EPMS
Meetings and Briefings
Gathering together of the various stakeholders and other interested parties
for a festival or special event is the major method of planning events. The
event manager needs to know how to make the most efficient use of this
time.
How is it possible to get the most out of these meetings?
For a local festival for example a meeting could comprise :
Local businesses - the hotel, large companies
The chamber of commerce
The local school, local church, synagogue, mosque
Welfare agency
Representatives of local council, police, emergency services.
Committee members and sub committee representatives.
As well there could be performers, local identities and other odds and sods.
All these groups have different backgrounds and expectation. They have come together only for the one event and at other times would not mix or try to come to decisions in common.
As an event manager, how does one make the most effective use of the meetings. Are meetings that plan and control events dissimilar to other kinds of meetings. Is a different structure and procedure necessary?
The formality of a meeting is very different to the informality of a briefing. The group of specialists with a very tight time agenda meeting just before or during the event or festival. How does the event manager get the most out of those important briefings?
This chapter will investigate these questions. In particular I have asked a number of event managers for their views on meetings and briefings.
"Meeting are one of the vital tools I use to organise successful events. How do I organise effective meetings? - well it's just as it says in the books on meetings:
The agenda -I make sure that it is listed in advance and send out.
An effective chairperson who keeps the meeting on track.
There should be clear outcomes from the meeting so that people walk out of the meeting knowing the have gained something by coming to the meeting, what the meeting has achieved and what is expected of them as part of that outcome.
To preempt any misunderstandings, the meeting needs to be recorded and minutes taken.
For a complex meeting I put in time before the meeting to make sure that the issues are resolved or at least clear. The meeting must be kept on track and relevant to everyone. If there is an issue that only involves a few people and you let that dominate the meeting then the focus can be lost. I like to steer these so that it is taken up as an adjunct to the meeting.
It's a bit like being an entertainer or teacher in a classroom, if you
loose the group feeling then you can loose the effectiveness of the
meeting."
Johnny Allen
Copyright W.J. O'Toole 2001