Whether on-site or digital: Meetings are an integral part of everyday life in most companies. However, with perfect preparation, meetings can transform from a "detested necessity" into a "productive event". We will demonstrate how you can achieve perfect meeting preparation with blink.it using a practical example:
According to surveys, every employee spends 4.5 hours per week in meetings. Not only is that an enormous amount of time (anyone who has ever sat in an unproductive 2-hour meeting knows exactly what "a lot of time" means). Often, meetings are also not prepared properly.
With increasing number of participants, complexity, and duration, preparation becomes increasingly important: Meetings can only be productive if all participants are well-prepared in advance and can contribute positively. If that doesn't happen, not only is one person's working time wasted. In fact, it can be many hours of several participants.
Online preparation can solve the problem! In the following, I'll explain how you can prepare meetings online with blink.it and show you a current practical example.
Why should you prepare meetings online?
Insights into an effective meeting preparation course
Conclusion: Is the effort worth it to prepare meetings online?
Why should you prepare meetings online?
Most companies use classic methods for meeting preparation: For simple organization, an agenda, personal arrangements, or group emails are often sufficient. However, when it comes to complex topics or small events, preparing meetings correctly becomes more challenging. Konstantin from blink.it sees several problems with traditional preparation methods:
If I address each employee individually and explain the format and task, it simply takes forever with more than 15 people! Getting all participants together in an explanation meeting with busy calendars is also difficult. So, I needed a solution that would not require too much effort in organization and allow all employees to find out when it suits them best. For this, a blink.it course is ideal.
What advantages does blink.it offer for meeting preparation?
On the blink.it platform, you have all employees gathered in one place.
Everyone can inform themselves flexibly and prepare when they have time.
You can upload not only pure text information but also videos and important documents for preparation.
In the course statistics, you can see which employees have viewed the course. This way, you always know who has prepared properly.
In the comments section, employees can ask follow-up questions. The organizer can then answer these before the event or meeting.
Through features like the newsletter or auto-reminder, you can automatically remind your employees about the preparation.
Join our free time management course "Personal Productivity and Time Intelligence" now and experience blink.it as a participant:
Below, you will get an insight into the blink.it course that Konstantin created to prepare for an important meeting:
Excursus: What kind of meeting is illustrated in the example?
At blink.it, we regularly hold large meetings with 10 or more employees from different teams. One of these meetings is the "Data Party" where each employee prepares and presents a small data analysis from their own daily work for all colleagues.
The challenges for organizer Konstantin were:
Clearly define the organization and scheduling for all participants.
Ensure that everyone knows what they need to prepare.
Clarify questions in advance, so that the actual meeting runs smoothly.
Insights into an effective meeting preparation course
This is what the finished blink.it course for our meeting's online preparation looks like:
Example of an online course for meeting preparation // Source: blink.it
1. Structure of the meeting preparation in the online course:
Start: The preparation course starts with short videos from organizer Konstantin: The first video is a welcome in the course (about 1 minute). In the second video, Konstantin explains the concept of the meeting (about 5 minutes). The third video covers the preparation (about 2 minutes). Konstantin recorded all videos with the blink.it kit. Afterwards, there is a survey where employees can indicate if they need help. Finally, there is a video tutorial for the presentation, which all employees should work on for preparation.
Chapter 1: Two short videos from previous meetings serve as examples of what the result of one's own preparation can look like.
Chapter 2: The second chapter contains information for employees with specific tasks in the meeting.
Chapter 3: After the meeting, organizer Konstantin uploaded the recordings. This way, all employees can revisit them afterwards.
Here you can see one of the short videos. Konstantin explains the preparation in about 2 minutes:
2. Scope of meeting preparation
The preparation course for our meeting has a total of only ten individual contents (links). The recordings were added only after the meeting. For less complex meeting formats, fewer links suffice: A introductory video, an explanation for the preparation, and important documents—this already gives you effective preparation in the online course.
3. Time investment for meeting preparation
For the employees, the online preparation in the course required only about 15 minutes of work. In fact, creating the course also goes quickly, says Konstantin:
I spent about four hours for the entire course. Of that, about two hours were for video shooting for the four videos. I had already thought about my concept in advance. In those four hours, I created all the links and then filled them with videos and documents. Afterwards, I only needed a few minutes to upload the recordings.
Conclusion: Is the effort worth it to prepare meetings online?
Four hours may sound like a lot at first to prepare a meeting. However, you should consider that a meeting lasting more than two hours with 17 people is more like a small company event. If things go poorly, it can burn at least 34 hours of working time in total. Even more so if all participants invest time in poor preparation. Thus, with a preparation course, you can make working time more productive. Moreover, you can reuse the course for preparation again and again, saving you massive time for future meetings.
Konstantin therefore considers the effort to be "absolutely worthwhile"—especially since the meeting after the preparation in the online course "went perfectly as planned and exceeded all expectations of management"!
Preparing meetings in the blink.it course is worthwhile for you under the following conditions:
from 8 or 10 people (depending on complexity), all of whom need to prepare something, such as a short presentation.
if the process or preparation is too complex to explain it in an email or for each participant individually.
if you conduct meetings remotely, for example via Zoom, and want to make the recordings available online afterwards.
if meetings or events occur regularly and you don't want to explain the preparation every time. In the online course, all important information is securely stored permanently!
