Introduction

The majority of this book is aimed solely at providing practical advice and ideas for the people who organise, attend and lead meetings. Like a road map, following the Brilliant Meetings guidelines will show the route, with possible alternatives, to reach your destination and, like a road map, it will always be there for reference and confirmation. We do not want to add to the many theories and ways of working already promoted by so many books and ‘authorities’, but fundamentally want to demonstrate to everyone that productive, effective meetings can be achieved realistically as the norm, not the exception.

Having experienced poorly organised and badly run meetings over many years, we realised that the first measures needed to start transforming meetings into positive experiences are very simple and straightforward to introduce. In fact it is the people attending meetings who will make those first small differences that ultimately will result in much improved experiences for all.