Planning Productive Company Meetings

In two months, 60 managers and professional staff from your business will be meeting for a week at your corporate offices.  It’s your meeting.  It’s got to be a very good use of everyone’s time.  You need to craft an agenda and make sure each invited speaker has clearly defined objectives.  Too often, the agenda and key messages get pulled together in the final few days before everyone arrives.  The lack of planning shows when participants begin to multi-task.  Their attention fades.  They step out of the main meeting or hold side meetings to get “real work” done.      

In consultation (and before we train your presenters), we’ll work with you, your conference planning committee or your staff to clarify your overall meeting objectives, develop your program, ensure relevance, heighten engagement and create a plan for managing the meeting as it unfolds.  Our aim is simple.  When the meeting is over, those who attended will tell you “this was a very good use of my time.”

Program Objectives

Our consultants will tailor and deliver a 90-minute virtual workshop to share effective presentation strategies and tips with your speakers.  In addition, participants will understand the overall objectives of the company meeting and consider how their presentation supports those goals.  They will be briefed on the audience, physical environment, the room set-up and technical capabilities available to them.

Afterward, presenters arrange for one-on-one coaching with a consultant.  The premise is that presenting at a large-scale company meeting is simply not the same as presenting at a “regular meeting.”  The environment, dynamics and audience expectations are entirely different.  When you’re invited to speak to a very large group that’s been listening to one PowerPoint ® presentation after another, a unique set of skills and strategies are required—even for the accomplished presenter.

In the coaching session, you will:

• Set objectives and decide how to frame your presentation
• Develop a strategy for capturing and holding audience attention
• Be clear about exactly what you want the audience to think or do after the presentation
• Eliminate content that is not relevant or necessary
• Select facts, data, stories and analogies to add impact
• Build in opportunities for engagement or dialogue
• Make sure that any instructions for session activities are unmistakably plain
• Design effective slides, handouts or other visuals
• Anticipate questions and think through your answers in advance

Who Should Attend

This program is for anyone who has been asked to present at your meeting.