Kansas City is located on Missouri’s western edge and the border of Kansas. While the city is known for barbecue and jazz, it is also the perfect city for business professionals. This charming cosmopolitan city is home to the Kansas City Convention & Entertainment Conference Center. It’s an ideal place for hosting and implementing a business meeting for you and your colleagues. When planning a business meeting, there are some important things to keep in mind.
Pick a Location
Choosing a location for your business meeting should be top of your list of things to do. Once you choose a location, then everything else should fall into place. Make sure to find a place easily accessible to everyone participating in the meeting, whether it be by public or personal transportation.
A perfect example of a place to host your meeting would be at a hotel. The Hyatt Place Kansas City/Lenexa is located close to Kansas City International Airport. Everyone who will be attending the meeting can stay at the same hotel, and you can also host your meeting here as well. Designed to promote sustainability and community, the hotel is close to big corporations like Kiewit and Quest Diagnostics, making it ideal to set up a meeting with a local business. The hotel’s spacious and comfortable rooms are pet-friendly and come with free internet access. While staying at The Hyatt Place Kansas City/Lenexa, you can also take advantage of the hotel’s indoor pool and 24/7 gym in between your meetings. The hotel also offers an on-site restaurant for after-meeting dinner and drinks.
Determine Your Objectives
Before your business meeting, it’s important to determine your goals and objectives. A defined objective will encourage other people to be engaged in your meeting because they’re aware of its intent. It can also help set the foundation for your business meeting. Meetings usually have two objectives in mind: to inform potential clients and to encourage them to make a decision.
Discussions are rarely the main goal or objective for a business meeting. But discussions should be encouraged after you run through your meeting’s purpose and inform your attendees of all the points you want to make. For example, determining a marketing position for your advertising campaign is an effective objective. It’s clearly focused and defines the goal of your meeting.
Assemble Your Attendees
It’s time to create a list of people to invite to your business meeting. Think about whether or not each of these people would benefit from joining your meeting. Do they need to attend in person? Maybe they can via conference call for one aspect of the meeting. If you waste a colleague’s time, he or she is less likely to attend the next business meeting you run.
Be considerate when inviting people to your business meeting. It would help if you were respectful of people’s times and schedules. You’ll have an easier time planning your meeting if you encourage them to attend but require them to let you know if they can’t attend. Inform them of the meeting’s objective, including the time it starts and the time it ends. Stress that they attend the meeting on time.
Create an Agenda
An agenda is known as a list of key items that need to be reviewed to meet your objective. The agenda can be used for your records, or it can be handed out at the meeting. The advantage of having an agenda is that it gives a script for other people to follow. However, the disadvantage is that it could distract them or allow them to jump to sections you’re not ready to discuss.
If you need to resolve certain issues, keep the agenda to yourself. If you’re planning a status meeting, use your timeline as part of your agenda. If you plan to give your attendees an agenda, state the objective at the top of each page and include bullet points. Everyone attendee should receive a copy, so make sure to have enough to go around.
Maintain Control
Once the meeting begins, it’s important to keep it focused and moving. Start your meeting on time, even if a few of your attendees are late. If you wait for the last person to show up, your meeting will run late. Introduce yourself and state the reason for the meeting.
If you passed out an agenda, make sure everyone follows it, so they’re aware of your objectives. If the meeting runs longer than expected and no decision has been reached, interject and politely remind everyone that it’s time to make a decision. If a decision still hasn’t been reached, state what’s necessary to resolve this problem and include it in your project timeline.
If the meeting goes off track, be firm and state that it should be discussed another time. Schedule the next business meeting at the end of your current meeting before everyone leaves. If you planned the meeting, you’re responsible for taking notes or assigning someone to take notes for you.
Follow Up with Clients
While the meeting might be over, your work is far from over. It’s time to come up with a list of what was covered, what was resolved, and what actions need to be considered the next time around. This should be created from your meeting notes. Thank everyone for attending and participating in the meantime.
Showing gratitude will make them feel good to know that their time and work were valued. Update your meeting notes to cover the progress of your project at your next meeting. Include the time and date of your update, along with the tasks that need to be completed by then.
