Tips for organizing an Eu project partner meeting

Nicoleta Susanu
EUrOPA PROMpT @nicoletasusanu

 Identify specific objectives and make sure that they guide the
entire meeting. When planning your meeting, be clear what
you want to achieve by the end of it. This will help identify
your key messages, meeting purpose and key topics for the
agenda.
 After the goals are established it’s time to specify the roles of
each partner.

 The date and timing should be suitable for all the partners.
 It’s difficult in a huge EU partnership, with more than 10
organizations, to agree on a commune date. For this reason,
scheduling the meeting in advance is a must.
 I suggest to schedule in advance during the kick of meeting
all the project partner meetings.

 For the kick of meeting you can use free tools like Doodle,
Outlook or Google calendar to schedule the meeting.
 Be sure that you start to organize the meeting on time in
order to allow your partners to organize their travel in
advance by saving money on accommodation and travel.

 Normally, two staff from each partner organization shall
attend the meeting. Anyway, could happen that some partner
can’t attend the meeting in the presence but he/she wants to
join via online. Be sure that you are able to provide useful
tools to that partner to connect to the meeting, for example
via Skype, Webex room or Zoom.
 It’s also important to identify who can help you – ideally,
you’ll have a team of people with different strengths.

 It is better to organize the meeting
in the first part of the day when you
are still fresh and full of force,
enthusiasm and brilliant ideas.
 Never start a partner meeting at
lunchtime.
 Draft the agenda and ask the
partners to comment on that before
the event to ensure that all essential
issues are covered.

Decide how much time to devote
to each item and what order
makes sense.
Consider how long people are
sitting down – the average
concentration span is about 20
minutes for any one topic.
Don’t sit for more than two hours
at a time. The longer your
meeting, the harder it will be for
people to remain focused, so it’s
wise to underestimate how much
your group can cover in the
allotted time.

Allow sufficient time for breaks and social time/networking,
particularly for long meetings by including refreshments,
lunch, at least one partner dinner and cultural events. Inform
the partners in advance which cost they may cover for the
lunch and dinner.
For some projects, as Erasmus plus, it is possible for the
partner in charge of organizing the partner meeting to cover
for one day the cost of the lunch/dinner. This means that the
partners attending the meeting can’t claim that cost.

Assign roles to participants including the name of the minute
taker and the meeting coordinator.

 Be sure to provide in advance a dedicated info pack
containing all the necessary information to reach the meeting
location. In case you can’t reach some agreement with some
local hotels, try to suggest those easy to reach them and
which are close to the meeting venue.
 Be sure that you can keep the track of the travel itinerary of
each partner in order to be able to support them in case of
necessity. Encourage people to travel together as this allows
them to get to know each other in an informal setting.
 In addition, create a list with dietary needs (such as
vegetarians) in order to organize the refreshments.

 Compile a list of all equipment, notes, name plates and
materials needed at the venue. Check out the venue in
advance.

 Location – travel times, transport to the venue. It's easy to
find? Provide the information in the info pack and support the
partners to reach the location.
 Room Size – enough room for everyone together, plus space
for break-out groups.
 Suitability of furniture and facilities – the number of chairs
and tables, comfort, equipment availability, location of power
points, parking, access for disabled.
 Arrange chairs in a semi-circle or circle where practical.
 Arrange paper, pens, sticky notes, whiteboards, and overhead
projectors so they’re in easy reach.

 Check in advance that the internet connection is working and
that all the presentations of the speakers have been uploaded
on the pc used for the meeting.
 Don’t forget to test the connection of the pc to the internet
and to the projector!
 Try out equipment to ensure it works and you know how to
work it.
 Lighting/blackout for slides and overheads.
 You will need to take some picture for dissemination. Be sure
that you have a good light for pictures.

 Heating and fresh air. At any meeting, one of the partner’s
main goals is to ensure that all attendees are comfortable and
productive. But often, the temperature of the room is neither
comfortable nor conducive to productivity. Some people are
too cold, while others are too hot, and an extreme in either
direction of the thermostat can affect mood and efficiency. A
temperature of approximately 22 degrees Celsius is the ideal
meeting room temperature.
 Be sure that the toilets are accessible (that the flashing is
working, you have soap, water and paper). Seems obviously,
but I can assure that it isn’t.

 Access to refreshment facilities .
 Organise refreshments so that they’re ready when you need
them.

 Consider having people at the entrance
to welcome the partners, hand out an
information package, or gather
registrations.
 Never let the partners alone in the
room!
 Welcomes and introductions are
important to help people to get
oriented and feel at ease. For
meetings, workshops, and seminars,
introduce the organizers, speakers, the
facilitator or chairperson at the
beginning. Where time allows, ask all
participants to introduce themselves,
especially where people will work
together later on.

 Print in advance the attendance list for each meeting day in
order to be sign it by each partner. Be sure that you are
respecting the programme visual identity or template!
 Write up an action plan with allocated tasks and organize one
person to check periodically that things are on schedule.
 Be sure that you have a minute taker.
 Keep the event moving by restricting the length of comments
and speeches; do not allow any long monologues.
 Everyone should be able to contribute constructively to the
discussion and activities. Encourage participation when
facilitating.
◦ Use inclusive activities or methods to run the meeting.
◦ Provide time for feedback at critical points in the meeting and at the end.

 Acknowledge all contributions on the day with public and
personal thanks, including participants as well as the people
who made it possible.
 Don’t forget to support the partners in case they need any
travel help.
 Check that all the partners arrived saved home by sending an
email or contacting them by phone.
 Prepare in advance an Evaluation meeting feedback sheet to
identify what worked and didn’t work for people at the
meeting.
 The partners must be honest in order to have a clear view of
which part of the meeting need to be improved.
 Don’t forget to send the minutes in maximum 10 days!

 Dissemination is an essential part of the entire project. All
measures which aim at promoting the functions of the project
and reaching productive results, also support dissemination.
Draw up a list of key phrases that illustrate the goals and
desired results of your project meeting.

 Have you considered taking any training in the field of
communication or including a communication expert on your
team?
 Does he/she know how to share pictures on different social
media channels?
 Does he/she know which are the last social media image
dimensions for 2018 for each channel?

 Be sure that the staff in charge of sharing pictures on
different social media channels during the partner meeting
has the right skills.
 Be sure that the pictures shared are having a good quality.

 Take photos and videos of at every meeting and event you
organize. Build your own media gallery with images and
videos that illustrate the work you and your partners are
doing.
 Upload quality visuals at proper dimensions.
 Encourage partner to share posts regarding the meeting on
their business social channels and project social media
accounts.
 Use a project #hastag.

During my work experience, I faced some situation
which in my opinion are not reflecting the
professionalism of some people. Nowadays, most of the
people are prone to be more informal than formal
during the meetings. This could be ok but dispends on
the project typology. For an Erasmus K1 activity, being
informal at the partner meeting is normal, as the main
target group is youth, but for other EU projects, I
suggest to use the formal code dress or something in
the middle.
 I would like to share the following info graphic How to
Dress for a Business Meeting. Yes, Seriously.
(Infographic) published by ©
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238953

 Have you found this presentation useful for your
organization? If yes, don’t forget to like, share and comment
your experience with me and my community on Facebook.
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