Unsolicited Rant: Skipping Meeting Not Kosher When You're The One Who Called It

By Jon:

So early last week, I get a meeting invite with one of our clients.

The meeting was scheduled for two hours and was set to go over their biggest products of the year. It was apparently high profile enough for our SVP to announce it during our division meeting at the beginning of this week. Big event, I figure - I'll make sure I'm present.

When I arrived, our whole marketing team (about 10 people) are sitting in our boardroom, waiting for our client. Everyone's complaining about a two hour meeting and they all look ready to hunker down (with water bottles, etc). Ten minutes pass, and no one shows up.

We call down to their offices, and no one answers. Another call to their receptionist later, and we've got their head of sales on the phone. He remarks that he doesn't have the meeting on his calendar and didn't know he was needed.

Umm... he's the ONE WHO CALLED IT.

We all sort of stumble through it and leave feeling slightly more aware of their plans and products, but overall I don't feel like anything good was accomplished. Seriously people, you have GOT to make sure your email/calendar programs work, and you have GOT to bring an agenda to a meeting that long. Otherwise it gets off task or worse, off your calendar.

Quick Tip: Show Two Timezones In Outlook Calendar

By Matt:

From time to time I lead meetings with international counterparts, primarily based in either the UK or Australia. Being located in the United States myself, I'm always having to do quick math, adding and subtracting time-zones, as I try to figure out how I can get two parties on the phone without either one having to go to the office at 2:00 in the morning.

So for you globally minded corporate hacks out there, this Outlook-based quick tip should help you navigate the intricacies of the International Date Line without causing an aneurysm:

Display Two Timezones In Your Outlook Calendar:

1. From the Outlook menu select Tools > Options
2. Select the button for 'Calendar Options'
3. Select the button for 'Time Zone'
4. In the resulting dialog box select the check-box for 'Show An Additional Time Zone'
5. Next, select an additional time zone to display from the dropdown menu and give it a unique label so you can differentiate it in your calendar

Hopefully this little trick will help make scheduling cross-continental meetings a little easier... and if nothing else, it will give you North America based readers an excuse to squeeze in another break in the name of Afternoon Tea before lunch rolls around.


More Outlook Tips @ Corporate Hack

The Recurrence Of Annoying Meeting Invites

By Matt:

I don't know why, but as of late there have been a long parade of recurring meetings in my office being scheduled by various individuals who apparently don't know how to use the 'Recurring Meeting Tool' that is standard in any electronic calendar software.

So basically this means that instead of getting one invite for the recurring meeting, I get 24 invites for the same meeting scheduled to occur every two weeks throughout the entire calendar year. That's incredibly irritating.

I don't want to make any assumptions, so I'll quickly outline the steps you need to take to set up a recurring meeting in Outlook, which is what most offices use for their scheduling software:

1. Navigate to your Calendar and schedule the occurrence, and attendees, of the first meeting
2. Select 'Actions' > 'Recurrence' from the drop-down menu
3. Determine your recurrence options based on your projected meeting schedule... once a week, once a month, bi-monthly, etc.
4. Select 'OK' and 'Send' your invite

Now I grant that in cases where you have fluctuating schedules and a meeting time that cannot be consistent from event to event, the recurring meeting tool is not very helpful. In that case I recommend that you instead invite attendees to your recurring meeting via email - draft a message to all attendees and simply list the meeting name, purpose, and all projected meetings dates/times in the body of the message. This is generally a more efficient, and less intruding, way to schedule recurring meetings that don't occur on a consistent schedule.


More Outlook Tips @ Corporate Hack