Have you ever been the host or hostess of a party?
You set out a charcuterie board of overpriced cheeses and meats, selected a variety of wines and craft beer, picked a playlist to get the vibes just right, and built the guest list – it’s a lot of work! And sometimes, despite all that effort, the party can be a dud.
Hosting a meeting, particularly a virtual meeting, is a lot like hosting a great party. There’s an art to it. Here a few key tips to make your meeting work:
- Know your audience
- State why you are there and confirm expectations
- Have a clear agenda and clear goal
- Engage your audience
- Summarize and list action items with owners and timelines
- Keep meetings short
- Schedule 15 minute breaks in between
With a party, everyone loves to feel that they’ve made it to the “VIP” section. The host should cater the specifics of the party to the attendees, and meetings should be designed for the specific audience. At the very start, introduce the meeting and confirm expectations.
Imagine you’re attending a New Years Eve party. But it’s also a costume party. And an escape room. Pretty hard to understand what to expect, right? The same idea applies to meetings and it’s critical that there is a clear, simple agenda and this is held for the duration of the meeting.
Read the room. Even if it’s a virtual room. We can all feel the energy shift at a party; whether it increases and everyone starts buzzing with a good time, or when the energy decreases and people turn to awkward small talk. As a virtual meeting host, pay attention to all the cues and encourage attendees to keep cameras on. If people stop responding enthusiastically or you can see eyes wandering in the video conference, take action: call for a five-minute break, switch up your style or simply keep the meeting short.
To help avoid a low energy meeting, be sure to design an agenda and materials to be engaging. As the host of a party, you would circulate around the crowd and make sure everyone – including the wallflowers – are involved. Keep in mind that people prefer to contribute in different ways. As a meeting host, invite participants to engage either verbally, in a chat, or to send their input via email to the group after they’ve had time to reflect.
People love party favors. Something to remember the event after it concludes. For each meeting, summarize what occurred and clearly communicate action items with timelines.
After a really great night, we often need to spend the next morning taking it easy to recover. The same applies to scheduling your meetings. Instead of scheduling a day of back to back, be sure to allot at least 15 minutes in between meetings.
Great parties can become legendary, with stories extracted as water cooler punchlines for years to come. Ultimately, the credit goes to the person or group hosting the party. Embrace the art of throwing the event and #makemeetingswork.
 Marc Rouhana is the CEO and Co-Founder of OnScreen. He was previously the Director of Product Management at Winshuttle. OnScreen guides business users to complete any process or task, no matter how complex, with simple step by step instructions directly in the business app interface It is a Digital Adoption Platform that helps business users complete any existing or newly implemented process through simple in-app contextual guides. |