Effective conference calls, better conference calls, improved conference calls

EXPRESSTRAIN: Meetings
What are the meetings like at your organization? Dynamic, effective events which drive progress and action? Or a boring waste of time which achieve little? You'd think after all these centuries of meetings, we'd have found out how to do them well. We have! This event will show you how. It includes a session on a modern version of a meeting, the conference call.

In EXPRESSTRAIN Meetings, participants discuss their experience of what makes meetings successful and what makes them fail. The course explains the different roles in a meeting and the effect of combining them. Steps for planning and reviewing meetings are explained, along with techniques such as the Parking Lot, headlining and managing expectations. The concept or groundrules is explained, and groups of participants choose the ones they need most. Key skills of the method know as "facilitation" are explained. The application of all these techniques to the special case of the conference call is discussed, along with some other ideas for making these telephone-based meetings succinct and productive.

As on all EXPRESSTRAIN courses, participants are guided towards choosing the behavioural change they will make as a result of the course.

Duration: 120 minutes. For up to 40 people. Room layout: any; chairs but not tables are needed. Equipment: Flipchart or whiteboard.

Participant comments:

• "Many thanks. Re-inforced points & helped define others more clearly."
• "Excellent, more please."
• "To the point - no faffing about!"