When you’re the meeting host, after the meeting begins, the first thing is to provide context to your attendees, then state clear goals for the meeting.

Why these?

• Providing context helps the attendees better understand why this meeting is held, what it is about, what work has been done, what still needs to be done, etc. You may also take less than a minute to get agreement from your audience on the outline of the presentation, process of reviewing topics, before you go on.
• Stating clear goals upfront gives your audience a focus point, so that they know what they expect to walk away with, what the next steps you’re looking for, and thus they can better follow your presentation and respond to the areas that relevant for the goals.

Then, dive into the meeting. Go over your major points, encourage discussion among the audience and keep an eye on time control.

At the end of the meeting, recap discussion conclusions, revisit your goals and make sure they’re covered, ask the audience for last-minute questions and then adjourn this very productive meeting.