Why is it important to understand the different meeting types? Because each one has its own goal or goals. And while at your company they may differ, typically the meeting types I just described will aim for the following:
|
Meeting type |
Typical participants |
Goal |
|---|---|---|
|
Staff meeting |
All marketing team |
Get the team in sync about the status of various marketing activities, discuss priorities, and plan for the week ahead. |
|
Status report meeting |
Marketing manager or director and direct reports |
Report on the status of a specific project, campaign, or task. Discuss roadblocks and provide updates on pending issues. |
|
Planning meeting |
Marketing leadership and marketing managers |
Create marketing action plan for upcoming month/quarter/year. |
|
Decision-making meeting |
Marketing leader, marketing manager or campaign owner, and specific team members |
Decide on a course of action. Could be related to a project, campaign, vendor, and so on. |
|
Work meeting |
Marketing team members |
Collaborative work on a specific marketing project. |
|
Evaluation and review |
Marketing team or specific campaign members |
Assess results of specific campaign or project, extract lessons learned, make necessary course corrections to the marketing plan. |
|
Report meeting |
Marketing leaders |
Provide management, or other departments with the state of marketing, typically showing plan versus actual. |
|
Sales meeting |
Marketing leaders and specific team members when needed |
Gain feedback from the sales team, announce campaigns, give relevant updates, and strengthen relationship with sales. |
|
Offsite meeting |
Marketing leadership or whole marketing team |
Collaborate, brainstorm, or get meaningful work done outside the office. |
|
Contractor meeting |
Team member and specific contractor |
Introduce, update, or otherwise continue relationship with contractor or vendor. |
|
Agile meeting |
Marketing team |
Daily standup to provide report on what was done yesterday, what will be done today, and what obstacles stand in the way. |
Understanding what you will want to get out of the meeting is the first step to being able to properly plan, execute, and follow-up on a meeting. If you are only a participant and not the organizer or leader of the meeting, then knowing what is expected of the meeting (why are we having this meeting?) will help you get prepared. Not all meeting organizers (as you probably have already experienced) are good meeting organizers. If you can become a better participant, then you can help the meeting be more effective, and then everyone wins.