Facilitating Meetings

Let’s start with the basics:

Greeting:

The goal of the greeting is to say hello, welcome everyone and possibly make sure that everyone has joined.

Example (everyone is ready):

Good morning everyone. I see that everyone has connected. Thank you for attending our meeting today. It’s a pleasure to be here today!

Example (waiting for some attendees):

Good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting. I see that we are still waiting for a few people. We will wait unit 9:05 and if they are not here we will get started.

The next step would be to explain what the purpose of the meeting is. In most cases it will be a summary of the agenda items. You can include time for each section, breaks or other information that you think people need before starting, for example, confirming that everyone has a certain document or other material.

Example:

Let me tell you why we are here today. There are four items on the agenda. We will discuss sales, and marketing. Then we will take a 10 minute break. After that, we will talk about the new hires and training. Does everyone have the sales report that I sent out on Monday?

You can also share what you expect the outcome to be for each section.

Let me tell you why we are here today. There are four items on the agenda. We will discuss sales, and marketing. At the end of this, I want everyone to understand our current sales so we can focus on improving sales. We would also like to work on a new marketing campaign. Then we will take a 10 minute break. After that, we will talk about the new hires and training. Does everyone have the sales report that I sent out on Monday?

Special Greeting:

We can add some more detail between the greeting and agenda to share some feelings about the meeting, the project, or other things that you would like to say.

International Greeting:

Good morning to the people in Japan and Good afternoon to the attendees in the US. I am excited. I am really looking forward to this meeting.

Adding your message:

It has been almost a decade since we have worked together. I am excited about our (partnership / cooperation / project) and I look forward to …