Not many people are fond of meetings, which are considered to be time wasting activities. A meeting has to be well planned in advance to make it successful and efficient. Most organizations overlook the expenses involved in conducting meetings, which are often unproductive and inefficient. Such kinds of meetings produce frustration among the attendees of meetings and as a result they neglect the importance of meetings and keep them at a low priority level. This affects the productivity of the organization.

For a meeting to be efficient and cost efficient, it has to be well planned. Important decisions are taken inside the meetings, which require the proper attention and concern of attendees. Meetings with clients and customers have a cost and an analysis of the costs involved to hold such meetings helps to enhance the benefits that may be derived from them. Time is money as well as the time of personnel attending the meeting has its cost. You'll find numerous other aspects which add up to improve the cost of a meeting.

To be able to estimate the cost of a meeting involving five people, you need to add up their hourly simple salary. Right after this you'll need to calculate the fringe benefits supplied by the organization. Fringe benefits include medical along with other allowances. The total hourly cost of an employee is the sum of the hourly salary plus the per hour fringe benefits.

Apart from the hourly cost of the attendees, there is an overhead price associated with the planning of the meeting. This includes the time involved in preparation of agenda, making arrangements for the meeting, preparation of presentation etc. You are able to get the planning overhead figure by multiplying the per hour cost of a person with the time spent in planning and preparing for the meeting.

Another price involved is the overhead cost associated to the meeting. This means the material needed to prepare for and conduct the meeting like food and beverages, printer and paper cost transportation cost, and the cost of various other resources utilized for the purpose of the meeting.

You can add all these expenses to prepare a cost outline of an hourly meeting and compare it with the outcome of that meeting to analyze its effectiveness. It's at times difficult to calculate the monetary benefit derived from a meeting but a general conclusion concerning the success or failure of a meeting could be drawn on the basis of judgment. It can guide you to evaluate and justify the costs incurred to hold a meeting. This analysis will help to motivate employees to attend the meetings seriously and punctually to make them productive and cost effective.