Various companies and institutions had to face unfortunate situations, problems, and difficulties while organizing corporate town hall meetings in the last year. It is so because the pandemic took over the world and turned the planning of vital events into a trying task. A corporate town hall might require the involvement of employees present at different global locations. But, due to travel restrictions and social distancing norms, the large-scale gathering became impossible.
Nevertheless, this is when the emergence of virtual events and virtual event platforms came into existence. It led to a virtual shift of corporate events that gained unmatched popularity in no time. Corporate town hall meetings have now become possible with the assurance of success through efficient virtual meeting platforms like Dreamcast.
What is a Corporate Town Hall Meeting?
A corporate town hall holds great significance for various organizations. The meeting involves the gathering of the employees, stakeholders, department managers, board members, etc. The primary focus and goal of a town hall meeting usually is to ensure that all the employees of the organization are on the same page. It also involves the exchange of vital pieces of information like future aims of the company, new changes in the policies, service upgrades, new launches, etc. As prominent as it sounds by now, a corporate town hall involves the requirement of a secure platform to host a formal company gathering.
These meetings have also been of great importance for effective internal communication of an organization.
Let’s walk ahead to explore the top practices to ensure the efficacy of a Corporate Town Hall Meeting.
Best Practices to Plan & Host a Successful Corporate Town Hall
#1 Define Your Goals
It is significant to determine your goals and aims clearly while organizing any type of meeting. Planning out all the goals of any event does not only help you with the easy execution but also while strategizing and planning other aspects. While planning a virtual corporate town hall, ask yourself questions like:
- Aim of your meeting?
- Aspects do you need to cover in the meeting?
- Different topics that you need to discuss in the town hall?
- Activities would you incorporate to make your corporate town hall more engaging?
- Where do you wish to host the meeting?
- What is the most suitable format for the town hall?
These questions will give you a greater understanding of your event goals.
#2 Decide the Right Date & Time
Deciding the right date and time will help you make the most out of your corporate town hall meeting. If your employees belong to different global locations, you need to keep in mind the time zone of all your meeting attendees. Also, choosing the right day is important to ensure that your meeting is not falling around some other vital meeting or corporate event that might make it difficult for your attendees to be present in the event.
#3 Plan and Strategize the Meeting Agenda
Planning the corporate town hall meeting agenda is another significant practice that can enhance your meeting. The agenda of your meeting determines the flow, execution, and engagement at your meeting. It is also important to ensure that you include breaks during the sessions or entertaining & interactive sessions in between the agenda to make sure that your employees don’t lose out on their interest. Therefore, create an efficient agenda for your meeting to plan a successful meeting.
#4 Send Corporate Town Hall Meeting Invitations
Frame out an attractive meeting invitation that entices and motivates your attendees to be actively present at the meeting. Include all the valuable information about the corporate town hall meeting to give your employees an overview about the meeting. For example, you can mention the event agenda, team building activities, speakers line-up, etc. You can also include FAQs to ensure that none of your participants have any doubt about the meeting. Another vital thing to include is the meeting rules. There are always certain norms and rules that your employees must follow in a formal corporate meeting.
#5 Celebrate Your Employees During the Event
Everybody likes appreciation and acknowledgment. It does not only help your employees perform well but also motivates them to ensure the best for the company. Therefore, including an employee recognition session can be a great activity to add to your corporate town hall meeting. This session can include anything from a reward for exceptional performance, a promotion or raise, goodie or gifts, a peer nomination, etc. It can also involve rewarding the best-performing employee or department.
#6 Involve Interactive Activities
It is very significant to grab your attendees’ attention and keep them engaged in the meeting throughout. An advanced virtual meeting platform like Dreamcast provides you with countless interactive tools and engaging features that help you enhance your virtual corporate town hall meeting. To ensure interactivity, you can include various engaging games in between the informative sessions to keep your employees involved in the meeting. Following are some of the top interactive features rendered by Dreamcast’s robust virtual meeting platform:
- Multi-Format Communication
- Networking Lounges
- Chat Rooms
- Virtual Coffee Breaks
- Live Polls and Contests
- Breakout Sessions
- Virtual Escape Room
- Signature Wall
- Photo Booth
- And a lot more
#7 Include Meal Sessions
While giving a break to your employees from all the informative and important sessions at your town hall meeting, provide a meal break too. In case of an on-site corporate meeting, the meal break is arranged in a hall where all the employees can interact while having their meals. However, a virtual event platform lets you arrange a virtual meal break where you can send out food coupons beforehand and enjoy a virtual meal session with all.
#8 Follow-Up
After the successful execution of your corporate town hall meeting, don’t forget to follow up with all your attendees. You can share an official e-mail with all the participants, thanking them for their presence at the meeting. Also, you can include a recap of the town hall meeting through digital documents in the mail. These digital documents can also include significant presentations that can be helpful for your employees.
