Evaluating a meeting is a useful task for you but also for everyone who attends the meeting.  Getting everyone to feedback will help encourage interaction in the meeting and people will buy into the content of the meeting more if they feel they have input into the running and process of the meeting.

To get the best out of people the meeting has to be of benefit for them and something they enjoy.  Different things will excite different people and it is worth considering a varied agenda that will have elements to excite and engage with all of the individual people attending the meeting.

Evaluate during the meeting

It is amazing how often people will complain about a meeting being a complete waste of time but only after the meeting. It is a good idea to change the style or running of meeting during the meeting if you feel it is not going well.  If you are not sure it may be worth checking in with people on whether they want to change the running order of the meeting.  This can be quite difficult to do during a meeting without it feeling like the meeting is going off track but asking if there is something worth changing may also be a way of keeping people on track and focussed on what the end objective is.

At the end of meetings and particularly if there will be follow-up meetings it is really useful to ask people for their feedback but also to speak informally with people before the next meeting.  This will give you a sense of anything you need to change in the future.

Evaluating the meeting can also form part of the closing of the meeting.

Downloads:

Managing Meetings.pdf

A guide to managing meeting.

Planning a Great Meeting.pdf

How to plan for a great meeting.