Scheduling a meeting on a date when everyone who needs to attend can show up is often time consuming. It may mean making a lot of phone calls or sending multiple emails back and forth. That seems like a hassle, so the meeting must be important to go through so much trouble. More time is money, and downtime scheduling can be costly to the business. If there were an easier and cheaper way to plan a meeting, shouldn’t most professionals take advantage of it? That form is readily available through the online tool called MeetingWizard (one word).
MeetingWizard is designed to make meeting planning easier with regard to meeting times and attendance. The basic tool is free on the Internet and only requires the meeting organizer and meeting invitees to have email accounts. That means it’s available to everyone who does business and may require meetings! To use the tool, search for MeetingWizard (no spaces) online.
When checking out the tool, check out the online walkthrough, which is a slideshow of how simple the process is to follow. The walkthrough indicates three main steps in using the tool. These are:
- The meeting organizer creates a meeting request proposing dates and times to potential invitees (from one to fifty).
- Guests respond online showing availability after receiving the email.
- The meeting organizer reviews availability and confirms the best meeting time to invite.
There’s a little more to it than the three-step process above indicates. This is because some of the steps in the process involve multiple screens to read or complete as a sub-process of the main step. However, the screens are easy to use and not overloaded with information, so the novice user won’t get lost in the technology. To start the process, the meeting organizer must register as a new user. Registering for a free user account means entering certain personal information, including your email address, and selecting a password for your account. Future logins will require the email and password to access the tool. Once logged in, the user simply follows the screens to perform the necessary steps.
If this isn’t enough to spark interest, visitors can go to the website’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. This is where current visitors and users find answers to common questions about using the MeetingWizard tool. After reviewing the tour’s online help features and FAQs, this tool should require very little additional training for most computer users. If you want, you can find easy step-by-step instructions for beginners by searching the web for “How to use the MeetingWizard tool to plan a meeting date.” This additional set of practical instructions is for the meeting planner only. Referencing this step-by-step information can be helpful as part of demonstrating how to use the tool. Following the demo with general guidelines for planning meetings would also be a good idea for training meeting planners. Instructions for invited meeting attendees are also available. If the instructions are useful, it might be a good idea to include the link to these instructions in the meeting invite until people feel comfortable with the tool.
Apart from sending emails, the tool also allows the creation of an address book to store the minimum number of email addresses and names. Other standard address book fields, such as title, company, and phone numbers, are optional. Using this can save the user time as they would not have to re-enter commonly used email addresses each time they need to send notifications or meeting requests. The user can create an address book or import data from an existing address book, further saving time. Current import options include Microsoft Outlook, Excel, and Word applications; more Netscape Messenger; yahoo; and text files or separated by commas. The address book also has sorting and grouping options that can be used if it contains a large number of addresses. Groups can be used to create teams of people so that the user does not have to select meeting attendees individually.
Remember that there are easier and cheaper ways to plan a meeting by taking advantage of the Internet, email and MeetingWizard. The next time you’re planning a meeting where multiple dates and times need to be verified with potential invitees, consider using this online alternative. It can save meeting organizers and invitees time. Also, the Meeting Wizard tool can eliminate all those repetitive phone calls and emails going back and forth trying to find a good time to meet. The time and resources saved can translate into dollars saved for the business.