Yesterday during a long conference call it was determined that I had to meet with a partner in Seattle in a weeks time. The meeting was to discuss various items including some immediate collabortations and long term planning. Normally a meeting of this nature would tend to ramble because of the breadth of discussions and needs of the two parties.
This is how I prepare and plan for meetings and trips by utilizing the tools and techniques that I have been talking about here. The sample of the map was done in 30 minutes this morning as I was gathering my thoughts ... you can see that already I have linked two other maps (for illustrative purposes dealing with strategic vision and specific future proposals), powerpoint show (use the show, you need to save the presentation as a show, and you will go right through the presentation and return to the map), and a word document ... all of these give you the supporting information. By trip time, there will probably be dozens of attachments, this is to give you all your resources in one place, no more fumbling or searching. This is the key concept here, you take any and all pieces of information that you MAY need and logically put them into areas of discussion. If you go there and need these things, you are a click away .. if you don't it just looks cool ...
I do all my meetings this way and find it invaluable. By preprocessing what may happen, you are much more prepared for the twists and turns that happen in meetings like this. When you use it to create an agenda, you ensure a TIGHT presentation with the ability to fill in info as needed ... once you try this, you will never go back ....
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