1.  Secure a location.

This can be your home, a room in your community such as a rec center, or even a church.  Wherever it is, I do recommend a private room for the comfort of the one leading the meeting, for your attendees, and the regular patrons of a public place such as a restaurant.  No one will care what PV means when they are trying to have a quiet dinner with their significant other.  Some things to consider is size of room, how many can fit in it, the  layout of tables and chairs, the cost, location, and parking.  There will never be a perfect place for everyone.  I spent unnecessary stress trying to figure out where the perfect time and place should be.  In the end, the meeting was for anyone willing to come to a place that was near me, a private room that held at least 2 6 foot tables and 20+ chairs comfortably, had a fridge, and had the ability to set up my projector to effectively share and train.  The place did not have an awe factor such as an expensive hotel meeting room or a patio with a golf course or resort view but I had everything else that I needed in a meeting room and it was all free!

With my  meeting room, I was able to display the rarely seen in person jewelry just like so, which provided more wow than anything else =)

Have you seen my impromptu video on the free jewelry I got from our convention?  You can watch my FREE ORIGAMI OWL JEWELRY video now.  I laid out all this jewelry at my meeting.

 

2. Secure bullet points and top topics to be covered.

There are plenty of reasons to hold an Origami Owl meeting and endless topics that can be covered.  Your meetings can be a social, an unveiling of new things, education on the upcoming trends, or a training on sales.  It can be limited to you your team and success lines only.  Whatever it is, pick a focus and stay on it.  Share the intent and contents of the meeting beforehand so potential attendees can decipher if it is for them or not.  Of course, in a meeting, do  answer the questions of attendees that may not necessarily be within the topic of the meeting, but for the the most part stay on it.  If you do find (and you will) that there are certain hot topics that gets a lot of question and attendees want to really get into, briefly answer them and promise that a future meeting on that topic will be the next meeting.

 

3. Secure refreshments.

Some meetings include food such a lunch or dinner.  Some meetings do potluck, while some hosts provide light refreshments out of their pockets or via funds from attendees.  This is totally up to the hostess and what she thinks would be best for her meeting.  For my post convention meeting last night, I opted for light refreshments out of pocket.  Some attendees donate a couple of bucks to east the $30 of Maui inspired snacks from the Hawaiian islands easily purchased from World Market.

 

4. Secure Visuals.

We have heard the mantra “Death by Powerpoint” and that is definitely what I did not want my meeting and future meetings to be known for.  I naturally side with “the more details, the better” and more words and more PowerPoint slides actually excite me but I tell you, most do not share my sentiments so let’s not overdo it with slides and words.  Instead, have many visuals.  Three that I recommend:

a.  Origami Owl branded display table.  A table that is in line with the recommended company colors, style, display items, images, and jewelry.

b. Banners really liven up  even the palest of meeting rooms and the right banners can really strike up the minds and moods of the attendees.  My Origami Owl banners are bright and cheery and have words that just make you feel good.  Check out these Origami Owl approved banners from Creative Ape.

c. Handouts.  These can be anything that will help facilitate the course of the evening or support training for all attendees.  I simply provided lap boards and paper for those who wanted to take notes on the things I was going over in the meeting.  Throughout the meeting, I passed around items that were up on the slides to reinforce and solidify in their minds with what I was talking about.  For example, during the networking topic and speaking of name tags, I passed around my name tag.

 

5.  Secure feedback.

It has been said that feedback is the food of all champions.  It is through feedback that we know how we can provide a better experience to our attendees and making the trip to the meeting worth everyone’s time. Feedback may not always be what we want to hear but it is what we need to hear.  It was through feedback that let me know that I was on the right track for the night and the right track for future meetings.   Here I share with you some feedback I received from my Origami Owl Post Convention Meeting held last night:

“Jennylou, thank you so much for taking the time to bring us designers who were not in attendance at the convention up-to-speed. I’m sorry I had to leave early, but you did a wonderful job!!!” – Doreen K.

“Thanks Jennylou Raya for a great post-convention meeting. Thanks again for a great meeting and your help with FB and the fundraiser & tax tips. Looking forward to more.” – Dorothy D.

“Thanks so much for opening this up to all locals…regardless of teams. I was only there for about 40 minutes but your presentation was AWESOME! Thanks so much! Hopefully I can be included in other trainings and meetings.” – Michele A.