Meeting is a wonderful thing!

Two or more getting together for a specific purpose...

What makes a good meeting?

What do you think are the characteristics of a good meeting?

What about available time, a time frame?
What about an agenda?
What about objectives and goals achieved?
What about meeting control with an effective chair present?

What about preparations?
Emotions kept under control or what?
What are the main functions of the chairperson at a meeting?

Interruptions, having a break, closing the meeting..?

The chair starts the meeting, makes an opening statement and introduces the topic/subject.

The chair introduces the agenda.

The chair invites the first speaker with a proposal, preventing interruptions of course.

Participants must/should assess the other participants.
Can I use a technical jargon or not?
What kind of people am I dealing with here?
What's their knowledge and level of interest?
What's necessary, useful or supefluous?

Don't talk too long!

Be specific when necessary!

There are lots of things to be said about meeting and meetings and what's been mentioned here is just a tiny portion of the cake, a few basic ingredients. 

Now it's about time you get together in groups of let's say five or seven and decide on an agenda for each group and decide on who's going to act chair.

Let's rock and roll!

After you've practiced your first round of meetings you should sum up your experiences in writing. Make one report per group which you'll submit to your teacher, and then get together and discuss your impressions and experiences.

There's a very good book on this topic called How to Run a Successful Meeting in Half the Time by Milo O. Frank 1989 published by Corgi (Transworld Publishers Ltd).

Another good book on this topic of meeting is Professional Meeting Management
-A European Handbook- published by MPI (Meeting Professionals International), Brussels, Belgium.