It doesn’t happen as much as they used to, however, home meetings may soon become a more common option. Meetings at your home in the physical sense can be a great way to build rapport, further relationships, and get things sorted. They could be church group meetings, book club discussions, and even key business meetings. But how do you do it properly? People handle meetings in differing ways.
It all depends on what you and the attendees want to achieve. Here are some tips to help you run a productive and meaningful meeting from your home.
Have Refreshments Handy
If you’re hosting the meeting it’s good practice to have some refreshments at hand for the attendees.
This can range from a jar of water to some easy to eat snacks. You don’t want anything that’ll take concentration to eat or that’s a little bit messy. You can use this easy tzatziki recipe for a dip and get some breadsticks or chips.
Consider snacks that can be placed into a bowl. You may also have to think about dietary requirements. Grab some vegan chips too and some vegetarian snacks. Always better safe than sorry.
You can either keep them in the middle or off to the side. Consider what space you need and go from there.
Create A Productive Environment
If you’re meeting to do work, you need to ensure you set it up in a way that lends itself to good work being completed.
This means no noise distractions. Turn the TV off and if you’ve got family upstairs in their bedrooms ask them to be quiet for the duration of the meeting.
Creating the right productive environment can mean you really get through more of the work. Consider asking the attendees to put their phones on silent so that the meeting isn’t disturbed by noises. You might also want to consider writing up an agenda so that you have something to stick to and follow.
Keeping on track is important especially if you have specific items to discuss and it ensures you get through all of them when you only have a certain time frame in which to discuss the content.
It’s good practice to share the agenda before the meeting so that they have time to feedback and add to it.
Consider Seating Arrangements
Remember you need adequate seating for your guests.
If there are only a few of them coming to your home, you’ll be fine. However, if there are more than usual you may need a couple of extras. It might be that you have some spare chairs in your home. If not, there are varying products you can buy online which can give people a relaxing place to sit.
Don’t spend a fortune if you know you’re only going to have the one meeting though.
If it is a case of one meeting, perhaps there’s somewhere you can rent chairs. You could even ask the attendees if there’s anything suitable they can bring from themselves.