Planning a meeting can involve a lot of extra work. However, by thorough planning for a meeting, success is more likely. While a stakeholder meeting is no different to any other meeting, when it comes to preparation, it definitely feels like a bigger deal for many people. There is a fizz in the air and some nervous energy among the team. This is one reason you may choose to use our project management services to help you prepare for a stakeholder meeting.
The word ‘stakeholder’ brings up thoughts of huge boardrooms, pin stripe suits and a stiff collar catching beads of sweat. However, the term stakeholder actually covers a lot of different people. It’s just a term to refer to any of the individuals that have a vested interest in the success of a business or a project.
One of the biggest struggles of a stakeholder meeting is the amount of people. It’s important that you stay on track and focus on the end goal. But this isn’t always possible if you don’t correctly prepare for a stakeholder meeting. It can easily go off track or find a fork in the road. This can be detrimental to the success of a construction project and really slow down processes.
You need to plan and prepare for a stakeholder meeting. This includes thinking about who needs to be present at the stakeholder meeting. You also need to know what matters to the stakeholders and what they will want to know. In advance to the meeting, you need to think about what your goals, objectives and desired outcomes of the meeting are.
Make sure you give out the agenda to attendees in advance. This will ensure that everyone knows the focus and goal of the meeting. Prepare yourself with questions for individuals but think about the questions you might be asked. Prepare your answers to these questions. Where relevant, have handouts for attendees.
Within your agenda you will most likely have a number of important topics that need to be covered. These will include the project timeline and milestones for example. You will also need to note down and review action items as well as issues and risks. Within your agenda you will need time to consider next steps too. This will focus attendees after the meeting.
There is a lot to prepare in advance for a stakeholder meeting. Here at Elite Events ECL we have many years in project management within large projects. We can support you in the planning and preparation of your stakeholder meeting. Alternatively, we can run the stakeholder meeting on your behalf, or be present to support you with the meeting.
If you have a stakeholder meeting coming up that you’re feeling nervous about or unprepared for – call our team.