We will introduce 9 conference management software options you can try in 2023. Additionally, we’ll cover the fundamentals of conference management, including the steps involved and how to create meeting agendas. Conference management software solutions are digital tools that enable individuals and teams to plan, organize, conduct meetings, and record outcomes.
Here are some of the best conference management software options available today, listed in no particular order:
Calendly
Calendly helps you organize and schedule meetings online through a shareable link. This free conference management software allows you to set your availability in the application and share it via email or embed it on your Calendly page.
Calendly Main Features：
Link your calendar, connect up to six calendars to avoid double bookings.
Customize availability using fine-tuned availability tools, scheduling preferences, buffers, etc.
Share your daily schedule link for easy meeting bookings anywhere online by embedding Calendly and adding available times to emails.
Automate communication with pre- and post-meeting communications to increase attendance rates and save time.
Schedule meetings instantly using Calendly, Marketo, or HubSpot, and qualify, route, and arrange meetings with the right people or resources.
Integration: Connects with over 100 tools, including Zoom, LinkedIn, Gmail, and more, boosting productivity with smart scheduling automation.
Pricing：
Calendly offers a free basic plan. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month.
(Note: The provided website link is for reference and may need to be checked for the latest information.)
Google Meet
Google Meet is a popular meeting management solution that lets you share your videos, screens, and presentations with up to 250 attendees inside and outside your team. It also features live subtitles powered by Google speech-to-text technology. Power your business with tools that help you with everyday tasks like scheduling appointments and email marketing, giving you more time to connect with customers and focus on the work that matters.
Google Meet main features:
Unlock premium video calling, Longer group calls, live streaming, and more in Google Meet
Get 1 TB of secure storage, Storage for all your files and folders.
Give yourself room to grow with expanded Google Drive file storage so you can do your work on-the-go, securely, and from any device.
Advanced appointment scheduling, Create shareable pages for different types of appointments that let customers and partners book meetings with you and that are integrated with Google Calendar.
Send personalized email campaigns, Make your emails stand out with customizable layouts and mail merge.
Pricing
Google Meet is available for free. Premium features are available in Google Workspace Personal plans starting at $6/month.
Chanty
Chanty is an easy-to-use tool for meeting scheduling and team collaboration. It streamlines coordination among your team members through text, audio, and video conferencing features. Additionally, you can share screens, files, links, and allocate tasks to enhance meeting efficiency.
Chanty Key Features:
Join Anytime, Anywhere on Any Device:With Chanty, initiate or join calls from anywhere. Transition seamlessly from typing messages to engaging in video calls with just a click.
Show and Discuss:In video meetings, showcase what you’re working on by sharing your screen or let others share theirs, fostering effective content discussions.
4K Video and Audio:Elevate your meetings with 4K video and audio, supporting up to 1000 video participants and displaying 49 videos on the screen.
Create and Manage Tasks for Productivity:Start new tasks from scratch or transform any message into a task for intelligent collaboration with deadline-driven teams.
Kanban View:Essentially a method to view tasks in rows and columns, akin to popular project management tools today.
Discuss Tasks:Discussion threads immerse you in conversations related to tasks, creating workflows around specific tasks.
Set Deadlines:Utilize Chanty’s deadline feature to receive timely notifications, maintaining control over task status and priority.
Pricing:
Chanty offers a free plan, with paid plans starting at $3 per user per month.
HubSpot
HubSpot is scheduling tool seamlessly integrates with your team’s existing applications and connects to your HubSpot contact database. This ensures that your database grows and stays synchronized every time a potential customer books a meeting. Start booking more appointments with less hassle, freeing up time to focus on more important tasks.
Key Features:
Allow potential customers to book meetings at times convenient for both parties.
Easily schedule more meetings and appointments.
Syncs with Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar.
Pricing:
HubSpot offers a free plan,Paid plans start at $18 per user per month.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based team collaboration software, part of the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 application suite. Core features include business messaging, calling, video conferencing, and file sharing. Teams can be utilized by businesses of various sizes.
Microsoft Teams Key Features:
Seamlessly manage shift schedules, gaining real-time insights into schedules based on employee availability, preferences, skills, and labor laws.
Provide self-service tools for employees to eliminate scheduling chaos, enabling employees to take control of their schedules and focus on their work.
Create optimized schedules for businesses using the right data, whether it’s availability entered by employees or data captured from the workforce management system.
Pricing:
Microsoft Teams is free.Paid plans under Microsoft Office 365 start at $4 per user per month.
Lucid Meetings
Lucid Meetings is a popular meeting management software with guidance for scheduling audio calls and video conferences. The tool also offers a speaker queue and follow-up features.
Lucid Meetings Key Features:
Reports on action items and attendance.
Over 40 meeting templates with agenda drafts.
Built-in document presenter.
Automated task reviews.
Pricing:
Lucid’s plans start at $12.50 per user per month.
MeetingKing
MeetingKing features a robust task manager to assist in completing all tasks. If you’re already using another task manager, you can use Zapier to automatically export all meeting tasks to your chosen task manager. Tasks can be copied to platforms like Asana, Trello, Todoist, Wunderlist, Google Calendar, and more.
MeetingKing Key Features:
Save issues outside the scope of the meeting.
Archive discussions for searching past conversations.
Short notes automatically converted into meeting summaries.
Group tasks by ideas, to-dos, and completed tasks.
Pricing:
MeetingKing is paid plans start at $9.95 per user per month.
Hypercontext
Hypercontext assists managers in having better 1:1s and team meetings. It allows you to build agendas, manage meetings, set goals, and receive feedback—all in one place.
Hypercontext Key Features:
Meeting agendas, collaborative adding of items, recording decisions, and assigning follow-up steps.
Meeting records, recording meeting summaries in your agenda and automatically sending them via email to all participants.
Hold everyone accountable by recording and tracking follow-up steps.
AI-supported insights for better meetings.
Run simple “Ask Me Anything” meetings in your team or organization.
Pricing:
Hypercontext has a permanent free plan. Paid plans for the first 5 users start at $5 per user per month, and for large teams, it starts at $7 per user per month.
Beenote
Beenote is a meeting management solution suitable for your board, executives, and team. It helps organize, conduct meetings, and follow up on your actions.
Beenote Key Features:
Remote meetings for organizing and recording online meetings while working from home.
Record your meetings by tracking team decisions, tasks, and actions for quick project completion.
Better time management by freeing up to 14 hours per month for your schedule.
Structured meetings using predefined or custom templates for agenda preparation in collaborative mode.
Integration with work tools for more efficient meetings, supporting Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook Plugin, Google Workspace, Antidote, and other tool integrations.
Pricing:
Beenote’s pricing starts at $10.83 per user per month for up to 50 users.
Meeting Management Basics
We’ve shared some meeting management software, but if you want to conduct effective meetings, you need more. Here’s all the information you need to know about meeting management:
What is Meeting Management?
Meeting management involves facilitating productive discussions and efficiently managing everyone’s time to achieve team goals. This includes managing activities before, during, and after meetings.
Now, every organization can conduct meetings for planning or problem-solving. Similarly, they may hold board meetings to make significant company decisions. For large organizations, managing meetings becomes more complex. This is where enterprise meeting management comes into play. Enterprise meeting management covers all activities related to meetings, such as setting agendas, schedule planning, budgeting, task management, distributing meeting minutes, and reports. To conduct productive meetings, you can follow a few basic steps.
How to Conduct Enterprise-level Meetings?
You must use meeting management software to make enterprise-level meeting scheduling efficient! It can help you automate pre-meeting activities, manage schedules, send invitations, draft agendas, record meeting minutes, and more. Additionally, it can assist in workflow management. Meeting management software is crucial for enterprises as they need to coordinate projects with remote teams scattered in different locations.
Meeting Management Steps:
Step 1: Plan Meeting Agenda
Define meeting objectives: Before holding a meeting, ensure clear goals and purposes. Is it to discuss specific projects, solve problems, make decisions, or share information?
Identify attendees: Determine who needs to attend the meeting. This includes the facilitator, key decision-makers, project stakeholders, etc. Ensure invited individuals align with the meeting’s purpose and agenda. Decide who needs to participate in team meetings. Ideally, limit participants to keep discussions on track.
Set meeting time and location: Schedule the exact time and location for the meeting. If it’s a remote meeting, ensure the use of reliable remote meeting tools and provide relevant login information.
Determine the purpose of each agenda item: Meetings involve multiple tasks, such as sharing information, seeking opinions, or making decisions. In an HR example, the first task might be sharing information about work-from-home policies. The last agenda item will decide how to implement the work-from-home policy.
Notify attendees: Once attendees and the agenda are confirmed, send meeting notifications. Include meeting time, location (or link), agenda, relevant documents, etc.
Pre-meeting preparation: Before the meeting starts, ensure all necessary devices, documents, and materials are prepared. Test remote meeting tools to ensure smooth operation.
Step 2: During the Meeting
Start the meeting: Ensure discussions follow the planned agenda and control the time for each agenda item.
Create meeting minutes and archive: Record important information, decisions, and action items from the meeting. If the meeting’s purpose is problem-solving or decision-making, ensure all relevant information is thoroughly discussed for informed decision-making.
Step 3: Schedule Follow-up Meetings
After the meeting, send meeting minutes or a summary to attendees, including key points, decisions, and action plans. Also, receive feedback from attendees to continuously improve future meetings.
After discussions are complete and decisions are made, check if you need to schedule follow-up meetings. This depends on the action items decided during the meeting and their subsequent steps. Now that you know the steps involved in meeting management, holding meetings at the enterprise level is another matter.
Monitor the execution of the action plan, ensuring each task is completed as planned. Before the next meeting, evaluate the effectiveness of the previous meeting and identify areas for improvement.
Conclusion
The design of meeting management software aims to simplify the organization and execution of meetings, improve efficiency, reduce human errors, and provide a better participant experience. Choosing the right meeting management software can significantly enhance meeting outcomes and overall team collaboration.
