Letter of transmittal

September 04, 2011

Tahmina Akter
Sr. Lecturer
Faculty of Business Administration
Eastern University

Dear Madam

We are pleased to present the report on “How to Have an Effective Conference or Meeting” which you have assigned us as a part of our Business Communication course.
This report contains a vast knowledge on meeting and effective meeting. We have also included the purpose of a meeting and the ways to make it effective.
We have tried our best to include all the necessary information’s, guidelines and findings in the report. But still it might have some errors. We hope you will pardon us for those. We hope and aspect that the report would be able to fulfill with your expectations. However, if you have any quarries about the report let us know. We will be always available to make it clear.

Yours Sincerely

Md. Shanjidul Hossain, ID No. 102200021
Rejwana Jahan Mumu, ID No. 102200022
Hassan Aseer Intisar, ID No. 101200097
Tania Sultana, ID No. 101200100
Nowshadul Islam, ID No. 091200227

Abstract

We have prepared this report as a group for the partial fulfillment of “Business Communication” course. The basic of this report is to find out “How to Have an Effective Conference or Meeting”.
Meeting is a formal or informal deliberative assembly of individuals called to debate on certain issues or problems and to take decisions. It’s a very important part of business communication.

We have enclosed our report with all the necessary information’s about meetings and effective meetings. We have also discussed about the purpose of a meeting, the ways to make a meeting effective and the reasons of meeting failure and many more.

Introduction

* Source of the Report:
This report was given to us by our business communication course teacher Tahmina Akter as a requirement of the course. The topic of this report is “How to Have an Effective Conference or Meeting”. * Purpose of the Report:
There were some purposes in preparing this report. The purposes are given below-

* Know about what’s a meeting.

* Know what the purposes of a meeting are.

* Know about an effective meeting.

* How to plan an effective meeting or finding out the ways of having effective meeting.

* Find out the reasons or pitfalls for meeting failure.

* Find out the factors for which a meeting should not be held. What’s a meeting?

A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or reaching agreement. Meetings may occur face to face or virtually, as mediated by communications technology, such as a telephone conference call, a skyped conference call or a videoconference.
Thus, a meeting may be distinguished from other gatherings, such as a chance encounter (not convened), a sports game or a concert (verbal interaction is incidental), a party or the company of friends (no common goal is to be achieved) and a demonstration (whose common goal is achieved mainly through the number of demonstrators present, not verbal interaction and the consumption of doughnuts).
Commercially, the term is used by meeting planners and other meeting professionals to denote an event booked at a hotel, convention center or any other venue dedicated to such gatherings. In this sense, the term meeting covers a lecture (one presentation), seminar (typically several presentations, small audience, one day), conference (mid-size, one or more days), congress (large, several days), exhibition or trade show (with manned stands being visited by passers-by), workshop (smaller, with active participants), training course, team-building session and kick-off event. Purposes of a meeting
Meetings are used in almost every organization as a way of communicating information to other people. Their principal functions are to: * Inform about something. * Seek ideas. * Seek clarification. * Resolve problems. * Discuss proposals/ways of working. * Take decisions. * Settle disputes.

Effective meeting
There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. Bad meetings drone on forever, you never seem to get to the point and you leave wondering why you were even present. Effective ones leave you energized and feeling that you've really accomplished something.
Effective meetings really boil down to three things: 1. They achieve the meeting's objective. 2. They take up a minimum amount of time. 3. They leave participants feeling that a sensible process has been followed.
If you structure your meeting planning, preparation, execution, and follow up around these three basic criteria, the result will be an effective meeting. Planning effective meeting

Meeting management tends to be a set of skills often overlooked by leaders and managers. Keep in mind that meetings are very expensive activities when one considers the cost of labor for the meeting and how much can or cannot get done in them. So take meeting management very seriously.

The process used in a meeting depends on the kind of meeting you plan to have, e.g., staff meeting, planning meeting, problem solving meeting, etc. However, there are certain basics that are common to various types of meetings. These basics are described below. * Selecting Participants : * The decision about who is to attend depends on what you want to accomplish in the meeting. This may seem too obvious to state, but it's surprising how many meetings occur without the right people there.

* Don't depend on your own judgment about who should come. Ask several other people for their opinion as well.

* If possible, call each person to tell them about the meeting, it's overall purpose and why their attendance is important. * Follow-up your call with a meeting notice, including the purpose of the meeting, where it will be held and when, the list of participants and whom to contact if they have questions.

* Send out a copy of the proposed agenda along with the meeting notice.

* Have someone designated to record important actions, assignments and due dates during the meeting. This person should ensure that this information is distributed to all participants shortly after the meeting.

* Developing Agendas: * Develop the agenda together with key participants in the meeting. Think of what overall outcome you want from the meeting and what activities need to occur to reach that outcome. The agenda should be organized so that these activities are conducted during the meeting. In the agenda, state the overall outcome that you want from the meeting.

* Design the agenda so that participants get involved early by having something for them to do right away and so they come on time.

* Next to each major topic, include the type of action needed, the type of output expected (decision, vote, action assigned to someone) and time estimates for addressing each topic.

* Ask participants if they'll commit to the agenda.

* Keep the agenda posted at all times.

* Don't overly design meetings; be willing to adapt the meeting agenda if members are making progress in the planning process.

* Think about how you label an event, so people come in with that mindset; it may pay to have a short dialogue around the label to develop a common mindset among attendees, particularly if they include representatives from various cultures.

* Opening Meetings : * Always start on time; this respects those who showed up on time and reminds late-comers that the scheduling is serious.

* Welcome attendees and thank them for their time. * Review the agenda at the beginning of each meeting, giving participants a chance to understand all proposed major topics, change them and accept them.

* Note that a meeting recorder if used will take minutes and provide them back to each participant shortly after the meeting.

* Model the kind of energy and participant needed by meeting participants.

* Clarify your role(s) in the meeting.

* Establishing Ground Rules for Meetings :
You don't need to develop new ground rules each time you have a meeting, surely. However, it pays to have a few basic ground rules that can be used for most of your meetings. These ground rules cultivate the basic ingredients needed for a successful meeting. * Four powerful ground rules are: participate, get focus, maintain momentum and reach closure.

* List your primary ground rules on the agenda.

* If you have new attendees who are not used to your meetings, you might review each ground rule.

* Keep the ground rules posted at all times.

* Time Management: * One of the most difficult facilitation tasks is time management -- time seems to run out before tasks are completed. Therefore, the biggest challenge is keeping momentum to keep the process moving.

* You might ask attendees to help you keep track of the time.

* If the planned time on the agenda is getting out of hand, present it to the group and ask for their input as to a resolution.

* Evaluations of Meeting Process : * It's amazing how often people will complain about a meeting being a complete waste of time -- but they only say so after the meeting. Get their feedback during the meeting when you can improve the meeting process right away. Evaluating a meeting only at the end of the meeting is usually too late to do anything about participants' feedback.

* Every couple of hours, conduct 5-10 minutes "satisfaction checks".

* In a round-table approach, quickly have each participant indicate how they think the meeting is going.

* Evaluating the Overall Meeting : * Leave 5-10 minutes at the end of the meeting to evaluate the meeting; don't skip this portion of the meeting.

* Have each member rank the meeting from 1-5, with 5 as the highest, and have each member explain their ranking.

* Have the chief executive rank the meeting last.

* Closing Meetings : * Always end meetings on time and attempt to end on a positive note.

* At the end of a meeting, review actions and assignments, and set the time for the next meeting and ask each person if they can make it or not.

* Clarify that meeting minutes and/or actions will be reported back to members in at most a week (this helps to keep momentum going).

* After the Meetings : * Write up and distribute minutes within 3 or 4 days. Quick action reinforces importance of meeting and reduces errors of memory.

* Discuss any problems during the meeting with other officers; come up with ways improvements can be made.

* Follow-up on delegation decisions. See that all members understand and carry-out their responsibilities.

* Give recognition and appreciation to excellent and timely progress.

* Put unfinished business on the agenda for the next meeting.

* Conduct a periodic evaluation of the meetings. Note any areas that can be analyzed and improved for more productive meetings. See a sample meeting evaluation. Why meeting fails

* Reasons :
All too often though, meetings – even during and afterwards – are perceived as a waste of time by those invited. This can usually be attributed to a lack of understanding about what the meeting was for. To avoid the sense that it was all worthless, here are some reasons why meetings can fail: * No agenda = no purpose * No advance communication = surprising behaviors/responses * Not encouraging participation = no interaction * No time management = cost to organization – time is money * Allowing conflict to get out of control = chaos * Not reaching consensus = waste of time and company resources * Allowing sub meetings = no focus or direction * Not controlling difficult behavior = everyone becoming difficult * Not summarizing actions = misunderstanding of next steps * Not motivational = attendees leave feeling flat and despondent

* Pitfalls :
Despite the best efforts and the strongest facilitator, meetings can quickly spin out of control. Following are some common pitfalls that beset meetings, launching them into downward spirals of inaction and/or flawed decision making: * The facilitator puts aside the meeting agenda for his or her own personal agenda.

* The facilitator allows interruptions such as telephone calls, etc.

* Loud group members are allowed to dominate the meeting.

* Decisions are made based on generalizations, exaggeration, guesswork, and assumptions.

* Discussions consistently wander off the topic.

* Key members of the group are not present.

* Overly ambitious agendas.

* Meetings that exceed previously agreed-upon time limits.

* Minutes those are inaccurate or biased.

* Too many participants.

* Waiting for latecomers to arrive.

* An unclear, or inappropriate, decision-making process. For example, taking a vote when leadership and unilateral action by a company's CEO is clearly needed.

When a meeting should not be held

Meetings are indeed very important for a business. But there are sometimes when a meeting should not be held. Below are some indicators to determine when not to hold a meeting.

* Meeting owner is not able to express a valid purpose for the meeting objectives, goals, and desired accomplishments in one or two written sentences.

* Meeting leader has no set agenda stating topics and group actions to be taken on each.

* Active participation from all potential attendees is not required to meet the primary purpose and topics of the meeting.

* Attendees who are able to come the meeting may not be the ones that are needed there on the chosen date and time.

* Meeting organizer cannot find a good place to hold the meeting.

Keep in mind, just because a regularly scheduled meeting time and location is set, it doesn't mean everyone has to be pulled together. If any of the above indicators show up when planning a meeting, then just cancel the meeting for this week or for the time being if this will not affect project or team productivity. By canceling unnecessary meetings, everyone who would be involved may see more of a need for the meeting the following week. For certain all the potential meeting attendees will have more time for accomplishing other work in the current week. People usually appreciate it if they do not have to attend a formal meeting that is unnecessary. By canceling unnecessary meetings, planned attendees can use the time more wisely on their own.
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