The Art and Science of Meetings Management

Managing meetings can be one of the most challenging parts of an event, especially at organizations that use multiple tools. When each department or team relies on a different toolset for meetings, data becomes siloed. As a result, scheduling conflicts can emerge and consistent evaluation is nearly impossible. 

As the demand for engagement with customers and prospects increases, event teams are adapting their strategies to include automated meetings management solutions. Consolidating your event tech stack with a meetings management solution increases efficiency and makes managing meetings easier. 

In this post, we’ll guide you through the structure and critical analysis for creating a meetings management program that aligns with your business goals and your attendees’ needs. 

Defining Your Meeting Structure

Depending on the organization’s goals and success metrics, a meetings program may include many different common meeting types, such as executive meetings, “meet the expert” discussions, and 1:1 meetings. For all types of meetings, leaders must configure the meetings program to align with the organization’s goals for success before, during, and after each event. These decisions will help you drive engagement and increase revenue generation at your events.

Strategizing Configuration

In general, meeting requests are separated into two types: inbound and outbound. Both are important and serve different purposes, depending on each event’s desired outcomes. 

Inbound Meetings
Inbound meetings are requests from attendees to connect with experts, peers, speakers, partners, or exhibitors. They drive pre-event engagement as attendees build out their schedules. Properly managing and tracking inbound meeting requests is crucial for increasing engagement. Inbound meeting opportunities can be communicated and promoted through ads, emails, social media, mobile notifications, or even customizable attendee invitations.

Outbound Meetings
Outbound meeting requests are initiated by members of your organization, such as your executives, sales, and marketing teams. These meetings are ideal for increasing pipeline and moving opportunities to close. Given their nature, they are not promoted externally. 

Approvals and Permissions

Once you’ve established a unified meetings management process for inbound and outbound meetings, determine the appropriate permissions for each meeting type within the platform. Common attributes include attendee type, package purchased, VIP status, and experience level. Appropriately categorizing your meeting types and setting consistent approvals helps attendees quickly and efficiently select the appropriate meeting contact, time, and location.

Next, determine if meeting approvals will be automated or manually managed. Automatic approvals are ideal for managing the availability of multiple people, topics, and locations. Manual approvals may be better for situations in which meeting managers need to be more selective about who they meet with and where. RainFocus allows both automatic and manual approvals. Be sure to determine whether a potential platform offers this flexibility. 

What Does Your Meeting Data Tell You?

The combined data from an entire meetings program provides powerful information that helps your team plan more efficiently and identify the right prospects. However, the specific data you capture before, during, and after an event determines whether you can effectively measure ROI and quickly engage with prospects.

When looking at data from meetings, consider the following questions: 

• Were your internal attendees properly engaged and delivering value?
• Were purchasing decisions impacted and accelerated by your meetings program?
• Are there any targeted prospects who did not meet with your team?
• Should you dedicate more resources and time to future meetings?
• How valuable were your meetings to customers and prospects?

Consolidating, analyzing and comparing meeting engagement from one event to the next will help you take your company’s event strategy to the next level. Coupled with RainFocus’ global reporting capabilities, this strategy will save time and deliver results by providing a holistic cross-event view of your company’s strategic meetings program success.
Request a demo to learn more about RainFocus Meetings.