Most meetings are dreadfully dull. So much so, that employees would rather zone out on the conference room table than actually pay attention to the speaker.
There might be an agenda typed out on a white piece of printer paper, or there might be nothing at all but the droning voice of the person speaking. Everyone will avoid eye contact, do their best not to engage in the conversation, and focus all their energy towards counting down the seconds until the meeting is over. Obviously, this defeats the entire purpose of a meeting.
Meetings are meant to excite staff members, boost productivity, and help steer daily operations and weekly projects in the right direction. But if they’re boring and filled with the same type of content each time, no one will ever look forward to a meeting nor will they consider them vital or even necessary to their job or your business.
This means, you need to find a way to bring new life to the traditional meeting. And what better way to do that than with technology? Here are a few quick tips to keep your meeting exciting and productive but with a modern twist.
Digital Agendas
Allow employees to bring their connected devices to meetings, like a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Create a digital copy of an agenda and distribute it to your staff through email or a file-sharing application like Dropbox. They can then access and download this document during the meeting so they can add notes and pertinent information to their copy. Each staff member will feel more involved, and they’ll be more likely to pay attention, follow along, and engage in the conversation.
Big Touchscreens
Install something like a Mondopad or large TV in your typical meeting area. A Mondopad is a large touchscreen that comes equipped with a variety of conference applications and tools. You can use this to display your database, an agenda, or an active project. Or, you can opt for a regular TV and use a gadget like Touchjet to transform the TV into a large touchscreen monitor. From here, you can control what is displayed on your TV through your smartphone. Pull up videos, pictures, documents, or applications and use the TV as you would any other touchscreen. This is well worth the investment because it’s a great way to capture and maintain attention. Anyone in the meeting can get up and actively participate in the proceedings, and not only is this useful for employees but for presenting to vendors, partners, and clients, as well.
Time Saving Applications
There are a handful of applications that can track time in unique ways and can be extremely useful in a meeting. These applications track more than just time, though; they track productivity, focus, and goals. An app like Agenda Maker not only gives you the option to create and share agendas but to allocate time to each topic. Meeting Pad, on the other hand, records, tracks, and times everything about your meeting—from what is said to who is there. Applications are a very simple way to enhance any meeting and are accessible and ready-to-go within minutes.