Company-wide meetings, also sometimes referred to as all-hands meetings, are no ordinary meetings. These are THE meetings where everyone comes together with a common goal and purpose.

When company-wide meetings are planned well, they can drive transparency and foster your organization’s culture. But when your planning is lacking, these meetings can be a pure waste of time and budget.

In this post, I’m going to cover 7 of the amazing benefits company-wide meetings provide, then offer some tips to help you ensure your meetings are successful.

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7 Reasons to Plan a Company-Wide Meeting

If you haven’t been running company-wide meetings, here are 7 reasons to start planning your first:

Foster Company Culture

How often do all of your team members get together in one place at the same time? If you’re like most organizations, not often enough. Bringing people together in this way is incredibly valuable and helps demonstrate your company’s philosophy, vision, and spirit.

Increase Productivity

Company-wide meetings are great at knocking down walls that are often between departments, and getting rid of bureaucratic inefficiencies that are notorious for hampering productivity. Instead of your team members going through typical organizational “channels,” they can interact directly with one another, without backlogs and bottlenecking.

Getting on the Same Page

These meetings are the perfect venue for communicating BIG ideas and goals for the coming quarters. Each department can present their particular role in reaching company objectives and grasp how their efforts align with others’.

Promote Innovation

Sure, tech channels like email, Zoom and Slack allow team members to work together on projects. But there really is nothing like getting a bunch of creative people in the same room to brainstorm and cross-pollinate ideas. Working face-to-face on a project allows different perspectives than might normally occur, and this is always a sure path to growth and innovation.

Celebrate Wins

Behind every company win is a group of individuals who played a critical role. Company-wide meetings are the perfect opportunity to truly celebrate team members’ successes. These celebrations boost morale and inject energy into the newest project.

Allow Everyone to be Heard

During day-to-day operations, it’s incredibly hard to allow all team members to ask questions or voice concerns. These meetings give everyone a voice. Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely of places!

Connect with Remote Teams

These days, many organizations have team members working from home. Company-wide meetings are a unique opportunity to connect your remote workers with one another and your C-suite, so that everyone can feel part of the community.

Tips for Planning a Successful Company-Wide Meeting

We’ve helped many organizations plan and run successful company-wide meetings over the years. Here are some of the things we’ve learned:

Set Your Date and Send Invitations Early

Select your date for the meeting as early as possible and send out invitations STAT. This gives everyone a chance to block out that day or weekend on their calendar so they may attend.

Develop a Clear Agenda

Be sure to set a clear agenda for your company-wide meeting and send this to everyone in advance. Determine what amount of time each section realistically needs to avoid overruns. And don’t forget to leave enough time for Q&A.

Appoint a Moderator

Want to know the #1 secret to running a successful company-wide meeting? Appoint a moderator who will serve as a bridge between speakers and audience. The moderator will guide everyone through the meeting, stay on top of any potential tech issues, and encourage conversation.

Invite a Diverse Range of Speakers

It’s a great idea to invite people from different teams/departments to speak at the meeting. This encourages a collaborative environment and helps foster engagement.

Nip Technical Difficulties in the Bud

Tech issues are one of the biggest enemies of a successful meeting. Be sure to connect with your AV person ahead of time to make sure tech is running as needed.

Collect Questions Before the Meeting

Collecting question in advance of your meeting will not only help your executives better prepare for the Q&A section, it will also give you an idea of what topics your team is most interested in.

The Wrap

Company-wide meetings are invaluable. And if you know exactly how to plan them, they can be wildly successful and help your organization reach its objectives.

Need help planning your next company-wide meeting. Give us a shout!