How to Write a Meeting Agenda (4 Examples, 16 Templates & Tips)

We’ve all been a part of team meetings where most participants are clueless about the purpose of the meeting, and the speakers steer the discussion off-track. 

What follows is a true catastrophe. 

A meeting agenda can help you avoid this and be the answer to all your woes. ✌

An effective meeting agenda is a plan you share with your meeting participants. It’ll help your team set clear expectations of what needs to happen before, during, and after the meeting. 

In this article, we’ll discuss what a meeting agenda is and learn the five key steps involved in writing one. We’ll also look at 16 meeting agenda template options, see a few meeting agenda examples, and explore the reasons why your entire team needs a meeting agenda. 

If you’re more of a visual learner check out this vlog on meeting agendas!

Let’s get started.

Benefits of an Effective Meeting Agenda

Sitting through a meeting that doesn’t have an agenda is pretty similar to setting out on a treasure hunt without a map. 

A meeting agenda allows your team to set the meeting’s cadence, prepare for the meeting topic, ensure that everyone is on the same page, and keep them on track to hit their objectives. 

Meeting agendas:

• Give the meeting a clear purpose
• Help you stay on track
• Help define responsibilities

It consists of a list of topics, action items, and activities you want to discuss during the meeting. 

A simple meeting agenda could be a short bulleted list. More detailed agendas include descriptions for each agenda item, reference material, and expected outcomes for each discussion topic. 

Formal agendas also include timing and presenter information for each agenda item.

An example of a formal agenda can be a city council agenda used in a state’s city council meeting. These agendas can have an open forum section that makes time for public comment. 

But formal meeting agendas aren’t restricted to the government. 

You can use them in your company’s meetings too. You just have to choose the agenda that suits your team the best. 

Here’s a quick reckoner of the common types of meeting agendas:

Type of Agenda	Purpose
Status update agenda	To share progress on ongoing projects, identify roadblocks, and align team members
Brainstorming agenda	To generate ideas, solutions, or strategies in a collaborative environment
Decision-making agenda	To evaluate options and finalize decisions on specific issues or projects
Planning agenda	To outline goals, define tasks, set timelines, and allocate resources for a project or event
Problem-solving agenda	To analyze and resolve specific challenges or conflicts within the team or organization.
Training agenda	To structure sessions aimed at developing skills, sharing knowledge, or onboarding new members
One-on-one agenda	To facilitate private discussions between a manager and an employee, focusing on feedback, goals, or support
Team alignment agenda	To establish or reinforce shared goals, roles, responsibilities, and expectations
Client meeting agenda	To discuss project updates, gather requirements, or build relationships with clients
Retrospective agenda	To reflect on past projects or processes, identifying successes and areas for improvement
All-hands agenda	To update the entire organization on high-level goals, milestones, and announcements
Crisis management agenda	To address and respond to urgent situations or emergencies effectively

Now that you know what a meeting agenda is, and the different types of meeting agendas you can use at the workplace, let’s look at how you can write one. ✍

How to Write a Meeting Agenda? 5 Key Steps

Here are the five easy steps you can follow to create the right meeting agenda for your team:

1. Establish the meeting type

Not informing your team about the type of meeting they’d be attending can cause a lot of confusion. 

Imagine a team member attending a regular meeting only to find out that it’s their performance review. 

The horror! 😱

To avoid catching people off-guard, make sure you all know what the meeting is about.

Meetings can be of several different types, including:

• Team meeting: also referred to as a staff meeting, these are opportunities for your team to discuss various business aspects
• Board meeting: a formal meeting among your organization’s board of directors. They’re generally held at regular intervals to review team performances and policy issues
• Executive session: held by board members regularly before their routine board meetings
• Recurring meeting: daily, weekly, or monthly meetings that repeat regularly
• Project kickoff meeting: conducted at the beginning of every new project to inform the team about project objectives, deliverables, and timelines
• Brainstorming meeting: used to flesh out a new idea with your teams in a conducive brainstorming session
• Feedback meeting: hosted to gather constructive feedback from your team regarding new projects and processes
• Agile meeting: a special meeting used to hold hyper-focused discussions for agile teams to conduct sprint reviews, share valuable project information, customer feedback, project updates, etc.
• Scrum meeting: uses a scrum meeting agenda that may include sprint planning, daily standups, product backlog refinement, sprint reviews, etc.
• Retrospective meeting: held after project completion to discuss what went well and what didn’t
• Onboarding meeting: help new hires understand professional expectations in their work environment
• Committee meetings: help a subgroup of team members from your company form a committee to achieve any special function. 

2. State the objective of the meeting

What are the top reasons you’re having a meeting with your team? 

Do you want to update them about a project? Do you want their insights on something? 

Clearly stating the meeting objective gives your team a heads-up on what’s coming their way. At the very least, they’ll know whether to bring a project report or a beer to the meeting.

3. Identify specific meeting topics

Once you have a clear meeting goal, make a list of discussion topics you want your team to cover.

We’re going to let you in on our secret to make your meetings more engaging.

Make sure to pick discussion topics that affect everyone in the meeting. 

This way, you’ll have all your team members willing to participate in the discourse. 

4. Allocate time to discuss each topic

Meetings are expensive and can be difficult to organize. They’re only productive when they can utilize time effectively. 

That’s why it’s important to allocate a certain amount of time to discuss each meeting topic. And you won’t end up straying and spending all your available time on a single topic. 

Using a consent agenda is another time-saving trick for your meetings. A consent agenda groups recurring discussion topics into a single agenda item that you can easily cross-off. 

These measures will make sure your meetings don’t become a time-suck and a calendar clogger. 👀

5. Include a list of necessary documents

Let’s say you hold a meeting with your project stakeholders. 

One way to make the meeting more productive is to share all project documents through your team meeting agendas ahead of the meeting. 

Think of this as one of the pre-reading activities your teacher would ask you to do back in school. 🤓 This practice sets the right context for every participant in the meeting and empowers them to contribute to the discourse. 

Now that you know what to do, let’s look at some meeting agenda examples to help you see what these steps look like in action. 

How to Use AI for Meeting Agendas

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly streamline meeting management, turning every gathering into an efficient and productive experience. By integrating AI with project management tools like Brain, teams can leverage automation to handle routine tasks and enhance meeting productivity. Here’s how AI can assist:

• AI-powered Meeting Agendas: ’s AI capabilities can draft personalized meeting agendas based on the participants’ roles, previous meeting notes, and ongoing project demands. By analyzing prior meeting notes and objectives, AI can help ensure that each meeting covers all critical points without missing a beat.
• Smart Summarization: Post-meeting, AI can condense hours of discussion notes into succinct, actionable summaries. This feature enables participants to swiftly get the gist of the meeting and review any points they may have missed, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed.
• Instant Action Items Creation: AI can identify potential tasks from your notes and automatically create action items in . This seamless transition from discussion to execution means that follow-ups are clear, time-bound, and less likely to be overlooked or forgotten.

Embedding AI in your meeting processes not only saves time but also enhances the quality of your meetings. It helps to maintain focus, track progress against objectives, and foster a culture of accountability by automating routine yet crucial aspects of meeting management.

Team Meeting Agenda Examples

Here’s a couple simple meeting agenda example for your reference:

1. Design Team Meeting

Date: 02/07/24

Time: 09:00 am – 09:45 am

Meeting Participants: @SpongeBob, @Patrick, @Mr.Krabs, @Squidward

Meeting’s Purpose:

• Develop a new website page for product testimonials

Agenda

a. Before the meeting:

• Every attendee must review the document on product testimonials

b. Discussion topics:

• Review product testimonials document (10 min)
• Discuss the content you want to include on the web page (10 min, @Name)
• Present sample designs for the web page (15 min, @Name)
• Share suggestions and vote on the website design (10 min)

c. Action items:

• Create a timeline for design deliverables – @SpongeBob
• Share first cut of the web page design – @Patrick
• Schedule and make an itinerary for a second meeting to finalize design – @Mr.Krabs

2. Sales Team Weekly Review Meeting

Date: 04/14/24

Time: 02:00 pm – 02:45 pm

Meeting Participants: @Alice, @Bob, @Charlie, @Dana

Meeting’s Purpose:

• Evaluate weekly sales performance and discuss strategies for improvement

Agenda

a. Before the meeting:

• Each participant should update the CRM with the latest sales data

b. Discussion topics:

c. Action items:

• Compile a report of weekly sales metrics – @Charlie
• Draft a preliminary plan for the sales campaign – @Dana
• Organize a training session on new sales software – @Alice

3. HR Monthly Planning Meeting

Date: 04/21/24

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Meeting Participants: @Emma, @Liam, @Noah, @Olivia

Meeting’s Purpose:

• Plan HR activities for the next month and update on current employee initiatives

Agenda

a. Before the meeting:

b. Discussion topics:

• Analyze employee satisfaction survey results (20 min)
• Update on the status of current recruiting efforts (15 min, @Emma)
• Plan employee engagement activities for the next month (15 min, @Noah)
• Discuss updates to HR policies (10 min)

c. Action items:

• Implement changes based on employee feedback – @Liam
• Finalize recruitment schedule and process – @Olivia
• Prepare the schedule for upcoming engagement activities – @Emma

These samples should give you an idea of how you want to design your meeting agenda.

You can also use the AI assistant in , Brain, to generate customized meeting agenda formats in seconds. Here’s one we created for a sprint planning meeting.

To help you further, let’s look at some meeting agenda templates from the most popular online meeting tools.

16 Team Meeting Agenda Templates

Here are 16 meeting agenda templates that you can use to create your next agenda:

1. Weekly 1-on-1 meeting agenda template by

One-on-one meetings are your chance to connect and align with the people you manage in the most effective way possible. ’s 1:1 meeting template keeps all of your agendas—tailored for each individual—in one organized place.

2. All hands team meeting agenda template by

’s all-hands meeting template helps to keep communication open across the company, and ensures everyone is aligned and up to speed with individual and group goals. All hands meetings give room to share information from updates to announcements about future agendas and encourage collaboration and alignment throughout the team.

3. Scrum meeting agenda template by

This scrum meeting agenda template by will make daily meetings a breeze. Daily status meetings about tasks for projects help to ensure that a team is aware of the progress on their front.

4. Meeting Notes Agenda Template by

’s meeting note-style agenda template is the perfect place to keep all event meeting notes, key takeaways and action items.

5. Project post mortem Template by

Projects don’t always go to plan. Use this project post-mortem template by to set new goals and keep your team heading in the right direction.

6. Meeting minutes template by

This collaborative meeting minutes template is a Doc designed to provide the perfect outline for a successful meeting summation.

’s Meeting Minutes Template includes pre-built pages for organizing teams, individual meeting notes, and instructions for getting the most out of your meeting with this template!

7. Sprint retrospective brainstorm meeting template by

Save time and gain valuable insights with this simple Sprint Retrospective Template. Whether you are running an agile team meeting or a project management meeting, this template will help you build a crystal-clear picture of what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what to change moving forward.

8. Team meeting agenda template by Meeting Booster

The main objective of team meetings is to share important information with team members, align on goals, and call out any blockers. This team meeting agenda template helps the team stay focused on the goals of the meeting.

9. Board meeting agenda template by Template Lab

Board meetings tend to run over time. Use a schedule template for your next board meeting using this board meeting agenda to stay on track and finish your meeting on time.

10. Project kickoff meeting agenda template by Docket

It’s important to set the tone for a new project from the start. Use this project kickoff meeting agenda template to facilitate a successful project launch!

11. Meeting dashboard template by

Use this meeting dashboard template as an agenda for your next meeting. This template makes it easy to see the status of different tasks during a meeting.

12. Brainstorm meeting agenda template by Owl Labs

This creative brainstorming meeting agenda is a great way to keep your brainstorming meetings on track from week to week. This template makes it easy to run your meeting and stay focused on brainstorming.

13. Board of directors meeting minutes template by

Create structure with this Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Template. Record and tag your attendees, organize agenda action items, and take detailed notes for each agenda.

14. HR meeting agenda template by Where

HR departments have a lot to keep track of. This HR meeting agenda template will give your HR team a way to come together for a productive meeting that isn’t complicated or stressful.

15. Marketing meeting agenda template by Hugo

Use this marketing meeting agenda to bring your marketing department together to celebrate wins, align on goals, and identify project blockers.

16. Project management meeting agenda template by Hypercontext

This project management meeting agenda template will help you identify objectives, risks, and deadlines for your next team project.

Who Benefits From Using a Meeting Agenda?

When it comes to planning a meeting, creating a thorough and well-organized agenda is crucial for ensuring that the meeting runs smoothly and achieves its objectives. Here are some of the key beneficiaries of using a meeting agenda:

1. Project Managers: Project managers often have to lead team meetings and having a well-planned agenda helps them to stay on track, cover all necessary topics, and keep the meeting focused.

2. Leadership Teams: Meeting agendas are also beneficial for leadership teams, such as executive boards or management teams. They can help to ensure that important topics are discussed, decisions are made efficiently, and everyone is on the same page with regards to company goals and strategies.

Best Practices for Running a Productive Meeting at Work

Here are some of our favorite tips for keeping your meetings productive and focused:

• Set a clear purpose and agenda: Clearly outline the purpose of the meeting—whether it’s to brainstorm, make decisions, or provide updates. Share a structured agenda with all participants at least a day in advance so everyone knows the topics to be discussed and the time allocated for each
• Invite only essential participants: Avoid overloading the meeting with attendees who don’t add value. Invite only those whose input is necessary, and assign roles (e.g., facilitator, note-taker) to ensure smooth proceedings
• Stick to the schedule: Start and end the meeting on time to prevent wasting time. This also shows your respect for others’ time. Monitor time to ensure each agenda item receives appropriate focus without derailing the meeting
• Encourage engagement and participation: Create an inclusive atmosphere where all participants feel able to contribute. If required, prompt input from quieter participants or clarify points when needed
• Minimize distractions: Avoid tangential discussions or unnecessary diversions that distract attention from the main topics. Table off-topic items for a separate follow-up. Request attendees to silence their phones, and manage interruptions politely but firmly
• Document discussions: Record decisions made, key takeaways, and assigned tasks to ensure that the meeting leads to action. Share meeting notes promptly to ensure all participants are aligned
• Identify next steps: End the meeting with clarity about the action to be taken, owners for each task, and deadlines for completion. Also decide on the schedule of the next meeting, and agree on the frequency of progress updates, if planned

How to have an effective virtual meeting

Apart from the best practices listed above, keep these suggestions in mind when planning a virtual session:

• Test your tech: Check your microphone, camera, and internet connection beforehand. Use reliable meeting software with features like screen-sharing
• Set team etiquette: Decide whether participants should have their cameras on or off, and set the right expectations for the team. Encourage participants to mute their microphones when not speaking to avoid background noise
• Make it interactive: To keep participants engaged in your remote meeting, encourage interaction through chat, polls, reactions, etc. Begin with a quick check-in or light activity to break the ice
• Plan your presentation: For an online session, keep all decks and materials concise and visually engaging. If you plan to share your screen, ensure distractions like notifications are turned off
• Keep it crisp: Virtual meetings should be kept to a maximum of 45-60 minutes to prevent participant energy from flagging. If a longer meeting is necessary, schedule short breaks in between
• Have a backup plan: Technology can fail at times, so have a fallback prepared. This could mean having a call-in number available, sharing your deck as a pre-read with participants, building in 5 minutes extra for possible troubleshooting, etc.

Adhering to these practices can ensure that meetings—whether in-person or virtual—are efficient, engaging, and productive.

Cross-off Stress From Your Work Life With Team Meeting Agendas

An effective meeting agenda will make team collaboration seem like a cakewalk. 

And when collaboration becomes easy, your team can focus on amping up their productivity and getting their creative juices flowing. 

With the help of a project management tool like , writing effective meeting agendas and managing meetings are easier than ever!

lets you document every meeting, manage agendas, take down effective meeting minutes, assign comments to your team, and so much more.  

Ready to watch your team ace teamwork and hit all their objectives? 

Get for free today and say goodbye to meeting disasters. 👋

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