town hall style presentation

Company town hall meeting presentation: A comprehensive guide

Everything you need to know about planning and executing a successful company town hall meeting presentation.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Welcome to the ultimate guide on how to create and deliver an impactful company town hall meeting presentation.

In today's corporate landscape, effective communication is paramount, and town hall meetings serve as a vital platform for fostering engagement, sharing key updates, and aligning the entire company with its goals. Whether you're a seasoned presenter or new to the world of town hall meetings, this guide will equip you with the expertise you need to shine in this crucial role.

What are company town hall meetings?

Town hall meetings are the cornerstone of transparent and open communication within an organization. These gatherings bring together team members from different levels of the company to discuss important topics, share key updates, and foster a sense of community.

Why are town hall meetings so important for an organization?

Company town hall meetings serve a variety of essential purposes, making them a vital element of a successful corporate communication strategy. Here are some compelling reasons why town hall meetings matter:

• Employee engagement : Town hall meetings provide a platform to engage employees at all levels, from the leadership team to front-line staff. When employees feel heard and valued, their engagement levels soar.
• Alignment with company goals : These meetings ensure that every member of the organization is on the same page regarding company goals, strategies, and priorities. It's an opportunity to connect the dots between individual roles and the larger mission.
• Building a sense of belonging : Town hall meetings foster a sense of belonging and community within the organization. They help employees feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves.
• Transparency and open forum : These meetings encourage open and transparent communication. Team members can ask questions and address issues directly with senior leadership, creating a culture of openness.
• Sharing important updates : Town hall meetings are the perfect platform for sharing key updates, whether they concern business results, company goals, or personal news like client wins and team achievements.

Key elements of a successful town hall meeting

To create a truly effective town hall meeting presentation, it's crucial to understand the key elements that contribute to its success:

• Clear agenda : Start by creating an agenda for your town hall meeting. Define the topics you'll cover and allocate time for each. A well-structured agenda keeps the meeting on track.
• Engaging presentation slides : Presentation slides are your visual aids. Use them to reinforce your message and keep the audience engaged. Consider using tools like Prezent or Google Slides to enhance your visuals.
• Interactive Q&A session : A live Q&A session allows team members to ask questions and seek clarifications. It's an opportunity to address difficult questions and build trust.
• Icebreaker activities : Incorporating icebreaker activities at the beginning of the meeting can help break the ice and create a relaxed atmosphere, especially in in-person meetings.
• Meeting notes : Provide meeting notes or a summary afterward to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This documentation also helps those who couldn't attend the meeting in person.

How to Structure an effective town hall meeting presentation

A well-structured presentation is essential for conveying information, engaging your audience, and fostering open communication during a town hall meeting. Here are the key steps to follow:

1. Define Your Objectives:

‍ Begin by clarifying the main goals of your town hall meeting. What do you want to achieve with this presentation? Understanding your objectives will help you tailor your content and structure accordingly.

2. Audience Analysis:

‍ Know your audience. Consider the demographics, interests, and concerns of the people attending the meeting. Tailor your content to resonate with them.

3. Opening Statement:

‍ Start with a strong and engaging opening statement. Capture your audience's attention by addressing the importance of the meeting and its relevance to the community or organization.

4. Agenda Overview:

‍ Provide a brief overview of what you will cover during the presentation. This helps the audience understand the flow and purpose of the meeting.

5. Main Content Sections:

‍ Structure the main body of your presentation into distinct sections, each addressing a specific topic or issue. Use clear headings to guide the audience. For each section:

a. Introduction: Briefly introduce the topic and why it's important.

b. Key Points: Present the main points or information related to the topic.

c. Visual Aids: Use visuals like charts, graphs, and images to support your points.

d. Examples: Provide real-life examples or case studies to illustrate key concepts.

e. Data and Statistics: Back up your claims with data or statistics if applicable.

f. Engagement: Encourage audience participation with questions or polls related to the topic.

g. Q&A Opportunities: Allow time for questions after each section.

6. Transition Slides:

‍ Use transition slides between sections to smoothly move from one topic to the next. This can include a brief summary of what was covered and a preview of what's coming up.

7. Interactive Elements:

‍ Incorporate interactive elements such as open discussions, surveys, or live polls to engage the audience and gather their input.

8. Visual Design:

‍ Pay attention to the visual design of your presentation. Use clear and readable fonts, consistent colors, and uncluttered slides. Visual consistency helps maintain the audience's focus.

9. Storytelling:

‍ Use storytelling techniques to make your presentation relatable and memorable. Share personal anecdotes, success stories, or examples that connect with the audience.

10. Call to Action:

‍ Conclude your presentation with a clear call to action. What do you want the audience to do or think after the meeting? Make it specific and actionable.

11. Q&A Session:

‍ Reserve time for a dedicated question and answer session. Address any concerns, doubts, or queries from the audience. Be prepared to answer questions effectively.

12. Closing Remarks:

‍ Summarize the key takeaways from the meeting and thank the audience for their participation. Reiterate the importance of the topics discussed.

13. Feedback Collection:

‍ Encourage attendees to provide feedback on the meeting. This can help you improve future presentations.

14. Follow-Up Actions:

‍ Communicate any follow-up actions or next steps after the town hall meeting. This ensures that the discussion leads to concrete results.

15. Handouts and Resources:

‍ Provide handouts or links to additional resources for those who want to explore the topics in more depth.

16. Practice and Rehearse:

‍ Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure a smooth and confident delivery. Rehearsing also helps you fine-tune the timing and flow.

17. Timing:

‍ Be mindful of the allotted time for the town hall meeting and ensure that your presentation fits within the schedule.

18. Engage and Connect:

‍ Throughout the presentation, maintain eye contact, use a confident and friendly tone, and actively engage with the audience. Foster a sense of connection and inclusivity.

By following this structured approach, you can create an effective town hall meeting presentation that informs, engages, and motivates your audience, leading to productive discussions and positive outcomes.

Do’s and don'ts on a town hall meeting presentation

To ensure your town hall meeting presentation is a resounding success, here are some do’s and don'ts to keep in mind:

• Do engage with the audience and encourage participation.
• Do use impactful visuals and well-designed slides to convey your message.
• Do maintain a positive and professional tone throughout the presentation.
• Do follow up with meeting notes and action items.

Don'ts:

• Don't go off-topic or overrun your allotted time.
• Don't use jargon or technical language that may confuse the audience.
• Don't neglect the importance of preparation and practice.
• Don't dismiss or evade difficult questions; address them openly.
• Don't forget to foster a sense of community and belonging.

Summarizing key takeaways

In conclusion, company town hall meetings play a pivotal role in nurturing a culture of transparency, engagement, and alignment within an organization. When conducted effectively, they can strengthen employee morale, boost company performance, and enhance overall business results.

Whether your town hall meetings are in-person or conducted virtually across different time zones, the principles of effective communication remain the same. Remember, it's not just about the content you present but also about how you engage your employees and build a sense of community.

1. What is the purpose of a town hall meeting, and how does it fit into our company's strategy?

Town hall meetings serve as a platform for all-hands gatherings, where the entire company, including remote employees, can connect virtually. These meetings align with the company's strategy by fostering internal communications, sharing updates on business goals, and reinforcing corporate culture.

2. How can I improve my presentation skills for our next town hall event?

To make the best use of your time during every town hall meetings, consider practicing your presentation skills. Senior leadership teams often present at these events, so it's essential to connect with employees effectively, whether in-person or during an online town hall meeting.

3. Why is it important to set a clear agenda item for each town hall meeting?

Setting a clear agenda item for every town hall is crucial to address the issues that matter most to employees across the organization. It helps companies focus on relevant topics and add value to the discussions, whether it's about remote working, business goals, or addressing specific concerns.

4. How can we ensure that employees who can't attend in real-time stay informed about the town hall content?

For a hybrid event or when employees can't attend in real-time, consider recording the meeting and making it accessible on the company's intranet. This approach allows employees to catch up on the content and chat with people who were present at the meeting.

5. What's the role of upper management in town hall meetings, and how do they connect with employees across different teams and functions?

Upper management plays a significant role in town hall meetings by addressing the company's business goals and fostering corporate culture. To connect with employees effectively, senior managers should use these gatherings to communicate with cross-functional teams, gather feedback, and address important issues such as remote working and management and employees' concerns.

Read more about company culture presentation

Create your town hall meeting presentation with Prezent

Prezent, as an AI presentation software tailored for enterprise teams, offers valuable support for crafting your town hall meeting presentation. With its vast library of slides, brand-approved designs, and customizable templates, Prezent streamlines the content creation process, saving you time and ensuring brand consistency.

Additionally, it considers audience preferences, facilitates real-time collaboration, and ensures compliance, all while reducing communication costs. If you're on a tight schedule, Prezent's overnight presentation service can deliver a polished presentation by the next business day, helping you prepare effectively for your town hall meeting.

So, whether you need to deliver an in-person meeting or host a virtual town hall, Prezent has you covered. Get started today and take your town hall presentations to the next level!

Sign up for our free trial or book a demo ! ‍

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Your quick guide to effective town hall meetings (Incl. Template)

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• What is a town hall meeting?

What town hall meetings can help your company achieve

• Should town hall meetings be in-person or virtual?

How to host a town hall meeting

• Facilitate your town hall meeting with Happeo

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Wed, Jun 14, '23  

What is a town hall meeting? 

A town hall meeting is a regular event that involves all of an organization’s employees. They allow employees to learn about any new initiatives the company is launching, and discuss any challenges it’s facing. They’re also a chance for employees of all seniority levels to ask questions and provide feedback to the company’s leadership team. 

When it’s done right, a town hall meeting shouldn’t be a long, dry presentation that employees are forced to sit through. It should be an engaging, two-way conversation that provides value to both leaders and employees. 

Here are some of the benefits of hosting regular town hall meetings: 

• Keeps everyone informed about important company updates: From the latest sales figures to new product launches to news about mergers and acquisitions, a town hall meeting is the perfect way to keep everyone informed about your company’s activities. 
• Brings different teams and employees together: Most people spend most of their time at work speaking to the same handful of colleagues. A town hall meeting is a great opportunity for employees to meet other people within your organization. 
• Provides an opportunity for feedback and clarification: Your employees likely have questions about your company’s strategy and ideas to improve operations — and a town hall meeting gives them the chance to share these with everyone. 
• Gives employees access to your leadership team: Most employees don’t get to speak to (or even see) their company’s leaders, especially in large or remote organizations. Town hall meetings provide an opportunity for employees to get to know their leaders and ask them questions.  
• Builds company culture and boosts morale: A town hall meeting is a great way to remind your employees that you’re all working together towards a common goal. This can improve engagement and help employees to feel more connected to your organization.

Should town hall meetings be in-person or virtual? 

In the past, a town hall meeting was usually an in-person event that took place at the company HQ. But the changes to work patterns we’ve seen over the past few years mean that virtual town hall meetings are now very common. 

It’s perfectly possible to host a town hall meeting on a platform like Google Meet or Microsoft Teams , and there are even some advantages to doing it this way. First, it allows all employees to attend the meeting, wherever they’re based. This means it’s often the only   way to have a town hall meeting that involves everyone if you’re a distributed or remote organization. 

Holding your town hall meeting online also makes it easier to record the meeting for people that can’t attend. They’ll be able to catch up later and experience the event in almost the same way as those who attended live. This levels the playing field for employees who live in different time zones or have different working hours. 

Here are the steps to follow if you want to host your first town hall meeting (or make your town hall meetings more effective): 

1. Figure out the logistics and build your team

Before you get to the actual content of your meeting, you need to decide on the platform you’ll use to host it. You should also think carefully about the time you host your meeting, especially if you have employees in different time zones. If you can’t find a time that works for everyone, go for the time that works for most, and ask other employees to watch the meeting recording within the next working day. This gets everyone on the same page as soon as possible. 

This is also the moment to build the team that will help run the meeting on the day. You’ll need to choose a host or MC, a variety of speakers, and a moderator to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s also a good idea to have someone on hand for tech support in case something goes wrong.

2. Define the objective of the meeting 

Every town hall meeting should have a specific objective. This might be: 

• To share details about a new product feature
• To provide a quarterly or monthly sales update
• To explain a pivot or change the company is going through 

There are also other, softer reasons for hosting a town hall meeting, like building trust and improving employee morale. 

3. Plan your meeting agenda and timings 

Next, plan the agenda for the meeting, including the timings for each section. During the meeting, it’s important to be fairly strict with timings to ensure you keep your audience’s attention. That said, you should account for at least a little extra time in case you run over, particularly for the Q&A session. 

4. Prepare your content 

The next step is to help your presenters to prepare their slide decks and talking points. It’s a good idea to use simple slides with just a few words per slide. This way, presenters can move through them quickly and keep everyone’s attention. 

You should also have each presenter run through their presentation before the meeting to make sure it’s not too long. If they run over, work with them to find a more concise way of saying what they want to say. 

5.Send calendar invites to all employees

Let your employees know about the town hall meeting as early as possible so they have plenty of time to clear their calendars. As well as the time, date and location of the event, you should include the meeting agenda so employees know what to expect. 

You should also tell them about any rules you’ll have in place to make sure the meeting runs smoothly, such as asking employees to mute their mics when they’re not speaking. 

6. Ask for questions ahead of time

Town hall meetings usually end with a Q&A session, which gives employees an opportunity to ask questions about the things you’ve discussed. But you should also provide a space for employees to ask questions before   the meeting. 

This allows those who aren’t able to attend to contribute and get answers to their questions. Also, if certain questions come up multiple times, you could use this to inform your agenda for the meeting. After all, if a few employees are asking the same questions, there’s a good chance others are thinking about them too. 

7. Have a tech run-through before the meeting starts 

Arrange to meet with your team for a technical dry run around 30 minutes before the meeting starts. This involves running through presentations, checking that everyone’s mics work, and testing any apps or platforms you plan to use.

8. Start with a warm welcome

Town hall meetings usually begin with a greeting from the CEO and/or the meeting host. Some organizations ask a different employee to host the meeting each time, which can give it a more informal feel.

If possible, it’s great to welcome each participant by name as they join the meeting. You might also want to include a short icebreaker activity to help warm things up — like asking everyone a funny question and having them discuss it in groups. 

9. Include opportunities for participation 

Watching someone present for a long time can be tiring for employees. And you might begin to lose their attention if you don’t build in opportunities for participation.  Quick activities like surveys and polls can help break things up — as well as giving you useful insights into what your employees are thinking. 

Most video conferencing tools, including Zoom, Google Meet and MS Teams, include in-built poll features that can help you conduct a virtual “show of hands” to keep people engaged. And you could even introduce elements of gamification by using an app like Kahoot to quiz your audience on the things you’ve just talked about.  

10. Don’t neglect the Q&A section 

The Q&A section is one of the most important parts of a town hall meeting. To make it as effective as possible, encourage your audience to send in questions as they think of them during the meeting. It’s usually easiest if your event moderator collates the questions in a document as they come in, and then reads them to the presenters one by one during the Q&A session. 

It’s also important to prepare your presenters ahead of time for any difficult or sensitive questions that might come up. Presenters should feel comfortable saying that they don’t have an answer to a question. However, they should promise to answer the question at a later date, and let the employee know when this will be. 

11. Send a recap and ask for feedback 

After the event, send the recording with a short recap to everyone that was invited. This gives those who couldn’t attend the chance to catch up, and provides a useful refresher to everyone else. You could send this out in a simple email, but you might also want to put a more detailed recap on a dedicated intranet page . 

At this stage, it’s also a good idea to ask employees that attended the meeting for feedback. Asking simple, open-ended questions like “what did you enjoy?” and “what could have been better?” can help you improve in time for your next town hall meeting.  

Facilitate your town hall meeting with Happeo 

With Happeo’s Page Templates , it’s never been easier to prepare for a town hall meeting. You can create a page with all the details your employees need (including the time, date and link to the virtual meeting) in just a few minutes. 

Then, you can easily add details about the hosts so that employees can find out about them ahead of time, and include the agenda for the meeting so everyone knows what to expect. You can even provide a space for employees to ask their pre-meeting questions right within Happeo — so there’s no searching around for the right person to email. 

After the event,  you can post a recap, recording and survey link on the same page, so everyone knows where to find them.

Start a free trial to play around with Happeo’s town hall meeting template.

Create your own with Happeo

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Hosting high-value town hall meetings is crucial to improving transparency, alignment, and success in your organization.

While 71% of executives say that employee engagement is critical to success, 85% of employees aren’t actually engaged in their daily work. This needs to change. Whether related to transparency in corporate decision-making, involvement with company goals, or otherwise, it’s important that employees at all levels feel engaged and can interact with the company if they’re likely to stay long-term. Town hall meetings are a great way to get the wider team together.

What are town hall meetings?

Why are town hall meetings important.

• What to include in your town hall agenda

11 tips for running effective town hall meetings

Free town hall meeting templates.

Town hall meetings (also called town hall forums or all-hands meetings ) are recurring meetings in which an entire organization or department gathers together to share updates, answer questions, and discuss important topics.

They are an opportunity for leaders to present new information on company performance, strategy, and projects and for employees of all levels to contribute to the conversation. Town halls can vary in cadence, usually weekly or monthly. It’s important to schedule town hall meetings at a time that works for everyone , so keep in mind time zones or peak meeting hours.

Elevate your organization’s town hall meetings

Enhancing participation, fostering organizational alignment, and measuring impact during town hall meetings is effortless with Fellow, the only all-in-one AI meeting transcription and management software for remote and hybrid teams. With Fellow’s collaborative agenda feature, senior leaders can effortlessly steer through critical topics, involve all attendees, and elevate transparency, resulting in more impactful and high-value town halls.

Town halls are the best way for upper management to connect with employees on other levels, creating more transparency in organizational decisions. Opening up a conversation on big and upcoming topics to the wider team can help lower-level employees feel aware and aligned with company or team goals. Long term, making the whole organization feel included can improve employee retention and overall employee satisfaction. For example, end-of-year town halls can help your employees feel more aligned with high-level strategic company goals for the next year and shift their focus.

By ensuring your town halls are high-value, your organization can experience the following benefits:

• Greater transparency into upper management decision-making
• Improved organizational alignment
• Opportunity for early feedback on new initiatives
• More visibility into other teams and projects within the company

What to include in your town hall meeting agenda

Introduction, company updates, achievements and shoutouts.

A warm introduction sets the tone for the town hall meeting, ensuring it gets off to the right start. Welcome everyone and thank them for their time. This is a great way to break the ice, highlight the purpose of the meeting, and provide a brief overview of the agenda. By creating a welcoming atmosphere, employees can feel valued and engaged immediately.

Town hall meetings are effective tools for sharing information with the entire organization in one go. Have leaders run through the agenda and communicate key business results, future goals, or any changes to policies or benefits. Sharing any work updates , discussing areas for improvement, and celebrating successes can help employees understand the organization’s direction and their individual contribution to its overall success.

Once the formal company updates are addressed, it’s time to cover any wins in the company. This provides an opportunity for leaders to acknowledge and appreciate the individual achievements of employees. Especially in a remote or hybrid environment, it’s important to carve out time for more human, personal moments. By highlighting employee wins, milestones, and special events, this can reinforce a positive company culture that recognizes and values its employees.

Reserve ample time for a Q&A where employees can ask leadership any pertinent questions. This is an essential component of a town hall meeting since it allows employees to engage and interact with leaders in real-time, ask questions, and share their thoughts or concerns. This helps foster transparency and open dialogue. To ensure that all questions are addressed, try to establish a structured process for collecting and answering questions, either during the meeting or async.

For a quick breakdown of how Aydin Mirzaae, CEO of Fellow , conducts his Town Hall Meeting format for improved company culture and alignment, check out the video below:

• Set a recurring meeting cadence 
• Have focused objectives
• Create a collaborative meeting agenda
• Record and transcribe the meetings
• Follow a schedule 
• Have a meeting facilitator
• Share new content 
• Have time for questions
• Gather feedback regularly 
• Stay on time
• Encourage shoutouts 

1 Set a recurring meeting cadence 

Establishing a consistent meeting cadence reassures employees they can access updates within a specified time frame and ensures corporate transparency. Make sure to send a calendar invite on a recurring basis to ensure employees have dedicated time set aside for the town hall meeting in advance. Employees who are aware of the meeting time in advance will be more likely to attend and contribute. With higher attendance rates comes higher engagement.

2 Have focused objectives

Setting clear meeting objectives beforehand ensures that the town hall is effective and helpful. Identify one focus topic or a set of focus topics, depending on relevance and importance, the frequency of your town halls, or the length of time that you’ve set aside for each meeting. Using feedback from prior group meetings, building a collaborative agenda, or leveraging insights from an employee feedback meeting can all be great starting points for identifying a town hall goal.

3 Create a collaborative meeting agenda 

Using a collaborative meeting agenda allows all key stakeholders to contribute collaboratively and for other employees to see the meeting’s topics. For town halls, the collaborative meeting agenda should be created by the executive leadership team or senior leaders from various departments to ensure all key points get addressed.

4 Record and transcribe the meetings

With all the new information presented in a hybrid or virtual town hall meeting , recording and transcribing the meetings is a great way to keep tabs on what actually happened during the event. Doing so can be helpful for those who couldn’t make the meeting or for anyone who wants to refer back to a discussion point or recall important information.

The best way to automate your meeting transcription and management process is with Fellow. Fellow’s AI Meeting Copilot automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings while seamlessly integrating into your meeting workflow and favorite tools. This allows everyone to have an accurate record of the meeting and access details later without any missing context or decisions.

5 Follow a schedule 

Building a meeting schedule ensures that you’ll discuss relevant topics, have time for questions, and stay within the allotted meeting time. Sending the schedule to your attendees at least a day or two in advance gives them some time to prepare thoughts on the topic(s) at hand. Doing so means that they’ll have some ideas for questions and possibly some initial feedback to share during the town hall. 

6 Have a meeting facilitator

Whether it be the CEO or someone else, having one meeting facilitator to keep the meeting on track is crucial. When presenting or discussing topics, it can also be hard to manage time, so your meeting facilitator should be someone other than the main presenters. They will ensure that discussing one topic doesn’t go on for too long so that the other pressing talking points won’t get lost or the meeting won’t end on time.

7 Share new content 

In a growing organization, everyone’s time is valuable. Rather than using the town hall time to reshare updates, add value by sharing new information in the meeting. This helps maintain attendance and engagement rates long-term since employees know they’ll learn something new by attending. This also allows you to hear first reactions and immediate employee feedback, which can be a great asset in identifying any issues early. 

8 Have time for questions

The whole point of a town hall is to interact with your employees and hear their opinions, so it must have an open question period. If you have several focus topics, you may consider asking questions at the end of each topic discussion so that the questions are relevant to the topic at hand. You can also send out a post-meeting survey or question form following the meeting for anyone who thinks of questions later.

9 Gather feedback regularly 

For recurring town hall meetings, asking for feedback or checking in with a diverse selection of employees can help you get constructive feedback for future town halls. To maximize the feedback you receive, establish key success metrics. How are you measuring the success of your town halls? Some key factors can be attendance, engagement, compliance with the schedule, etc. Remember to choose a quantifiable metric that is easy to share with the meeting facilitators for visibility.

10 Stay on time

Town halls are valuable, but they aren’t the center of your employees’ responsibilities. Starting the meeting on time, sticking to the agenda, and finishing within the allotted time frame ensures that you respect your employees’ schedules before and after the meeting. If you think it may run over time, save the remaining discussion points for next time or discuss them asynchronously . Or, use a tool like a meeting parking lot to table unplanned discussion topics, allowing you to keep focus on the issues at hand ands stick to the schedule.

11 Encourage shoutouts 

37% of employees value public recognition in their workplace. What’s a better way to openly recognize great work than by shouting out these successes during the town hall? These shoutouts can go a long way to making an employee feel appreciated and showing other teams that you see the value that individual employees bring to the company. Ahead of the town hall, send out a reminder to any leaders or managers to add any shoutouts for their employees for work well done to the agenda.

Stay connected with Fellow

Town halls are an effective way to keep organizations aligned from the top down and bottom up. With the right structure and facilitation, they can build transparency, culture, and connectivity across all levels.

Fellow is here to help elevate your organization’s town halls before, during, and after. With an extensive library of 500+ ready-to-use meeting templates , Fellow can provide clear frameworks for leaders to run more engaging and inclusive town halls. These meeting templates are also completely customizable, allowing you to make them tailor-fit to your organization’s needs.

During the meeting, Fellow’s got you covered with collaborate meeting agendas and accurate AI transcriptions and summaries. Plus, with the help of Fellow’s browser extensions , everyone can access the town hall meeting agenda and notes right inside the call, add last-minute shoutouts or questions, or create action items in real-time. Once the town hall has ended, Fellow’s AI Meeting Copilot will auto-share the AI meeting recap with attendees so everyone has a clear idea of priorities moving forward.

Don’t wait to improve your town hall meetings and boost organizational alignment. Get started with Fellow today!

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How to Host Engaging and Impactful Town Hall Meetings

A town hall meeting can bring your teams together and offer a chance to give key announcements and ask for input. Don’t leave out these five components.

The best town hall meetings engage, inspire, and rally people to support your corporate culture and goals. Town hall meetings represent one of the best ways to bring everyone together to share news, talk business, and build relationships . 

Let’s take a closer look at town hall meetings to discover what they are, why they matter, and how to host town hall meetings that really engage your employees.

What is a town hall meeting?

A town hall meeting is the perfect way to bring people together, talk about what’s important, and get feedback on what’s working and what could be better. Town halls are a regularly scheduled, super accessible way for employees and senior leadership to meet and engage. 

Town hall meetings, also known as “all-hands” meetings, are gatherings where the team can hear news, discuss challenges, stay informed, and offer ideas. They’re a time to discuss important topics and engage and build relationships with people you may not work closely with. While they may be open to the public, they aren’t usually public meetings. Host them in your HQ office if you can, or turn to an online town hall meeting for your remote or hybrid team. 

Note: If you have team members in many different time zones, try to find a time that’ll work for everyone. If that isn’t possible, share a recording of the meeting, and ask everyone to watch it by the end of the next business day.

5 benefits of hosting a town hall event

Town hall meetings help you connect with everyone in your company. Here are some of the main benefits of hosting town hall meetings:

1. Share information easily

A company wide email, Slack announcement, or virtual chat update in Microsoft Teams is great for topics that are easy to understand and won’t cause much worry. But when you share complex information, it can be worth doing so through an all-hands meeting. With everyone present at the meeting, it’s a great way to announce anything from company strategy to a new Diversity and Inclusion initiative. 

2. Bring teams together

Town hall meetings are just as much a social gathering as a work meeting. They’re an opportunity to get to know not just teams but individuals too. Make time to recognize both teams and individuals as you let the company know what they’ve been up to. Seek to unite teams behind projects, company initiatives, and performance goals whether you’re meeting in person or over a video call.

3. Create opportunities for discussion and feedback

Employee engagement remains a key priority for thoughtful business leaders, and town hall meetings give you a space for discussion and feedback. Give people a chance to get involved and share their thoughts to ramp up engagement. 

4. Strengthen your company culture

Your town hall meeting will naturally reflect your company culture, as you set the tone, agenda, and overall atmosphere. Use your meetings as a chance to build trust, reinforce your company culture, and show what it means to be part of your community. Town hall meetings are also an ideal opportunity to share some of your energy and enthusiasm for the company and what you do. Feel free to take a few minutes each meeting to really speak from the heart in this way.  You can really drive the energy forward and lead with passion in a way that’s harder to do by email.

5. Give direct access to your leadership team

Getting in touch with a senior manager can be tough, even if you have their contact information on the digital directory. After all, this person is often busy, and you might be intimidated by their position. 

Your town hall meeting is an easy way for people to get face-to-face interaction with your CEO or senior leadership team. This direct access breaks down barriers, builds relationships, and improves transparency.

What to include at your town hall meeting.

Unlike a team meeting, town halls typically involve the whole company. 

Town hall meetings are often a catch-all for company updates, project details, award wins, personal news, and HR updates. The flexible structure of a town hall doesn’t mean a lack of structure though, and the best town hall meetings are the ones where everyone knows what the plan is. 

Here’s how to structure your town hall meeting for success. 

1. A warm welcome

Start your all-hands meeting with a warm welcome. Whether you host a town hall every week or every month, it’s important to set the tone with a lively greeting and a friendly face. 

Welcome everyone and thank them for joining. Give everyone time to chat with people near them or split people into random breakout rooms and give them an icebreaker. At an in-person meeting, you might also have extra buffer time between your welcome and kicking things off to give people time to settle. With a virtual meeting, encourage conversation by greeting people as they join or asking an icebreaker question.

2. A clear agenda with rough timings

You might have something new to talk about at every town hall meeting, so set a clear agenda that gives everyone a structure to follow. Share this before the meeting so there are no major surprises for your team — unless they’re positive. 

Your agenda should be easy to read and concise. It should include estimates of when you’ll address each agenda item. Use a similar template every time so people understand that you normally share a corporate update after a project update and that there’s always time at the end to bring up any other business.

3. Key company and project updates

One of the main purposes of a town hall meeting is to share information with the whole company at once. They’re a great way to celebrate a big client win, update your teams on a cross-company initiative, or discuss topics like benefits and stipends. When everyone knows what’s going on, you create new opportunities for cross-functional collaborations that can have a hugely positive impact right across the business.

Some examples of town hall meeting announcements include:

• Company growth 
• Financial updates 
• Opportunities
• New hires and departures
• Improvements

Come to the meeting prepared with key updates, and be ready to answer questions. Take 5-10 minutes to share relevant key highlights with your team, and share additional details later in your meeting notes. 

4. Personal news 

Town hall meetings aren’t just for business. With everyone gathered together in one place, they’re also a good place to share any personal news that your teammates should know about. 

Expect to see this space used for positive updates like pregnancy or adoption announcements, engagement and wedding announcements, and heads up on major vacations, sabbaticals, or learning opportunities. 

People might also use this space to share sad news or ask for support or space through a difficult time. It’s important to let everyone know you’re there for them, whether it’s good news or bad. 

In general, creating space in your town hall meeting for employees’ personal updates shows you’re interested in their lives.

5. Comments and frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Unlike other company meetings, town hall meetings create an opportunity for discussion and engagement. It’s not a hierarchical meeting — it’s a more balanced environment that creates room for connection. 

All-hands meetings typically end with space for questions, comments, challenges, and feedback from team members. You can choose to take questions throughout the meeting or if you’d prefer to save them all for this agenda item. 

Open the floor to hear team questions, concerns, or ideas about how to improve the company environment.

Note: While people might use this opportunity to raise a personal gripe, as the moderator, what really matters is how you handle it. After all, the problem means enough for them to publicly mention it. If you encounter any challenging remarks or questions that are just too difficult to handle on the spot, let everyone know you’ll come back to them in a certain timeframe.

4 ways to make your town hall meetings even better

Now that we all understand why town hall meetings are an amazing addition to the schedule, here’s how to make them even better.  With Polly’s Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations, you can use polls and questions to help plan, run, improve, and add value to your all-hands meetings. 

1. Plan your town hall meeting agenda collaboratively 

Even though a manager usually sets the agenda for your town hall event, you might want to ask your team to add updates about projects, personal news, or “any other business” sections. If that’s the case, use our all-hands meeting prep template to gather ideas and suggestions. You can use this feedback to refine your agenda before the meeting. 

2. Kick things off with an icebreaker

Your all-hands meeting doesn’t have to be super serious. Add a little fun to your virtual town hall meeting over Zoom with our icebreakers . Set a thoughtful or lighthearted question, and listen as the answers come in from your team members. If it makes sense, split everyone into small groups so everyone can participate within the time you’ve allotted.

3. Capture instant feedback with in-meeting polls 

The beauty of adding technology to your town hall meeting is you can get instant feedback. If you’re hosting an in-person or hybrid event where people are at their desks, or a virtual all-hands meeting, use our instant engagement tools to get quick feedback about your meeting. Ask for opinions on topics, votes for or against ideas, or for a virtual show of hands for volunteers on a new initiative. 

4. Improve future meetings with after-meeting feedback

It’s hard to know what people thought about your meeting and announcements if you don’t ask. Use our all-hands feedback template to get a feel for how the meeting went and what would make it better in the future. You can automate this whole process and schedule a polly to go out after every town hall meeting.

Looking for even more ideas to improve your town hall meetings? Take a look at our best tips on how to make your next all-hands meeting a success . 

Host engaging town hall meetings with Polly

To recap, town hall meetings are a valuable addition to any company’s schedule. They’re an ideal way to connect with everyone, share news and updates, and ramp up your employee engagement. 

If you’re ready to take your town hall meetings to the next level, add Polly to your tech stack. Discover an easier way to ask for agenda topics, gauge feedback in real time, and get suggestions for future meetings. Create an even better experience for your coworkers and transform your all-hands meetings today — try Polly for free .

Level up your next all-hands, try Polly for free today

Written by Nicola Scoon

Nicola Scoon is a freelance writer that's passionate about employee engagement and better workplace experiences. She draws on her experience in internal communications to help companies create content that empowers, encourages, and motivates people to create better experiences for all.

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Town Hall Presentation Design

Town Hall meetings are more critical than ever:

• 85% of employees aren’t engaged in their daily work.
• 87% want more transparency in the workplace.
• Up to 95% of employees aren’t aware of your company’s strategy.

Town Halls address all of these. They’re a vital step toward aligning the company, keeping morale high, and developing company culture.

Town Hall meetings are important for letting your company’s leadership communicate with employees, and they’re just as important for letting employees communicate with the management team.

But to get maximum value out of your Town Hall, it’s important to design a presentation that holds the interest of employees, fosters company-wide engagement, and energizes the organization for the quarter ahead.

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From Our Valued Clients​

“With OUTKREATE, you have a great thinking partner who can quickly refine presentation strategy and design. Every time, they come back with something even better than what I could have asked for myself.”

"I've worked with multiple creative agencies in my marketing career. We engaged OUTKREATE to develop Verra Mobility's Corporate Narrative presentation. They collaborated like a true strategic advisor, and not as any order-taking design agency. The result was we got a presentation that solved our pressing needs versus just pretty slides."

“OUTKREATE has been a critical resource for marketing and corporate communication teams in building presentations, internal sell stories, videos and other creative assets to help tell effective stories. Harry’s team knows Ferrara and helps synthesize our story through effective communication and works FAST!”

Hosting a successful Town Hall conversation

It’s easy for the C-suite and senior leadership of large organizations to get lost in jargon. Avoiding jargon is your path to a successful Town Hall conversation. Your employees’ attention is fickle–especially if they’re attending virtually–and a death-by-slides presentation full of corporate mumbo-jumbo won’t cut it.

The opportunity of Town Hall conversations is to serve as an ongoing change management forum. Employees are on the front lines of the business, and can surface opportunities and risks you didn’t know existed. They can also take your company’s strategy from idea to reality.

But none of that happens if you don’t connect with employees on an emotional level. Focus on simplified messaging and visual storytelling, and deliver your presentation with a conversational tone. By doing so, you can engage employees, helping them be more receptive to your messaging, and encourage them to share their own thoughts.

Tips for Town Hall Presentation Design

Town Hall presentations often suffer from:

• Text-heavy slides that make your audience tune out
• Boring content that doesn’t emotionally connect with your employees
• Presenters reading slide content (instead of voicing their ideas)

When employees are sitting through a presentation like this, it’s unlikely to have an impact on them. Instead, here’s what to do for engaging Town Hall:

Ideally, do this once a quarter–right after your quarterly earnings if you’re a public company.

Stick to company-wide town halls. If you still need a functional town hall, consider keeping it short. Avoid repeating content from your company-wide town hall.

Allow sufficient time for Q&A. Creating buffer time to get feedback from your employees is an important part of all-hands meetings, and also makes them more engaging.

The temptation is to err on the side of “more is better,” but do your best to distill your message to the fewest number of slides possible. That helps make the best use of time for everyone at your all employee meeting.

Presenters should expand on these ideas while speaking.

Include bold visuals to emotionally engage your audience and help them digest your message.

This helps the audience follow each of your talking points, instead of reading all the content on the slide.

Speakers should rehearse the presentation in slide show mode. Use humor, anecdotes, and simple, short sentences to connect with your audience. Stay within your allotted time.

Learn more about how we create impressive Corporate Communication Materials

To view samples of our work and our pricing structure, download the OUTKREATE IR Solutions Deck.

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Enhance visual design for a public CPG (consumer packaged goods) company’s company-wide town hall presentations.

The existing presentation was data-heavy and lacked visual interest, making it hard to understand. The client’s design team had little bandwidth and no specialized skills in presentation storytelling and design.

We took a “less is more” approach to content, eliminating text and data that wasn’t central to the messaging. We included only key points on each slide, allowing the speaker to expand with more details during the presentation. We converted data and text to graphics wherever possible, including screenshots, icons, charts, and images.

From a design perspective, the client’s brand wasn’t being used to its full potential. We redesigned the presentation using elements from the client’s brand identity, and used custom smart art and shapes to make each slide more attractive. We also improved the presentation’s user experience, making slides easier to understand by using visual hierarchy and optimal layouts.

After delivering several presentations, we created a Time-Saver Tool that allows the entire company to create high-caliber presentations on their own.

The client’s Corporate Communication team has received phenomenal feedback on this project, both on the quality of the visual storytelling and the effectiveness of the slides and messaging. Multiple groups across the organization ask for a copy of the slides after each Town Hall. Surveys show that employees are giving very positive feedback about the quality of the Town Hall.

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If so, right now is a good time to get ready. Let us help you upgrade your presentation’s structure, content, and design to help employees engage more and get clarity on your key messages.

Book a 1-on-1 session with Harry, where he will walk through your Town Hall Presentation and provide actionable feedback to elevate your presentation.

Think we can be a good fit? Find out with an obligation free assessment.

We’ll share best practices and examples without any sales pressure (we promise).

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Maximizing Engagement: Your Essential Guide to Hosting a Successful Virtual Town Hall Meeting

By Drew Moffitt • March 6, 2024

Need to bridge the distance in your team with a virtual town hall meeting? This guide is your blueprint for connecting management and employees effectively through digital means. Here, you’ll learn to select apt technology, drive engagement , and align your team’s mission—all in a few key steps. Prepare to build a more unified, motivated workforce with our straightforward tips.

• Key takeaways
• Virtual town hall meetings are integral for aligning employees with company goals, facilitating interactive discussions, and building corporate culture through various engaging and inclusive activities.
• Crafting a well-structured town hall agenda with key elements like introductions, company updates, Q&A sessions, and guest speakers is essential, as is choosing the right timing and pacing for maximum participation across time zones.
• Selecting the right technological platform is crucial for the success of a virtual town hall meeting, with features like breakout rooms, polls, real-time chat, and a reliable tech team ready to support the event.

Virtual town hall meetings unveiled

A virtual town hall meeting, also known as an online town hall meeting, is an online company-wide event that serves multiple purposes. It keeps the workforce updated about business results, changes, and the general direction of the company, aligning everyone to the same goals. This alignment is key to closing the gap between management and employees and building a strong corporate culture .

The benefits of virtual town hall meetings include:

• Increased employee engagement
• Alignment with shared values and objectives
• Facilitate question-and-answer-based interaction
• Distinguish from all-hands meetings that focus on presenting a message and key presentations.

Platforms like Zoom have eased the transition to virtual town hall meetings by enabling companies to involve all employees without the need for travel, promoting inclusivity regardless of geographic location. However, platforms like Kumospace have taken this a step further, offering a more engaging and interactive town hall meeting experience.

Crafting the ideal virtual town hall agenda

Crafting a well-structured agenda , one that aligns with the company’s mission and objectives is a crucial step toward a successful virtual town hall meeting. This includes setting clear and specific objectives such as introducing new product features or sharing strategic changes.

A well-structured agenda keeps the content focused and encourages active employee engagement.

Key elements of a town hall meeting agenda

A typical company town hall meeting agenda includes an introduction, company updates, and a closing Q&A session. For larger companies, the focus of company town hall meetings is more on deep engagement with celebrations, announcements, and employee questions. This ensures the meeting is valuable and facilitates complex internal communication.

Encouraging employees to participate by submitting their questions or topics in advance has several benefits:

• It streamlines the Q&A portion of the meeting and allows speakers to prepare thoughtful responses.
• It encourages active participation from employees.
• It helps maintain engagement throughout the meeting.

To bring freshness to the discussion and promote open dialogue among participants, consider inviting guest speakers to the town hall. They can present new topics and provide new insights, adding another layer of engagement to your virtual town hall meeting.

Timing and pacing for maximum engagement

As you plan a virtual town hall meeting, consider timing and pacing as crucial factors. To include employees across different time zones, mid-week or end-of-week slots are typically the best. Specifically, Thursday at 6:00 PM IST has been popular for diverse audiences.

For longer meetings, scheduled breaks are recommended. These help attendees relax and re-engage with the content, ensuring they maintain their attention throughout the event.

The size of the audience is another key factor in structuring the timing of sessions and participatory activities like Q&A. For larger audiences, engagement-driven elements such as games and trivia can be organized to keep the audience attentive and engaged. The chosen platform should support the number of participants, manage varying time zones, and align with the event’s engagement goals.

Inclusion of interactive activities

For any successful virtual town hall meeting, incorporating interactive elements is critical. They give employees a voice and foster open dialogue. Activities such as live polls and Q&A sessions, with questions being collected in advance, ensure impromptu participation during the event.

Virtual breakout rooms and collaborative games like virtual charades and virtual escape rooms offer a way for teams to work together and engage deeply with the town hall content. Humorous and creative breaks, like virtual Pictionary, Bingo, trivia, jam sessions, and cooking classes, foster team spirit and introduce friendly competition, making the town hall an event to remember.

To ensure active engagement, advanced planning is necessary. Here are some tips to create a successful virtual town hall:

• Mix up presentation styles like panel discussions to maintain interest throughout the event.
• Create a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere to support open conversations.
• Make the content memorable and engaging for all attendees.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your virtual town hall is a success.

The technology behind effective virtual town halls

Next, we’ll explore the technology that powers these virtual town hall meetings. Platforms like Kumospace offer an exceptional experience for hosting such events. They integrate key features such as:

• Video conferencing
• Screen-sharing
• Chat messaging

By integrating all necessary components into one suite, streamlining the company town hall setup becomes much more efficient, paving the way for the next town hall and future town halls.

Choosing the right platform

A few key features should be considered when selecting a virtual meeting platform. These include:

• Breakout rooms
• Speed networking
• Superior moderation
• Real-time chat functions

These features are crucial for a successful virtual town hall meeting.

A platform that offers live streaming, interactive features , and technical support capabilities is essential for participant inclusion. The chosen platform must be user-friendly and accessible to ensure full engagement and avoid excluding any participants.

Factors like the audience’s size and technical proficiency, along with the desired level of engagement, are key considerations when selecting a virtual meeting platform. Platforms like Kumospace provide an engaging and interactive experience for virtual town hall meetings, making them a top choice for many companies.

Preparing your tech team

For the smooth execution of a virtual town hall meeting, it’s vital to have an in-house tech team ready for potential technical errors. This team made up of volunteers for moderation and technical support, can include roles such as a moderator, IT staff, and possibly a professional emcee.

To minimize the risk of technical errors during the town hall, it is essential to perform a technical dry run the day before the meeting. This involves:

• Setting up and testing the meeting software
• Testing the chat app
• Testing the event tools
• Testing connectivity

Having a contingency plan for handling potential technical errors is vital to minimize disruption and ensure continuous operation during the town hall meeting. Clear roles should be assigned to manage interactive elements and keep the virtual meeting on track, ensuring every team member knows their responsibilities.

Engaging your audience: from leadership to every employee

After crafting the agenda and choosing the platform, the subsequent step is engaging the audience. From leadership to every employee, everyone’s involvement is crucial in making virtual town hall meetings a success. Let’s dive into the strategies that can help achieve this.

Role of senior leaders in driving engagement

During town hall meetings, company executives play a pivotal role in driving engagement. By leading by example , they create better communication channels and more interaction between the C-Suite and employees. This often starts with an executive or CEO setting an inspiring tone at the start of the town hall.

The senior leadership team, consisting of senior leaders, is instrumental in fostering a culture of openness and strengthening employee trust. They can do this by being prepared to discuss key updates, future plans, and addressing questions transparently.

By setting a motivational agenda that includes leadership speeches, recognition sessions, and aligning with company values, senior leaders play a pivotal role in boosting team morale. Platforms like Kumospace enable leaders to dynamically and inclusively connect with their teams, enhancing engagement during virtual town hall meetings.

Recognizing employee contributions

To promote a sense of belonging and develop a high-performance company culture, it’s effective to recognize employee contributions. Celebrating employee achievements during the town hall can make employees feel valued and appreciated .

Segments to include in the virtual town hall meeting agenda:

• Welcome new team members
• Recognize work anniversaries
• Celebrate birthdays
• Acknowledge notable departures

Birthday celebrations can be included in town hall agendas through monthly acknowledgments, delivering cakes, or playing virtual games, making the event more engaging and inclusive.

Rewarding top performers with virtual tokens of appreciation, such as Hoppier cards, creates an incentive for high achievement and boosts employee morale.

Facilitating open dialogue

Employees are given a platform to engage in open dialogue through virtual town hall meetings. They can ask questions, share their thoughts, and provide feedback to senior management. Involving the audience through polls, questions, and feedback during the session can make the virtual town hall meeting more engaging.

Ending the town hall with a live Q&A session, including curated and spontaneous questions, can enhance two-way communication and engagement. Creating a dedicated talk space or channel for real-time discussion allows attendees to contribute to the virtual town hall meeting. Such spaces ensure that all voices are heard and concerns are addressed in real time.

These discussions can lead to better strategies for stimulating open dialogue among employees.

Post-town hall follow-up: ensuring lasting impact

The impact of a virtual town hall meeting is assessed not only by what occurs during the event but also by the aftermath. A thorough and thoughtful follow-up is crucial to ensure the event’s benefits are sustained long-term.

Sharing meeting outcomes

To ensure information reaches, recording the town hall meeting and making the recording accessible to employees post-event is beneficial. This includes those who could not attend and helps keep key discussions and decisions in organizational memory.

The recap email sent to participants should include:

• Action items
• Discussion points

This ensures clarity in communication and accountability for follow-up actions .

Creating a dedicated channel for real-time discussion about the town hall meeting can continue the engagement, provide a space for questions to be raised, and allow for further reflection on the meeting’s content.

Gathering feedback for future meetings

To improve future virtual town hall meetings, it’s essential to collect feedback. Surveys or suggestion boxes leading up to the meeting are effective for incorporating employee feedback into town hall meetings.

Simple feedback polls with questions on meeting likes, dislikes, and areas for improvement can yield actionable insights from employees. Quantifying employee feedback on the town hall event through star ratings in the employee newsletter can also be beneficial.

Regular collection and analysis of feedback regarding town hall meetings can lead to better strategies for stimulating open dialogue among employees. This helps pinpoint trends and improvements, which is vital for enhancing the quality of future virtual town hall meetings.

Transforming the virtual experience with Kumospace

The virtual town hall experience is transformed by a platform called Kumospace. It features:

• Custom images and GIFs for branding
• Virtual drink stations
• YouTube streaming on virtual TVs
• Secondary camera presentation, which enhances the virtual town hall experience.

Kumospace supports group broadcasts suitable for group presentations or panel discussions, adding to the collaborative aspect of town hall meetings. It provides pre-designed floor templates and allows for real-time adjustment of floor settings and participant management, encouraging dynamic interaction during the town hall.

Hosts can invite guests through the in-platform invite button, direct links, or sharing the unique Kumospace URL, offering flexible options for attendees to join the event. This makes Kumospace an ideal choice for hosting memorable virtual town hall meetings.

To wrap up, virtual town hall meetings are a powerful tool for fostering open communication, alignment, and engagement within a company. Crafting a well-structured agenda, choosing the right technology, and facilitating open dialogue are key to hosting successful virtual town hall meetings. Platforms like Kumospace offer an ideal solution, providing interactive and engaging experiences for all attendees.

Frequently asked questions

How do you conduct a virtual town hall meeting  .

To conduct a virtual town hall meeting, first define the meeting objective, plan the agenda, prepare content, send invitations, invite questions in advance, perform a technical dry run, and welcome your attendees. This will help ensure a successful and engaging virtual town hall meeting.

What are virtual town halls?  

Virtual town halls are digital versions of traditional town hall meetings, allowing for updates, feedback collection, and two-way communication with the workforce.

How to do a town hall meeting on Kumospace?  

To host a virtual town hall meeting with Kumospace, start by selecting a date and inviting all relevant participants. Ensure that your Kumospace account is set up and ready for the event, including any necessary configurations or customizations. Schedule the meeting within Kumospace and provide technical assistance to attendees as needed. Determine whether the meeting format will be a live session within Kumospace's virtual environment or a webinar-style presentation. By following these steps and leveraging the features of Kumospace, you can effectively host a successful and engaging virtual town hall meeting.

What are the benefits of virtual town halls  

Virtual town halls offer the benefits of live updates, performance reviews, goal tracking, and community building among colleagues. They provide a platform for company leaders to connect with employees and foster a sense of community.

What is the purpose of a virtual town hall meeting?  

The purpose of a virtual town hall meeting is to keep the workforce informed about business results, changes, and the company's general direction, align everyone to the same goals, and build a strong corporate culture. It helps to ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards common objectives.

Transform the way your team works from anywhere.

A virtual office in Kumospace lets teams thrive together by doing their best work no matter where they are geographically.

Drew leads marketing at Kumospace. Prior to joining Kumospace, he spent his career founding and operating businesses. His work has been featured in over 50 publications. Outside of work, Drew is an avid skier and sailor. A wholehearted extrovert, he organizes VentureSails, a series of networking events for founders and tech investors.

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How to Run a Stellar Town Hall Meeting

Company town hall meetings, also known as " all-hands" meetings , bring the team together to talk about challenges, share information, and contribute ideas. When done right, these meetings can be exciting, informative, and motivating. On the other hand, poorly organized meetings end up wasting time and might even negatively impact morale.

If you’re tasked with organizing a company town hall meeting, you should know that these meetings have changed over time. Initially a way for management to communicate with the rest of the company, these meetings now involve more interaction. What’s more, with the rise of hybrid and remote teams in many companies, town halls often happen online.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at what is a town hall meeting and discuss how to organize one that will engage and inspire your team.

Planning and Preparation

Use these tactics to prepare for a company town hall meeting that’s effective and informative:

• Define Meeting Objectives: Decide why your town hall is happening. It could be about important business news, like big sales or a new product. Or maybe it’s to build trust or motivate the team. Knowing the goal helps plan the town hall meeting agenda, choose speakers, and figure out if you need extra sessions.
• Set a Date and Time: Decide on a date early, taking into account different employee time zones. Make sure it works for everyone, including those with flexible schedules.
• Build a Structured Agenda: Plan out a clear agenda once you have the date. Focus on two or three important things related to your goal. An average town hall should last 60 to 90 minutes. If it's shorter, you might miss out on good discussions. If it's longer, attendees might start losing interest, especially in virtual town hall meetings where distractions are a click away.
• Prepare Engaging Presentations: Make your presentations interesting by adding visuals and important info. If possible, ask employees what they want to hear in advance.

Promotion and Communication

Company town hall meetings need to be completely inclusive. Here’s how to make sure everyone is included and aligned with the mission:

Let Everyone Know About the Meeting

Before your town hall, tell your team what the meeting is about and why it is important for them to attend, especially if it's the first time. Share the date well in advance, picking a time when people aren’t busy or on vacation.

Make sure to send out invites early with the date and time. Explain how an online town hall meeting works, and what everyone needs to do, and share any tech details. As it gets closer, share the meeting agenda with your team so that all members know what to expect. 

Focus on Open and Honest Communication

When it comes to the meeting, simplify your communication by speaking directly to your audience and avoiding elaborate presentation slides. Keep it informal and avoid any jargon or technical terms. 

If you need to deliver tough news during the meeting, be honest, avoid sugarcoating, and watch your body language. Remember to follow up with a positive focus, expressing faith in your team and discussing collective actions to overcome challenges.

If conflict arises when people are given an opportunity to speak, try to remain calm and view it as an opportunity for open communication.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Engagement and Interaction

So, how to put together effective town hall meetings that ensure employee engagement and foster a sense of belonging? Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind: 

• Start with a Fun Icebreaker: Your virtual town hall meeting doesn’t need to be too serious. Start your virtual town hall with a fun icebreaker using our slide decks over Zoom. Ask thoughtful or light-hearted questions and watch your team members share their answers. If possible, break the team into small groups for more interaction within the given time. An engaging opening captures everyone’s attention and keeps attendees engaged.
• Celebrate Company Achievements: Create a sense of togetherness by celebrating your staff's achievements. Highlight individual or team successes, share milestones, and discuss business results. Showing appreciation for your team’s hard work is a great way to create a positive atmosphere.
• Give Your Employees a Voice: Open the floor for the team to voice their concerns and share ideas. Dedicate time to a live Q&A session too. This shows your commitment to openness and transparency.
• Share the Stage: Avoid leaving the whole event to the CEO and instead, allow your senior leadership team to speak as well. This allows you to create a more comprehensive and engaging experience for everyone. You can even invite an outside speaker to energize and motivate your employees. 

Handling Questions and Feedback

Make your company town hall meeting better by using tech for instant feedback. Whether it's an in-person, hybrid, or virtual meeting, tools like Slides with Friends' live polling feature give you an opportunity to collect feedback through graphs, bar charts, ratings, "per player" stats, and more.

Keep in mind that some participants might not feel comfortable asking challenging questions or voicing their complaints. Be sure to provide additional channels where they can do this, such as an interactive presentation, instant messaging or email. Having diverse feedback channels and tech tools ensures you really understand what people think, helping you improve each time.

You can even have your leadership/presenters to ask your audience a question. This will allow you to get instant feedback and make the communication more meaningful. 

Follow-up and Action Steps

After the town hall meeting, it's key to follow up. Summarize the main points and let everyone know what's happening next. This keeps everyone in the loop and shows that their thoughts matter. Clear communication after the meeting makes sure everyone is on the same page and ready for the next steps.

Your people will want to know that you and the rest of the leadership team listened to the concerns and suggestions that they raised during the company town hall meeting and that you're taking them seriously. 

So, make sure that you stay in contact with your people after the meeting and provide regular updates on what you're doing to resolve issues. You can post updates on your organization's intranet or blog, send out an email, or touch base personally. Also, use Slides with Friends’ interactive features to get an idea about how the meeting went and how to make future company town hall meetings better.

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What is a Town Hall Meeting and How to Conduct One!

In this article:, share this article.

Meetings are essential for the efficient flow of information and communication in every organisation. And different types of meetings are held to aid organizations in achieving their objectives. The town hall meeting is one of these meetings.

Key Takeaways

• Townhall meetings are regularly held in organizations to bridge the communication gap between management and employees, get every member of the organization informed about organizational plans and updates, and inspire teamwork and collaboration amongst employees.
• Hybrid and remote working styles in recent times have shifted physical meetings online. As such, to hold successful virtual meetings, learning how to make meetings engaging and knowing your way around the technological tools is an essential skill to hone.
• Other types of meetings that are organised in organisations include strategy and planning meetings, the daily huddle and managers’ meetings.

What is a Town Hall Meeting?

A town hall meeting is also known as an “all-hands-on meeting”. As the name implies, it is a meeting attended by everyone in an organization, regardless of their level or hierarchy in the organization.

Town Hall meetings originated from meetings held by politicians and legislators in local town halls or other designated venues such as the library and sports centers.

In organizations, these types of meetings are often hosted by senior-level personnel. It typically provides an avenue for a company’s management to connect with their employees.

The Professional Leadership Institute offers a course module on Business Meetings & Communication – with a free preview.

What Is the Point of a Town Hall Meeting?

• Town hall meetings make it possible to have all employees seated and receive updates about the organisation at the same time. In other words, information is shared first-hand with employees. Misinformation is costly for every organisation. Providing information first-hand curbs the spread of misinformation.
• Again, management is also able to receive feedback about their processes directly from their team. Ordinarily, if feedback is passed from one level of management to another, it is often distorted and may not convey the initial response or feedback given by team members.
• Employees may hardly get the opportunity to converse with the organization’s CEO and other members of the top management. These meetings help to close that communication gap, especially during the Q and A sessions. As a result, employees will feel valued, engaged, and a part of the decision-making process.
• Having town hall meetings allows employees to mingle with one another. Through the sharing of ideas, the expression of opinions and contributions, connections and collaboration amongst employees are enhanced and strengthened.
• These meetings are a way to remind employees of how their deliverables should align with the company’s overall goals. It is also a great way to reinforce an organization’s mission and objectives.

What To Include In The Town Hall Meeting Agenda?

A well-organized town hall meeting has an impact on overall engagement. As such, the agenda forms the basis upon which a successful town hall meeting will be executed. Typically,  e very town hall meeting will have the following basic items on its agenda:

• The town hall agenda starts with the opening remarks by the CEO or a member of the upper management level.
• Department managers and team leaders share information and updates.
• Polls and Surveys.
• The floor is open for questions and answers.

How to Run a Successful Town Hall Virtual Meeting

As workplaces go hybrid or completely remote, virtual town hall meetings are being held instead of physical town hall meetings in order to connect and bring together employees working remotely. Virtual meetings save employees the stress of travelling to a physical location and save event organizers the cost and stress of scheduling conferences or board rooms for the event. Below are some useful tips you can implement to run a successful virtual town hall meeting.

• Creating an agenda sets the tone for the meeting. It gives the meeting a clear purpose and direction. Also, it provides participants with insight into what will be discussed and helps them prepare their ideas to make effective contributions.
• Knowing your way around video conferencing tools and features will count hugely toward making your virtual meeting a success.
• You don’t want to run into technical problems right before you kick off or midway into your meeting. To ensure that you are good to go, test your technology beforehand. Check-in with participants to see if they know how to use the chat function, mute themselves, and share screens. Also, check the audio and video quality to see if it is good enough to proceed.
• It is important to make virtual meetings interactive and engaging by using polls to get instant feedback, encouraging comments in the chatbox, and using surveys and Q & A sessions.

Examples of Virtual Meetings

Digital summit at sbc.

SBC is a news, media, and events company operating in the betting and gaming industry. The event’s focused on networking and knowledge sharing.

Adobe Digital Conference Experience

With 100,000 registrants and a global audience of 450,000, this was Adobe’s first online conference, held in 2020.

Google SheetsCon

It was the first online event devoted exclusively to Google Sheets users, with in-depth training from industry experts and professionals.

What Other Types of Meetings Should be Held at Your Company?

While town hall meetings are held to close communication gaps between employees and top management and align employees with the company’s goals, there are other types of meetings which are also essential in every organisation.  

The Daily Huddle : These are short meetings (15 minutes max) that must happen every day. They are meant to help employees align with goals that need to be achieved.

Managers’ Meeting: These are meetings that happen weekly involving the organisation leaders. Tactical and operational issues as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) are some of the things that are discussed in these types of meetings.

Planning and Strategy Meetings : These types of meetings are targeted toward setting strategies for the actualisation of a company’s goals and objectives. They involve a lot of brainstorming sessions and planning.

Town hall meetings create an avenue for employees to meet with management, reinforce organisational goals and objectives, hear employees’ feedback, and strengthen team connections and effectiveness. You can further improve your skills at organising effective town hall meetings here.

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What is a Company Town Hall Meeting? (+ How to Plan and Conduct One)

Think about the last “town hall” meeting you attended at your company. Was it something you and your colleagues looked forward to? Or, did seeing the time block on your calendar fill you with anxiety (over losing time in your day), annoyance (not wanting to sit through an excruciatingly boring meeting) or, worst of all, apathy (having no interest in attending knowing the content wouldn’t be relevant)?

Unfortunately, the latter is the case for many employees today.

While the concept of a town hall dates far back beyond our modern corporate world and these meetings played a crucial role in internal communications during the height of the pandemic, many employees still report that they can feel like a chore.

This is partly because employee needs and expectations are evolving in today’s “new reality”; in many cases, employees want to feel personally connected to their leaders, the company vision and values, and what the organization stands for.

There is a critical opportunity now for leaders and communications professionals to deliver far more informative, interactive and meaningful town halls that will engage employees.

Whether you are a seasoned planner or embarking on setting up your company’s first town hall meeting, we’ll explore in this blog post why town halls are important, the components of a successful town hall, steps you can take to plan one, a sample agenda and best practices to inform, engage and inspire your employees.

What is a Company Town Hall Meeting?

Town halls – also commonly referred to as “all-hands meetings” – are often the centerpiece of a company’s internal communications plan. They are leadership’s annual, quarterly or, sometimes more frequent, opportunity to talk with employees about business results, priorities, future plans and strategies, and to recognize individual or team achievements.

In the best cases, these sessions are interactive and inspiring, moving beyond the “talk at” and “command/control” formats to actually build an engaging, informative conversation with employees.

Why are Town Hall Meetings important for an organization?

Town hall meetings are unique from company to company and serve different roles for different leadership teams. Regardless of your company’s size, your industry or the challenges you might be facing, an effective town hall can be an important tool to aid with employee engagement, trust in leadership and sense of belonging – three pillars that are critical to retaining employees in today’s ultra-competitive labor market. Let’s break them down:

• Engagement : Engagement is an emotional connection employees have with their work, which in turn allows them to identify with, be motivated by and be willing to spend extra effort for their employer. Engaged employees are also often incredible advocates on behalf of a company and the brand. Today, however, employee engagement levels are at an all-time low – the latest Gallup survey reports that employee engagement saw its first annual decline in a decade, dropping to just 32% in the first part of this year.
• Trust : Trust is needed more than ever as companies move past the pandemic and establish their new reality. In today’s business environment, without trust, it’s impossible to have an effective hybrid or remote workforce, create a meaningful employee experience, engage and retain top talent, and more. Employees who trust their leaders will move mountains for them and be more engaged in the business.
• Sense of belonging : Belonging is a basic human need and one that translates to the work environment. Employees want to feel supported, included and part of something larger than themselves. The latest labor reports show that the “Great Resignation” isn’t slowing down, and employees are still leaving their jobs in droves. Fostering a sense of a belonging among your workforce can be the difference between an employee staying and leaving for their next opportunity.

Key Components of a Town Hall Meeting

So, how can you put together an effective town hall (whether it’s a virtual town hall meeting, hybrid or in-person) to help you engage your employees, enhance trust levels and foster a sense of belonging?

Here are the key components every town hall should include:

• Business update : Dedicate time to reviewing your company’s strategic goals and progress you have made against them or the challenges you might be facing. Help employees understand their role in advancing your business strategy and achieving key priorities. Various studies show that anywhere from 60% to 95% of employees don’t know their company’s strategy – it is the job of leaders to bridge this gap and drive performance. Remember to put the update in plain language to help employees see themselves in the strategy.
• Leader-driven : Say you conduct town halls quarterly and have 12 members on your senior leadership team. Ahead of each town hall, assign 3 leaders to recognize their teams. Provide them parameters to help them identify team members (i.e., this quarter we’re highlighting employees who live the company values or helped advance a specific priority). Honor team members’ recognition with a meaningful reward – such as lunch with the CEO – instead of a trophy or swag.
• Peer-driven : Put the recognition in the hands of employees and end your meeting on a high note. Call on one employee to recognize a peer for something they did, who will then name another peer, and so on. Each recognition recipient can receive a small gift card or other token. By making recognition a regular part of town halls, you’ll create a culture of gratitude and belonging.
• Location of your audience: Do you have employees attending live and virtually? You’ll need to incorporate technology that ensures remote employees have equal opportunity to submit their questions.
• Leadership comfort/skill level : How strong are your leaders as communicators? Do they need advance Q&A prep or can they answer off the cuff? If they are still building confidence as a communicator, implementing an approach that allows a member of the communications team to field questions through a platform and prompt the leader will help set them up for success.
• Watch out : Be careful not to screen all difficult questions – leaders need to be transparent and demonstrate vulnerability to earn trust from their workforce.
• The size of your audience : If you are speaking to a room with hundreds of employees, will everyone have a fair shot at asking a question or only those in the front row?

Town Hall Meeting Sample Agenda

The average town hall typically runs anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes – shorter than that and you’ll lose valuable open discussion time, longer than that you risk losing employee attention (this especially goes for virtual town hall meetings, where distractions are easily accessible).

Building on the three key components above, what might a town hall agenda template look like?

Town Hall Meeting Planning Checklist

Now that you have a sample outline to build from for your next town hall meeting, what are the necessary steps you need to take to align on your agenda, gather your content and ensure it goes off without a hitch?

Schedule your town hall cadence at the beginning of the year; ensure calendar invites are on leaders’ calendars as early as possible to avoid future scheduling conflicts

Conduct an initial planning session between the CEO/President (or your top leader) and the communications team to align on the agenda for the town hall (2-3 weeks prior)

Reach out to speakers and subject matter experts to gather content/slide visuals (1-2 weeks prior)

Build out the slide deck and work with design services (if available) to create a cohesive presentation (3-4 days prior)

Draft the anticipated Q&A document and circulate it with leaders who will be responsible for fielding questions (3-4 days prior)

Conduct a rehearsal with all speakers (1-2 days prior)

Conduct the final tech check and discuss any last-minute questions from speakers (morning of)

Scenario Planning

In today’s business environment, town halls are taking on different shapes and formats, and constantly evolving to adapt to the shifting workforce composition. What are some common scenarios you can expect to encounter in planning your town hall, whether it’s a virtual town hall, in-person, or hybrid, and how can you prepare for them?

Hybrid Attendees:

Gone are the days of an entire organization gathering in-person at a single location for a company town hall. A growing number of companies, including 3M, Zillow and Twitter, have introduced policies to allow the majority of their employees to work from home permanently, even after the pandemic. Companies that are “remote first,” have a hybrid workforce or even different office locations need to prioritize finding an advanced technology solution that will support the needs of their town hall. Even if your company defaulted to one platform during the pandemic, ask yourself if it’s meeting your communications needs today:

• Is there an attendee cap or time limit for sessions?
• Can users submit questions and chat?
• Is this a user-friendly experience for employees?
• How is audio and video buffering?
• Can the meeting be recorded?
• Does it offer closed captioning or live translated captions?

Regularly assess your workforce and your communication needs, and ensure you are using the platform that is best for your company.

Employees Across Shifts and Time Zones:

If a portion of your workforce is not on shift during the town hall or cannot leave their workstation to attend or works from a different time zone, it is important to make the content available to them at a time they can access it. To do so, leaders could host the town hall more than once (e.g., one morning and one evening session) or you can record the town hall and send a replay link along with a written recap note to all employees. Still, it is difficult to ensure that every single employee will be able to attend the meeting or watch the replay. Thus, it is important to set expectations with leaders on what they need to communicate to their teams and provide them with the necessary support to cascade the information accordingly (e.g., messaging points, leader toolkits, presentation slides).

Tips to Take Your Town Hall to the Next Level

With your agenda, planning checklist and meeting technology in place, what other factors might you consider to transform your town hall from that dreaded monthly meeting to a must-attend event? Consider the following ideas:

• Incorporate audience response technology to engage your audience. Use in-meeting polling to invite employees (in the room and globally) to share real-time impressions of a big agenda item. Invite responses to questions and have those responses show up on the screen as word clouds or other formats. Input could be prompted with a few questions during the session – for example: What excites you most about this big idea? What will you tell your family/friends about this idea?
• Share the stage. Don’t let your town hall become the CEO show. Build trust in your entire leadership team by inviting leaders across the organization to deliver relevant updates based on the agenda. And then don’t stop there. Employees want to hear and learn from their peers. Instead of having a senior leader deliver an update or a case study, consider having them facilitate a panel discussion with the employees who worked on the project.
• Change it up. While consistency can be key, if you are a company that has frequent town halls (say, every month), don’t be afraid to do one a little differently. Give the business updates a break and instead create an agenda that is solely focused on inspiring your employees. Bring the outside in – your customers, your patients, an inspirational speaker, etc. – who can energize, motivate and thank employees for everything they are doing to advance your company’s work. Taking a step back to reflect and reconnect to one another and the company’s mission will breathe new energy into the organization – read on to the following case study to see how we worked with one of our clients to do just so.

Town Hall Meeting Case Study: How One Organization Raised the Bar to Inspire

Beyond the Standard Town Hall: “A Dose of Inspiration”

Employees at a leading pharmaceutical company were change-weary from the volume and intensity of change over the past two years and, coupled with pandemic frustrations, feelings of uncertainty and anxiety were rising. We partnered with the communications team to create a reset moment for the organization called “A Dose of Inspiration,” during which the team came together to:

• Pause to acknowledge the changes and challenges
• Recognize and celebrate associates and milestones
• Re-center on their critical mission – transforming the lives of patients and their families
• Inspire associates about the future and their role in the company’s success

The event was not another town hall – the content was inspirationally toned and high level, versus focused on business updates. It featured both internal and external speakers who helped associates take stock of how they can find inspiration from their patients, one another and within.

Now in its second year, employees have called A Dose of Inspiration “the best [company] meeting to date” and “absolutely inspiring from start to finish.”

• 78% reported feeling more connected to the company’s mission
• 80% said they were “completely” inspired

With thoughtful planning and careful execution, town halls are an incredible internal communications platform to engage your workforce and make a real, lasting impact on your company’s business goals. But, we know that implementing a new way of communicating – whether it’s introducing town halls altogether or shifting how they’ve always been done – can be daunting.

You might be asking yourself, where do I start or how will I get buy-in from leadership on this approach?

We can help! We partner with organizations of all sizes to transform how they communicate internally and reach and engage employees through effective town halls. We love putting our experience to use as we partner with communications teams to make the workplace better, and help leaders show up in an authentic way. If you’d like help, reach out . We’d be delighted to partner.

We also have a new eBook, 10 Ways to Make the Most of Your Town Hall and Unleash the Power of your Hybrid Teams , that’s designed to help get you started.

Download your free copy here .

How will transforming your town halls into must-attend events help you drive employee engagement and your desired business outcomes?

—Jennifer Hirsch

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Blog – Creative Presentations Ideas

infoDiagram visual slide examples, PowerPoint diagrams & icons , PPT tricks & guides

Creating Engaging Town Hall Meeting Presentation in PowerPoint

Last Updated on July 4, 2023 by Anastasia

Are you looking to effectively provide updates, share information, and facilitate engaging communication with your employees during a town hall meeting presentation? As part of that, it’s essential to present updates and deliver presentations in an engaging manner. To assist you with this topic, I have prepared a few slide examples that you can incorporate into your presentation.

Let me inspire you with visual PowerPoint slides examples of company Town Hall meeting presentation: 

• explaining what’s town hall meeting about
• presenting a team growth 
• visualizing the key achievements and milestones on a roadmap
• presenting creatively the mission, vision, and values statement
• visualizing the data on a dashboard

Get all the graphics presented here – click on the slide pictures to see and download the source illustration. Check the full Town Hall All-hands Meeting Presentation .

What is the town hall meeting ?

The town hall meetings, also known as “all-hands” meetings, are gatherings where the team can hear the news, discuss challenges, stay informed, and offer ideas. They are an opportunity for employees and leadership to come together as a team, engage in open conversation, and share updates, successes, and any queries that have cropped up along the way.

In case you have newcomers at your meeting, you may want to present such definitions creatively on a slide. I prefer using a two-column template to present such definitions. This allows for a combination of text and graphics. In the example above, I used a gradient background and icons, but a photo can also represent the graphical component.

Presenting a team growth graphically

When you want to talk about team growth this topic can include such focus areas: 

• new benefits for your employees
• work-life balance support
• personal development or PDP support activities
• team building events
• other empowerment of your team

To illustrate these areas, you can use a growing plant metaphor. Take a look at the slide below.

Each area of the team’s development is illustrated with a plant’s growth from a seed to a flower. To further highlight the stages, each of them is enclosed within a text box and assigned a specific color. It is important to arrange the boxes evenly on the slide to maintain a balanced layout.

If you’re about to focus more on business growth strategy and your plan for increasing your company’s markets and revenues, check out our blog .

Why use a roadmap to present the key achievements and milestones

Utilizing a roadmap visualization aids in enhancing the audience’s understanding of key milestones along the path to success and effectively communicates the implementation of new procedures.

To create such a slide, I used shapes available in PowerPoint such as rectangles, circles, and chevrons. Each number on the roadmap is assigned to an appropriate box, which includes a description and a flag symbol to create an association with targets along a road.

How to present the mission, vision, and values statement creatively

It may be worth reminding the core values and directions in your town hall meeting presentation. 

Simply covering a slide with plain text to explain your company’s vision, mission, and values can be dull and difficult to remember. It is better to create visually interesting shapes that capture the audience’s attention. In order to emphasize the significance of unlocking the full potential of our core values, I have used a key symbolism. Furthermore, each statement is enriched with a specific icon to enhance the slide’s relevance.

• a bulb for a vision statement
• a top of a hill for a mission statement
• a hand with a star for a values statement

Visualizing the data on a dashboard

It’s highly likely that you will need to present data during the town hall meeting. However, it’s important to avoid boring your audience with dry numbers. To make the data more engaging, I have created a two-column dashboard slide to effectively present sales-related information.

The left column displays data using bar charts, with arrow icons highlighting monthly increases and decreases. The downward red arrow represents a decrease, while the upward green arrow symbolizes growth. On the right side, I have included a donut chart, which is similar to a pie chart but more visually appealing due to its ring shape (allowing for a representative icon in the center). The pie chart is color-coded, making it easy to identify each category assigned to it.

If you need to squeeze much data into one slide, see how data dashboards can help to illustrate data reports.

Making Town Hall Meeting Presentation Visually Engaging – What to Keep in Mind

Because town hall meeting is so important event, presenting it requires engaging and visually appealing slides to captivate your audience. Just keep in mind a few rules from our graphic designers:

• incorporate creative visual aids instead of relying on plain text
• go beyond simple slide layout, try arranging content into more columns to use the full space of the slide 
• elegant gradient backgrounds, photos, and icons can convey information in a visually engaging manner
• draw attention to significant aspects of your message with icons or arrow indicators
• arrange data into a clear dashboard chart layout to present information in a readable and attractive manner

I’m convinced that by incorporating these creative ideas and design tips into your slides, you can elevate the impact and engagement of your town hall meeting presentation.

Resource: Company Town Hall Meeting Presentation PowerPoint Template

In the examples above I used the graphics from a PowerPoint template with Town Hall Meeting concept visuals. You can check all source slides in the infoDiagram collection of presentation graphics:

[button url=”https://www.infodiagram.com/diagrams/company-town-hall-meeting-structure-powerpoint-template?cp=camp14″ title=”Company Town Hall Meeting Presentation” width=”300px” align=”center”]

If you want to include multiple data charts and KPIs in your presentation deck, extend your town hall meeting presentation with data dashboard layouts .

Home Collections Strategy / Business Plan Agenda Town Hall Presentation

Town Hall PowerPoint Presentation and Google Slides

Townhall Presentation Slide

A town hall presentation is a meeting that brings together employees and management to discuss company updates and goals. To engage employees during a town hall, it's important to use interactive elements such as polls, Q&A sessions, and live feedback. Additionally, personal stories and recognition of employee contributions can make employees feel valued and connected to the company's mission. This Slide is exclusively made of professional designs and has five nodes. Utilizing the resources properly you can present company updates, share key accomplishments and challenges, discuss future plans, and provide a platform for Q&A.

Features of the template:

• You can use this in Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.
• This slide contains .16:9 and 4:3 format.
• It is a well-crafted template with an instant download facility.
• The best PowerPoint theme template.
• It is a well-designed presentation template.
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5 Agenda Templates for Efficient and Effective Town Hall Meetings

January 26, 2023

Are you tired of the same old town hall meetings that seem to drag on and on? Do you want to make your next employee town hall more engaging and productive? Look no further! We've compiled a list of five agenda templates that will help you organize a successful and interactive town hall. From brainstorming sessions to Q&A panels, these templates will give you a clear roadmap to follow and keep your audience engaged. Say goodbye to boring town halls and hello to a new level of employee engagement!

A well-planned employee town hall agenda goes a long way in boosting employee engagement. Whether the meeting is at a country, regional, or international scale, the gathering of a significant part of the company is crucial in shaping the company's organizational culture. It sets the standard of how teams within the organization communicate with each other, the relationship between managers and employees, and the way an organization problem-solves, strategies, and celebrates together.

But when town hall meetings last at least an hour, employees could disengage quickly and lose interest. Town hall agendas can be crafted to ensure that the town hall meets your needs, whether to be efficient, motivating, or inclusive.

To help guide you along, here are five agendas that you can use and adapt to your company’s needs.

1. Standard in-person agenda

A standard in-person agenda is a tried-and-true template for running a successful employee town hall. It typically includes a welcome and introduction, a review of the company's recent accomplishments, updates on ongoing projects, Q&A sessions, and a summary and call-to-action. This agenda helps to keep the town hall organized, ensures that all important topics are covered, and allows for efficient use of time. 

The usual employee town hall meeting, or all-hands meetings for smaller companies, should always have its basic components. It would look something like this:

Town hall agenda

• Opening address by CEO

State of the company

Topics/initiatives in focus.

• Opening address

The opening address would usually be led by the CEO or someone from upper management to kick off the town hall meeting. This would outline the agenda of the town hall and include a message.

Since town hall meetings are meant to help align the team for the next month or quarter ahead, sharing key statistics, such as financials or KPIs, will help back up the reasoning for the company’s strategy and actions.

If you have a short timeframe to work with but a large company, picking out initiatives or topics to focus on could help condense the content.

You could have each team leaders share their progress, project leaders share the results from their latest initiatives or even have the CEO zoom in on a part of the company's culture that they choose to highlight.

Never skip Q&A. Even if time is tight, make time to answer at least two or three questions. Employees must have that feedback channel for all big decisions made in the company.

Passing around a microphone always works. If people are too shy to speak up, use a live Q&A tool that allows anonymous submissions and question voting.

2. Remote or virtual agenda

A remote or virtual agenda is designed specifically for online meetings or events . It includes important details such as the time zone of the participants, the link to the virtual meeting platform, and the login credentials. It also outlines the order of the meeting, including the topics to be covered, the speakers, and the duration of each section. Remote agendas often include additional information such as guidelines for using the virtual platform, troubleshooting tips, and opportunities for interaction and engagement.

When hosting a remote town hall, a different agenda is needed to ensure that everyone is engaged and included in the discussion.

• Introduce town hall ground rules
• State of the Company presentation
• Features/initiatives in focus

Town hall ground rules

Large companies that have dispersed teams can often struggle to stay on the same page, even within a town hall meeting. To maintain conversations that are civil and constructive, try laying out the ground rules first.

Some ground rules could include:

• Appreciate and accept diverse opinions
• Leave all questions to the dedicated Q&A session
• When someone is speaking, no interruptions will be welcomed

For a company with remote teams, this could be a short 5-10 minute presentation from remote workers to talk about what they're working on. This would not only raise awareness of what their overseas counterparts are doing but also keep them aligned to the same overarching goals.

Post-town hall Survey

To ensure that all parties are engaged and included, check in with them after the town hall is over with a short survey. The survey would be great at not only recognizing any communication problems but also noting AV problems that might have occurred during the meeting.

3. Aligning agenda

An aligning agenda is designed to bring focus and clarity to a specific topic or issue and to align the perspectives of participants toward a common goal. This type of agenda is particularly useful for teams or organizations that are experiencing challenges or facing critical decisions.

According to McKinsey :

Achieving real alignment, where strategy, goals, and meaningful purpose reinforce one another, gives an organization a major advantage because it has a clearer sense of what to do at any given time, and it can trust people to move in the right direction.

An aligning agenda typically includes activities that help participants understand the issue at hand, such as presentations, group discussions, and problem-solving exercises. By the end of the session, participants should have a clear understanding of the issue and the steps needed to move forward.

If your focus for your next town hall meeting is to align your team, try this agenda.

• Address Poll results (sent before the meeting)

Ending points

• Minutes shared and post-mortem

Using a poll

Sending a poll before the town hall could help give a snapshot of where the company is then. By dedicating some time in the town hall to address these results, either to ask about outlier opinions or to realign the company to the chosen strategy of the company.

There are a lot more benefits to starting a town hall with a poll , engaging your audience, encouraging participation, providing valuable insights, promoting transparency, and enhancing decision-making.

If you have a dedicated minutes-taker at the town hall, having a few ending points crafted out during the meeting, including some key concerns addressed and follow-up actions, could help ensure that everyone is on the same page when they leave. This could also be followed up by meeting minutes, a summary of all questions asked, and a transcript of the answers.

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4. motivating agenda.

If you want to inspire and energize your attendees, a motivating agenda is the way to go. Set clear goals, include interactive activities, and outline an engaging program. With a well-designed motivating agenda, you can boost engagement, participation, creativity, and foster a sense of connection and enthusiasm among your team. It doesn't matter if you're planning a team-building retreat, a sales conference, or a leadership workshop; a motivating agenda will help you achieve your goals and leave a lasting impact on your participants.

To light a fire under everyone, try this agenda.

• CEO’s presentation
• Team leaders’ presentations
• Celebrations and milestones

Having the CEO address the team and give a rallying speech is a good way of getting people to feel motivated. Much like a general giving a speech before the troops go into war, CEOs should have the ability to inspire and unite a company to a joint mission.

While it may be tempting to turn to numbers and statistics, Nancy Duarte wrote in a Forbes article that the power behind authentic and persuasive CEO speeches comes from personal stories.

In this case, a poll could be useful in promoting more positive thinking. Instead of asking their opinions about an initiative, try an open-ended poll about what the highlight of their quarter was. Choosing the right kind of question to ask could be great in reframing the way someone thinks, making it a powerful motivating tool.

Milestones and celebrations

In most companies, it can be easy to get stuck on day-to-day work. Celebrating milestones together can help bring the whole company together and foster a sense of community within the company. According to employee engagement author Liz Jazwiec : “The bottom line is that workplace celebrations foster relationship building, improve morale, enhance retention, and encourage employees to achieve results.”

To add a positive spin to the town hall, celebrate birthdays or work anniversaries during town halls. Or, if there’s a successful project or team that has hit a significant milestone, feature it in the town hall to show recognition for their efforts.

5. Fun agenda

If you want to create a fun and engaging atmosphere for your employee town hall, consider using a fun agenda template. With games, icebreakers, and other interactive activities, a fun agenda can energize your employees and promote team building. You can also include fun themes and decorations to create a lively and memorable event. Whether you're looking to reward your employees, celebrate a company milestone, or simply create a positive work culture, a fun agenda can help you achieve your goals and leave a lasting impression on your team!

Try changing up your town hall meeting to be more light-hearted with this agenda.

Ice-breaker

Catered networking meal.

Depending on the size of your company, starting with an ice-breaker could help set a lighter tone during the meeting. This could be a standard prompt to stand up and say hello to the people sitting around you, or a full-on ice-breaker game.

A fun and fuss-free game is a trivia game, which could be played from the audience’s phones. Making a game about the company, such as fun facts about the company or its employees, could also help build company culture. A company that works together and celebrates together stays together .

No one hates a free meal. Catering food is a great way of treating your employees and celebrating.

Sharing a meal also acts as an effective social lubricant. Studies have shown that a shared appreciation for food boosts cooperation and trust , and people who eat together tend to agree sooner!

Use these agendas for your employee town hall

Choosing the right agenda template for your next employee town hall is crucial to ensure the event is effective and impactful. Whether it's the standard in-person agenda, remote/virtual agenda, aligning agenda, motivating agenda, or fun agenda, each template offers unique benefits and can help you achieve your specific goals. By utilizing these agenda templates and making necessary adjustments, you can elevate your next employee town hall and leave a lasting positive impact on your team.

Which agenda are you using for your next employee town hall?

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8 creative ideas for town hall engagement

A town hall is an opportunity. When it’s planned with engagement at the core, it has the potential to build buy-in, increase morale, promote change, correct course, and foster transparency. Below are eight creative ways to plan engagement into your next town hall. Some are taken from our own experience at Poll Everywhere events. Some come from enterprising clients. Some come from leading experts on the topic. Try the ones that make sense for your next all-hands event.

1. Make your visual aids interactive

Presenters often use an xy-axis or 2×2 grid to compare tactics and ideas. Flip that visual into an opportunity for interaction. In the Poll Everywhere activity creator , it’s called a clickable image. After you type in the question or prompt, upload your framework image (a grid, graph, map, etc.) to the activity creator. Then click ‘create.’

Now you have a clickable image activity. You can present it straight from the Poll Everywhere website, or you can download it as a live PowerPoint slide . Everyone in the town hall can plot their own responses. They simply open your personal response link on their phones and tap any part of the image.

2. Work with your hands

In his book Visual Meetings , David Sibbet outlines hundreds of ways to make abstract concepts more engaging. One of his ideas is borrowed from Lego Play consulting. Lay out a large map or organizational chart on a table (or on many tables for a large town hall setting). Then invite participants to build up from the map with Legos. They can build structures to create metaphorical images of teams, movements, and systems. This helps the team discuss ways to make connections, improve collaboration, build out services, and grow the business, all while creating their own visual aids.

Note: Make sure to have photographers or videographers on hand to capture what team members create.

3. Large group reflections in a snap

The Q&A activity in Poll Everywhere makes a huge group feel small. It enables dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people to bubble up their ideas and questions in a minute or two. They then rank the submissions from top to bottom. Within a minute, you have a crowd-ranked list of ideas. This makes it possible to do things in a large-group setting that would otherwise be impossible. For example, you can use Q&A activities to…

• Brainstorm solutions
• Crowdsource the town hall agenda
• Surface concerns and needs

But perhaps the most effective use for Q&A, the one the Poll Everywhere team returns to every week, is to reflect as a group on a recent win or loss. The Q&A activity provides a neutral, but public, space to ask thoughtful questions, posit ideas, and make suggestions for next time. If one of the comments seems unfair or irrelevant, the group tends to police itself and vote it down to the bottom. Then the meeting moderator can simply address the top ten questions, concerns, or suggestions in turn, and invite further discussion where needed.

4. Chunk information for better retention

In her book  100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People , Dr. Susan M. Weinschenk warns against filling a presentation with dozens of ideas. The human brain tends to retain four ideas at a time, at most. However, if you chunk those disparate pieces of information into holistic categories or themes, it creates a framework participants can use to store much more.

For example, you might chunk your town hall presentation into four main information categories, each with its own short, 15-minute presentation, and its own presenter:

9:00 AM – Why deal sizes are shrinking, by the VP of Marketing 9:15 AM – Strategies for increasing deal sizes, by the Chief Revenue Officer 9:30 AM – Coffee and discussion 9:45 AM – How to organize for success, by the HR Director 10:15 AM – New tools for sales and marketing, by the Chief Technology Officer

Each of these topics should contain a set of three to four main ideas at most. And each should have visuals, interactive question slides, and even videos to illustrate and cement the content.

5. Live coaching at massive scale

In their book Breaking Through Gridlock , Gabriel Grant and Jason Jay outline their methods for teaching leaders to have revolutionary conversations. Their sessions always include time for small breakout groups to discuss a single problematic conversation. In the past, it was impossible to tell how those small conversations were going. They had no way to gauge whether they were on track or completely in the weeds.

Then Grant and Jay started asking the small groups to report on their results using an open-response Poll Everywhere activity . That allowed them to see everyone’s progress on one PowerPoint slide. From there Grant and Jay could pinpoint responses that were veering off-topic, or not directly addressing the problem. They could coach those small groups without actually calling out names. No one felt singled out or embarrassed, and everyone got the benefit of the live coaching.

6. Get radically honest with anonymity

There are a lot of organizations and leaders that claim total transparency, but it takes a lot of bravery to pull that off. We don’t claim to have mastered transparency at Poll Everywhere, but we’ve learned to value total, brutal honesty as a team. We use our own product to pull it off at our semi-annual all-hands events. Here’s how:

First we conduct a completely anonymous employee engagement survey , the week before the all-hands. Then, when we’re all together, we review the results as a team. That exercise always provokes tough questions. So we use an open-response Poll Everywhere activity, or sometimes a Q&A activity, to allow everyone to be completely open and honest about their concerns. Sometimes people use it to elaborate on a piece of feedback they spotted in the survey results. Sometimes people use it to ask questions anonymously about other team members’ experiences. Sometimes people use it to empathize or to suggest solutions. It always becomes very sincere and very important, and we tend to walk away feeling heard.

The best part of conducting this conversation using an anonymous Poll Everywhere activity is that it doesn’t matter how brave or reserved you are, or how high or low your status in the company might be. Someone could could be right next to their direct supervisor, but since they’re using a phone to type a response, it feels safe and private.

7. Invoke the senses, but vision most

A truly memorable town hall experience involves all five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and physical movement or touch. Making sure every sense is awake takes forethought. You might choose upbeat music for the kickoff, as everyone walks in. You could manipulate the lighting to control the mood and to focus attention. You can involve taste and scent by welcoming attendees with warm pastries and coffee in the entryway or at conference tables. You can encourage movement by directing certain teams to stand for recognition, to applaud, or to reorganize themselves into groups, sides, or spaces.

However, according to Dr. Weinschenk , your most powerful sensory asset will always be sight. That means it’s exceedingly important to use powerful imagery in your slides, a single image at a time. You need big, bold headers to make a verbal impact. And you need all eyes on the presenter for the most crucial points.

Note: Make use of the ‘B’ key to put your slides to sleep at the right moments. The B stands for ‘blank’ in PowerPoint. It gives you an empty screen, so that you can have everyone’s full attention. Then you hit ‘B’ one more time to return to the slide you were on before.

8. Nail the grand finale with a showdown

End the town hall on a raucous note with a new tool called Competitions. All you need is a set of multiple-choice questions – ideally about the content you just discussed. Add the questions into Poll Everywhere Competitions, and click ‘create.’ Then you’ll have a live quiz show, ready to present to the entire group. Competitions pit the entire audience against each other for a game of speed and accuracy. After every question, a leaderboard pops up to show who’s winning. At the end, the confetti falls, and a winner is crowned.

Note: If you want to up the ante, announce the upcoming competition before the town hall begins. Show everyone the glamorous prizes they could win. Tell them the questions will be about topics presented in the town hall. They’ll be paying rapt attention the entire time.

Related articles

How to Create Town Hall Presentations

by Anam Ahmed

Published on 2 Aug 2019

Whether you have two employees or 20, having a town hall meeting is an exciting opportunity to share the future of your business with them. Carefully plan your town hall presentation so that you encourage participation and empower your employees to do their jobs more effectively in the coming year.

Establish the Goal of Your Town Hall Presentation

Before you begin planning your town hall presentation, it’s critical to think about what you want to achieve with this all-hands meeting. The purpose of town hall meetings is to update the business’s employees about the financial and strategic status of the company and give them a chance to ask questions. However, there are many other objectives you can achieve with a town hall presentation, such as:

• Getting employees excited about the new direction of the company
• Informing employees about market trends and future financial projections
• Building employee engagement and reducing turnover
• Helping employees to feel more invested in their jobs

Once you have clearly outlined why you want to hold a town hall meeting, you can cater the presentation to achieve those goals.

Create an Encouraging Setting

Most town hall meetings are set up in a theater-like setting, where the employees sit in rows of chairs that all face the front of the room. The CEO or senior employees lead the meeting from the “stage” where everyone is facing. This kind of set up creates a formal atmosphere that can cause employees to feel uneasy. It also doesn’t encourage participation or camaraderie.

Instead, try to arrange the room so that your employees feel they are part of the team and have the ability to participate in the meeting. You can do this by having employees sit at round tables in a semicircle around the presentation. Avoid standing behind a podium, as that sends a formal vibe as well. Walk around the room if possible to engage with your employees.

Food brings people together. Have a simple meal to start the presentation. This helps employees to mingle with one another while they enjoy their food. Play uplifting music as people are entering to help set the tone for your town hall meeting presentation and get them excited.

Cater the Content to Your Audience

Your presentation should be tailored to your audience so that it is easy to follow. Don’t include financial or industry jargon if not all employees will understand it. Instead, translate the message into everyday language. Relate business terms to your employees’ everyday lives. How will taking the business in a new direction affect their work day? What kinds of changes can they expect in the coming year in terms of their tasks?

Focus on three to five key points in your presentation. Avoid overwhelming your employees with too much information. Instead, get into detail about your key talking points and offer them a perspective they haven’t heard yet. For example, if you want to introduce a new product, discuss the market share and competitors in addition to the benefits and features of the product.

Build your presentation in a slide format using a program like Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides. Don’t include too much text on the slides, as that will cause your employees to read instead of listening to you speak. Use images, charts and videos where applicable to tell the story of your business. Write your notes in bullet-point form on cue cards so you can follow along without having to read them word for word. It’s best to practice your speech a few times so you feel comfortable with the content.

Make Time for Employee Participation

Employee participation is key to a successful town hall presentation. Encourage employees to get involved by asking them questions. You can ask key individuals in the audience specific questions or have informal surveys where employees have to raise their hands to respond.

Build time into your agenda for an audience question-and-answer period. Coach senior employees prior to the meeting to ask specific questions. This helps show the rest of the employees that it’s OK to ask questions candidly, and it encourages participation .

Carefully Crafted on July 28

20 Tips to Host an Effective Townhall (Online or In-Person)

The concept of a town hall meeting is nothing new. Ancient civilizations meeting in the town square offered some early iterations of this group meeting. When I worked with a public school district, we often held public meetings to provide taxpayers and parents important updates, and to offer a platform to collect feedback and input. Especially when working on controversial issues (like school levies), maintaining order, without stifling dialogue, can be a challenge.

Fast-forward to today’s ultra-connected society, where Twitter, UStream, LiveFyre and other online platforms provide an opportunity for organizations to host virtual townhall-style meetings. Whether you’re hosting a traditional meeting or incorporating online tools, there are some consistencies that will lead to a more effective, productive use of everyone’s time.

HOW TO: Host an Effective Town Hall Meeting

Before the Meeting 1. Create — and stick to — an agenda. 2. Identify a strong moderator. This person needs to have a good grasp of the subject matter, and demonstrate the ability to keep the conversation on topic. 3. Hold a pre-meeting with the moderator and other key participants/panelists to discuss potential questions or problems and how to most effectively respond. Also use this time to make sure everyone is comfortable with whatever technology is being used. 4. Encourage attendees to submit questions ahead of time. For example, create a place on your website where people can submit topics for discussion.

5. If the goal of the meeting is to collect feedback and input, create a list of questions that will spark dialogue.

During the Meeting

1. Welcome attendees and thank them for participating. 2. Introduce the moderator, as well as other representatives who will be responding to questions. 3. Make the agenda available to everyone — either show it on a screen for an “in person” meeting, or for virtual meetings, provide a link. 4. Explain the main purpose for the gathering. 5. Be clear about the length of the meeting. (Have a pre-determined end time.) 6. If you noticed common themes among the questions submitted in advance, open the meeting by responding to those first. 7. As needed, remind people of the ground rules. Make sure as many people as possible have the opportunity to have their voice heard. Don’t let a “vocal minority” dominate the conversation. 8. Pay attention to answers and ask probing follow-up questions to continue the conversation. 9. If a topic requires a more in-depth discussion — particularly if it only impacts a small group of people — offer to take it offline to avoid dominating the discussion. 10. Take detailed notes about issues that require follow up.

After the Meeting

1. Assign follow-up responsibilities and deadlines to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. 2. Create a public wiki or some other tool for people to continue asking questions and providing feedback. 3. Thank participants for joining in the conversation. Even better if this can be done one-to-one via email or direct message, for example. 4. Distribute a post-event survey to respondents to determine what worked well and how future townhall meetings can be improved. 5. Communicate when ideas from the meeting are implemented. People need to know that you really listened and are responding.

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18 Ways to Make Employee Town Halls More Engaging

Break out of the box and take town halls to a whole new level..

If your organization holds employee town hall meetings, chances are you're already planning your first session of the year. That's why it's a great time to resolve to make next year's town halls more energetic and engaging.

After all, town halls are a valuable way for employees to hear from leaders, which builds trust and confidence. And town halls share content employees can't receive anywhere else, which provides valuable learning. Plus, town halls bring people together from various locations and functions, so they create a sense of community.

It's clear that town halls have the potential to be a dynamic, interactive form of communication. However, too many become data dumps , with senior leaders sharing slide after slide of facts, figures and statistics that employees will forget five minutes after the session is over.

Town halls are such an important part of an effective internal communication program that it's critical to do them right.  Here are 18 ways to improve your next town hall:

• Set tangible, specific objectives . Having a clear focus will help you design the town hall to be more purposeful. For example, choose objective like these: "create learning about an issue that's vital to the organization" or "motivate employees to take action."
• Design every research tool --from post-event surveys to an annual communication audit--to measure how well employees think you've achieved your objectives.
• Build a story arc. A "story arc" is a term that fiction writers, Broadway playwrights and Hollywood screenwriters use to describe the ups and downs of a narrative. For a town hall, a story arc describes the emotional lows (discussing a serious issue) and highs (celebrating success) that create energy.
• Create a "run of show" document that choreographs what will occur and when. Town halls are too important to manage loosely--the best sessions run with military precision. The most important element: every segment starts and ends on time.
• Eliminate every piece of information that's not essential to tell your story . Town halls don't happen very often, so it's tempting to want to talk about everything that has happened since the last one. But, there's a limit to how much information people can process before they suffer from overload.
• Limit your agenda to no more than three key topics (yes, only three) and keep the level of detail to a minimum. Fewer, more focused topics will help keep employees interested.
• Include financial results only if you bring them to life for employees. Dense charts don't create understanding. Relate numbers to what the organization needs to work on next.
• Go deep instead of covering a wide range of topics. For example, instead of reiterating all seven strategic initiatives, focus on one strategy. Invite an internal expert to explain what it means. Create a breakout session where employees share their perspectives on the issue.
• Bring a fresh and unexpected element to every topic. For example, don't review safety statistics; develop stories about how employees have taken steps to improve workplace safety.
• Show video only if it's very short and action-packed. Ever look around the room when a long, contemplative video is being played? Employees' eyes literally look glazed over. Video should be no more than two minutes long--and every second needs to be as fast-moving as a Michael Bay movie.
• If using PowerPoint, create a lot of slides--with one concept per slide. I'm not sure why the rule for presentations became  "less is better."  With fewer slides, presenters tend to cram more information in each slide and employees quickly get bored of watching the same slide for minute after minute. By creating lots of slides with one idea per slide, you give employees  something new to look at and keep your deck moving forward, both of which will make for a more engaging presentation .
• Change the way the room is arranged. Most of the time, seats are set up theater-style, with chairs in straight rows. The problem is that arrangement sends a signal to people that their role is to observe and listen. We think of concerts, plays, movies, sporting events--all experiences where people aren't participants, but audience members. If possible, set up round tables, with employees sitting in a semi-circle around one side of each table, facing the leaders.
• Put tables (and chairs) close together. As every stand-up comedian knows, wide-open spaces make people stiff. So bring employees in as close to speakers as possible. A little crowding is a good thing.
• To encourage employees to participate, take a vote . The safest way for employees to participate is as part of a big group. Use audience response devices or text polling to ask employees their opinions on key issues. If you don't have access to technology, you can still ask employees to share their viewpoint. The simplest approach? Call for a show of hands.
• Instead of calling for questions, coach leaders to pose a question. Even in the most open, supportive culture, it's risky for employees to expose potential ignorance by asking a question. But if the leader poses a question--like "What are the obstacles to achieving this objective?"--employees have the opportunity to participate from a position of strength.
• Allow plenty of time for participation . Most town halls and other leader venues are too heavily weighted toward presentations, leaving only a few minutes at the end for Q&A. Once employees start to watch the clock ("only 10 more minutes"), they're discouraged from participating. You need enough time to set up the discussion, facilitate dialogue and build momentum. 
• Make sure every person has an equal experience . Even if some employees attend in person and others join via web meeting or teleconference, make sure everyone has a chance to participate. Assign a facilitator to manage each remote location--and a partner facilitator who sits in the main location (where the leader is.) The remote facilitator is responsible for collecting employees' questions and comments--and feeding them to his or her partner facilitator via chat, text or email.
• Practice, practice, practice. Especially if you're trying new techniques, make sure you test everything: seating, tech, transitions, confetti. And, yes, your leaders are busy, but they need to do a quick dry run to make sure they're comfortable before the show starts.

Every improvement will make your next town hall a more meaningful, memorable experience.

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

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Awesome Employee Town Hall Presentation Template

Get the template Bananatag uses for our super engaging employee all hands meetings

Employee Town Hall meetings are an excellent way to engage employees and get everyone on the same page. Except when they don’t. So how do you make sure employees are paying attention, getting the information they need to do their jobs well, and feel connected to their colleagues and the organization? The first step is having a great Town Hall presentation design. How you present important information is one of the key components in making sure employees pay attention and get the message. That’s why we’ve decided to share our very own Town Hall Presentation Slide Deck Template with you! Our employees demand (and deserve) the very best, so we’re confident that this template will help you craft an awesome Town Hall Meeting.

• Create eye-catching, compelling slides that keep employees engaged
• Structure your presentation agenda to avoid information overload
• Pick content that inspires, connects, and aligns employees
• Present with purpose and confidence

Try for free

Town Hall Meeting

All-hands versus town hall, what do you discuss in a town hall meeting, can you hold a town hall meeting on zoom, .css-uphcpb{position:absolute;left:0;top:-87px;} what is the purpose of a town hall meeting, town hall meeting definition.

Town hall meetings are a way for a company’s management to meet and connect with their employees. Company town hall meetings tend to be hosted by a member of upper management and are attended by all employees either in a large meeting space or conference hall or via virtual platforms like Zoom.

Town hall meetings have three primary purposes:

Align the company to the same goals

Close the gap between management and employees

Build corporate culture

Town hall meetings usually follow a strict plan that looks something like this:

Opening address.

State of the Company presentation.

Address results of a poll sent before the meeting.

Features/initiatives in focus.

Ending points.

Minutes shared and post-mortem.

Zoom and video calls are becoming the norm thanks to the increase in remote working. Using these platforms for town hall meetings has been commonplace for a while now. Sometimes it’s simply not possible for everyone to be in the same place at once, so hosting a virtual town hall offers a way to involve everyone without the need to travel.

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