How a proper meeting invitation sets the stage for a successful meeting

Whether you have done your prep-work or not for an upcoming meeting, you as the organizer will always have to send that invitation. Keep reading to see how to setup a proper title and description on the invitation as well as some more tips.

In the description you should try to provide a clear agenda with specific outcomes or next actions so that all meeting participants build a correct anchor to drive the discussion.

The meeting invitation acts as a common reference point both for the organizer and participants. If someone is lost in the beginning or during the meeting they can reference the description to see that they are on track or clear out their thoughts.

Tips:

• Keep the title short and to the point

• Write description in bullet points as they are easier to read

• Don’t try to be super analytical! If more details are required, you’d better add them as external docs or links.

• Anything longer than a paragraph is a potential “TL;DR”, a.k.a. you’re losing instead of winning.

• A meeting invitation with no description is a potential time-waster!

One more thing to consider is participants. Keep in mind how each individual can contribute to the discussion and help in moving things forward. If you have doubts whether to invite or not a person, we suggest you pass.

A rule of thumbs when selecting participants is to have at least a representative from each field. For example, if the discussion is affecting your Sales and Engineering teams you should at least invite one person from each team. Inviting everyone from both teams is going to be bad time allocation, so you need to find the right balance!

An extra tip before closing, personally contacting the possible participants before sending the invitation and checking for availability and interest in meeting topics will help them align with topics and start preparing. Additionally, this personal communication acts like a mutual pledge on having a successful and productive meeting

Happy meetings everyone!

Don’t forget to check the first part on preparing the meeting topics.