At our September business practice dinner, Erica Loynd of DLR Group demonstrated best practices for holding effective meetings.

• First, she distributed the agenda ahead of time, and in doing so, she engaged the attendees by asking them to share their meeting experiences.
• Then, she began her presentation by telling the audience how her presentation will go (her agenda).

Those two actions alone helped the audience know what to expect at her presentation. And that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Your meeting attendees should have a good idea of what to expect when they walk into the meeting (its purpose), and they should be engaged throughout the meeting (that’s right—there will be no opportunity for nodding off). And what about the rest of Erica’s other best practices for holding effective meetings?

• Appropriate setting
• Trust
• Guidelines
• Meeting record

Thank you, Erica!