BusinessWeek asks Google VP Marissa Mayer how she runs the insane number of meetings she attends (over 70 per week.) Turns out a ticking clock, strict agenda and thorough notes are all ways she keeps meetings focused and productive:

A Google meeting features a lot of displays. On one wall, a projector displays the presentation, while right next to it, another projector shows the transcription of the meeting. (Yet another displays a 4-foot image of a ticking stopwatch.) Google executives are big believers in capturing an official set of notes, so inaccuracies and inconsistencies can be caught immediately.


Coincidentally, at Yahoo! Open Hack Day, the 50+ presenters had exactly 90 seconds to demo their creations and organizers kept them to it with a ticking clock projected onto the wall, and it worked really well. What are your favorite ways to make meetings useful and productive? Post 'em up in the comments.


How to Run a Meeting Like Google [BusinessWeek via Strategize]