subject: How To Plan For A Business Meeting [print this page] If you are in business you will know that holding regular meetings with your company can ensure you keep communication between departments up, but you will also need to hold meeting with clients and other business associates from time to time. It could be said that these meetings are much more important than regular ones with your companys departments, as they could help to secure the company additional business.
Because of this you will need to make sure that you are thoroughly prepared for this kind of meeting, and this can sometimes take quite a while. There will be numerous preparations that you need to complete before you are ready for the meeting and it is vital that you will be able to answer any questions that potential or current clients throw at you.
Once your meeting has been confirmed with the other party you should sit down and consider exactly what needs to be discussed on the day. You should write a list of everything that comes to mind at this stage it doesnt need to be in any clear format as your points will be refined later on. After you have decided on everything that needs to be discussed you should then decide who will be attending the meeting and who will speak about what. If someone within your company specialises in a certain subject that will come up within the meeting it pays to ensure they will be present, which means you will need to inform them that they need to prepare something to explain things.
At this point you should begin putting everything into a PowerPoint presentation that can be used during your presentation. You should never hold a presentation without using some form of visual representation of what you are saying, such as that within a PowerPoint document, as this will help to hold your audiences attention and also explain your points clearly. If possible, consider sending your slides off to a specialist who will be able to make them look as professional as possible. If you dont think that you will be able to remember everything that you would like to speak about during your presentation you should write notes for yourself that you can refer to while you are talking.
The final thing to consider is exactly where you will be holding your meeting, although you should always give yourself enough time to make decisions on this. One of the best options would be a hotel meeting room, where you will be able to make use of the hotels equipment and make a good impression to your clients.
