Meeting

Meetings are sometimes held around conference tables.

A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Many various types of meetings exist.

Overview

A modern videoconferencing system

A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or reaching agreement.[1] Meetings may occur face-to-face or virtually, as mediated by communications technology, such as a telephone conference call, a skyped conference call or a videoconference. One Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a meeting as "an act or process of coming together" - for example "as [...] an assembly for a common purpose [...]".[2]

Meeting planners and other meeting professionals may use the term "meeting" to denote an event booked at a hotel, convention center or any other venue dedicated to such gatherings.[1][3] In this sense, the term "meeting" covers a lecture (one presentation), seminar (typically several presentations, small audience, one day), conference (mid-size, one or more days), congress (large, several days), exhibition or trade show (with manned stands being visited by passers-by), workshop (smaller, with active participants), training course, team-building session and kick-off event.

One can distinguish a meeting from other gatherings, such as a chance, unplanned encounter, a sports game or a concert (verbal interaction is incidental), a party or the company of friends (no common goal is to be achieved) and a demonstration (whose common goal is achieved mainly through the number of demonstrators present, not through verbal interaction).

Types of meetings

Meetings sometimes take place in conference rooms
First staff meeting of a new executive
Training meeting about sustainable design. The photo shows a training meeting with factory workers in a stainless-steel ecodesign company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Common types of meeting include:

  • Ad-hoc meeting, a meeting called for a special purpose
  • Board meeting, a meeting of the board of directors of an organization
  • Breakfast meeting [4]
  • Committee meeting, a coming-together of a defined subset of an organization
  • Flying meeting (Russian: летучий митинг, translit. letuchij miting), a hastily-called brief meeting[5]
  • Investigative meeting, generally when conducting a pre-interview, exit interview or a meeting among the investigator and representative
  • Kickoff meeting, the first meeting with a project team and the client of the project to discuss the role of each team-member[6]
  • Management meeting, a meeting among managers
  • Off-site meeting, also called "offsite retreat" and known as an Awayday meeting in the UK, which takes place off-site and away from the participants' regular office or other surroundings
  • One-on-one meeting, between two individuals, such as a manager and an employee[7]
  • Pre-Bid Meeting, a meeting of various competitors and or contractors to visually inspect a jobsite for a future project. The meeting is normally hosted by the future customer or engineer who wrote the project specification to ensure all bidders are aware of the details and services expected of them. Attendance at a Pre-Bid Meeting may be mandatory. Failure to attend usually results in a rejected bid.
  • Protest meeting, a gathering dedicated to opposing or abolishing something[8]
  • Staff meeting, typically a meeting between a manager and those that report to that manager
  • Stand-up meeting, a meeting with attendees typically standing. The discomfort of standing for long periods helps to keep the meetings short.
  • Team meeting, in project contexts - a meeting among colleagues working on various aspects of a team project
  • Town hall meeting, an informal public gathering
  • Work meeting, which produces a product or intangible result such as a decision; compare working group

Frequency

Since a meeting can be held once or often, the meeting organizer has to determine the repetition and frequency of occurrence of the meeting. Options generally include the following:

  • A one-time meeting is the most common meeting type and covers events that are self-contained. While they may repeat often, the individual meeting is the entirety of the event. This can include a 2006 conference. The 2007 version of the conference is a stand-alone meeting event.
  • A recurring meeting is a meeting that recurs periodically, such as an every Monday staff meeting from 9:00AM to 9:30 AM. The meeting organizer wants the participants to be at the meeting on a constant and repetitive basis. A recurring meeting can be ongoing, such as a weekly team meeting, or have an end date, such as a 5-week training meeting, held every Friday afternoon.
  • A series meeting is like a recurring meeting, but the details differ from meeting to meeting. One example of a series meeting is a monthly "lunch and learn" event at a company, church, club or organization. The placeholder is the same, but the agenda and topics to be covered vary. This is more of a recurring meeting with the details to be determined.

Effective use

Meetings come in many forms. It is not a case of one-size-fits-all. Size, organization, partcipants, use of terrain, agenda and preparation all interplay. Even the shape of the table can hinder or help. Meetings can be an effective method to building teamwork.[9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Meeting and Convention Planners. (2009, December 17). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved April 21, 2010.
  2. Meeting – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). Dictionary and Thesaurus – Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  3. Montgomery, Rhonda J.; Strick, Sandra K. (1994). Meetings, Conventions, and Expositions: An Introduction to the Industry. New York: Wiley. ISBN 9780471284390. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  4. Chaney, L.H.; Martin, J.S. (2007). The Essential Guide to Business Etiquette. Praeger. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-275-99714-4. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  5. Mokiyenko, Valeri; Nikitina, Tatjana (1998). "митинг". Толковый словарь языка Совдепии [Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Sovdepia] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Фолио-Пресс. ISBN 5-7627-0103-4. Retrieved 2018-09-21. Летучий митинг[:] Экстренно собранный непродолжительный митинг.
  6. Sullivant, J. (2007). Strategies for Protecting National Critical Infrastructure Assets: A Focus on Problem-Solving. Wiley. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-470-22836-4. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  7. Huston, Cate; Huston, Cate (September 1, 2018). "How to run an effective meeting: avoid process performances". Quartz. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  8. Note examples of usage of the phrase "protest meeting" at The Free Dictionary: link
  9. Widdicombe, Catherine (March 28, 2013). Meetings that Work: A Practical Guide to Teamwork in Different Groups (2nd, Kindle ed.). Cambridge: Lutterworth Press. ASIN B00QFPXY02. ISBN 978-0718830014. ISBN 0718830016.

Further reading

  • Olson, Gary M.; Olson, Judith S.; Carter, Mark R. "Small group design meetings: an analysis of collaboration". Human-Computer Interaction. 7 (4): 347–374. doi:10.1207/s15327051hci0704_1. ISSN 0737-0024. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  • Johansen, Robert; Vallee, Jacques; Spangler, Kathleen. "Electronic Meetings: Technical Alternatives". ACM Digital Library. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  • Effective Meetings at Work. Taylor & Francis. 2007. ISBN 978-1-136-40844-1. Retrieved October 1, 2018. 112 pages.
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