The Meeting Maximizer

Pros and Cons of a long time frame for social parties

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:05:30 +0000

The other day, I went to a house warming party starting at 1-8pm. When you have a big window of time, what time do you show up? I meant to leave at 3pm, but I actually arrived at 5:30pm. As a guest, I just thought about my schedule, not about how I will affect the party. When you have set a 7- hour time here are the benefits:

You can experience more surprises and decisions to make. “I wonder when people will show up? Should we reheat the food again? Will the food start drying out? Do we have enough food, or too much? No idea.
If it is potluck, “We have 5 desserts, I wonder if anyone will bring a main dish and if so when, should we eat the triple chocolate mouse, pecan pie and baklava?”
If you have a small house and many guests you can thin out the crowd to fit in your house.
As the host, you may have time to visit with your guests, which doesn’t happen at parties with oodles of people.
If you have limited parking this is a better chance for your guests to find parking.

Energetic Parties

As the host, I want people to show up on time. I am supposed to be ready, so I want to be rewarded with guests on the dot. If I want people to show up as a group, then I need to set a 2-2.5 hour event or a 3 hour event with specific directions.

For example, my friends know that I am plan like crazy, plus they know that I may have a “program” regardless of what kind of social it is.

If we want them there on time, we will request invitation to be at the event at 2:02pm. If you think you might be a touch late please tell us ahead of time, so we can plan accordingly.
Create incentives for the first guests.
- At 2:02, we will be cracking open a bottle from 1949 from… (insert expensive wine), the year that ….(insert some interesting event).
- At 2:02 our dog, Moxie, will be performing a dance routine to Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. But Moxie only performs after her nap, so if you are interested, show up early.
- At 2:02 Vinh’s famous hot out off the oven cinnamon rolls will be read to melt in your mouth at 2:20, they will be gone or cold.

If you have a small attendance list, you will have more success with stating a smaller window of time, so people will be concentrated at one time. People can always stay longer and usually will, but stating a huge time span will hinder the “party atmosphere” when there are 6 guests each hour instead of 18 people at one time. We just hosted a 2-5pm Summer Party without any time incentives. Most people showed up at 2:40ish and some stayed until 11:47pm.

I commonly see the big time frame and it is usually a problem. For a quick solution, just make if shorter. Each evite and invite receive, keep an eye out for it.

Virgin Airlines – Engaging all the senses

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:13:35 +0000

At meetings, we need to do as much as we can to communicate with our audiences. Virgin Airlines does a fine job of making a flight (dull meeting) very exciting. From the upscale, hip lounge scene ticket counter with real music (Virgin Records) with young, fashionable ticket agents dressed in black to the actual flight. They are consistent. Take a look at our experience. I wanted a longer flight, so I could have an extended experience.

The look of the plane is white, sleek and feels open. Yes, there is more leg room, but the light color also feels spacious. It was new and different. The flight attendants seemed to be more friendly than usual.

The personal LCD in the seat was not just a screen. It was an interactive communication device that was on even while we were on the ground. Inside the armrest was a secret gadget. Here it is, the entertainment and communication sword.

Wow, we can instant message each other for free. Can you imagine if you are going a group trip like a cruise and met a bunch of people, but you got a head start by chatting first. The whole newness and technology integration was very exciting.

My aunts, uncles, parents and cousins, we were all communicating with our headrest computers. Instead of having to yell or walk up to talk on the plane to finalize plans, we can simply instant message without disrupting others.

The typically boring safety directions was artsy and interesting to watch. Yes, it is the same old information, but delivered differently. Here is a taste of it this video.

Virgin Airlines did so many things right. I look forward to my next trip with them. When think about your meetings, think about all the senses make sure your passengers are taken care of.

Speakers Corner at the National Speakers Association Convention

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:38:19 +0000

Got something to say? Say it!

NSA will provide the step stool to stand on and NSA attendee traffic. It’s your turn to use your vocal cords.

What

You have two minutes to spout off and earn your crowd. Take this opportunity to be spontaneous and get visibility or share advice with your NSA community.

When

Go for it during the breaks between general sessions, concurrent sessions and after lunch. Slots are limited. If you want a guaranteed spot, email Jolene Jang , or just be ready to jump in. Look for the green streets sign.

Where

Orlando in the convention halls.

How

However you want. Be creative.

Pictures

See pictures of Speakers Corner from NSA Convention 2009 in Phoenix.

Contact

Jolene Jang from Seattle and NSA Northwest Chapter.

Join Groupon http://www.groupon.com/r/uu4933911

Can you name distractions at meetings?

admin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:40:38 +0000

I posted this question on linkedin and received valuable feedback.

Add your thoughts. At the meetings you attend, which distractions take away your attention? Is it the meeting environment, presenters, technology? Be Specific. The more you share the closer we are to progress. Thanks for your help.

Jerry Sheremeta

Category Manager, RBC Procurement

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On the one hand, a properly set agenda, proposed and accepted “in advance”, brought to the table controls much of the waste of time and resources. Allowing too little or too much time on agenda items, or especially on ‘new business’ are two meeting downfalls.
When meetings are set for apurpose, when everyone accepts the buy-in, and when all participants have a stake in the meeting and its outcome, the distractions seem to disappear, because there is cause for success.
Too often meetings are called for the sake of a (weekly) meeting. Prioritizing and having different attendees present helps, but speakers and the meeting chair must be in control. I’m trust you agree.
Thank you.

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Michael Maynard

Writer

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I was asked a question about this at a meeting. I had to ask them to repeat the question because I was looking out of the window and not paying attention at all. It was boring! So just about anything can distract you if the speaker is boring. The speaker at this particular meeting did then involve me and that made it more interesting for everyone, but lost control of the meeting as I asked questions and livened things up! So you have to be interesting and keep control of the meeting to be effective. There was some technology a overhead projector that was really boring. I actually showed a few people some pictures using a digital photo frame and that got more attention than the “presentation”. Boredom and lack of interaction just makes a meeting a waste of everyone’s time. But interaction has to be controlled or someone like me will high jack the meeting out of frustration!

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Holly Nagel

Owner, Twist ‘n’ Shout LLC

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Interesting you should ask, as I was recently noting distractions that seem to come up at meetings:
1) (environment) Trying to listen to the Speaker over others that have their own conversations.
2) (environment) Phones ringing
3) (environment/technology) Trying to listen to a speaker that isn’t mic’d while other ambient noises are present (air conditioning/heating; wait staff clean up)

The first two items come down to manners, it seems some folks have them, others don’t. I have noticed if the Speaker begins by reminding everyone to turn off phones, etc, the incidents are cut down drastically. Too bad a reminder is needed.

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Lynnette Moody

Business Mgmt Analyst at Chase

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Ringing cell phones/Blackberries (even if they’re on vibrate, they make considerable noise if they’re sitting on the table), people having side conversations and loud discussions in the hallway outside the meeting room always take me out of the moment.

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Matt Heinz

Principal & Chief Marketer at Heinz Marketing

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Lack of agenda, and distraction from the task at hand. If everyone’s there for a reason, and stays focused on those topics and objectives, it’s easier to keep everyone’s attention. When the meeting gets distracted, or goes off on tangents, then people start pulling out their Blackberries. At that point, you’ve lost them.

Probably the best way to avoid this is to have fewer meetings. Only have the meetings where everyone in the room is required, where there’s a specific purpose, and where someone is designated to facilitate and keep the meeting on task. The better you do that, the better the results, the faster you’ll achieve those results, and the more you’ll keep everyone’s attention to meet that goal quickly.

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Tim (NLA) Tymchyshyn

Two-Way Radio Expert, System Design and Support

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I fall asleep at most because the presenter does not get the people engaged, they focus on one or two people and not the grind

unfortuneately smart phones have to be on, it is the way we have made the world, our clients want instant answers not answers later

point to prove this, I look after a public safety system the two mins I missed in the last meeting made the company 70k

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Cyndi Carver

Your Local Real Estate Marketing Consultant

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For me, it’s the overpowering of perfumes, after shaves, and residual smoke from cigarettes. I get headache or sneezy and have a tough time concentrating.

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Dr John H Pettit

Managing Director & Chief Philosophy Officer

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Other people. Or rather the ones who have come to be heard rather than contribute. I normally wander off if the meeting is stalled because of these people. [JHP]

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Greg Johnson

Strategic Accounts Manager at SecurityMetrics

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Not setting forth an agenda, objectives an getting buy-in. I’ve taught whole classes on this it is so important. Any meeting which lacks these three ingredients is doomed to fail or be less effective!

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Delbert Haynes

Experienced IT Project Manager open to new permanent or contract opportunities.

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In my experience, avoiding meeting distractions is similar to avoiding other maladies…an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In addition to having a clear agenda (as others have mentioned) I’d like to add the following:

1. Ensure that the appropriate [minimum] participants are invited. Assuming that the everything else is on point as it should be, the folks that you may consider dropping from similar meetings in the future are pretty easy to spot…few questions are asked of them, little is contributed by them, and they’ll usually be the ones looking out of the windows, at blackberrys, dozing, etc. Don’t fear recording questions for later follow-up if you find that you need input from folks who would otherwise have little to contribute.

2. Be mindful of the clock, your current place in your agenda relative to it, and keep the team on point/message. Some exploration of issues may be necessary from time to time, but similar to the previous point, don’t be afraid to table discussion of side issues at a appropriate stopping point for later off-line discussion.

3. Schedule the minimum amount of time necessary to complete the agenda and answer questions with minimum fluff. Don’t be lulled in to scheduling more time than you need to “just in case”. Not saying it’s always appropriate, but you’d be surprised at what can be accomplished in a focused, 15-30min meeting. Keep in mind, that meetings are most interesting when they address issues with the most interest to the most participants in the least amount of time.

In a nutshell, meetings are extremely expensive, and eat person-hours quicker than the cookie monster eats cookies…I believe that if you respect everyone’s time, start/end when you say you will, and keep the team on point, there will be far less time for participants to be bored/distracted…

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Steve Kehling

Accountant/Business Analyst

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The truth is that anything, phone, industry periodical, grocery list, Joe’s tie (who dresses this guy for work, a leprechaun?! . . . Uh, sorry). Anything can be a distraction when the meeting is something I could have read in a memo/email. When the topic is something for which I am involved or must contribute to move a project along, passenger jets landing 100 yards away would barely distract me.

The ability of the meeting organizer to keep the conversation and interactions on target is also important to keep attendees involved and undistracted.

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Martin Thomas

Consultant; interim manager

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Cell phones especially email enabled devices. In my world meeting rooms would have jammers.

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Jude Sweeney

Project Director at CHL Systems

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Several – first, if the attendees don’t show up on time, and wander in after the start time. Either the organizer waits for them to arrive, you get them up to speed after they arrive, or they ask questions of material already covered.

Second is if the organizer isn’t prepared – you may end up waiting on a computer to be set up, a projector that doesn’t work, etc.

Lastly, attendees that rise to get a donut, coffee, water, go to the bathroom, etc.

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Ramesh Kumar

CTO & Human Search Engine

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Many
1. Some times the Projectors would not work. Some one wants to plug in a Windows 2003 server to a projector, it may refuse to connect. ( XP connects easily). Ensure that all participants’ laptops are compatible. Else, copy all the presentations into one computer connected to the projector.

2. Some time people tend to talk about irrelevant topics. Let the moderator ‘cut it short’.

3. People coming in and going out of the room.

4. Ask every one to put mobiles in silent mode or switched off mode.

Don’t be surprised to see some people dozing off!! Bear with them as they are not distracting atleast

Ramesh
The Human Search Engine

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Bhalchandra Pai

Brand Manager at Cobra Indian Beer Pvt. Ltd. Currently trying to revamp and vitalize the brand portfolio.

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The most important thing is to be prepared, to know the subject and purpose of the meeting, and what you hope it will achieve. If you can’t find the time to prepare for meetings then you should stop calling so many.

Another is to know the people who are invited. Think ahead as to which individuals are most likely to make the greatest contribution, and anticipate others who you’ll have to, as tactfully and gently as possible, interrupt to move the discussion along.
Finally, keep the objective of the meeting constantly in your mind so you’ll keep moving toward the goal. But if the goal changes during or because of the meeting, be prepared to invent Plan B.

Over the years, has technology changed meetings?

Yes. Some for the better, some for the worse. As an example, information technology has made it possible for a lot of details to be made available quickly to a large number of people, so attendees can be better informed about anything being discussed.
That’s a positive. The negative is that people now present too much detail. With charts being created mostly by computers, people don’t stop with the main points; they can’t resist the unnecessary elaboration.

Has technology created more distractions in meetings?

Technology has increased the potential for bringing new distractions, though I don’t know that the total distraction level has changed. Are cell phones in meetings any more or less distracting than people being called out to take phone calls?
Or people reading incoming e-mails instead of paying attention to the speaker?

Now on dozers and dozees, the people who doze off during meetings and the presenters who cause them to fall asleep. Any tips for dozers?
Almost everyone I know who has seen the book has felt compelled to comment about that chapter. If you attend enough meetings, it’s inevitable that you’ll doze off sometimes.
Al Carnesale, the chancellor at UCLA, told me about the advice he got when he was younger: “When you wake up, don’t say ‘WHATt?’ Say ‘WHY?”‘

Bala

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Monica M. Paul

Expertise: Operational Efficiencies & Margin Enhancements

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Environment: If the room is too hot or too cold. If the room is set up in a way that makes it difficult to see the presentation clearly. If food is served throughout the presentation – clinking of dishes and such.
Presenters: If they read the slides or present canned material that doesn’t apply to the organizational culture they are addressing. When they do not make eye contact or attempt to engage the group.
Technology: When the required equipment is not up and running or even tested prior to the meeting’s start. All personal communications equipment should be checked at the door.

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Dale Collie

Author & Professional Speaker

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Hey Jolene …
1. Presenter’s grammar errors
2. Hard to read PowerPoint slides
3. Amateurish handouts

Clarification added 27 days ago:

4. Presenters who read the presentation

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Judy B. Margolis, MA

Business Writer, Editor and Blogger | Marketing Communications | B2B | Business Development

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Too much mumbo-jumbo. I get lost when the chair prattles on and on using what seems like an endless stream of acronyms.

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David Lake

Sergeant at Phoenix Police Department

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For me the biggest distractions are as follows:
Environmental- If I am hot, to cold, to loud, to quiet, outside noise, speaker’s in a bad place in the room, chair is rickety, sitting to close to each other, have to turn or twist to see the speaker, that sort of thing.
Rude audience-talking between themselves, on the phone, reading, texting all of those things drive me crazy
Presenter constantly apologizing is a huge distraction.
Thats about it for me

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Bill Nigh

Experienced, productive, and affable IT professional

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People who drone on in an unfocused fashion tend to cause me to lose interest, whether I want to or not. Also, those who take very long to get to the point tend to lose me.

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Bob Jackson

Lead Transistion Executive at Avocent/Emerson Network Power

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Honestly, almost anything can prove a distraction. If the planner/presenter does not engage the audience, then that small piece of dust floating through the light of the projector can triggered distracting thoughts of the upcoming snowfall or that ski trip to Vail four years ago…or the snow globe in that movie with Orson Wells…what was that movie? Hey, I wonder what is playing at the cineplex this weekend…hmm, what should I have for dinner? Oh, shoot, I need to stop and get milk on the way home…I wonder if I unplugged the iron before I left this morning…you get the picture.

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Sharon S. Plate

IT Professional studying

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1. Ill prepared consultants whose computers are set to automatically connect to another outfit’s site. The consultant wastes my time trying to remember how to connect to my site–and wastes my money in doing so.
2. Loud hard drives on laptops.
3. Cell phone calls, especially when the presenter takes the call and wastes my time. If the presenter is a consultant, the presenter is probably wasting my money as well.
4. Sidebar converstions which make it impossible for the presenter to be understood.
5. Attendees who chronically arrive late and want to catch up on what they missed.
6, Ill prepared presenters who forget where they place the presentation and must search for it while everyone waits.
7. Projectors which constantly need to be readjusted.
8. People who do not understand how the phone system works so they can conference someone who is remote. (Should have used a tool like WebEx or GoTo Meeting.)
9. Meetings which must take up the entire time for which the room was reserved regardless of the actual time needed for the meeting.
10. Meetings where the agenda is not followed.
11. People who are distracted and constantly ask questions about previously covered material.
12. People who become argumentative with the presenter or with one another.

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Randy Arthur

CTO – CSC Trusted Cloud Services

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Environmental distractions such as a noisy background, people too far away from a speaker phone to clearly hear them or (my pet peeve) inductance static from a cell phone placed too close to a telephone cord. For remote attendees, these distractions can turn an otherwise productive remote meeting into a pointless waste of time.

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John Pugh

Software Partner Manager at Canonical Ltd.

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If the presenter captures your attention there will never be any better distraction to pull you away. Provided the presenter knows the material, presents it in a fashion that is interesting and fun you will NEVER be distracted.
When a presenter stinks, you will find yourself distracted. Most of the time, if I get distracted, I bail.

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Jeff Kittle

Contractor at TAC Worldwide

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Managers and/or VPs

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Ian Wilson

IT Leader and Project Manager – bringing value to business

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Having the wrong people at the meeting. Attendees that are not engaged and motivated indulge in non-productive behaviours that distract everyone.

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Andrew Long

Experienced, enthusiastic and adaptable Project Office Coordinator

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People who type whilst attending conference calls resulting in the sound of a keyboard being ‘bashed’ and them not concentrating on the meeting!

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Crystal Rast

Professional Workaholic crystal.rast@gmail.com

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If it is a meeting that I know ahead of time has no affect on my ability to do my job and that subsequently I’ll have no ability to contribute to the meeting, then I find meetings in and of themselves a distraction. In those cases, there is absolutely nothing that can be done to gain my attention in the meeting other than the occasional digging of my claws into my skin to refocus the crossing of my eyes in front of the presenter.

Assuming that you are speaking of meeting that I have reason to attend because it impacts my contributions to the company or my own direction can contribute to others and it is a meeting that must be conducted in person (thank god for conference calls), then I would say the following are distractions:

1. Meals being served during the meeting—who really wants to listen to animals grazing at the trough, and there’s always someone with a vegetable stuck in their teeth.
2. Either very cold/very warm rooms—I love cold rooms, but the gal with her teeth chattering next to me may not. On the opposite spectrum, who really wants to smell someone else sweat?
3. Powerpoints—Gawdalmighty, I have been Powerpointed to death. If I see another cutsy animal clip art in a presentation, I swear I’ll lose my meeting breakfast croissant. If I want to see a movie, I’ll go to the IMAX. I immediately disengage when someone warms up the projector. Give me a real person with real stories that are meaningful, interesting, hopefully funny and completely void of corporate touchy-feely jargon or give me an agenda and let’s crank through it, so I can get back to work.
4. Texting—everyone knows it’s a no-no to have their super-unique, hip hop ringtone blasting through the room, but how many times do we have someone on their equally supercool iPhone (or in my case, blackberry) texting or typing messages? Tap, tap, tap, tap…Drives me nuts.
5. Completely open forum meetings—there is always someone who just wants to hear themselves speak which delays getting to the meat of a meeting (why you are there in the first place). I prefer sticking to an agenda/presentation, getting to the purpose quickly and succinctly, then have a very limited time for open discussion (and for each person). Give them a Jeopardy buzzer if you need to but keep them concise.

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Surya Vangara

Senior IT Management, Banking & Financial Services

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1. Generally, I see meeting organisers announce their approach and expectations from the meeting after everyone assembled. Different types of approaches require different level of participants. For example, a status review meeting requires differrent inputs and approach to a root cause analysis review meeting. Organiser needs to know the usage of right meeting tools and techniques.
2. Not involving the right level of stakeholders in the meeting
3. Late comers put me off a lot
4. Cross talking
5. Ringing of Cell phones (it is an insult to all the participants)
6. Presenter’s lack of presentation skills and / or subject knowledge and / or preparation
7. People who want to show off by always being on the mail box
8. Many times, I see the meeting organiser pushing back Q&A to the end of the meeting. I feel comfortable asking / being asked questions as they come to enable me participate / conduct meeting effectively.

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Scott Kirkpatrick

IT Professional and Leader

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Definitely Technology; when the projector isn’t working (not being operated correctly); when a laptop is not working (not being operated correctly). Other distractions include; food, drinks, email, cell/smart phones, late comers, windows with fantastic views, atmosphere and my favorite conference room bingo.

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Stephen Harrington

Account Manager at Origina

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Certainly in round table meetings, I find that members can get involved in their own conversations away from the main topic

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Aravind Ramakrishnan

Deputy Manager – Audit at Ford Motor Company

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Laptop – check cricket scores, IM etc…
Cell Phones, PDA’s.
High heels.
Late Comers.
Cross Talk.

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John Chen

CEO & The Big Kid at PlayTime Inc. and Owner, PlayTime Inc.

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Noise, distractions, side conversations, cell phones, wait staff, people walking in and out, bad speakers (the ultimate distraction), laptops, bad sound systems, bright incorrect lighting, eating during presentations (although sometimes necessary?).

Of all the distractions at a meeting, the best way to avoid distractions is to really have engaging material, content, answering questions that people have, telling it in a way that draws you in.

For instance we have a team building event that is immersive and really creates a lot of buzz because if you check out, your team and your company suffers.

Mykel de Willigen

Test & Process Consultant Squerist

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In my opinion there´s differing norms for ´good/effective/efficient´ meetings, depending primarily on the frequency of these meetings and the clarity of purpose.

Incidental/irregular meetings likely serve a different purpose then the regular ones do. My expectations will vary accordingly, a one time show for whatever? I’ll be expecting a naturally smooth, engaging and professional performance. Once my attention is captured, distractions are more or less disgarded by my brain. If the speaker does not succeed in entertaining my intrest, then the distractions seem to be everywhere!! Cannot see one immediatly? Just listen to your own thoughts, the broadcast is pretty continuous

Regular meetings are usually more interactive, exchanging info, syncing everyone to the current situation and coordinating the following actions/decisions. These meetings can benefitbig time from some appropriate and measured distractions. A joke, a coffee break or whatever just to keep the dynamics and participation going. Unfortunately some people tend to regard meetings as the distraction, don’t think you’ll change their minds!

greetz

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RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

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Mike McRitchie

Director of Operations at RealCom Associates, LLC – Optimist, Synthesizer, Business Builder…

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Boring, long meetings where the presenter reads the PowerPoint slides word for word.

Or where the meeting topic doesn’t require your engagement.

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Suzanne Boswell

Professional Speaker, Facilitator, Author, Management Consultant

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As a professional speaker for more than 25 years, I’ve experienced distractions from the speaker’s AND from the attendee’s perspectives. Speakers are responsible to eliminate or diminish as many distractions as possible. Attendees have little control over distractions and they rely on the speaker to “manage” the environment and related situations. The venue, the room setup, the lighting, temperature, technology … these are just the beginning. Here are just a few of the most common “frustrations” I deal with:

Cell phones: Introducer, before introducing the speaker says: “In respect to the speaker and to everyone in the room, let’s all take out our cell phones and turn off or switch to remote – I’ll give you a moment to do that before we continue.” Introducer looks at audience and pauses to make it clear that he/she is awaiting audience response/action. In a really small meeting (say fewer than 20 people, ask people to leave their phones, BB devices on a table near the door – they can check them at breaks).

Late arrivals: People who enter the room after the meeting has started are extremely distracting, especially when they sit toward the front of the room. As a speaker, I’m not tethered by microphone to the front of the room, I use a wireless microphone and move through the room as I speak. When I see people watching a late arrival, I slowly move to the opposite side of the room while speaking. When you do this you’re re-directing the audience’s attention and you’re saving the late arrival from some embarrassment.

Room temperature: This is a very common problem. Have an audience member be the “temperature monitor” who knows where to adjust room temp or knows who to talk to about temp. Speaker needs to monitor the room too: “Who is too cold, too hot, just right?” (Watch for people with arms crossed or those fanning themselves!) Then make adjustments based on the majority.

Side conversations: These small group side chats distract the speaker and audience members seated nearby. The speaker needs to manage this. They often sit toward the back of the room where they think they have some anonymity. Instead of disregarding this, with the wireless mic I slowly move down the center aisle while speaking. The closer I get to the “offenders” the quieter they tend to get. I make (non-judgmental) eye contact with them and they realize that I’m quite aware of them. Because my programs I highly interactive, I may even verbally engage them in a non-threatening manner.

Technology failures: Murphy’s law applies here … if something can go wrong, it probably will. Be prepared with backup alternatives. Be prepared to speak without PowerPoint if need be (gotta really know your material or have terrific handouts!) For every piece of electronic equipment you use ask yourself, “what will I do if this fails?” Redundancy and alternatives must be planned in advance.

I’ve written several articles on these topics … see links below.

Sahar Andrade

I help companies increase their ROI by engaging my services as:Social Media Marketing Consultant|Diversity Coach|Speaker

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Cell phones and people looking at their PDAs as if saying I rather be somewhere else than here
May the moderator of the meeting being boring
A long presentation
A presenter that doesnt attract my attention and doesnt engage his audience

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RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

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David Foley

Owner, Oregon Community Communications

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OK, so plenty of serious and practical answers here. I’ll just pass on three of the most memorable meeting-stoppers I’ve encountered.

1) A Silicon Valley meeting, Mid January, with some senior folks from the upper Midwest. They arrived wearing overcoats, the outdoor temp is in the 80’s. About 5 minutes into the meeting a tall, athletic, and very well equipped young lady in daisy dukes and a halter top roller skates past the room-long window. Even the presenter forgot what the meeting was about.

2) Meeting in a downtown hi-rise (ok, all of 7 stories, but in San Jose that’s a high rise). Building is just off the approach path to San Jose International Airport. Meeting in progress. A B-17 bomber thunders past the windows on a low approach, close enough to see that the co-pilot needs a shave, followed every few minutes by another vintage aircraft. Meeting over.

Moral: Bunkers, maybe.

3) Afternoon status meeting, October 1989. Meeting was supposed to end at 5PM. At 5:04 a 7.1 Earthquake rather abruptly ended the meeting. DIscussion on disaster prep suddenly takes on new emphasis.

Moral: Larger and sturdier conference tables.

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Geoff Feldman

“Hands-on” Software Architect and Senior Developer

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The meeting itself can be disorganized, elliptical and unproductive.

I like making people aware of the fully burdened cost per hour of employees. Then multiply that times the number of attendees. What is the value proposition for listening to that disorganized babble? Often not justified.

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Sarnath Kannan

Technical Manager at HCL Tech

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Meeting itself is a distraction from work. waste of time..

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Eugenio Diaz

Career Break

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Interestingly I wrote about this last week:

My personal top 3 distraction factors:

1 – Smartphones / Laptops
2 – Compulsive talkers (Egomaniacs)
3 – Absence of agenda, moderator, facilities.

Trish Johnson

Consultant – Business Services at CorpSecrets

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I have not read every response so far, but it is apparent that cell phones, technology, and catering staff are all bad distractions. From years of experience during my own meeting attendance I would say:

people in close proximity that want to talk about something else entirely, loudly enough it is rude and annoying

cell phones, laptops, should not be in the meeting period

catering should be organized ahead of schedule so no interruptions are neessary

bouncy box – to cint..

Clarification added 19 days ago:

Meeting ‘Agenda’ should be sent out a week prior asking participants if there are any topics they would like to see added. Then again, a day or two before the meeting, re-send the amended agenda. Asking attendees to participate in the Agenda encourages attention when they go to the meeting, thus, discouraging those that are ‘otherwise’ occupied. If it is anticipated that ‘value added’ info will be addressed, people will take the matter much more seriously.

An effective meeting is continually moving, giving each presenter time to get their message across and then quickly on to the next, this alleviates the ‘boredom’ factor. This box is bouncing again so I hope I can answer again to complete my thoughts.

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Fred Brill

Systems Engineering and Architecture

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Perhaps your asking the wrong question. The number of potential distractions are too numerous to list. Instead I suggest you focus on how to hold attention of the attendees – best done by having a specific purpose and my only inviting those who are stakeholders – and understanding your subject matter well enough to act as the conduit to come to succesful consensus to move ahead. Simply conveying information to a group is not effective use of a meeting unless you are a genuinely … entertaining .. personality.

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Shailender Thakur

Professional Staffing Manager – IT & Telecoms

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Shailender Thakur suggests this expert on this topic:

Clair Milligan

Clair is a top training consultant and in order for her to excel at her job she needs to ensure she has 100% attention of her audience.

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RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

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Maheen Mohamed

Business Development Manager at Illusions Online

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Agree with Dave – phones are indeed the most destructive instruments in a meeting so are people walking about/out during a presentation, jargon used, excessive use of technology. Very important is also the audience – are the right people who can contribute to the discussion/subject attending or are people there because they “need” to be there or should be “seen” there!!!!!!!!!

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Hamish Taylor

Strategy Consultant & Coach @ www.shinergise.com “Engaging with Intelligence”

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Jolene

One that I encountered recently is when it becomes obvious to the audience that the presenter’s ego-driven need for attention is clearly more important than the business needs that the presenter is supposedly there to serve!

Admittedly it is something that tends to dawn on the audience with different rates of realisation, however when it starts to happen the distraction sweeps through the room!

Regards

Hamish.

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Harish Sharma

Founder- Globus Micro inc.

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Iphones, Itouch, Blackberry or any phone is a big time distractions in meeting even if they are on silent mode. People tend to keep checking unknowingly can be very annoying.

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Duncan Campbell

CEng MBCS CITP

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feeling hungry, wanting to go to the toilet, feeling tired, noticing someone walking past the room, seeing an interesting pattern in the carpet, remembering something to add to the shopping list, etc.

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Abhinav Pancholi

Software Engineer at Infosys

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People who deviate the discussion just for the sake of speaking.

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Kate Ritter

Owner, PC9LIVES & Willow The Good

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A speaker who isn’t comfortable and keeps looking at their notes and fumbling with paper. They lose their place and the audience waits for them to find whatever. A good speaker is comfortable in their own skin and can talk from dot points and can improvise.

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Jay Sundaram

Senior Consultant at AXA Insurance group

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When the presenter or audience starts exhibiting their knowledge(sometimes out of the topic too) distracts and disturbs the mind preparation of active listeners …

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Siddharth Udani

Managing Consultant

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dragging discussions, blackberry users and (word->paragraph) talkers..

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Tara Sharp

Outreach team at Microsoft

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Hello Jolene,

Having a clear agenda and sharing with colleagues prior to meeting is invaluable. For great templates check out the Microsoft Office Template Gallery: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=meeting&av=TPL000.

Learn more about how Microsoft Office can help you manage your work by joining the MS Office LinkedIn Discussion group: http://bit.ly/Lp5CA. This is an open group and we encourage your participation on leading discussions.

Yours,
Tara Sharp
Microsoft Outreach Team

Tim Stepp

National Account Executive at PC Mall

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We have meetings everyday, they’re clear, precise, and we’re in and out of there and back at our desks, so few distractions there, however at previous jobs I’ve had and even now with the “occasional” vendor that comes in to talk about their products. The biggest “distractions” are long meetings, if cell phones are being used, it’s probably because as others have said here…the meeting is pointless, poorly organized or my biggest beef esp with mfr’s is that they don’t know who they’re selling to.

I actually had a very popular software mfr come in and say “This program is a software program, do you folks know anything about what it does?” as if we were mental midgets, speaking to us as one would a child. Or the wrong market “Our target market is folks with 1-5 employees and consumers ” uhhh you do know OUR target market is B2B over 100 employees”

They spent $$ to come in and they weren’t prepared at ALL, how can you not even take a minute and talk to someone “I’d like to speak but i need to know about your company a little first”. Or the Commando’s, “You sell our product but YOU don’t produce as much as this guy”..countered by “well YOU the vendor did not give US the marketing material to sell YOUR product” not only did that put off the entire audience but no one likes to be put through that nonsense. So yes there are distractions, but if the meeting is engaging and you really get something out of it, then chances are few people will be checking sports scores, gazing out the window, playing BS bingo, or day dreaming about that gal or guy in accounting.

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Eddie Tadlock

Assistant General Manager at DeVos Place

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A horrible speaker sets the tone…just finished a session and the presenter was horrific! I tuned out within 4 minutes and consulted my PDA for entertainment.

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Carlos Frohlich – carlos_frohlich@hotmail.com

Startup Specialist

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Wrong People to the right Subjects__________________
> Meeting should be oriented. If any attendee is not related to the subject, he should not be there. Bundle meetings are not productive. Many non-related subjects or sahrd interests.
> There is people who is not prepared or simple does not care. Avoid those
> Sabotage. RatRace or jealousy
> Mobiles, squeezed agenda, too early meeting to late meetings

Right Subjects terrible presentation__________________
> PowerPoint presentations with 16 bullets and 34 rows.
> Obtuse explanation and even worse diagrams

Meeting Requester__________________
> Lack of knowledge about the main subject or lack of knowledge about what/why this meeting is needed.
> Responsibilities and attributions are not clear enough. What will be the output of this meeting, why do we need to stay there?
> Explaining a point or conducting a meeting is not easy task. Manage expectations, emotions and subjects are not easy and is the difference between Cricket discussion or decision taken/information levelled

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Apurv Bhagat

at Compare Infobase Limited

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Its every possible way you can be distracted in the meeting. Apart from this, one can be distracted by their own thought and mind also. Just think this way also. There can be some situations in the meeting when you think something else and that distracts you.

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Anna Maria Nenna

Executive Advisor at Gartner helping CIOs become even more successful

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I just attended an event and paid attention all the way through. we were asked to write down why we were in the meeting, what we wanted to get out and what we were willing to share to help others. we then had 1 minute of just closing our eyes and breathing and leaving our “problems/issues/emergencies in the office behind”. It felt weird but it worked. I actually left “my baggage” outside the meeting and paid attention and got a lot our of the meeting.
also at another company we werent allowed to sit down for meetings whcih meant that we all had to stand in a group and it stopped time wasters and procrastinators. only worked for small meetings but kept you focused.

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James Pearce

Versatile B2B Professional

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Looks like we have all been at time wasting meetings. am probably reiterating what has been said already.

There are a number of top class distractions which we must fight against to stop wasting valuable time – No agenda; no meeting objectives; no take away actions; wrong people; poor meeting stewardship; rambling discussion; people thinking that a three hour meeting is more productive than a well run 45 minute session, because more has been said; monotony and my personal favourite too many in the room killing all chance of getting decisions made – death by committee.

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Michael Morley

Student at ITT Technical Institute

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Usually its the hot chics!

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Alex Verboon

Technology Consultant – Service Delivery Manager

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my standard response (links below)

Andy Cairns

SAP HCM Managing Consultant

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- People having side conversations
- People using laptops or mobioe devices
- People not sticking to the purpose of the meeting

Actually, looking back at my answers, it’s people, isn’t it? If we could only have meetings without people…

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Shweta Dhillon

Technology Lead at Infosys Technologies Ltd

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In my opinion the major reasons of distractions are -

1. Unprepared Presenter or Poor Presentation (Eg; Presenter drifting from the Agenda, Bad Presentation Material – Small Fonts not readable to the audience, too complex artifacts used when presenter is not able to communicate them effectively, Monotonous One way communication, etc)

2. Mismatch between the meeting’s agenda & the audience’s ability to understand or wrong choice of audiences

3. Meetings with a great mix of attendees, no clear agenda, Meeting Anchor or the Attendees jumping from one point to other and no one is there to moderate the meeting.
Eg; Recently in one of the skip level meetings, Attendees were New Hires/ Long time Employees. New Hires were not able to relate to the Old employees questions & Old employees were not interested in the questions raised by New hires. Meeting being swamped away by questions from both the groups, one of the group was always distracted.

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Moise Haor

Experienced Sr. Business Analyst, SOA/webservices – bridging Business and IT. UML, BPM and process improvement, Lean

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Not having an agenda is the key source of distractions
An initial agenda (even a draft) will provide guidance and focus…..

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Susan Shwartz PhD

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., financial marketing writer.

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Get rid of personal electronics.

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Marc Barfoot

Training Business Manager at Blue Chip Training Solutions

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I have a long list most of which have been very well represented so far. However, the most distracting and distructive thing I have seen recently is a badly prepared rambling meeting chair. A well planned and necessary meeting that is chaired well and provides clear detail on what it is trying to acheive and what the attendees have to do post meeting to push the project on can take place on the hard shoulder of the motorway and still retain everyones concentration.

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Ben Jen

CEO/President at Ben Jen Online, LLC

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People’s cell phones ringing and people figeting

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Tom Field

Editorial Director at Information Security Media Group

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People need to check their email/messaging impulse at the door. Focus on the meeting at hand — not all the other distractions. That would go far.

best,

Tom

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Mike Bixby

IT Exec / Data Integration / Management

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Cell phones, PDAs, notebook computers.

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Suzanne Labatt

District Manager

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Usually the distractions have “names”. So I always pre-plan the seating by having people from differing geographical areas sitting together. Usually the distractions come from people who know eachother and start socializing. And if these people start monopolizing my meeting I stop asking for “group” answers and become more pointed in who I would like to answer.

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Phil Thomas

IBM Certified Specialist, System X Sales V5

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Whenever a resource not already present has to be contacted to answer a question or clarify something… the meeting flow stops.
PowerPoint slides with just words are NyQuil.
Graphics, Diagrams, and Photos only.

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Grant Hogarth

Talented creator of effective communication for business and industry

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Coming late to this topic, I have the luxury of reading other’s responses before providing my own. Thinking about what has been observed/suggested, I see that the items seem to fall into different classes, which then suggests that there are probably different classes of solutions. As a first cut, I see four main classes: External environment factors, Internal environment factors, Personal factors, and Structural factors. Each of these handicaps the successful execution of a meeting in different ways, and I recognize that some items (room temperature, technology) might also appear in more than one category.

Also as Mykel de Willigen points out, different meeting types can have significantly different metrics for success and value. Presentations, demonstrations, weekly reviews, roundtables, classes, postmortems, kickoffs… all of these (and I know this is not an exhaustive list!) have their own rules and codes.

The largest class of proposed items people have submitted, and the one bringing the most immediate responses, is “External Factors”. These are those items that allow the outside environment to interfere with the meeting. In this class we have communications devices, but also human assistants, the view out the window (Thank you, David Foley, for topping any interruptions *I’ve* ever had to deal with! ), and so on.

Internal items compose the next most immediate set of distractions; I see these as including the environment within the room: temperature, lighting, acoustics, fittings (seats/tables), room layout, and of course, presentation technology.

The remaining classes are less mechanical, but are no less capable of derailing a meeting. By “Personal factors”, I mean those that are both psychological and physiological: egos (both audience and presenter), time of day, length of session, skill of presenter, comprehendability (language used, language efficacy (accents, grammar, etc.), and so on.

Structural factors are those probably most under the direct control of the meeting organizer/presenter, and also differ in that they are defined by lacks or failures: lack of focus, lack of preparation, inappropriate scoping of time or topic, and so on.

So… having done research and diagnostics, what can be proposed as the protocol leading to at least a reduction, (although I doubt that there will ever be a cure) of the problem?

Obviously (as pointed out by Suzanne Boswell, Eugenio Diaz, and multiple others), the four-P rule (Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance), is the foundation. Beyond that, reducing the number of variables (as we were all taught in math classes), generally reduces the number (and often scale) of things that do not go as desired. This includes advance planning aimed at reducing distractions (distributing agendas/handouts in advance, properly matching the size/scope of the meeting to the attendees, testing the technology (and planning for error handling), asking folks to be fully present (communication tools OFF), etc.).

I didn’t start this conversation, so I’m going to close out this entry here. Obviously there is a lot more that can be said; I just hope that my analysis provides you with some ways to approach solving the “meeting distraction” issue.

Justin Doria

Vice President – Research IT

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What about starting and ending meetings 5 mins before the hour?

Example: 8:05 am – 8:55am.

Gives people 5 minutes to get ready for thier next meeting.

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Peter Anderson

Business Development Associate – IAM and Security at Rainmaker

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Being late, then causing disruption as you squeeze into your seat after falling over your briefcase!

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Robert Vizcarra

IT Site Support at RL Canning at Honeywell

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Presentations: The wrong type of presentation can be a distraction to the meeting itself. For example, report type presentations that have a great deal of text invite the audience to try to read it, instead of listening to the speaker and engaging in the meeting.
The more effective presentations are ones that simply reinforce key points, thereby allowing the speaker to elaborate on them. This is especially useful in large meetings.
Preparation: many meetings can go south without proper preparation. Have you coordinated with IT and telecom to make sure any technology you need is working properly? Have you arranged to be at the meeting room ahead of time to work out any last time issues? It’s a huge distraction to have to fix problems or work around them during a meeting.
Web Sharing: Schedule your web sharing event to start before the actual meeting time start. Test the selected web sharing software ahead of time with each participating site.

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Christine Hueber

Want more business? My engaging Social Media Relationship Marketing gets results! Christine at ChristineHueber dot com

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My attention follows my engagement.

Best,
Christine Hueber
Engaging Social Media Relationship Marketing with Results!

Stephen Dourson

Professional Engineer

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Beware of construction and maintenance activities.

When planning a meeting at yours, a client’s, or other remote site, ask the person who will reserve the conference room to check with the facilities manager to verify, then confirm to you, that there is no construction or maintenance scheduled in, or anywhere near, the intended conference room. Training a group of senior technical people while someone is hammer-drilling the other side of the wall is a needless challenge.

If you have a meeting checklist which you send to clients, may I suggest adding this item to the checklist.

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Wallace Jackson

Multimedia Producer and i3D Programmer for Acrobat 3D PDF, JavaFX, Mobile & Virtual Worlds

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SmartPhones!

Indira Chaudhry

Banking Professional

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Attire..esp that of women….and their makeup….

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C. Andre Frazier

Customer Service/Quality Assurance Professional

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Lack of agenda….largest distraction. there are so many time you can listen to someone talk about the same thing over and over and over.

Personally, I think meetings should last a max of 30 minutes at the very most, if it can’t be laid out in that time, then there’s more serious issues at hand.

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Joel Swerdlow (Canada)

J. Swerdlow – Multi-Media Consultant

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I noticed that there are over 80 answers to your question. Apologies if I am redundant.

“fashionable” late arrivers…you know who you are…always late for everything…and a bag full of excuses.

these late arrivers are usually the ones that pay the least attention to the meeting at hand. They are constantly typing on the lap tops answering IM’s, emails etc.

Bless the electronic age…it seems that everything needs to be answered right now

Side conversations…again, is it necessary..??… if you need clarification, ask the speaker etc..

I could go on, but I am sure it has been covered in the replies….good luck in changing things..

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Manoj Shirgurkar

Lead-Technology at Synechron

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There can be n number of distractions they can be categorized as infrastructure(improper sitting arrangements, air-conditioning, placement of devices in the meeting room, weak audio etc..) , people( habits of people attending meetings, other distracted members etc.), external( people running around the conf. rooms, noisy instruments, music) , personal ( thoughts about weekend plans, thoughts about promotions/appraisals etc..), technology(software issues, faulty video conf. devices, phone line disturbance etc.) , tools( unclean white board, faulty projects/OHPs etc.)

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Shankar V

Associate Vice President at Zensar Technologies

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1. Cell phones that ring during meetings
2. People who work on their laptops or Blackberries while discussions are on
3. Participants who come completely unprepared but decide they must contribute and ramble away
4. Participants who do not pay attention to what is being discussed but interrupt with completely extraneous arguments

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David Greenberg

Experienced executive-level management, Entrepreneur, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, “The Guy to Go To For Solutions”

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In no particular order:

* Presenters who just can’t get to the point. I don’t want the dog and pony show -just convey the information and move on.

* Late arrivals

* Squeaky chairs/tables

* Cell phones that are on vibrate/stun – just turn the things off

* Chronic texters who can’t leave the phone alone

* Long meetings w/o an agenda (keep it under 30 minutes, follow the agenda – if it’s not on the agenda, deal with it off-line)

* Short meetings w/o an agenda. Have an agenda – get us in and out fast. Meetings are extremely expensive to hold.

* Meetings over 30 minutes. I refuse to attend those. I had a boss who wouldn’t either – he’d get the invite, would walk in and say “I’m sorry, but I have a conflict I have to get to. What do you need from me?” Then he’d answer the question, and leave. Average meeting time 7.5 minutes.

* Sick people – I don’t want to be trapped in a room with someone who’s contagious

* Late starting meetings. Start ON TIME, finish ON TIME.

* Mumblers. Speak up. Enunciate!

* Whistling air vents and banging HVAC equipment

* Admin assistants who can’t wait until after the meeting to ask a question of their boss who’s in the meeting

* Loud messy eaters. I don’t want to hear you crunching, I want to get through the meeting and move on. I don’t want to smell your sandwich either. If you can’t wait until the meeting is over, then EAT BEFORE you come in.

* People who fall asleep…. and snore (or drool).

* People who are unprepared for the meeting. Review the agenda. Have the answers the agenda calls for readily at-hand.

* AV equipment that’s not setup beforehand.

* Handouts that aren’t distributed beforehand. It’s your meeting, get there early, get things set up on your time. Don’t waste mine.

* Rooms which are uncomfortably warm or cold.

* Rooms which are too small for the invited crowd.

* Large rooms with poor PA systems – echoing, too soft, too loud, dead speakers, crackling speakers.

* Persons uncomfortable with public speaking. Go to ToastMasters – learn to deal with it, or have someone who is comfortable with speaking hold the meeting.

* Rooms that were left trashed by the previous group.

* Rooms that smell… bad. Like something died in the ceiling bad.

* Fidgeters – Sit still, pay attention.

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Jonathon Cree

Quality Assurance Specialist at JTI Gallaher

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mobile phones, people with laptops open, squeaking chairs, death by powerpoint.
too many people in the room, coffee/tea making facilities – keep them outside the meeting room.
TONE of voice and BODY LANGUAGE. Presenter has to have a personality – be friendly and engaging – also need a sense of humour.

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Rita Workman

Senior UNIX & SAN Administrator at BrickStreet Insurance

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Cell phones ringing and folks texting throughout the meeting.
The folks talking around you, who apparently never learned how to whisper.
The person who is always nodding off asleep.

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Ajay Jain

Program Manager at Zensar Technologies

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Almost all points covered related to unwanted noise, lack of good presentation, audience engagement etc.
I want to add one more point on when someone is not allowed or interrupted to put his views either by managers or some extra smart people then the person is distracted from the meeting and does not provide his ideas. Some managers think the meeting is for their appeasement place and not for serious discussions/action plans. This many times result in things turn out very badly on the managers itself but those extra smart people still enjoys the power.
Many times context of the meeting is deferred and out of way to make decisions. This result in delay things and could take more time to resolve/plan activities.

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Sarath Revuri, PMP

Project Manager

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1. If the attendees don’t show up on time especially the presenter or organizer
2. Sudden shift in the venue and timings
3. Meeting Room infrastructure is not sufficient for all the attendees
4. Organizer is not prepared and do not have a clear agenda
5. Not involving the right level of stakeholders in the meeting
6. Discussion on the topics that are not in the agenda
7. Devices like Cell Phones/PDA
8. People coming in and going out of the room.
9. Parallel discussions in the meeting room
10. Not having any breaks Long and Lengthy meetings

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Kim Ervin

Outreach Team Member at Microsoft Office

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Hi Jolene,

You might also check out the interesting conversation we had about this topic in the Microsoft Office LinkedIn Group entitled “Effective Meeting Management.” http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=1913738&discussionID=14988868&sik=1269646473654&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.ana_1913738_1269646473654_3_1

You can join the group here: http://bit.ly/Lp5CA.

Cheers,
Kim
Microsoft Office Outreach

Phil Lauro

Information Technology Manager/Consultant

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That good looking woman sitting in the corner with legs going all the way up to her armpits and …

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Shammi Malik

Senior Manager at Indian Oil Corporation Limited

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Apart from what others have already written..a yawn from someone is a great distraction. If the meeting is boring and you are trying your best to concentrate, yawn finishes it all. It is contagious too.

Another distraction is serving tea/coffee in the meeting room.

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Roy Davidson®

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Distractions are exaggerated where the topic is uninteresting and the speaker is not engaging his audience.

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Stephen Day

Information Technology Consultant

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Are you sure the question isn’t backwards?

Meetings are often a distraction from the work people should be doing. People’s minds are not wondering at meetings because they were never mentally in the meeting to begin with, they are only physically there.

If you want people to pay attention and be useful at meetings only invite people who have a real interest in the meeting.

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Dr. Cathy Wendland-Colby

Owner at Colby Family Chiropractic

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In addition to the usual answers – cellphones, boring speakers, miscellaneous chit chat – I would include noises made by shifting one’s chair. This is especially distracting if the meeting allows attendees to stand up and introduce oneself. It is far less distracting to silently slide your chair out in advance, so that when your turn comes, you simply have to stand and speak – no movement of your chair necessary.

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Kartik Shukla

Manager Operations at Viscus Infotech Ltd

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Some distractions are:
1. Moving away from the agenda of a meeting
2. Being late at a meeting and hence restarting a meeting
3. Posing too many questions at the meeting which are just because you should ask. This is incorrect.
4. Eye contacts with one another in a way to make fun of the person taking a meeting
5. Looking wayward into the window, ceiling, fan etc.

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josse carr

Independent Telecommunications Professional

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In a meeting it is of great importance that presenters are lively and comprehensible enough to their listeners. People attending the meeting will be easily distracted to their environment when they are not engaged to the agenda of the presenter.

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Rob Ellis

Vice President at City Wide Maintenance

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Great question and several very good answers already. Rather than restating what dozens of others have said, I would like to ask where can I get help planning and presenting meetings? Are there any consultants or classes my team and I can meet with?
If you can help please give me a call or email.
Rob Ellis
Rellis@gocitywide.com
Vice President
City Wide Maintenance
913 888-5700 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 913 888-5700 end_of_the_skype_highlighting X270

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Vinod Mehra

Sales Consultant and a Trainer / Information Technology

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Hello Jolene

1. Cell phone on vibrate mode.
2. Participants Sending SMS
3. Participants on the computer sending and receiving emails.
4. People coming late.
5. Small & crowded meeting room as a result air-conditioning inadequate.
6. In-sufficient electrical points for the Notebooks and people changing cords.
7. Using meeting rooms as dining room during the break.
8. Lack of sufficient resources – such as white board marker; paper for the flip charts.

Thank you

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Marco Konijnendijk

Looking for a job

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A human being can only concentrate for a limited amount of time. If meetings don’t take this into consideration, there will be a lot of time wasted and a lot of attention lost…

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Rich Freedman

Application Architect at Chariot Solutions

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Meetings _are_ distractions.

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Chris Barton

General/Operational Management Professional

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Most meetings, if we are honest, are unproductive, repetitive and pointless, people tend to prepare for the meeting itself, instead of the actual content or topic.
Meetings are a place where people take minutes and waste hours.

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Ron Graham

Principal at Clarity Strategic

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You’ve already got more than a hundred answers, so this may never be seen. But I actually did a “research study” a few years back on this very question, based on the works of Scott Adams, who may know more about this subject than anyone else on Earth. And also adapted the sermons of Charles Finney to the same subject.

I’d have left you a couple links, but the articles are no longer online, because I’m working through a Web site change – they’ll be up in a couple months. In the meantime, if you drop me a line I’ll send you PDFs.

Dr. Ron Graham
rongraham01@gmail.com
@rongraham1 Twitter
profile.to/rongraham Facebook

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Heidi Titchenal

Editor at Undisclosed

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Some meetings are completely dysfunctional from start to finish – held to feed a manager’s ego or to diseminate half-truths to the staff.

My mind goes everywhere wondering what the truth is when I can’t believe the things the speaker is saying.

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Katja McGorman

Independent Real Estate Professional

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cellphone,chewing gum, clicking ballpens, looking out of the window, canary yellow socs, nice suit but dirty shoes, incompetence, rushing through topics, “smarty pants” and many other habits, I prefer not to mention.

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Add your thoughts here.

Washington Society of Association Executives

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:40:34 +0000

The Meeting Maximizer will be presenting “Eliminate Distractions”. If you are in Washington or Oregon, guests are welcome to attend the conference.

WSAE Annual Convention

June 20-22, 2010 – WSAE Annual Convention at Great Wolf Lodge, Grand Mound, WA

$525 for WSAE non-members

Find the distractions #1: What’s wrong here?

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:54:23 +0000

To create an effective meeting a few things need to change. Can you identify distractions that will cause problems? Comment below.

As I attend many meetings and do meeting audits, I take pictures and video to help meeting planners and managers identify the “Event Eroders” and potential threats to effective meetings. Answers will be posted later.

Rescue – “the video isn’t playing”

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:04:34 +0000

Have you been to a meeting where the video or the link does not work? Of course you have. It happens every third time.

How long does it take the presenter to try and fix it or to move forward? Too long!

As the presenter, ask yourself, how valuable is it to the presentation? If you have a 2 hour program and it takes you 5 minutes to figure out, but it will illustrate your point clearly and much better than you can describe it, then maybe it is worth the time. If you are the presenter you should be prepared to and ready when your video doesn’t play, projector doesn’t work or there is no jack for the sound for your video.

As an audience member, what are you thinking when there is a technical difficulty? Here are a few of the common thoughts. It is going to be negative.

The expert isn’t prepared
He/she isn’t experienced
This is wasting my time
Not again

Is it stressful? You may feel helpless. Or you may be stuck deciding if you should try and help or not.

Prevention

Whether you are the presenter of the meeting planner, identify a techie to contact who can be there in 2 minutes or less, just in case. If you don’t know of anyone, then simply ask. The chances are high that someone will be able to solve a common technical problem.

Today’s scenario

3 hour program
80 people
2 presenters at the same time

Challenge

The video in the PowerPoint isn’t playing.

Before the program, the presenter had a computer problem. He called in someone with a button down shirt and slacks that looked like he could be a computer guy in contrast to the other employees who were in uniforms. I was in the second row out of ten rows. Of course, I was observing to see what the problem was just in case I could help. It appeared they were not solving the problem. The program begins and the presenter after a few minutes into the program apologizes for the videos not playing.

“This room has a magnet vibe that talks to my presentations and pauses the videos. We have tried 3 computers, but the video is not playing in my PowerPoint. Downstairs on my computer it play fine. Sorry about that,” he shares with disappointment. Basically, it was a fun way to state the problem. At this point, some of you may have an idea why the video is not playing. What are the thoughts that go through your head?

I have an idea that we can try, but these are the thoughts that might run through your head:

Should I help?
What if I am wrong?
I don’t want to interrupt his program
I don’t want to seem like I know it all
Who am I to help, I am just an audience member. I have not role and no one knows my name.
I am probably wrong, because it is simple fix. If it was so simple, he or someone else would know how to fix it.
Will I be able to do it with everyone staring at me? That’s a lot of pressure.
I don’t want to be in the spotlight

Most of these thoughts went through my head, but I know this organization’s skill sets are not working with computers.

Should I help? Yes, he didn’t ask for it, but you could tell was important and he really wanted to show us.
What if I am wrong? What’s the worst that could happen? I could not fix it and waste a little time and possibly a little embarrassed. But a victory would outweigh the failure.
I don’t want to interrupt his program. He is hoping for help to get this program going.
I don’t want to seem like I know it all. Why worry about it? Why would someone think that?
Who am I to help, I am just an audience member. I have not role and no one knows my name. Get confidence to help others in need.
I am probably wrong, because it is simple fix. If it was so simple, he or someone else would know how to fix it. Once again, get confidence and help, you will know the answer after you try.
Will I be able to do it with everyone staring at me? That’s a lot of pressure. Deal with it. Cowboy up.
I don’t want to be in the spotlight. Don’t be selfish, help out.

I asked a question and asked if he wanted to help. “YES, PLEASE!” I asked him a couple of questions and showed me the PowerPoint. This was about 30 seconds. Then he asked to co-presenter to field questions.

Scene Update

The secondary presenter is standing in back of us five feet, behind a table and in the corner while the presenter and myself or talking quietly looking at files. Basically, he needed to relink his videos. His video files were not on his computer, so his files weren’t there, they were just the picture representation. We needed to find the files on the network and download them to the local computer and re-insert them.

I immediately put a clipboard over the projector screen, so people wouldn’ t be visually distracted by activity on the screen. However, certainly, we were in the spotlight front of the person speaking.

As an audience member, who am I to tell the expert what to do, particularly a police sergeant. Well, I do have respect for authority, but I am the expert in this situation. I waited for the audience member to end their question, meanwhile multi-tasking with the computer, then stepped towards the second presenter.

I put my back towards the audience and quietly asked him to move his position and to stand in front of us. Certainly, I didn’t want the audience see me tell him what to do. In my head, I had the worries, thinking of people and the chair believing I am trying to take over.

I let my confidence win-over and trusted he would roll with it and he did.

You know how distracting it is to here two people talk about the situation and to troubleshoot. With the secondary speaker in front of us reduces the visual and audio distraction of us.

Victory, I was able to download the files and reinsert them into the PowerPoint. Seeing these traffic accidente videos were valuable and illustrated points much better than a verbal description.

Solution

If you are the presenter and you need help, always ask your audience for help. On numerous occassions, I have been an audience when a tech problem happened, that I might have been able to help, but the crowd was 200+ and the presenter didn’t ask for help.
If someone volunteers to help, before the are at the stage give you audience something to do. Have them take a 5 minute break, discuss a related topic with their neighbor, write down a pressing question. Help focus there attention on something other than you troubleshooting on the stage.
Block the projector from projecting your troubleshooting. If you are in PowerPoint, then hit the “B” while in the slideshow mode. Or simply put a piece of paper, book or anything to cover up the projection manually.
After the audience member helps, whether they are successful or not, make sure to recognize them and give them applause. You want to show appreciation for people stepping up, so next time, people will know that it is appreciate to volunteer.
Audience members. The presenters don’t know to ask for help. Stress will overcome them and they will be delighted if someone would join their team and help out. Even if you don’t find a solution, the presenters will feel less stress because he/she now has a partner. Please assume they want help and then ask them to confirm.
After the problem is fixed, tell them “I am here if you need me”. They may or may not need you, but they can feel more confidence with their presentation knowing they have support.

Just remember, of course the presenter wants help. Then confirm. You can save the meeting, constantly. Now, I will always help without hesitation. Get over what other people may think, who cares? Help out the speaker who will help the audience. Do a good deed.

Why should I use pre-registration for my event?

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:12:58 +0000

This question was asked on LinkedIn by a small business owner.

Use pre-registration to do the following:

Filter out non-prospects
Build credibility
Prepare your audience
Tailor to you audience
Set expectations
Set up the room appropriately
Eliminate expenses and waste
Connect with your audience

Filter out non-prospects & build credibility

If registration is a deterrent, do you really think those folks would be valid prospects? Unfortunately, they don’t have enough trust for you or your company to give you any contact information. If you want to attract quantity with no assurance of quality then continue with no registration and you will be sure to get freeloaders.

For potential clients, request registration asking for a commitment. Dollars are a great symbol of commitment. How do we treat free events compared to paid admission events.

Free Events

Free events, are not valued. After all, there is no investment. Think of the events you attend. Let’s say time is not an issue; you have lots of it – what a dream! If you get an invitation to a free event, how much background checking do you do before you commit? You read the description on the invitation, go to the website and you show up. You might take 2 minutes to do this. When you decide to watch the “American Idol” instead of the event, there is no consequence to you.

Paid Admission Events

Another invitation rolls in with an interesting topic. The cost is $1000 for a half day program. What kind of background check will you do to evaluate your investment of time and money? …Much more than before. You are not only reading the description and linked website, but you are googling and binging the heck out of the presenter, company and topic. Is this person a guru of this topic? You scan through articles, white papers, Facebook fanpages, YouTube, and LinkedIn profiles. You google his/her name and with “scam” and “fraud,” just in case. As you are researching for 30 minutes compared to 2 minutes, you know much more about the presenter and the company. If you decide to attend, you now have sufficient background and will be mentally prepared to get more value from the seminar. When you pay $1000 you are not going to miss it, but also at this point, if it were complimentary, you would be more committed because of your thorough research.

As a presenter, would you like to have an audience who has done their homework so you can go straight to the gold instead of answering routine questions that are already available online? Now you can show why you are the guru if your audience is already engaged knows your experience. The audience is warm. You will walk into the presentation with credibility, instead of having to build it from scratch.

Specific Scenario

This profile is short and doesn't convey much information.

The small business owner who asked “Why should I use pre-registration for my event? “ may not have established credibility to attract his desired clientele. His online presence is lacking, for example his LinkedIn account is sparse, his blog isn’t really running (starter page) and his website is “old school”, plus his posted picture doesn’t contribute to his credibility. He could be brilliant in his field, but the information available online s does not reflect that image, but he can update his image. ReturnOnImage

Let’s say the $1000 limits the audience to a tiny audience of none. Here are a few alternatives to avoid the lack of commitment, lack of research, lack of seriousness of non-prospects feeding on freebies.

If you want to put on a free seminar, then try these ideas:

Charge a $5 deposit, upon arrival to the event the deposit will be returned.
Offer a drawing for the first 25 people who register.
Give this offer “With registration you will receive online notes to your inbox”.
Provide an opportunity for your registrants to email questions to be addressed at the seminar.

Prepare your audience

Because you now have an email list, you can contact your audience. This will save you from catastrophes that would damage your reputation. Mother Nature, construction, politics and can throw off your event and you must be able to contact your potential clients.

Here are examples of items you can share with your audience:

Venue change, room change, – If you are hoping for 120 people, but only 10 people register, you might need to change rooms.
Directions, parking
Items to bring i.e. 100 business cards, examples of their work
Invite them to read an article to prepare them for the topics
Dress code
Format of the meeting –i.e., It will be a casual discussion format or bring your computers, we will be working “hands – on” or the panel of 5 will answer your questions at the end.

Tailor to you audience

Without pre-registration, how will you be able to relate, accommodate and understand the audience’s needs? An audience of veterinarians, tattoo artists, chemical engineers, jugglers, car mechanics and actuaries is an audience you want to be prepared for. If you knew the broad variety of careers and industries represented, then you can take time to use examples to speak their language. The values, nomenclature, preferences of this crowd will be 360 degrees. I don’t know about you, but I would not to have a surprise audience like this. The chances of relating to the audience and making the information relevant in terms they are comfortable with are slim. However, if you knew this weeks ahead of time, you can plan for it.

Set expectations

When you set expectations from the very start, you boost your chances for success. In an email or other communication, you can share the following:

“This seminar is for CEOs of Fortune 100 companies and the topics will not deviate from this market. If you are not a CEO from one of these companies, you are allowed to attend, but you will not be involved in asking questions.”

“We have had an overwhelming response to this seminar and we want to let you know the room will be set with 100 chairs, even though we expect many more people. If you want a chair, then arrive early.”

“After the program, we will send out a survey and would appreciate your feedback. You will receive a copy ofThe best 7 ideas to build your business – fast as a reward for your time.”

Set the room appropriately

For breakout sessions, commonly, you will have no forecast on the head count. This makes it challenging to set up the room effectively. Your venue will want the headcount and room set up nailed down 3-5 days before the event. At this point you are gambling.

Setting up an effective seating plan when the range of the audience is between 10-150 is difficult. Your event may look wimpy, or like a failure if you are set for 400 and only 16 people show up. The event can look successful if you have standing room only with 80 people in a room meant for 40. However, the audience will not be comfortable or accommodated with such a drastic disparity in expected attendance .

The room environment is extremely important to the comfort of your participants and the success of your event. To set the room properly, you must reduce the unknowns by using pre-registration and offering perks for following directions. There are many ways to avoid this problem. TheMeetingMaximizer I post articles bi-weekly.

Eliminate expenses and waste

Think about the breakout sessions. How many handouts have been wasted by printing too many or the angered participants who didn’t get a handout? Were there extra give aways and swag bags that were unnecessary? Extra food, extra coffee, extra cups, plates, etc. The venue arranged for 4 wait staff instead of 2 that you needed. Each staff person, each fork, cup and cloth napkin has a price. Of course, it depends on your venue, but you could be saving loads of money by planning and using your smarts. Think of all the money you could save. With planning, you will make you look like an expert.

Connect with your audience

Using the pre-registration to contact your attendees, you can show your style, personality, knowledge, approachability, and expertise. Relationships is what it is all about. By using the ideas mentioned, you can have a following before the seminar and people will be excited to shake your hand and take a picture with you .

Using pre-registration allows you to get a pulse on your audience and accommodate their needs before, during and after the program.

Bling, Bling, Blind! Avoid blinding your audience

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:25:45 +0000

Wearing my standard silver, big belt buckle, spelling out “FUN” and my thin choker, hematite necklace was not a winning combination. What happened?

In Oak Brook just outside of Chicago, at the Oak Brook Marriott, I was presenting a session called Maximizing R etu rn On Image to the a select, top tier of the balloon entertainer group. By the way, this is an incredibly talented group. In my class, I spoke about increasing their professional image by creating a brand that speaks and connects to your target audience. We covered many aspects from the names, taglines, marketing collateral, to their online and physical presence.

I do try and practice what I preach. So I flew out my videographer and brought big lights to do it right. I flew in the night before to prepare the room appropriately to maximize the impact of my class.

The class went well, but was challenging for a front row participant, who flew all the way from the Japan. After the class, she told me my bling was blinding her, but she didn’t want to disrupt the class. Upon hearing this I asked the others to see if it had affected them. Apparently, the reflection from my fun belt and necklace reflected only to her.

Culture

Now, if this individual were American, I hope I would have built enough rapport for her to say something to me. From the nature of what I was talking about, if she was American and didn’t feel comfortable to tell me, then I need to do a better job making the audience feel comfortable. Because she is from Japan, I wouldn’t expect her to speak up. It isn’t their culture to interrupt.

1) The necklace reflects the light. And the pendant part of the necklaces moves around. If you look closely, the clasp is in the front. This will distract your audience too. I could have taped the clasp to itself in the back or worn a different necklace.
2) The southern bling belt bought in Atlanta was too much bling. I was on a 2 foot stage, about seven feet away from the one participant. My belt was at her eye level.

This is something that has never occurred before. Most of the time, speakers don’t get to have spot lights, so it isn’t a problem. The bling, bling is now going to go on my Eliminate Distractions Checklist. Speakers need to be warned about this problem.

By the way, the Marriott Oak Brook gave me great service. At 11pm when I arrived the manager took my requests and assured me they would be taken care of at 6am in the morning. They cared and they performed. I was pleased with their service.

Aren’t they ripping off your tagline?

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:38:05 +0000

Will this vendor who is using my tagline in my community, use this opportunity to show their customer service or run over the small entrepreneur who is their target market?

My colleague, who is the president of another Washington State Organization, emailed me this online invitation below. They are using my tagline for their brand new seminar. My company is the Meeting Maximizer, Maximize Return On Event and in my descriptions I also use Maximizing Return On Event. This does concern me, since we have the same audience.

It indeed appears this way, however, let’s give them a chance to excuse themselves before I jump to any conclusions. This concerns me, since this is my tagline, not just a name of webinar, and it sounds like they are selling the same service as me and they are marketing in my neighborhood.

As the president of the National Speakers Association of the Northwest in Washington, I have received emails from Cvent too, but not this one. The other webinar email I received, I did reply with my email signature and which has the Maximize Return On Event Phrase, which now happens to be their new campaign.

Cvent

Cvent which is a souped up, professional “evite” used to register people for events. They probably have added more bells and whistles to augment their registration service. However, they are marketing their service like a full service event planning/consultant service.

Being heavily involved with associations, I am familiar with them and they seem like a good company. When I was the program chair of International Special Event Society – ISES Seattle – we got to the know Cvent.

Role as the Meeting Maximizer

It is my role to scout out great resources for producing meetings and to know about the under par resources too. When this situation came up, even though I was not pleased about it, it is a great opportunity to see how Cvent resolves this problem.

Here is a timeline:

February 23, 2010 I received an email campaign targeting association presidents. They are marketing “Increasing Meeting Effectiveness,” which is exactly what I do. Because I know them as primarily a registration outfit, I inquired.
March 8, 2010 Six days after my inquiry, they replied regarding the webinar regarding meeting effectiveness. They have an aggressive email campaign promoting meeting effectiveness.
March 23, 2010 My colleague, president of another organization emailed me the email flyer with my he received from Cvent with my tagline as the name of their webinar.
March 23, 2010 Ten minutes later, I called Cvent to ask about their campaign and learn more about their business. From their marketing efforts, they seem to be selling meeting effectiveness in general, not just the registration piece. When I asked about their seminar: MAXIMIZING RETURN ON EVENT she confirmed this is new webinar. I explained my concern with them using my tagline in my town and kindly asked if the would reconsider modifying the name, since they are doing multiple webinars anyway.The conversation changed and suddenly. She was part of the team, but now it would be challenging to get to the right person to talk to. But it was a friendly conversation and she was a great listener and said she would attempt to pass on the message to the right people.

What road will they choose? The high or low road?

I don’t know if they will contact me. Since I am highly connected to and speak to many organizations and associations audience, I am hope they will contact me. I will be presenting to the WSAE – Washington Society of Association Executives and the Society of Government Meeting Professionals soon. Many of us organizations collaborate with each other and have most of these associations have national headquarters and chapters around the states.

Personally, I like to set up online social networks to help people share ideas. For the National Speakers Association Presidents, we share tools, ideas and vendors that will make our lives easier.

Since I am a representative of their target market, I would be pleased if they would discontinue the name after their go ahead with the seminar on April 1^st. This would speak loudly of listening to their market and their customers.

I will add what happens next, as it happens. Maybe Cvent will comment here too and show us how client-centered they are.

Fingers crossed.

After I posted this blog what happened next?

March 24, 2010 – Morning- The business development manager called me and left me a message in the morning. With my busy day I didn’t check my message until after I posted the blog. He had left a message stating, thanks for the call, but he felt our businesses were very different and there shouldn’t be any confusion between our two companies. I was impressed to get a call back so quickly, especially from a company that is over 500 people.
March 24, 2010 – Evening- He emailed me to followup and asked to have a conversation. He saw that I had blogged about my the situation. As an entrepreneur, I work around the clock 10-16 hours a day, but I don’t expect employees at big companies to work later hours. His email was written around 11pm. This says, either, I am threat, or they care about my concerns. Either way, I was flattered.
March 25, 2010 – We had an exploratory conversation addressing both of our concerns. Neither one of us has the trademark (they used to) and we both want to continue using it. I was pleased to know they have been using “Return On Event” since 2002, because I was concerned they may have borrowed it from me. As a person who “Speaks Up For Justice” I didn’t want to sit quietly as a victim as a large company rolls over small peanuts. If they lifted my tagline, who else’s are they taking? Soooo, it was comforting to you they have a history with that portion of the tagline and did not steal it.

As I write this, I think of the law I fought for in 2003 Voyeurism Law in Washington State. “Why”you ask? Because the underdog, small entrepreneur, approaches the big companies who have lawyers and money and asks to be heard. Regarding lobbying for the voyeurism law, I didn’t know the system, but just needed to do what was right and to stand up. After many interviews, television shows, articles and communications, I was heard loud and clear across the world, spurring legislation protecting women and children. For those of you who don’t know the ”upskirt situation” or who aren’t entrepreneurs, this may seem like a strange parallel, but seeing my tagline associated with another company took me back to fighting for this law.

With this tagline situation, Cvent was accessible and listened. He didn’t intimidate me to attempt to make me feel powerless. Actually, he was trying to empower me. This was unexpected. We will both continue to use the tagline, but because he took the time to hear and address me, I “feel better.” Who knew there are companies over 500 people who listen to their customers? All of us entrepreneurs should be slightly inspired by this story. Score one for big business (however I know 500 is small). I believe he made a wise move, since I have a loud voice proportionaly to my 100 lbs.

The conclusion:

Cvent took the high road. From this situation, I will guess that Cvent must have good customer service.

In the future, I will be evaluating meeting spaces as well as their customer service.

The Meeting Maximizer

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Energetic Parties

Virgin Airlines – Engaging all the senses

Speakers Corner at the National Speakers Association Convention

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Can you name distractions at meetings?

I posted this question on linkedin and received valuable feedback.

Clarification added 27 days ago:

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Clarification added 19 days ago:

Shailender Thakur suggests this expert on this topic:

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· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

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· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?

· RE: Can you name distractions at meetings?