Due by Thursday Night.

Meeting Communication Story

Celia Project Manager Corporate Marketing / Creative Services

Celia’s story, Part I

The company for which I work is in the business of purchasing old restaurant properties and turning them into profitable establishments under a new name. My work group is responsible for the developing a new name for each restaurant then creating a visual representation (or logo) for that name. We base our work on a restaurant profile that is supplied to us by Amanda, the Vice President of Brand Management.

The company recently purchased a restaurant in downtown Cleveland and we need to begin work on developing a new name and logo for that property. As project manager, my job was to get folks from my work group together with the Vice President of Brand Management for a meeting to kick-off the project. Those in my work group include:

Celia (That’s me -- I am the Project Manager) Jamie, our Senior Designer who takes the lead on most design projects Martha, our department’s administrative assistant Fred, our Junior Designer who assists Jamie Calvin, the Senior Copywriter Ramona, our Junior Copywriter who assists Calvin Edith, our Proofreader and Quality Specialist Kristin, our Web Specialist Judith, Director of Marketing Services

My first task was to think about who should attend this first meeting as well as those who simply needed to be “in the loop” on this project (such as my boss, Judith, who oversees all of Marketing Services). One complicating factor was that the development of a name and logo for this restaurant needed to happen in a time frame much shorter than we usually enjoy. This could be a problem because we were already underway with designs for five other properties that were acquired in the past month. But, in spite of that, this show had to go on. My next task was to establish the meeting time and get word out to all participants

I couldn’t plan the meeting until I had a sense for everyone’s time availability. Knowing that Amanda, our VP of Brand Management, typically had the least-flexible schedule of all, I chose to begin with her and find out what days and times her schedule could accommodate. Usually my group can squeeze in a meeting most days so I wasn’t as worried about them.

With Amanda’s available meeting time in-hand, I decided to send out an email meeting request that hopefully everybody would see. I even marked it urgent – and put the subject line in ALL CAPS so it would get everybody’s attention. I know that the designers get so busy sometimes that they don’t look at their emails and sometimes they miss things. For that matter, Calvin was at a seminar that day and I wasn’t sure if he pickedup emails or not when he was out. Anyway, I thought that this would make the email stand out in the inbox whenever it was viewed.

Here is the email message I sent to participants:

A little later in the day I got worried that some of the people who should attend might not see this email, so I sent the message out one more time just in case.

PARTII

Meeting Communication Story

Celia Project Manager Corporate Marketing / Creative Services

Celia’s story, Part II

Well, I guess I underestimated the needs my group would have for information pertaining to this project. Shortly after the first email went out, I got a call from Jamie who was surprised (OK, shocked) by the fact this was a rush project and I hadn’t included any background information.

I guess I also overestimated time availability for some on the team. I received an email from Calvin, who apparently was checking emails on breaks from the seminar, and who was also looking for background information on the project. He reminded me that he was out of town the week of the meeting, so I’d need to make sure Ramona could fill in. In retrospect, if I had been in less of a hurry, I would have realized that this group likes to see the big picture of any project before a project starts.

To fill in the information my team had requested, I went back to the VP of Brand Management and obtained some brief reports about the Cleveland restaurant that I sent out by email to everyone. Then taking into account that Calvin would not be attending the meeting I made a phone call to Ramona to make sure she could attend the kick-off meeting.

My next task was to put together an agenda for the kick-off meeting. This went really fast because all I needed to do was list all of the topics we needed to discuss. Easy stuff! I added in a brainstorming session to the end of the meeting since we would have everyone together anyway and we might have time leftover that we could spend on that activity. I also added in a little time for celebration of Martha’s birthday – saving some time because we would all be together anyway.

AGENDA

Cleveland Restaurant Design Project T.R. Burger Conference Room 10am – 12 pm

1. Introduction 2. Project Timeline 3. Restaurant profile 4. Questions / Concerns 5. Restaurant Name Brainstorm Session

(if time allows) 6. Cake for Martha’s Birthday