What is the main points when trying to plan and support meetings effectively and efficiently?

Answer 1

Primarily, have a reason to meet! Don't just have a meeting to have a meeting if there is nothing that needs to be accomplished by it.

If you're sure a meeting is really necessary, then prepare an agenda in advance and stick to it - someone needs to be the facilitator/moderator to ensure that things progress as planned and no one gets bogged down on an item that doesn't warrant that much time or energy devoted to it.

After that, it depends on what kind of meeting you're having - a project team meeting with only 5-7 people would have different dynamics and "rules" to follow to make it productive than would a company-wide staff meeting with 100+ attendees.

Finally, and I'm serious here - food always helps. Having treats (bagels, coffee, chips, whatever) available helps ensure attendance and puts people in a more cooperative, positive frame of mind. It's hard to be productive if you're grouchy, and hard to be (or stay) grouchy when you're "breaking bread" with someone, so to speak.

Hope this helps.