What is an advisory board meeting?

Need to set up an advisory board meeting but not sure what it is or where to start? Check out our explanation and tips for setting up yours perfectly.

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What is an advisory board?

An advisory board offers valuable insights and expertise to companies, allowing them to scale up and think strategically about long-term growth. Any organization from start-ups to multinationals (even government agencies) can benefit from an advisory board.

A well-structured advisory board is there for an organization to test its ideas and get valuable feedback from experts that aren’t readily available through other means.

Advisory boards have different names based on their purpose, scope or country. But its fundamental goal is to serve as an impartial third party, able to help in a range of things from being there to sound out ideas to acting as a watchdog for the organization.

A well-rounded board helps this happen because a company benefits from professionals with expertise in a distinct niche - such as government or regulatory matters. Getting a range of different genders, cultures, ethnicities, ages and other demographics is also important to ensure decisions are thought about from a variety of perspectives.

Most boards hold advisory meetings every quarter with the aim of developing a better understanding of a company’s market conditions and being able to look at things in a way senior management (involved in the day-to-day running of the company) can’t.

What kind of things do they do in the meeting?

When the advisory board meets, members present new ideas based on collective knowledge to try and tackle some of the company’s biggest challenges. With this expertise and free from the limitations placed on senior managers, the board can think about things from a wider perspective which results in a more innovative approach.

Like most meetings, the advisory board works best when they have clear communication. Appointing a chair who can control the flow, ensure everyone gets their say and keep the whole thing on time is a great way to achieve this.

It’s also important the board is kept up-to-date on any big decisions. The CEO is likely to attend these meetings so can provide that context, however, if they aren’t, it’s crucial a memo or some other update is delivered ahead of time.

When the meeting is drawing to a close, the board should look to produce recommendations to provide senior management with how they think the company should move forward.

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How to prepare your advisory board meeting

First off, you need to find a suitable time for everyone to meet. When you’re sending out invites this also needs to address the big questions like location (in person or virtual), the scope of discussion and any preparation that participants need to do.

Doodle is a tool that can help you with all of this. By using Group Poll, you can send out a selection of times and in minutes find the one that works best for everyone.

What’s more, with Doodle Professional, you can add pre-meeting questions, set a deadline, send reminders and add your favorite video conferencing tool.

Once the meeting is booked, everyone will get an email about the time and if you connect your calendar, the meeting will automatically be added.

Doodle makes it easy for you to get your advisory board together in minutes without rounds of email back and forth. Try it for free today.

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