How to prepare for an international meeting

Chairing international meetings - 2

Keeping control of the meeting

As a chair, you should work through the sections on the agenda, making sure people stick to the point, and that there are enough contributions for decisions to be made or action to be taken. However, if the meeting appears to be "going round in circles", you should also be able to move the discussion on and defer action until more information has been gathered.

Keeping the meeting focused on the objectives

We're getting a little sidetracked here. Can we stick to the main points?"


"Let's not get off the subject."

"Can we get back to the agenda?"
 
Moving on to a different point


Could we move on to item 2 on the agenda?"


"If nobody has anything else to add, perhaps we could look at the next point."



Deferring action



"I think we should leave this for now."

"Can we come back to this point later?"

Asking for people's opinions


"I'd like to give the floor to…"

"Does anyone have anything else to add?"

"What are your views on this?"



Asking for agreement or a vote

"Can we have a show of hands?"

"Can we put this to the vote?"

"Are we in agreement on this?"


Clarifying and summarising

"So, in a nutshell, you're saying…"

"Could I just clarify something here…"

"I'd just like to summarise the key points."

"So, to summarise..."


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