and visual aids and practice your presentation.
• Make sure you or an assistant is well-versed in any technology being used. Too many meetings are sabotaged by a lack of familiarity with conference calling systems or visual presentation equipment.
• Prepare the room in advance with attention to detail. Do you need markers, pads or sticky notes? Perhaps participants expect water or snacks.
• If you need meeting minutes, assign this task to a reliable note taker.
A successful business meeting usually takes a fair amount of preparation and planning, but the effort involved is well worth it if it means getting started on time and conducting a fruitful meeting that benefits your organization, rather than one that leaves participants silently wishing they were anyplace else.
Mini Task 1 Questions
(1) What should we do before the meeting?
(2) What should be included in the agenda of the meeting?
(3) What should be focused when managing agenda?
(4) What material should be prepared before the meeting？
Mini Task 2 True or false
(1) If you are arranging the meeting for others, you can ignore the purpose of the meeting. ( )
(2) Participants should also know the purpose of the meeting. ( )
(3) An agenda is necessary for every meeting. ( )
(4) The schedule needs to work around every participant’s availability and calendar. ( )
Mini Task 3 Complete the sentences with the following expressions. Change the form where necessary.
arrange availability agenda schedule participant
well-versed aids sabotage obscure clarity
(1) The director was not ________ for comment.
(2) I should make some ________ for the sales meeting.
(3) When writing instructions, ________ of statement is the most important thing.(https://www.daowen.com)
(4) Have you fixed the ________ of the meeting which will be held next week?
(5) Several experts will ________ in the conference as technical advisers.
(6) Others may not be ________ in your field of expertise but they may have other domains of knowledge that are valuable to you.
(7) The ________ for the next two meetings have yet to be worked out.
(8) Photos make useful teaching ________.
(9) The title was unusual and a bit ________.
(10) Their need for perfection can also ________ their own success.
Mini Task 4 Translate the following sentences from English into Chinese.
(1) When you arrange meetings, advance planning and attention to detail help you make the maximum use of your time spent in business meetings.
(2) Perhaps you’re trying to close a sale, finalize a contract, make a purchasing decision or accomplish a host of other possibilities.
(3) In any event, let participants know in advance what the meeting is all about and what you hope to accomplish.
(4) An itemized agenda, while not an absolute necessity for every meeting, is a beneficial tool for focusing discussions and moving things along at an acceptable pace.
(5) There are often one or two key participants who must be at a meeting, so the schedule needs to work around their availability and calendars.
Words in Task III
arrange v. 安排
chair v. 担任（会议的）主席
allocate v. 分配；拨出
itemized n. 编位号的；逐项逐笔登记的
budget n. 预算
sabotage v. 妨害；蓄意破坏
scheduling n. 日程安排
participant n. 参加者
agenda n. 议事日程
maximum adj. 最多的；最大极限的
roll-up-the-sleeves n. 卷起袖子
distribute v. 分发
visual adj. 视觉的；看得见的
alert adj. 警惕的；警觉的
marker n. 标记；标志
pad n. 便签簿
well-versed adj. 精通的；熟知的
minutes n. 会议记录；备忘录