This post goes into how to leverage a presentation during your meeting. You can use this for broadcasts, working sessions, and even weekly team meetings. Presentations have lots of benefits and can bring energy to your meeting.

Question and answer sessions are often tacked on to events without much thought, but they can be very useful. Today’s post looks at how to run them.

A round table is an important format to have in your toolbox. Commonly, when organizing a large broadcast you will have many experts in the audience who all have brilliant things to say. A round table can provide them with the space to share their important ideas. It’s not just for big meetings though, in working groups, having a round table with some of your participants can bring energy and ideas to the surface.

I’ve personally witnessed panel discussions go wrong. I’ve seen panelists hold the mic wondering who to give it to next. They look lost and scared. I will now share tips and tools to avoid these awkward scenarios!

Today I have both a video and a written version of this post. I give the three reasons meetings go bad. The third reason will shock you!

I have a hypothesis that the phenomena that we call “learning” can be accomplished in a few ways. I’ve identified 3 ways and I want to share my hypothesis here with you. I am glad to hear what you think.

Like a lot engineers and software folk, I have a sedentary life. Working at a desk in front of my computer for way more than 8 hours a day, The hard part is that as I’ve gotten older I can do the same amount of working out, eat the same things, but still gain weight! My body was getting worse and worse at staying at the same weight.

Its time for more self reflection questions! Today we are going to consider activities that you’ve experienced.

I’ve started mentioning Toastmasters in the last few posts, but today I want to do a MAJOR plug for this incredible life changing organization. I joined Toastmasters in 2005 when I was a very shy quiet software engineer. I was too shy to even speak up in design sessions with my team.

As I continue in the engagement series I now will share my favorite go to activities. Most of these work for both broadcast and working session meeting types. I’ve used all of these to spice up my Toastmasters District Council meetings. Audiences love these types of activities because it brings in variety. Many of these allow their voices to be heard in some way.

I run a big meeting for Toastmasters District 57 each month called an District Executive Council Meeting. We have about 60ish folks every meeting. The meeting is 2 hours long. It could be super boring, but instead I hear constant feedback that my meetings are awesome. This post gives tips on how to use delegation to increase engagement.

The engagement series continues with how to increase engagement in your meetings. This post looks at how ownership can make your meeting more engaging.

On Sunday I realized that I have an addiction to “trying.” I became aware of my addiction to “try” when I listened to David Asprey’s new book Fast this Way. He was mentioning different kinds of fasts from protein to dopamine, then he suggested a fast from the word “try.”

This post shares how I refresh my energy. I like to call the refreshers collectively as my Fountainhead. I share those refreshers that help me keep my energy flowing.

Today’s self reflection questions are about meeting tone.

Setting the tone is the first step to create an engaging meeting. This post looks at some methods to set the tone to get your attendees to bring their best selves to the meeting.

As I entered into this series, I thought that there were two kinds of people: talkative folks who weren’t shy about engaging in the meeting discussions. And other folks who were naturally quiet and introverted. But instead what I found was shocking. In this post, I share my findings and introduce a new series on engagement.

I kick off my engagement series with a poll. Please respond on how you engage in a meeting.

Attention must be paid and it costs dearly. How do we get meeting attendees to actually pay attention in a meeting? Let’s step back and think about what you like paying for. This post gives the three ways to get your attendees to pay attention in your next meeting

This post tackles the critical question that I personally struggle with each day: The tension between accepting reality vs making change. I know its a controversial topic and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post your comments where you found this post on either LinkedIN or Facebook.