Business Meeting Tips
Business Meetings Malta have asked their trusted conference clients for their favourite tips to help you to get more from the time you have.
- You can't save time. Time isn't like money; you can't save it up for a rainy day. What you can do is use it well. Decide what are the three most important things to get done today and make time to tackle them.
- Unpleasant tasks can spoil your whole day, as you anticipate your discomfort. Get them out of the way early and promise yourself a reward when they are done.
- Make a big, uncomfortable task easier by just setting out to do the first part. When you've done it, your momentum will lead you to the next steps.
- If you have a big stack of papers you haven't dealt with for weeks, put it all in a folder and move the folder to a drawer. If they've waited for weeks, they probably aren't important, so stop wasting energy worrying about them. (Unless, of course, they are from the Revenue and Customs!)
- Use the start of your day. Once a week, start work half an hour earlier. Get a good coffee and a nice snack as a reward, and use the time to catch up and get ahead.
Planning a social event or a product launch?
This old project management saying is equally applicable when planning a social event, a product launch, or the next year of trading. In uncertain times, however, we often hear people on our courses say: "Why bother? Our plans can't possibly predict such an uncertain future."
But that is not the point of a plan. As General Eisenhower once said: "I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." (A favourite saying of one of our Event planners!). The purpose of planning is to think through scenarios and balance optimisation against agility in the face of changing events.
Without a Business plan or events planning checklist you cannot pursue the ultimate business success formula:
● Survey your situation - understand events and the pressures you're under
● Figure out how this compares with your business plan
● Make a decision about what's next
● Act on your decision with total commitment
● Now return to the first step and report
Without a business plan, your business success will be down to good luck. And that doesn't sound like business meeting at all; that's more like gambling!
Make Time to Manage
Management and leadership are all about people. One of the best pieces of advice Business Meetings Malta ever got from a conference and event planner was this:
"As a conference and event planner, getting your own work done is important, but not as important as for your staff to get their work done. This is your real job: to help your staff succeed at theirs."
So don't consider your staff's requests for advice, guidance, and support as interruptions to your work; consider your work as something to get done in the times between managing your event team.
By seeing both sides of your responsibility as important and scheduling your time accordingly, you can really make time to manage your conference or business meeting better .
Make Time to Market
In tough times, business decisions take longer. When people do decide to buy, here are four things that will help them to buy from you.
1. More information is better. When money is scarce, we want to be doubly sure we're spending it well.
2. Your best customers are your best customers for a reason - your business services fit their needs. So focus on what you can do for them.
3. People may say they want "cheap", but in fact, the want value. Emphasise it.
4. In tough times, we want comfort, so be sure to highlight familiarity, and security
Make Time to Lead
Leadership is a strategic business role, yet how many business leaders make time in their week (let alone in their day) to really think. Once a week, take an hour from your diary for a good quality review and for forward thinking. Leave your phone behind - just take a notebook and pen to a quiet place where you won't be disturbed: a local coffee shop, a park or an empty meeting room.
Use the time to think about what is around thee next bend, what are you missing, what's really going on, what are we missing, what are the real business issues and how can I deal with them effectively? If you aren't thinking these thoughts, then who is?
We hope that these business meeting tips are of use to you and will be used at your next conference, meeting or event.
In the meantime, for further information please contact Business Meetings Malta, the free conference venue finding company.The DMC -Destination Management Company in MaltaEmail: theresa@businessmeetingsmalta.com