Make meetings efficient
Five things you can do to streamline face time.
This story has been updated. It was originally published on March 17, 2009, and involves outdated technologies and services. For current advice, check out our regularly updated stories about Google Calendar tricks, tips for sounding better on video calls, how to use Google Calendar’s Time Insights feature, and consider our product review team’s picks for the best scheduling software.
1. Hold them online
Don’t make everyone waste time leaving their offices—the web-conference software dimdim.com runs right in your browser. Along with its voice and video capabilities, the program lets you present PowerPoint slides, share your desktop, and even shine a laser pointer on a virtual whiteboard.
2. Find a time
If you do decide to have it face to face, offload the planning to diarised.com. Feed the application a list of names and meeting times that work for you, and it emails attendees and runs a program to come up with the best time based on their responses. Once the date is locked in, it follows up with a confirmation.
3. Say you’re late
Use Oops I’m Late cellphone software to check the clock against your calendar, your phone’s GPS coordinates, and the meeting location to figure out whether you’re going to make it on time. If not, the site sends everyone on the meeting roster an automated apology, along with your new ETA.
4. Keep them short
Give your meetings value with Meeting Miser. The web-based time-tracker adds up the salaries of attendees to turn each minute into a dollar figure that’s sure to make management twitchy and keep sessions from dragging on needlessly.
5. Bail out
When you know that the meeting is going to last longer than your patience will, log on to getmooh.com for an automated out. At a time you’ve chosen in advance, the service sends you what appears to be an important phone call, legitimizing your early exit.