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30 Meeting Agenda Examples [and Free Templates]

Prepare for your meetings ahead of time and execute them with confidence with these meeting agenda templates.

By Fellow.app  •   July 9, 2021  •   10 min read

Any successful meeting starts with creating effective meeting agendas. Without writing out the goals of the meeting, creating agenda items, action items, and writing meeting minutes, it’s going to be very difficult to have a productive meeting. Team meetings require time to prepare and time to create a meeting agenda so that you can avoid your discussion becoming a waste of time. 

There are all kinds of different meeting agenda templates that you can use specific to the type of meeting you’re running and what you and your team members are trying to accomplish. In order to highlight the importance of a meeting agenda and keep you as organized and productive as possible, Fellow has created 25 meeting agenda examples and templates for you to try out. Keep scrolling to check them out!

The importance of a meeting agenda 

A team meeting agenda is important because they provide you with a framework that keeps you organized, on track, and on time. Whether you’re having a formal meeting or an informal discussion, each agenda topic is assigned a specific amount of time so that you can achieve the goals of the meeting within the timeframe you have available. When you create a meeting agenda and collaborate with the meeting participants on it, everyone can contribute their suggestions so that every voice is heard. Overall, meeting agendas allow your team to be organized, prepared, and on time. 

What items should be included in the agenda?

Now that we’ve highlighted the importance of using a meeting agenda, let’s take a look at some non-negotiable items that should be included in your meeting agenda:

1 Talking Points 

The meeting participants should populate the meeting agenda with discussion items or talking points in advance of the meeting. This encourages collaboration and ensures that everyone has a voice and say as to what will be discussed during the meeting. These talking points can then be refined into meeting agenda items, which are major themes to be spoken about. 

2 Supporting Documents and Graphics 

Supporting documents and graphics are great background information. When sent in advance, they can prepare the meeting participants for the discussion ahead. If the documents and graphics can’t be sent in advance, they still become valuable material to hand out before a meeting to give participants a deeper understanding of what’s been discussed. 

3 Past Decisions

Past discussions from previous meetings should be brought up in your upcoming meeting in order to give some background on where the team currently is in achieving the goals of the meeting and the larger, overarching goals. This gives valuable context and allows your meeting to take off from where it left off last time.  

4 Action Items Section 

Along with past decisions, you should go over the action items that were assigned from the previous meeting. This is going to show you and your team what has been accomplished, what still needs to be done and any issues that have arised since meeting last. 

Bonus: Questions and comments 

If you want to add even more value to your meetings, review the talking points and meeting agenda in advance so that you can write out your own questions and comments. That way, if your questions aren’t covered during the meeting, you’re ready to participate and contribute to the conversation, while clarifying what is being discussed. 

Meeting agenda examples for 30 types of meetings

1 Weekly team meeting 

A weekly team meeting is a recurring discussion with your entire team to go over progress and updates. Staff meetings are also the ideal opportunity to celebrate wins, gather feedback, and check on your team’s mood. Creating and sharing a team meeting agenda is going to encourage participation from the rest of your team. 

2 One-on-one meeting 

A one-on-one meeting is dedicated time in your calendar to connect with your direct reports individually to talk about their priorities, challenges, and professional development. Typically, this happens on a quarterly basis. Use a meeting agenda template to maintain consistency across your team and ensure that you (and other leaders on your team) are talking about the right things.

3 Project kickoff meeting 

A project kickoff meeting takes place when you’re about to begin a new project and it’s time to meet with your team to discuss how to successfully execute the mission ahead. The goal of your project kickoff meeting is for all parties involved to leave the meeting with a clear vision of the project and the deliverables that will be necessary for successful execution. 

4 Project status meeting 

The purpose of a project status meeting is to understand the current state of your ongoing project. It’s a good time to celebrate wins, address challenges, find efficiencies, and build team confidence. Sending out a project status meeting agenda lets your team know that you’re punctual, prepared, and ready for an effective status update. 

5 Project retrospective meeting 

Project Retrospective meetings are conducted to revise a completed project. This retrospection allows you and your team to learn from successes, shortcomings and to innovate an approach to move forward and seek improvement for future projects.

6 Stand-up meeting 

Daily stand-up meetings (also known as daily scrums) can help your team remove blockers and work more effectively together. If you want to run daily stand-ups like a pro, the first thing you can do is set up a stand-up meeting template that your team can populate in advance of the meeting.

7 Leadership meeting 

A leadership meeting takes place when senior leadership or a management team organizes and takes part in a recurring meeting, typically once a week. Important information is shared that is needed to make key decisions about the business. This is a meeting where decisions are made, problems are solved and the leadership team discusses important issues such as operations, current processes, and key metrics.

8 Board meeting 

A board meeting is a formal discussion with an executive director, the board of directors, and the board chair of an organization. The board of directors is a group of board members who meet to discuss strategic decisions and planning for the progression and success of the company. The board typically discusses the current position of the organization, engages in goal-setting and strategic planning to achieve major goals.

9 All-hands / Townhall meeting 

An all-hands meeting (also known as a townhall) is an event that brings together every employee in your company. Done right, all-hands can be a great tool to drive transparency, build a sense of community, and keep communication open across teams.

10 Skip-level meeting 

Skip-level one-on-ones are meetings where upper-level leaders “skip” middle-level management to talk directly to the people that work two levels away from them. In other words – if your direct report manages a team, you would be meeting with that person’s direct reports.

11 First team meeting (new managers) 

The first team meeting between you and your new team should have 3 goals: 

1. Making a solid first impression on your team.

2. Establishing trust, respect, and rapport.

3. Setting the tone and expectations for you and your team to succeed together long-term.

To do this, keep this first meeting short and casual. Resist the urge to jump head-first into shop-talk and take the opportunity to get to know your team and really listen to them. You can follow up with your team for more detailed discussions in subsequent one-on-one meetings.

12 Sales and Marketing 1:1 meeting 

Occurring on a regular weekly or bi-weekly cadence, 1:1 sales and marketing meetings most often occur between sales and marketing leaders, commonly the department head of marketing and sales, or VP/Director of marketing and VP/Director of sales. In other cases, organizations will assign and align a leader from each department to be responsible for these regular check-in meetings. 

13 Performance Review meeting 

Quarterly performance reviews are an opportunity to reflect on your direct report’s performance, recognize achievements, and provide them with constructive feedback. Running effective quarterly performance reviews can be challenging for both your employees and yourself, but they are crucial for your team’s growth and success. 

14 OKR goal-setting meeting 

The quarter is coming to an end, and as a manager, you know it can only mean two things: It’s time to evaluate the goals that your teammates set up 90 days ago, and it’s also time to set goals for the upcoming 90 days. As a manager, you probably know that aligning individual goals with company objectives is crucial – yet complicated. To help you achieve this, we curated this OKR template that you can use to set goals with your direct reports.

15 Sales team meeting 

A sales team meeting focuses on current clients, lead generation, and strategizing. Looking for tips and ideas to create the perfect sales meeting agenda? We’ve got you covered! This template will help run sales team meetings that drive great results.

16 Marketing team meeting 

Your marketing team meeting serves the purpose of showing progress on relevant metrics and goals. It’s an opportunity to support one another in assessing the success of your campaigns and testing, identifying challenges and opportunities for new strategic iterations, and lastly, outlining actionable next steps. 

17 New employee first 1:1 meeting 

At Fellow, we believe that the one-on-one meeting is the most powerful tool a manager has to build rapport, motivate people, and become a better leader. If you’re just joining a team, or you recently hired a new employee, one of the most important things you can do is schedule your first one-on-one meeting with them – and make sure that one-on-one meeting runs smoothly.

18 Brainstorming meeting

Have you ever attended a brainstorming session where a couple of outspoken participants dominated the conversation… or hundreds of ideas were thrown around the room but nobody recorded action items? Facilitating a great brainstorming session isn’t easy. However, preparing an agenda in advance will help you structure the conversation and empower everyone on your team to speak up and share their ideas.

19 Formal meeting agenda

Taking meeting minutes at a formal meeting is an important role. This formal meeting agenda template will help you create an effective record of meeting decisions and discussions.

20 Check-in meeting

Having effective check-in meetings with your direct reports will keep you up to date on all important topics such as challenges, learnings, and feedback.

21 One-on-One Meeting with Manager

Ever wondered what topics to cover in a one-on-one meeting with your manager? This one-on-one meeting template is perfect for you!

Some managers don’t set a formal agenda, but since YOU (the direct report) own this meeting, it’s your responsibility to make sure that nothing is left out. Having a good one-on-one meeting agenda is how you make sure you cover the right topics.

22Quarterly OKR Goal-Setting Template

Use this template to set actionable and measurable objectives and key results (OKRs) with your direct reports. This template is here to guide you and your direct reports into effectively setting OKRs that bring impactful results.

23 Growth Team Meeting Template

These meetings are a decision-making forum where a diverse group of team members meet to discuss current growth experiments and growth projects, review results, and determine which growth hacks to test moving forward. 

24 Peer meeting agenda template

These “peer-to-peer one-on-one meetings” are an effective way for you to improve communications throughout the entire organization. With your needs in mind, Fellow.app has put together a peer one-on-one meeting template to facilitate teamwork and collaboration across the company. 

25 Executive team meeting agenda

Executive team meetings are an essential part of running a successful company. Taking place at regular intervals, often weekly or biweekly, executive team meetings are an opportunity to bring the heads of your business together to review performance, raise and resolve issues, discuss new organizational plans, and ensure unity across each department.

26 End of year staff meeting agenda

This template will allow you to host productive end-of-year meetings to celebrate employee results for the year—showcase the company’s progress over the last few months. Recognize team value. Review goals for the upcoming year. Shoutout to all team members for their input in different projects and provide feedback for the forthcoming year. 

27 Project check-in meeting template

Project check-in meetings help teams provide updates on recent projects and challenges and disclose potential issues as they arise. This template will allow teams to identify small wins during the project and review past action items to ensure everyone has started their project tasks. Answer any questions or concerns regarding project action items, and lastly, establish new action items for the next phase of the project.  

28 Torre’s Daily Standup Meeting

Stand-ups can increase communication, motivation, and morale. A daily standup meeting template is essential to running an effective daily standup meeting and keeping your team on track. This template will equip you with questions regarding work done yesterday and today and any blockages each team member may be facing. 

29 Sales team weekly kickoff

A sales kickoff meeting is an opportunity to bring the entire sales team together to share best practices, product updates, new sales strategies, and set priorities for reaching sales goals. Motivate your sales team with this short and effective kickoff meeting by discussing wins, priorities and metrics.

30 Engineering team meeting template

Run weekly engineering team meetings where everyone feels connected, engaged, and inspired to do great work.

Tips to remember (for all types of meetings)

Meeting agenda templates are great tools for keeping you and your team organized, productive, and ultimately, effective. Here are some final tips that we want to leave you with today that you should consider implementing for each meeting that you organize or attend:

  1. Define a clear meeting purpose
  2. Prepare an agenda in advance (no agenda, no attenda!)
  3. Encourage participation from all attendees
  4. Follow the meeting agenda to stay on track
  5. Record decisions and action items
  6. End each meeting with a recap

We hope these meeting agenda examples and templates will serve you and your team well. Give them a try and let us know how it goes! If you found this article helpful, be sure to share it with your friends or colleagues. 

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