A formal meeting is a planned discussion on specific goals and topics usually conducted by the chairperson. The minutes are kept in this document. These meetings are extremely organized and require the most planning. They also assign specific roles to people in order to keep the discussion on to the right path.

Informal gatherings are the most typical kind of business boardroomrecords.com gathering such as staff reunions or brainstorming sessions. formal meetings are typically used to discuss more strategic discussions about high-risk issues like company strategy, budget cuts and managing projects. The primary difference between formal and informal meetings is that informal ones tend to have looser structure with more fluid discussions.

Formal meetings are also more likely to follow strict protocols, like an agenda, a particular structure for notes taken by the official notetaker and formal language in those notes. Anyone who isn’t at the meeting in person are able to then review and access this information later.

To ensure a successful session, it is important that attendees arrive with the information and reports they need. Meeting software and a task manager can be used to remind attendees of or to assign tasks. This will allow them to prepare for the next step of the process. After the meeting has ended it’s essential to follow up with attendees to recap what was discussed, highlight the main actions taken, and get feedback so that future meetings are more effective.