Would You Spend $147 On That Meeting?

Published:

By: Drew McManus

In: Project & Time Management

Recently, you learned about meeting scheduler tools from Ceci Dadisman but do you ever wonder how much it costs in labor to hold that meeting? Thanks to a handy web app from Harvard Business Review, you can find out in less than a minute.

The web app is fully responsive so it works in all browsers across all major devices; meaning no need to download platform specific apps (hooray!). It’s designed as a mobile first user experience so it works like a dream on smartphones.

meeting calculator

  1. Select meeting duration.
  2. Select number of attendees.
  3. From here you select the estimated salary level for each attendee. It’s worth noting that the calculator automatically multiplies each salary by 1.4 to accommodate the value of benefits. Don’t worry about being overly precise, ballpark estimates are plenty for this sort of application.
  4. You’ll notice the total cost value change with each new salary.
  5. After selecting the final salary, the calculator automatically loads the next screen and you can select the cut your costs button to see about removing or replacing attendees.
  6. Would a subordinate position be just as useful at the meeting? If so, use the replace
  7. Use delete to remove someone entirely.
  8. You’ll see the before/after total cost values change in real time with every edit.

[button link=”https://hbr.org/resources/html/infographics/2015/11/meeting-cost-calculator/index.html” bg_color=”#EB4C41″ border=”#EB4C41″]Bookmark HBR’s Meeting Cost Calculator[/button]

really?

Drew McManus
Author
Drew McManus
In addition to my consulting business, I'm also the Principal of Venture Industries Online but don’t let that title fool you into thinking I'm just a tech geek. I bring 20+ years of global broad-based arts consulting experience to the table to help clients break the cycle of choosing one-size-fits-none solutions and instead, deliver options allowing them to get ahead of the tech curve instead of trying to catch up by going slower. With the vision of legacy support strategy and the delights of creative insights, my mission is to deliver a sophisticated next generation technology designed especially for the field of performing arts. The first step in that journey began in 2010 when The Venture Platform was released, a purpose-designed managed website development solution designed especially for arts organizations and artists. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, lead a team of intrepid arts pros to hack the arts, lead an arts business incubator, and love a good coffee drink.
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2 thoughts on “Would You Spend $147 On That Meeting?”

  1. This is a brutally honest tool. I often use rough calculation of people-hours/days in large meetings. 10 people with a 15 min waste time because some attendees (or the boss) are late equals 150 min or 2 hrs 30 min. That is often enough to raise eyebrowse 😉

    Reply
    • It is nothing if not sobering. At the same time, it can certainly help underscore the value of meetings that really are needed and/or produce a savings far in excess of related labor costs.

      Reply

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