The essential guide to

effective meetings
Get your meetings back on track

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 Contents
Introduction 3
The problem with meetings 4
A better way to have meetings 6
Customer recommendations 9
Structuring better meetings 12
Build an effective agenda 14
Contact us 16

2 The essential guide to effective meetings

 Introduction

Meetings are an essential part of working life. They form part of our
day-to-day routine and can cover everything from the business critical
to the most mundane.

It doesn’t matter what sector you work in or what size organization you work
for, meetings will play a huge part in your working life from beginning to end
and are a fundamental part of any business. The amount of information that
you need to prepare for a meeting can be vast, equally can the amount of
information and actions you take away from a meeting.

Technology has changed every

aspect of our lives and it’s
inconceivable for most people to
think about doing their job
without the aid of technology in
some form. But as technology is
advancing and enabling people to
do their jobs more efficiently, why
hasn’t technology been utilised to
improve the most basic parts of
working life; meetings?

A good meeting can produce ideas that set organizations on the path to
greatness, however most meetings are not given the chance to nurture such
greatness. By embracing technology and utilising the systems you already have
in place, you can take back control of your meetings and make sure that your
organization thrives.

The essential guide to effective meetings 3

 If you’ve caught yourself daydreaming during
meetings then you are not alone. Far from it in fact.
“Meetings are an
In research conducted by eShare, 91% of people
elephant in the surveyed admitted to daydreaming during meetings,
room within 73% did other work and a staggering 39% admitted
business – many of to having fallen asleep!
them are Whether you are sitting on a board of directors for a
inefficient, take multi-national organization, or if it’s a 3 man
too long to department meeting for a start-up, the panic that
washes over you when you’re asked your opinion on a
prepare for and
subject that you haven’t fully listened to is immense.
don’t run smoothly You can only wonder as to how many critical business
when they are decisions have been made in such situations.
under way”
Businesses cannot run without effective and efficient
meetings, but we have too many meetings, and in
Alister Esam particular, too many meetings without a clear agenda.
eShare CEO Our time is very precious to us, and is a commodity
that should be respected and given the value that it
deserves, so why then are we being inundated with
meetings that serve little or no purpose at all?

The essential guide to 4

effective meetings
On average you can expect to spend
more than one working day a week
preparing for and attending meetings
The average manager having 62 meetings every week. Across
a 40 year career this adds up to a total of 17,740 hours – two
entire years of your life, or around 10 years of work time. In
the research conducted by eShare we discovered that 50% of
the time spent in meetings is considered wasted time- a
whole year of your life wasted.

The other thing to consider is that this wasted time is also on

the company dime. When putting a monetary value to this, we
reach a staggering 37 billion dollars ($37,000,000,000) on
wasted salary costs because of ineffective and ill-prepared
meetings.

It’s not just the people who attend the meetings who are
affected, what about the people who are responsible for
organizing them?

The essential guide to effective meetings 5

There is a better way…
Reduce Costs Improved productivity Improved Security
and engagement

• No paper • Collaborative • MeetingSquared is

• No wasted time preparation for meetings secure and sits within
searching for emails or • More your existing SharePoint
documents before the structured meetings environment
meeting • A record of your • Mobile Apps ensure
• Training and meetings to help content available
administrative costs improve transparency anytime
mitigated due to overall and accountability • All data resides in your
product ease-of-use and • Complementary to chosen SharePoint
functionality Office365 solutions such environment
• Office365 integration as Skype for Business • eShare is ISO27001
saves time in assessment • Mobile Apps allow users accredited
of vendor security to engage around
measures content instantaneously
through shared
annotations and
presenter view

The essential guide to effective meetings 6

 There is no such thing as a standard
working day anymore, the prospect of a 9-
5 to some would be a dream.

The world is getting smaller and

organizations deal with people around the
globe, meaning that the working day is
being stretched out of shape.

Trying to arrange meetings across different time zones

and with users having different devices and operating
system is a constant battle and one that many
struggle to overcome.

Even if you have managed to organize your meeting, inviting attendees and
distributing the documents needed for the meeting is enough of a struggle and
the prospect of having a clear audit trail for messages, actions and
amendments is a pipedream.

Having a structured agenda for a meeting is essential for keeping a meeting on

track. Without this, people will start running their own agendas and steering
the meeting off-course to a subject that they want to discuss, rather than the
core purpose of the meeting.

Agendas not only keep the meeting on track, but also on time, helping to
reduce the risk of the 39% who admitted to sleeping in meetings becoming
repeat offenders.

If we know all of the problems with organizing and

attending meetings, then why have people not acted
upon setting them right - is there a solution?

The essential guide to effective meetings 7

MeetingSquared is the only complete solution in the
industry that provides a seamless and secure platform for
meeting management…all with very limited training
required.

When preparing for meetings, For meeting groups,

MeetingSquared allows you to – MeetingSquared allows you to –

• Build your agenda-led meetings • Access your meeting files remotely

• Compile a complete PDF pack or on any device
OneNote pack for each meeting • Streamline collaborative workflow
• Instantaneously publish and make • Store and view relevant information
meeting packs available to attendees housed in a SharePoint site
• Manage all documents, actions, votes • Create, allocate and manage
and updates and send updates to your pre/post meeting actions
meeting participants

MeetingSquared meeting participants are able to –

• Annotate documents using the highlighter, sticky note and pen

• Work on/off-line
• Link through to a SharePoint environment
• Print/email annotated documents/agenda from the applications (client
configurable)
• Easily navigate annotations through the annotation list
• Access past meetings and minutes
• Make notes against agenda items
• Print or email the agenda with notes
• Create an initial Minutes document from notes set next to the agenda
• Share annotations and use a presenter view through the iPad and Android
apps

The essential guide to effective meetings 8

Don’t just take
our word for it 9
 Maryland Skilled Immigrant Taskforce

“There was nothing in the app store with a feature-set as

comprehensive as MeetingSquared. I have spent many years working in
technology and know a good product when I see one.

“People work in different organizations and different departments, they are not
all desk-based and all use different types of mobile device and operating
systems. A good number of the taskforce are on the road and don’t always see
emails when they come in, so it is easy to miss emails relating to an upcoming
meeting. But MeetingSquared means those important emails can be
highlighted, meaning people stay on top of everything they need to. It also
works across organizations and different email addresses, a quality that many
apps do not have.
“Users in a non-profit have differing
experiences, abilities and
expectations with technology, which
means you have to tread carefully
when you introduce a new tool or
platform, but MeetingSquared’s
ease of use and ability to make the
meeting process much smarter, has
meant that all our users have stated
how much they value it.”

Ronald M Jennings

The essential guide to effective meetings 10

 Exeter College

“Whilst meeting documents were reaching our members in a timely

fashion, it could be difficult to access them when working nationally or
internationally.
In addition, if we posted papers out and they were not at home, they might be
sent back to the sorting office, which would cause delays in them being
reviewed. With twenty plus packs being printed for governors and senior
management, the printing and postage costs were also a huge concern. We
estimated printing and postage costs were around £5,000 – £6,000 each year
and by sending these ahead of a meeting, we were risking some of the data,
particularly the financials, being out of date by the time the meeting came
around.
The other e-solution providers we
looked at did not meet our data
protection requirements. After just one
hours training, I was able to set up the
online papers and after initially trialling
MeetingSquared with the audit
committee, alongside having a hard
copy of the meeting packs, we found
none of the members actually used
their hard copy, and really took to using
the solution on their iPads.

“We have been exceptionally pleased with the response we’ve had from users.”

Barbara Sweeney

The essential guide to effective meetings 11

With inboxes getting flooded Define the agenda
with messages and papers
coming in from every
Steer clear of any subjects where one person is likely
direction, it’s easy to see
to dominate the conversation without input from
why so many business
others. Instead, focus on items which will invite
managers opt for some form
discussion from all members to help come to
of meeting software.
conclusions that everyone can agree on faster.
More information on how to build an effective agenda
How many times have you
to come…
found yourself searching
back through emails for the
conversations leading up to a
meeting and hunting down
Stick to a time schedule
documents in file explorer,
then finding the conference There is no universal length of time for meetings, but
call numbers and/or other people often default to an hour, which may result in
key details in the calendar rushed and unsuccessful finishes. Meetings become
entry. messy and ineffective when there are multiple
conversations happening at once. To avoid any
Instead, using software to confusion, plan a set time you will spend discussing
structure meeting each topic. Make sure everyone has the relevant
information, attendees can documentation beforehand so they can prepare. If the
focus on the most important discussion goes over the designated time, allow for 10
aspect of a meeting; the minutes during the end of each meeting for these
content. issues to be resolved.

The essential guide to effective meetings 12

 Keep track of previous meetings

Don’t just rely on your team members to recall

what was discussed in a previous meeting – no
one will remember the same version. Minutes
should be taken and stored correctly for easy
reference, as well as a formalised action
process.

This way you will be able to track the progress

your company is making and it will be a lot
easier to identify how best to resolve issues.

Invest in meeting management software

For more seamless, effective meetings,

investing in meeting management software
such as MeetingSquared can make a big
difference. It will help you by providing a
structured agenda, to which documents, links
and votes can be added to the relevant agenda
items, and will help you keep track of the
actions and minutes from previous meetings.
Saving both time and money, this software
enhances productivity every time your team
meets.

The essential guide to effective meetings 13

How to build
an effective
agenda

Setting an agenda is crucial to

the running of any meeting.

They outline why the meeting

is being held so participants
know what to expect and what
to prepare, but also keep the
meeting on track and on time.
But how do you build an
effective agenda?
14
Include any pertinent Create the agenda with
information plenty of time to spare
By attaching all of the documents needed Ensuring you’ve left enough time to
for the meeting to each agenda item, prepare and send out the agenda for
attendees are left in no doubt which your meeting is essential. Hastily
documents they need to read and also prepared agendas are likely to miss some
which document refers to which topic. required information, may contain out-
Include the presenter for each agenda of-date documents and may not leave
item so they can prepare and all attendees enough time for any amends.
know what to expect.
Sending the agenda in plenty of time also
The more information you can give people allows the attendees to review all of the
before a meeting, the more effective that documents, which will mean they are
meeting and the meeting members will better informed and will have more
become. valuable input at the meeting.

Assign times per topic Set a clear goal for the

meeting
Let the content dictate the length
assigned to each topic. If you’ve booked Before you start writing your agenda, ask
out a meeting room for an hour but only yourself the question; “What is the goal of
have 2 short agenda items, then run to this meeting?”
that, don’t feel you have to pad out the
meeting - remember shorter meetings The objective of the meeting should be
will keep attendees’ attention better. concise and clear not only telling the
attendees exactly what to expect, but also
Assigning each topic a set time period allowing you to structure your agenda to
allows you to be strict and keep your cover the most important topics first.
meeting on track. If the topic is over-
running but with no clear decision in site,
then move on and either return to it at
the end or forward that meeting agenda
item to the next meeting.

The essential guide to effective meetings 15

 Trying to organise meetings without

Meetings meeting management software can be

done, but should it?

can be MeetingSquared can help make

organizing and running your meetings
smarter. By moving your meetings onto

more a digital platform, you are streamlining

the full life cycle of your meetings.
I think this doesn’t make sense. If they

effective believe that meetings are already

effective then why should they change
anything.

If you want your organization to become more efficient and

reduce the time and money wasted on ineffective meetings,
contact us now.

+44 (0) 8452 007 829

www.eshare.net

The essential guide to effective meetings 16