Meetings are something that most of us engage in everyday at the workplace.  They could range from an informal chat at a cubicle to a scheduled event in a conference room.  This series of articles will provide tips more geared toward the latter type of meeting, what I call the “Formal” meeting.  A few examples of this type of meeting could be a weekly status team meeting, or possibly a review meeting with your clients.  You’ve most likely experienced this type of meeting before, but the question is:  How did you handle it? 

Let’s get down to the tips.

Here is a quick checklist to run through before you enter your meeting:

• Did you print out all of the meeting materials?  This is important, as you can’t rely on the meeting organizer to always print out copies or even have enough copies of the materials. 

• Did you skim the meeting materials?  This goes hand in hand with the first bullet, before a meeting you should take a look at the materials to see what exactly is going to be discussed. This way you can do any necessary research before the meeting on possible questions you want to ask, as well as identify any possible problems that you can head off before the meeting.  If you don’t have time to take a look at all the materials, at least look at the agenda so you have at least a skeleton of an idea of what is going to be discussed.

• Do you have all the necessary contact information?  This is crucial, as a lot of meetings now are “teleconferences” (telecon’s is a common term for them) where you either dial into a meeting system to join or start a meeting (an example would be Meeting Place).  Making sure this information is on hand before time will ensure that the meeting starts on time.  In my experience it is extremely annoying to be stuck waiting for a meeting to start, listening to elevator music.

• Do you have a speaker phone reserved?  This really applies to teleconferences, but if you are holding one or joining one, you should make sure that you have one ready and reserved for you meeting.  At my office, these things fly off the shelf like they were made of gold, so I always reserve well ahead of time.

• Do you have a room reserved?  This may sound, but you would be surprised how many times you schedule a teleconference, a couple of people get together to dial in, and they discover they have no room.  It’s very distracting to hold a teleconference around your co-workers, so I wouldn’t suggest holding it at your cube.  Get a small room if need be, it’s more private and less prone to background noise getting in the way.

• Do you have a pad of paper and a pen?  This is important, as you never know what is going to come out at a meeting.  You should ALWAYS bring something to write on and something to write with to your meetings.  Otherwise, that tidbit of important information you heard will end up going in one ear and out of the other.

• Do you know where the meeting is?  This is especially true if you are a new hire at your company and may not be familiar with the layout of your office yet.  If the meeting is being held in a conference room that you don’t know the location of, ask beforehand where it is.  This will save you the embarrassment of not only walking into the meeting late, but in the middle of the presentation.

Now that you are ready, it’s time to enter the meeting. Check back for Part II of this series, where I will discuss the finer points of actually attending the meeting.

Update: Continue on to Part II of this series here: Surviving a Formal Meeting - Part II.