The ultimate guide on how to run an effective meeting

You’re attending a meeting where people seem restless—half are unsure why they’re there, while discussions go in circles without any clear outcome. By the end, everyone walks out drained, wondering, “Did we actually accomplish anything? We’ll need to schedule another meeting to wrap this up.” 

Contrast that with an organized, engaging meeting where each person knows their role, contributes meaningfully, and leaves with clear action points. The latter sounds much better, right? Productive meetings aren’t just about sticking to a schedule and ensuring they end on time—they foster focused collaboration that leads to tangible results. 

Discover how to run an effective meeting with best practices for both in-person and virtual settings, plus the tools to ensure every discussion drives action.

4 steps to run a successful meeting

How do you run meetings that move your project forward rather than turning out to be another waste of time? Here are some steps for running effective meetings: 

1. Set a clear agenda

A movie without a plot doesn’t paint a very appealing picture. Imagine characters just meandering about, having conversations that make no sense. 

Now, imagine this happening every week or at daily stand-up meetings with your team. It would lead to utter frustration and an unproductive workspace. This is what happens when meetings don’t have a clear agenda. A new survey by Atlassian found that meetings are ineffective 72% of the time. 

Setting a well-structured agenda that outlines clear goals and discussion points keeps things on track and ensures everyone leaves with a purpose. Attendees know what to expect, stay focused, and spend their valuable time wisely.

Using AI-powered meeting tools to auto-generate and distribute agendas in advance ensures everyone is aligned before the meeting even starts and reduces manual prep time.

So, how do you build a clear agenda that turns your meetings into productive discussions? Here are some actionable tips: : 

• Start with a single, clear purpose. Ask yourself, “What do we need to accomplish by the end of this meeting?” Whether it’s to brainstorm, problem-solve, update on project progress, or make key decisions, defining the meeting’s purpose helps you decide what to discuss. 
• List specific topics. Ensure your agenda items align with the meeting’s purpose. For instance, if the goal is to review a product launch, topics could include marketing strategies, timelines, and potential customer feedback. 
• Prioritize key points. Structure the agenda to prioritize the most pressing or challenging items first. After 10 to 15 minutes of focused activity, attention spans tend to wane, so it’s wise to address the more complex issues up front when energy is highest.
• Assign a time for each topic. Allocate a specific time frame for each agenda item to help meeting participants manage their input and keep the meeting moving without going over time. Consider limiting discussions to 10 to 15 minutes per topic for a one-hour meeting.
• Limit the agenda to three to five key items. If the list grows longer, host a separate meeting or break down topics into smaller, actionable steps.

Pro tips: Set up an AI-powered meeting recording tool (like Loom) to automatically transcribe and summarize your meetings. Use Loom to record a pre-meeting agenda walkthrough, so everyone can review the agenda and context in advance.

Sending your team a pre-meeting video lets you walk through the agenda points with annotations for context and visuals, creating clarity before they even join the call. 

Let’s say you’re planning a product launch and need to cover market research data, customer personas, and budget forecasts. You can walk through these points ahead of time by recording a Loom video. You can explain details as you would in person, adding annotations to indicate which data points or strategies matter most.  

Your colleagues can rewatch the video at their convenience, as often as necessary, so they can attend the meeting confident and well-prepared.

2. Invite the right participants and encourage participation 

You’re in a packed meeting, but only a handful of people are speaking. Half the room looks bored, and the other half is checking their phones. Including too many people—or worse, the wrong people—can turn even the most promising meeting into a productivity black hole.

The solution is to invite only the relevant team members directly responsible for or impacted by the meeting’s outcome. For team members who don’t need to participate but must remain informed, sending them a Loom video summary or using AI-powered meeting summaries to keep them in the loop can be a great solution. Highlight key points from the meeting, giving your colleagues a clear, concise overview without needing to sift through lengthy notes.

Once you’ve got the right people, it’s all about creating an environment where everyone feels they can contribute. 

Here are some tips to encourage people to speak up and share innovative ideas:

• Set the tone early: Start the meeting by inviting input. A simple “I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts” can make a difference.

• Assign rotating roles: For recurring meetings, try assigning different team members to lead discussions or present updates.

• Use “round-robin” style discussions: This way, each person gets a chance to share, promoting a balanced flow of ideas.

Pro tip: Use tools like Loom for asynchronous input and alignment. Encourage team members who need time to reflect before speaking to share insights via Loom video responses before or after the meeting. Leverage AI-generated recaps to automatically share meeting notes and action items with stakeholders via Confluence or Slack integrations.

This will help you include voices that might otherwise get overshadowed in live discussions, accommodate diverse communication styles and time zones, and streamline follow-ups.

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3. Stay on topic

Just under 40% of attendees fall asleep during meetings. Imagine what happens to the other 60%—zoning out, scrolling, or constantly checking the clock. 

Meetings that lose focus can be draining. Staying on topic can make all the difference between a productive meeting and one that puts half the room to sleep.

One way to stay on topic is by assigning a facilitator to keep things on track. The facilitator will monitor the discussion and steer conversations toward the set agenda if they stray. 

For longer, unrelated discussions, use a tool like Loom. If a colleague has insights on an upcoming project’s side issue, they can record a video and share the Loom link afterward. Team members can watch it on their own time, leaving the live meeting focused and on point. Similarly, timestamped automated meeting notes allow team members to jump directly to the relevant sections of the meeting recording, rather than watching the entire session.

4. Summarize action items

Your meeting went well. Everyone stayed on track according to the agenda and contributed to the discussion. However, momentum can still fade if no one knows what to do next. 

Summarizing action items at the end of each meeting prevents this common pitfall by ensuring everyone walks away with a purpose. 

It involves giving everyone a clear map with tasks, each with a clear owner and timeline. Specific deadlines add accountability and urgency so that tasks don’t get lost or indefinitely postponed. AI-powered meeting tools (like Loom) can automatically identify, assign, and log action items, reducing manual note-taking and follow-up.

Pro tip: Use Loom to record your action items and make meeting notes actionable with video. Plus, Loom AI will automatically identify action items and send a summary to all participants, which can be pushed to Confluence for collaborative follow-up. AI-generated summaries and action items also make it easier for absentees to catch up and for teams to stay aligned on priorities.

As you speak, Loom’s AI picks up on phrases like “Let’s have Taylor draft the outline by Thursday” or “Jessica, you’ll coordinate with the design team.” 

Loom automatically logs these as actionable tasks, so your team has a clear, AI-generated list of what needs to happen next—no guesswork, no missed details.

Best practices for running in-person meetings

How do you get the most out of an in-person gathering? Think of it as setting the stage for a play: A successful meeting requires clear roles, a plot, and no random surprises.

Here’s an overview of good meeting practices for running in-person meetings: 

• Follow up immediately. The meeting doesn’t end when people leave the room. Use AI-powered tools (like Loom) to automatically generate and distribute meeting summaries and action items within 24 hours. This ensures everyone receives a clear, actionable recap, keeps the momentum going, and helps you quickly turn decisions into actions.

• Assign pre-meeting roles for collaborative leadership. Rather than having one person drive the meeting, assign rotating roles like a “facilitator” and “question leader.” Assign a designated member or use AI-powered tools (like Loom) to take meeting notes and ensure these are stored in your team’s shared space (e.g., Confluence) so that all voices are captured, even if someone can’t attend in person. Assigning roles gives everyone a sense of purpose and keeps the meetings from going off-topic. 

• Leverage visuals and physical props. Visuals, charts, or props help everyone understand complex points faster while capturing and retaining attention. For example, Amazon’s famous “6-pager memo” system encourages using clear visuals and data instead of lengthy verbal explanations. Use Loom to pre-record walkthroughs of intricate charts or props, allowing attendees to revisit essential points after the meeting. Embed these videos in your Confluence agenda or Slack channel for convenient access.

• Break up long meetings with micro-breaks. For longer meetings, integrate micro-breaks every 45 minutes or so to help your team refresh their focus. For example, give them two minutes to check their devices or stand up and stretch. This practice sustains energy levels and enhances engagement.

• Use Loom to replace nonessential meetings with asynchronous updates. Not every brief update or progress report requires a full meeting. Recording a quick Loom video is a great alternative for sharing updates or walk-through reports, reducing the number of in-person meetings while keeping everyone informed. 

Best practices for running virtual meetings

Virtual meetings have their fair share of pitfalls, including endless audio lag, mysterious echoing, or “Can you hear me now?” struggles. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

With a few tweaks, virtual team meetings can be just as productive and even more convenient than in-person meetings. Here’s how to get it right:

• Use interactive features for engagement: Virtual meetings lack the advantage of in-person cues. However, you can still keep attendees engaged by using interactive features like polls, screen sharing, and breakout rooms to make the meeting feel more dynamic.

• Leverage tools like Loom for pre-meeting prep and follow-up: Send a Loom video before the meeting to share issues with your team beforehand. Loom videos make it easier to break down complex points in advance, reducing the time spent on lengthy explanations during the meeting. 

• Start with a strong connection and setup: Nothing derails a virtual meeting faster than technical glitches. Ensure everyone has checked their Wi-Fi, camera, and audio settings beforehand.

• Make it accessible and inclusive: Record meetings and provide transcripts or AI-generated summaries for those unable to attend live. Automatically share AI-powered meeting notes and action items in shared spaces (e.g., Confluence pages with Loom AI recaps), ensuring all visuals are accessible (high contrast, alt text, captions).

• Use AI-powered meeting tools for automation: Use meeting AI tools like Loom to automatically record, transcribe, and summarize meetings. AI creates concise summaries, chapters, and action items, sending recap emails to invitees. Integrate Loom with Confluence to publish recaps and action items. Use Rovo to extract insights and convert action items into Jira tasks for seamless workflow integration.

Try Loom’s AI-powered meeting notes to keep everyone aligned and make your next virtual meeting more productive.

Tools and resources for effective meetings

The right tools not only make meetings more efficient but also help teams collaborate before, during, and after meetings, whether in-person, remote, or async.

Loom 

Loom is a central hub for your asynchronous videos, meeting recordings, and AI-powered meeting notes. It also natively integrates with Confluence and Jira, so meeting outcomes become actionable tasks and searchable documentation without manual copy-pasting.

Using Loom for asynchronous videos lets you capture your screen, webcam, or both, which makes it perfect for product demos or visual updates. You can skip a meeting but still get all the details and context in just a few minutes—no schedule conflicts, no time wasted. 

Need to walk your team through a project update? Decline the meeting and record a Loom video instead. Send it to multiple team members simultaneously by copying and pasting a quick shareable link or embedding it in email and communication tools like Slack. Team members can watch at their convenience, freeing up live meeting time for real-time collaboration rather than repetitive updates. 

If you prefer live discussions, Loom’s Meeting Recorder & Note Taker enables you to record any meeting (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams). Loom AI will then generate summaries, chapters, and clearly assigned action items. Recaps are automatically sent to invitees and shared through a Confluence page for collaborative follow-up.

Features: 

• Async video messaging: Record and share updates or walkthroughs asynchronously, reducing the need for live meetings and supporting diverse communication styles and time zones.
• Meeting recording & AI-powered meeting notes: Record any meeting (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams) and let Loom AI generate summaries, assign action items and send recaps to invitees.
• Integrations: Loom integrates natively with Confluence and Jira, making meeting outcomes actionable and searchable without manual copy-pasting.
• Comments and reactions: Turn passive videos and recordings into two-way conversations—viewers can react to the video with emojis and leave comments at specific moments.
• Edit by transcript: Easily edit the text transcript, which will directly update the video content, too. 
• AI-powered summaries and editing: Let Loom AI generate concise video summaries, titles, and chapters automatically. It also helps polish your recordings by removing filler words like “um,” “ah,” and awkward pauses.

Pricing: You can use Loom for free to record up to 25 videos and meeting recordings. For more advanced features and unlimited recordings, paid plans start at $15 per user per month when paid annually. 

Miro 

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard that allows teams to brainstorm, plan, and visually map ideas in real-time or asynchronously. It works as a virtual canvas everyone can see and interact with—making remote meetings engaging and action-oriented. 

Features: 

• Templates for every need: Get a head start with predesigned templates for agile workflows, general brainstorming sessions, project mapping, and more. 
• Sticky notes, diagrams, and mind maps: Recreate the look and feel of a physical whiteboard with ready-to-use elements like colorful sticky notes, tables, and graphs. 
• Miro AI: Leverage AI to create summaries and get feedback on your projects.

Pricing: There’s a free forever plan. Paid plans start at $8 per member per month billed annually. d annually. 

Fellow 

Fellow is an AI-powered meeting management tool that helps you set agendas, assign action items, and document decisions in one place, reducing the chance of post-meeting confusion or forgotten tasks.

Features: 

• AI meeting transcripts: Capture meeting transcriptions and generate action items and summaries when you sync with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.  
• Real-time collaborative notes: Get immediate feedback when team members add thoughts and track insights as they happen.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $7 per user per month, billed annually. A free plan allows up to five meeting recordings per user. 

Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an AI-based meeting note-taker that records and transcribes meetings and creates searchable summaries and action items.

Features: 

• Speaker identification: Automatically identify and tag different speakers, clarifying conversations with multiple contributors.
• Searchable transcripts: Easily find specific details or decisions via keyword with Otter.ai ’s fully searchable transcripts.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month, billed annually.

Fireflies.ai

Features: 

• Automatic meeting transcription: Record and transcribe meetings hosted in Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, and more.
• Extensive search: Scan your library and meeting transcripts to find the information you need.
• Upload files for transcription: Use Fireflies.ai to transcribe podcasts, videos, and other audio files—it supports MP3, WAV, and MP4 formats.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month when billed annually.

Make every meeting count with Loom

Meetings don’t have to be the usual productivity drain. By setting clear agendas, inviting the right people, and wrapping up with actionable next steps, your meetings can better align your team and genuinely move projects forward, in-person or online.

With Loom’s AI-powered meeting notes, you can automatically generate summaries, chapters, and action items, making it easy for everyone to stay aligned and follow up, whether they attended live or not.

Try a new approach to your next meeting: Start by setting up AI-powered meeting notes with Loom, set an agenda with clear goals, keep it concise, and let Loom capture your action items. Leverage Loom’s Confluence and Jira integrations to collaborate on meeting notes and next steps. Use your shared notes and Loom videos to embed previews of complicated meeting topics in agendas, share follow-ups, or summaries visually.

Ready to enhance your meeting efficiency? Use Loom to create impactful and collaborative meetings that move work forward. Start a free trial today! 

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