Meeting planning with the MeetingWizard online tool

Planning a meeting on a date when everyone who needs to attend can show up is often time consuming. It can 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 to all the trouble. In addition, time is money and planning for lost time can be costly for the business. If there was an easier and cheaper way to plan a meeting, shouldn’t most professionals take advantage of it? That way it is readily available through the online tool called MeetingWizard (one word).

MeetingWizard is designed to facilitate meeting planning related to meeting times and attendance. The basic tool is free on the Internet and only requires that the meeting organizer and meeting invitees have email accounts. That means it is available to everyone doing business that may require meetings! To use the tool, search for MeetingWizard (without spaces) online.

When you check out the tool, check out the online walkthrough, which is a slideshow on how simple it is to follow the process. The tour indicates three main steps in using the tool. These are:

1. The meeting organizer creates a meeting request proposing dates and times to potential invitees (from one to fifty).
2. Invitations respond online showing availability after email is received.
3. The meeting organizer reviews availability and confirms to invitees the best time for the meeting.

There’s a bit more than the three-step process above indicates. This is because some of the process steps involve multiple screens to read or complete as a sub-process of the main step. However, the screens are easy to use and not cluttered with information, so the novice user will not get lost in the technology. To start the process, the meeting organizer must register as a new user. Signing up 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 enter the tool. Once logged in, the user simply follows the screens to perform the necessary steps.

If this is not enough to stimulate interest, visitors can go to the website’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) page. This is where current users and visitors 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 simple 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 how-to instructions is for the meeting planner only. Referring to this information step by step can be helpful as part of the demonstration of how to use the tool. Following the demo with general guidelines for planning meetings would also be a good idea to train meeting planners. Instructions for invited meeting attendees are also available. If the instructions are helpful, it might be a good idea to include the link to these instructions in the meeting invitation until people are comfortable with the tool.

In addition to sending emails, the tool also allows the creation of an address book to store the minimum of email addresses and names. Other fields in the standard address book, 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 every time they need to send meeting requests or notifications. The user can create an address book or import data from an existing address book, which saves even more time. Current options for import include Microsoft Outlook, Excel, and Word applications; more Netscape Messenger; Yahoo! and text files or separated by commas. The address book also has group creation and sorting 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 you need to check multiple dates and times with potential guests, consider using this online alternative. It can save time for meeting organizers and invitees. Also, the Meeting Assistant tool can eliminate all those repetitive phone calls and back and forth emails just trying to find a good time for the meeting. The time and resources saved can translate into dollars saved for the business.