Town Hall

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What is a Town Hall Business Meeting?

A Town Hall Business Meeting is generally an organization wide business meeting in which an executive report is made and then employees or guests have an opportunity to ask questions, and engage with business executives.

Town Hall Business Meetings can be held in large conference rooms, corporate cafeterias, hotel ballrooms and across many time zones and continents. An effective Town Hall Business Meeting usually begins with a "State of Affairs" presentation and includes considerable time for questions and answers. The term "All-Hands" meeting is often used interchangeably with Town Hall meeting, however a Town Hall meeting is more question and answer based while All-Hands meetings are generally more focused on conveying a message and making a key presentation.

Multi location Town Hall Business Meetings

Using video communications systems and a meeting moderator, business executives can hold Town Hall Business Meetings in multiple time zones at once. A typical format is for the executives to make a presentation (which often includes a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation) and then the meeting transitions to a lengthy question and answer period.

Questions and answers are moderated so each location's participants can ask questions and even interact with executives about their answers. The moderator moves from location to location, announcing each as the question and answer session proceeds until closing remarks and a summary statement are again made by the host location executives.

What does a Multi location Town Hall Business Meeting cost?

Cost vary considerably based on the locations themselves, however, some good budgetary rules generally apply.

In general, the host location requires special attention, extra microphones, a camera and operator as well as a good audio system. We recommend a budget of $20,000 USD for a two to three hour meeting for the host site. Remote locations, are about half the cost of the host site and so budgeting $10,000 USD for each additional site is a good practice.

If the locations are at hotel facilities such as ballrooms or conference facilities the cost to communicate between them adds about $5,000 per location, bringing a budgetary cost to about $25,000 per host site and $15,000 for each remote site.

Food and beverage services add to the costs, as many other hotel or conference facility services.

Advantages of a Town Hall Business Meeting

All employees get one message in a lively forum that comes close to the experience of having executives travel to each location. The key advantage of a Town Hall Business Meeting is a well orchestrated question and answer session. Using a "Round Robin" moderated format ensures that each location's attendees get the full attention of all executives with ample time to ask questions and to add follow-up questions.

When employees have the opportunity to ask questions and to see and hear a live presentation, a Town Hall Business meeting comes alive in a way a telephone conference or recording cannot.

Disadvantages of a Town Hall Business Meeting

Town Hall Business Meetings can be time consuming to organize. A common error is poor venue selection. Many organizations mistakenly try to squeeze too many employees into a large in-house conference room and this makes the host site visually less appealing to remote attendees.

Another common mistake which can cause Town Hall Business meetings to be less effective is poor executive attention to rehearsing. When executives understand the agenda, timing and flow of a Town Hall Business Meeting, the event can run extremely well. If they devote too little or no time to rehearsal and planning, they will likely stumble and create confusion during the Round Robin Q&A period.

Event planners and specialists in video and audio communications can assist in overcoming some of the challenges of running a Town Hall Business Meeting. TKO Video Communications specializes in this area and can help overcome the challenges of organizing and conducting your first or your next Town Hall style meeting.