Meeting Agenda Templates

Introductions and Goals

• Give each person a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their experience and what they hope to achieve by organizing a Startup Weekend 

• Summarize the team’s goals to come up with your team’s ‘North Star’ or ‘ultimate goal.’ This is what will help you stay focused and aligned. 

Assignment of Roles and Expectations

Go through the list of recommended roles and responsibilities, and assign someone, or more than one person, to each role. Make sure everything is covered and that this is documented and shared with the team after your meeting. See Organizing team for detailed responsibilities for each role.

Lead Organizer: Overall direction and project lead. Keeps the team on track.

Finance Lead: Manages the budget from start to finish.

Sponsorship Lead: Secures sponsorships and manages the sponsor agreement and relationship. 

Mentors and Judges Lead: Recruits a diverse pool of mentors and judges, and manages the relationship with these stakeholders.

Venue, Catering and Logistics Lead: People coordination and vendor procurement and management. 

Marketing and Promotion Lead: Leads the outreach effort and owns and maintains the event website and ticketing page.

Technical Lead: Connected to the local tech community and able to provide technical troubleshooting support for the team throughout the planning process and at the event venue.

Team Communication Plan

Having a communication plan will allow the team to keep up with the organizational schedule.

• Communication channels - Google Hangouts? WhatsApp? Email? Try to stick to one or two methods of communication and make sure that every team member can make the time commitment 

• Set a meeting cadence - how often will you meet? Which meeting tool will you use?  

• Be transparent with your team - include your team in all communication to Techstars or other important outreach

• Let your team know if you need help as soon as possible 

• During the first meeting and every subsequent meeting, make sure to task someone with sending out meeting summary notes so that everyone can stay aligned and have visibility into any action items that came from the meeting. This can be the sole responsibility of the lead organizer, but be clear about what this process will look like. 

Startup Weekend Tools and Resources

• Go through your list of main tools and resources that you’ll be using throughout the organization process

• These include:

  • Event management platform

  • Primary Planning Guide

  • Organizer Checklist.

Action Items

• Make a list of action items and make sure to share this in your meeting summary notes 

• Make a note of what you’ll be covering in your next meeting and include this in your meeting notes to the team.

Schedule Run-Through

• Confirm the arrival time at the venue to your team, volunteers, speaker(s), mentors, judges, and the facilitator

• Confirm catering delivery and/or pickup times including the setup and break-down processes

• Go through each item on your event schedule to make sure you haven't missed anything and that you’ve allocated enough time for each item

• Confirm details of your after-event social gathering or celebration if applicable. 

Roles and Expectations during the Event

• Confirm where each team member will be during the event and what they will be doing

• Confirm which team member will be the point of contact and manager of volunteers, mentors, speaker(s), and judges

• Confirm who will be handling the registration on Friday night

• Make sure at least one member of the organizing team will be available in-person at all times during the weekend, and catering to participants’ needs.

Facilitator

• Make sure that all information required to finalize the facilitator deck has been shared with the facilitator. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Venue information 

  • The complete schedule

  • Information and bios for the organizing team, mentors, the speaker, and judges

  • Sponsor information and logos

• Share any key cultural facts as the facilitator may not be familiar with the city’s local culture

• Make sure the facilitator knows exactly who to meet at the venue before the event and at that a clear meeting time is arranged

• Confirm the team’s contact details with the facilitator in case they need to reach you.

Venue Setup

• Discuss and confirm: 

  • Team breakout spaces

  • Catering setup location

  • Registration location and process

  • Tech support

  • Security and Accessibility

  • Supplies - extra power cables, adaptors, post-it notes, pens

  • The organizing team’s HQ - make sure you have a private space to create your scrum board, regroup, and leave your supplies and personal belongings.

Communication

Discuss and confirm communication of all necessary information like arrival times, locations, and other logistics to everyone involved in your event, including:

• Sponsors

• Mentors

• Judges

• Speakers

• Volunteers

• Caterers

• Venue support staff

• Your photographer or DJ, if applicable.

Last Minute Roadblocks

• Brainstorm together to come up with solutions to last-minute issues that might arise, like needing a car to pick up supplies before the event or replacing a judge that had to cancel last minute 

• Help with any last minute promotional pushes — each member should tap into their networks to help promote the event

• Reach out to your Techstars Startup Weekend support contact with any concerns or ask for help.