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Fail to Plan; Plan to Fail – Meeting Planning Success

Office Dynamics

Planning and executing meetings and events is no easy task and requires a PLAN and a PROCESS and a TEAM of experts to make it happen and for it to be deemed a success. If you fail to plan appropriately, you are setting yourself up to fail and who wants to do that?

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Becoming better organized

Laughing all the Way to Work

I just finished a busy few months leading up to our Board of Directors meeting and it went very smoothly. I love it when things fall into place, but that doesn't happen without a lot of planning. I go through my checklist of what I will need to bring to the venue, anything I need to remember to include in the meeting package and just about anything that doesn't fit goes on my catchall list. Now onto the next meeting.

2011 127
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Finding my Niche by Mary Jo Wiseman

Office Dynamics

Not all people who plan meetings are “meeting planners,” nor do all meeting planners start out their careers as meeting planners. This office reported to a Board of Trustees and was responsible for planning and executing quarterly board meetings.

2020 176
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Assistants Must Excel at the Fundamentals

Office Dynamics

They feel they have been managing calendars or planning meetings forever so why pay attention. For 28 years, I have been teaching assistants to pay attention to the fundamentals such as meeting planning, travel planning, calendar maintenance, organizational skills, follow-up systems, time management, and communications. Meeting Preparation and Coordination. From Joan Burge’s new book, Joan’s Greatest Administrative Secrets Revealed (2018).

2018 190
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What is a Meeting Planner Exactly?

Office Dynamics

A meeting planner by MY definition is the go-to person and should be a key member of the design (or planning) team within an organization — be it corporate, association or otherwise — charged with the responsibility of planning and executing a meeting or special event. experience, planning skills and attention to detail to help create and deliver events that meet or exceed expectations. Meeting planners are leaders. Meetings

2019 176
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More OneNote Must-Knows: History, Search, and Template Creation

All Things Admin

​Whether you’re using it for travel planning, procedures development, project management, or just basic notetaking, OneNote is one of the most dynamic software programs out there for administrative professionals.

2023 52
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Administrative Assistants Broaden Your Skillset

Office Dynamics

When it comes to figuring out your soft skills, enlarge your vision; don’t just look at the tasks such as meeting planning or calendaring. For example, what are the skills you need to be excellent at meeting planning? Write a plan. This is the hard part and most people (of all walks of life) don’t want to take the time to write a plan. However, once your plan is in place, it is easy.

2019 130
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Calendar Management for Executive Assistants

Office Dynamics

Meetings, meeting, and more meetings! In spite of all the technology, meetings have not gone away. Whether your executive is holding a virtual meeting or attending a virtual or live meeting, there are certain steps you can take to ensure you are properly scheduling meetings and making your executive’s life easier. As an assistant of 20 years, I had one perspective of meeting management. Meeting planning is a cognitive task.

Calendars 218
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Time Is Money: Get More of Both with an Executive Assistant

Worxbee

EAs can take notes, file or organize, do proactive research, meet clients, and arrange meetings. EAs = increased productivity Imagine this: You’re sitting in a meeting with three from your team. Fifteen minutes go by…20…30… Now it’s time for your next meeting.

2022 52
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Your Roadmap to Effective Office Systems

All Things Admin

Travel planning. Meeting and event planning. Other systems you may want to prioritize, depending on your job duties, include: Disaster recovery planning. When you’re planning a staff meeting, what do you do and in what order? Order food for the meeting.

2021 90
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Successful Assistants Combine Left and Right Brain Thinking

Office Dynamics

Let’s take for example the task of meeting planning or calendaring for your executive. To achieve your best results, you would schedule meetings or appointments for your executive using both sides of the brain. Be sensitive to the fact that your executive may have jet lag, or be tired from a hectic schedule of running from meeting to meeting. Can you really fit in another meeting on Wednesday? Are you being practical about meeting scheduling?

2019 175
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How to Stay Organized with Leadership Team Meetings? – Ask An Admin

Office Dynamics

In starting 2019 off on hopefully on the right foot, I am looking for advice on how to stay organized with all the meetings. Making sure agendas are going out timely, meeting with leaders to create the agenda, taking notes, bringing attention to meetings, etc. Meeting Planning and Execution Live E-Learning Course. The post How to Stay Organized with Leadership Team Meetings? Ask An Admin Meetings Organizational Skills Uncategorized

2019 129
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5 Surprising Ways to Deal with Difficult People

Small Business CEO

Your boss instructed you to head your team of four, organize a meeting, plan a product launch, and “ensure that it is 100% successful.” It is not very easy to deal with difficult people, that’s for sure. Let’s imagine the next situation. You and two of the team members are easygoing, but the other one is problematic. In fact, they’re such difficult people that they are hard to deal with. For one thing, in fact, they do not have any ideas on how to make this project flawless.

2018 54
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How Assistants Can Save Time and Be More Efficient

Office Dynamics

Use the P-O-S-T method for strategic calendar planning/invitations. Meeting planning template- yearly with six month check-in. Print calendar and prepare meeting folders for the next day. Are you an assistant looking to become more efficient? Save time and get more work done? Below is a listing of ways you can save time and be an efficient assistant. The bonus? These tips were provided by executive assistants like you! Time Saving Tips for Assistants.

2012 100
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Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings

Office Dynamics

I bet that like many people you thought meetings would go by the wayside because of technology or at least there would be fewer meetings. The reasons meetings. have increased are due in part to the rise in teams and requisite team meetings and technology such as video-conferencing accommodating slashed travel budgets. Approximately 11 million meetings occur in the U.S. I would like to give you some tips as you prepare for meetings this week.

2018 118
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Are you getting attendees to your meetings?

Practically Perfect PA

So you have organised a meeting, it has been in everyone’s diaries for ages, you’ve booked a room and ordered tea and coffee. You get to the meeting room only to find a handful of attendees have arrived, some turn up late, others couldn’t find the room and one person just didn’t bother turning up. Here are a few tips which will help you get attendees to your meetings. Plan the meeting in advance. Use a meeting productivity tool.

2015 145
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How To Leverage Criticism At Work

Office Dynamics

An administrative peer thinks his process for approaching meeting planning is the best way and you feel your approach is better. The consultant meets with the administrators regarding their professional image, the manner in which they do their work or their workflow processes. Autumn is here and I’m loving it. Are you enjoying the cooler weather of fall? I love fall (yes, even in Las Vegas).

2016 143
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Effective Committee meeting management

Practically Perfect PA

Last week I wrote a blog on minute taking during meetings. The minutes are the end product of a meeting but how do we ensure the meeting itself is well organised, productive and attended by the right people? I’ve worked with quite a few Boards and Committees over the years and have organised some worthwhile meetings and also some useless time wasting meetings so I understand the balance needs to be right and steps have to be followed to ensure the meeting is a success.

2012 206
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Effective Committee meeting management

Practically Perfect PA

Last week I wrote a blog on minute taking during meetings. The minutes are the end product of a meeting but how do we ensure the meeting itself is well organised, productive and attended by the right people? I’ve worked with quite a few Boards and Committees over the years and have organised some worthwhile meetings and also some useless time wasting meetings so I understand the balance needs to be right and steps have to be followed to ensure the meeting is a success.

2012 205
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Multigenerational Communication & Cross-mentorship

Office Dynamics

When given the opportunity to meet with someone fairly new to the profession and someone embracing an upcoming retirement to explore even more in life, I enthusiastically embrace the moment and ask several questions of each! The diverse team has combined organizational and time management skills, event and meeting planning, business savvy, continued professional development drive and so much more to ensure success and positive outcomes. By Dana Buchanan.

2018 112
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How to Organize Your Work [or Figure out what to do first!]

Office Dynamics

Stay tuned to announcements about online courses related to this topic and other administrative fundamentals like meeting planning and organizational skills. Prioritizing for Executive and Administrative Assistants. I have been training and working with executive assistants and administrative professionals for 22 years. The question I am most frequently asked is, “How do I prioritize my workload?” ” Everything handed to me seems to be urgent.

2013 115
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4 Fresh Meeting Trends and Where to Find Them

Office Dynamics

In the midst of our constantly-changing culture and ever-more-digital world, the meeting and events industry is the next realm to be updated. Dull, dusty meeting rooms are being replaced and refreshed by smart trends that are making meetings more productive and more enjoyable. interesting meeting rooms and workshop spaces is changing the market and offering many more options to meeting and event planners around the world. budding meeting industry trends.

2016 100
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12 Days of Christmas Webinar: The Organized Admin with Julie Perrine

Office Dynamics

Meetings/Events. Travel Planning. So I wanted to provide a plan of action for these assistants that would help them get and stay organized. Travel Planning. Event/Meeting Planning. Travel Planning Example: Your travel planning system involves lots of different forms, templates, and checklists. You have an intake form for ensuring you get all of the details you need up front for effectively planning their trip.

2016 110
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Art+Science=Success

Office Dynamics

For example, meeting planning requires that we take an art side (soft/intuitive) and science side (hard/logical approach). It means we use a check list throughout the pre-meeting phase to make sure we cover every step. The logical approach means we have order and structure; that we look at the meeting from an analytical perspective - is there a real reason to have this meeting? Success in the business world requires that we take an art + science approach.

2010 100
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Art+Science=Success

Office Dynamics

For example, meeting planning requires that we take an art side (soft/intuitive) and science side (hard/logical approach). It means we use a check list throughout the pre-meeting phase to make sure we cover every step. The logical approach means we have order and structure; that we look at the meeting from an analytical perspective - is there a real reason to have this meeting? Success in the business world requires that we take an art + science approach.

2010 100
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Calling all Northern Arizona Virtual Assistants: Is there anyone.

Loosely Speaking

If you reside in Northern Arizona and your VA practice meets the * criteria listed below, then you won’t want to miss this local meet-up of seasoned professionals. Please feel free to forward this information to any other VAs you know who do meet our guidelines as stated above. We’ll meet at The Raven on Cortez Street (in Prescott Arizona) at 9 a.m. I’ll try to keep it open, because it would be fun to meet some new people and catch up with you!

2009 100
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Experience vs. a university degree part two

Practically Perfect PA

I’ve attended numerous seminars in leadership, time management, MS Word, Excel, Outlook, meeting planning, event planning, and disaster recovery planning (Joan Eisendot and her website are fantastic resources) as well as is Tyler Davidson at Meetings Focus magazine/website, and freely shared the knowledge with my peers and anyone who asked. A few months ago I asked the Practically Perfect PA readers if they could complete a survey for me.

2014 185
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A Day in the Life of an Admin

The Office Professionals Place

Their duties include (but are not limited to) answering and screening calls, meeting and greeting clients and customers, maintaining executives calendars, writing correspondence, generating reports, meeting planning, filing, travel arrangements, maintain client/customer data records, supervising others, and the list goes on.

2009 100
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Thinking Outside the Job Description Box

Laughing all the Way to Work

Event Planning: Event planning is a big industry that looks for people who are skilled in planning big events without a hitch. What better candidate to take on that role as a career, than the assistant who regularly plans events from small meetings to large conferences. Some assistants regularly manage small budgets when planning functions or have bookkeeping responsibilities and work regularly on spreadsheets.

2008 157
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Thinking Outside the Job Description Box

Professional Assistant Blog

Event Planning: Event planning is a big industry that looks for people who are skilled in planning big events without a hitch. What better candidate to take on that role as a career, than the assistant who regularly plans events from small meetings to large conferences. Some assistants regularly manage small budgets when planning functions or have bookkeeping responsibilities and work regularly on spreadsheets.

2008 100
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Under a Bushel

Office Dynamics

Additionally, start keeping a log of the quantity of work you produce in major areas such as telephone, meeting planning, travel planning, email management, etc. Hello Everyone! I really appreciate all the blog comments and e-mails that come my way with questions and specific scenarios for advice. While I can’t always answer your requests within 72 hours due to my heavy travel and speaking schedule, I do get to them. Here is one such request.

2009 100
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Under a Bushel

Office Dynamics

Additionally, start keeping a log of the quantity of work you produce in major areas such as telephone, meeting planning, travel planning, email management, etc. Hello Everyone! I really appreciate all the blog comments and e-mails that come my way with questions and specific scenarios for advice. While I can’t always answer your requests within 72 hours due to my heavy travel and speaking schedule, I do get to them. Here is one such request.

2009 100
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The pronouns you use can reveal a lot about where your head is

Laughing all the Way to Work

My mind is already planning the next Board meeting and how I will organize my desk and the filing at the new place. Meetings - Are you in the middle of planning a meeting? I keep a meeting scheduling form at my desk. I know exactly where I am at with the meeting planning just by looking at the form. One of my co-workers told me that I was already using "we" and "us" when referring to my new employer.

2008 100
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Having a good outlook when it comes to Outlook

Laughing all the Way to Work

Sometimes a calendar can change, a meeting gets cancelled or postponed and needs to be rescheduled. It is ideal to have daily meetings to plan for the days and weeks ahead, but sometimes that is not possible if your boss is on the move. You would not want your boss to find out about an important meeting at the last minute that they should have been prepared for. If the meeting is by teleconference you should have call-in numbers typed in the meeting notice.

2008 100
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On the job tips for new Admins.

Laughing all the Way to Work

I have daily meetings with my boss so sometimes I print the e-mails that I have questions on and put it in a folder and then we go through each item and he lets me know what, if anything, I need to do. If he is travelling, I send it by e-mail, but it has been my experience that I will get better results with a face-to-face meeting. Sometimes e-mail is not the best way to communicate and it needs to be followed up by a phone call or face-to-face short meeting.

2009 149