## Terminology changes

Our terminology has been adapted. **Paragraphs** allow you to add a text box visible to all the attendees of a meeting. **Notes** are private and only visible to the user who adds them. An easy way to distinguish them is by their yellow background.

## Private notes

From now on, it is possible to add private notes to the items of your meeting agenda. This allows you to prepare your interventions for the upcoming meeting or to add private notes during the meeting. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_1_notes_privees_1024x575_a6cdb0cb62.png)

## Converting elements

If you wish to share your private note with the other attendees, you can simply convert it into a paragraph. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_2_convertir_note_en_paragraphe_1024x575_a92c2a02b7.png)

To save valuable time, you can also convert most of the other elements: 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_3_conversion_d_elements_1_1024x329_220931708f.png)

Please note that it is not possible to convert a task into another element! 

## Ordering items

It is possible to order all the items of the meeting. Simply drag and drop an item to reorder it. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_4_ordre_de_elements_1024x575_124c4c92c0.png)

## Option « Table of attendees »

If you wish to have a detailed contact list of the meeting attendees, there is an option accessible through the settings of a meeting. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_5_parametres_dune_reunion_1024x575_6ea65fc9df.png)

By selecting « extended table view » in the settings of the meeting, the table will appear in steps 2, 4 and 5\. The coordinates of the attendees are listed according to the information of each user’s profile. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_6_tableau_des_participants_1024x575_ac91837cea.png)

During the editing steps, the meeting agenda in preparation and the drafting of the meeting minutes, you can manually edit an attendee’s contact information. It is also possible to change an attendee’s function for a specific meeting. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_7_editer_un_participant_1024x575_ce2682d04e.png)

## Link between a task and a meeting 

Tasks created in a meeting have a link in their details pane that allows you to easily access an item of the meeting agenda. This will allow you to view the task in its context of creation. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_8_lien_tache_reunion_1024x575_19c86d6606.png)

## General ergonomics

### Use the new + button to easily create content. 

You can create your **Workspaces**, **Checklist templates**, **Teams** and **Users** from the + button which is found in the heading at the top of the page.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_9_bouton_plus_1024x575_be06c4f954.png)

### Take advantage of the shortcuts in the main menu

Three buttons have been added to the menu for an easy access to the **Workspaces** and **Checklist templates** to which you have access, as well as to the **Users** page.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_09_10_raccourcis_menu_principal_1024x575_983d87326b.png)

The main menu has been redesigned for simplicity and efficiency; and presents a new palette of colors. 

Private notes allow you to prepare your interventions confidentially during meetings. This latest update includes a new platform design and new functionalities described in the following article. 

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Add private notes to your meetings

To prepare and conduct your meetings, WEDO guides you in 5 steps: 

* **Before the meeting – Steps 1 and 2** : preparation of the agenda as a team. The writer or facilitator adds the meeting, establishes the list of items to be discussed and then invites participants to complete the agenda.
* **During the meeting - Step 3 :** the writer writes the minutes in real time. All participants can attend live note-taking.
* **Post-meeting - Steps 4 and 5 :** the writer and participants review, edit and validate the meeting minutes.

Through this article, discover some tips to conduct your meetings with WEDO taking into account the 5 proposed steps. You will see that at each step, it is possible to keep the participants informed and make them aware of their role in the preparation and follow-up of the meeting. To give substance to our explanations, we propose a concrete case study:

### The preparation and follow-up of an Executive Committee by Agathe Rost[^1], Executive Assistant 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_1_agathe_rost_assistante_de_direction_1_28994aba97.png)

## Step 1: Meeting agenda in preparation

Agathe Rost, Executive Assistant, decided to prepare the agenda for the next committee meeting in a week's time. The director of the organization, Bernard Macherel\*, sent her by email the list of topics to be discussed. Agathe goes to the workspace dedicated to the Executive Committee and adds a meeting. After entering the title, date, time, duration and location of the meeting, she focuses on the list of participants. The members of the Executive Committee workspace have been added automatically to save her precious time.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_2_etape_1_liste_des_participants_1_c9f6a790ca.png)

Agathe now wishes to manage the different access rights of the participants. For this meeting, Mathilde and Bernard have all the same rights as Agathe. The other participants will only be able to modify the agenda items in steps 1 and 3\. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_3_etape_1_fenetre_gestion_des_droits_dacces_1_ef9ce2fac2.png)

Next, Agathe wishes to add the items to the agenda. With a few clicks, she copies the list of topics previously listed by her director and pastes it into the input bar. The items are created automatically and now appear in the table of contents on the left side of the screen. Agathe can now schedule them as she pleases.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_4_ordre_du_jour_en_preparation_1_a8a936bb7b.png)

The outline of the meeting is ready. Agathe would like to inform participants to add their notes to the agenda items. To do so, she sends an email to participants directly from the platform by clicking on the **button with the envelope**.

The participants are listed as recipients. Agathe takes advantage of the predefined subject and message to save time and clicks directly on **Send by email**.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_5_etape_1_fenetre_envoi_email_1_f43b0491ca.png)

## Step 2: Meeting agenda validated

On the eve of the meeting, the agenda has been completed by all participants and is normally no longer subject to change. After a brief rereading, Agathe can validate the agenda and proceed to step 2 by clicking on **Meeting agenda is ready** in the red banner at the bottom of the screen.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_6_lordre_du_jour_est_pret_1_bf5d544104.png)

Agathe finally has to add a last minute information in one of the agenda items. From the orange banner at the bottom of the screen, she **edits the meeting agenda**.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_7_etape_2_editer_lordre_du_jour_1_fadc608e95.png)

## Step 3: Meeting minutes currently written

On D-Day, Agathe returns to the previously prepared meeting. The meeting is in step 2 - Meeting agenda validated. At the bottom left of the screen, she clicks on **Start Meeting**.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_8_commencer_la_reunion_019e71f2e5.png)

Agathe begins by completing the information about the participants. She checks off the absent and excused persons. She also adds the reason for the apology in the field provided. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_9_etape_3_controle_des_presences_58eb3b17f3.png)

The meeting begins: Agathe is ready to write up the minutes of the discussions. As she writes it, she navigates easily from point to point using the table of contents and adds notes, decisions and tasks to the various points discussed. At the end of the meeting, Agathe clicks on the **End Meeting** button in the yellow banner at the bottom of the screen.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_10_clore_la_reunion_fe0d06e165.png)

## Step 4: Meeting minutes in review

A few hours after the meeting, Agathe would like to review the minutes. She returns to the Executive Committee workspace, resumes the meeting in Step 4 - Meeting minutes in review. To make corrections, she clicks **Edit Minutes** in the purple banner at the bottom of the screen. Once the changes have been made, she clicks **Finish**.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_11_etape_4_editer_le_compte_rendu_6c73d6a8e7.png)

## Step 5: Meeting minutes locked

A few days after the meeting and after a final reading, Agathe can finally move on to the last step. In order to follow up from one meeting to the next, she decides to lock the minutes. The minutes can no longer be modified. 

To do this, she clicks the **Lock meeting minutes** button in the purple banner at the bottom of the screen and follows the procedure required for locking.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_12_verrouiller_le_compte_rendu_c71e61095f.png)

Finally, Agathe sends an email to participants to inform them that the minutes have been locked. They are invited to read it again in order to ensure a follow-up from one meeting to the next. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_06_13_etape_5_fenetre_envoi_email_775e9cddb1.png)

The 5 proposed steps frame the overall conduct of a meeting and allow users to situate themselves in the process. At each step, you have the possibility to inform the participants so that they can get involved in the preparation of the agenda and in the review of the minutes. WEDO allows you to improve the management of your meetings while reinforcing the collaborative aspect. 
[^1]: Fictional characters.

#### Would you like to facilitate the preparation and conduct of your meetings? 

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}

Agathe Rost, Executive Assistant, is responsible for preparing the next committee meeting. Through this article, find out how she works with WEDO.

Four individuals in an executive committee meeting around a table, listening attentively and taking notes, overlaid with the text “Preparing and following up an Executive Committee” and “Use case”

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The preparation and follow-up of an Executive Committee

Although meetings are integral to a company, there are many executives and employees who complain about their length being sometimes excessive. In January, a study conducted by Doodle[^1]  revealed that Swiss employees spent an average of 5 hours per week in meetings. So how can you improve the efficiency of meetings? 

An endless meeting is often the result of poor preparation. To save time during a meeting, there are a few steps that should not be neglected. The moderator, as well as the attendees, must contribute to the elaboration of the meeting in order to plan its frame and progress. The meeting agenda, which represents the discussion thread, needs to be established according to the goals of the meeting in order to stay focused. This will help employees progress efficiently without wasting time. 

## Before the meeting – a collective preparation 

### Ask yourself the right questions and set clear goals

> _According to the survey on meetings presented by Doodle, 72% of the interviewed employees think that a good meeting goes through clearly set goals!_

Before scheduling a meeting, key questions need to be addressed: 

**What is the purpose of the meeting?** The outcome of the meeting will serve as a guideline. This preliminary question will allow you to highlight the interest of the meeting for the attendees. 

**What are the main topics to address?** The following step is to define the topics to be addressed during the meeting to achieve the desired goal. These topics will be the items of the meeting agenda.

**Who are the people involved?** A meeting with a large number of presenters is likely to drag on. It is therefore important to gather only those who are directly involved in the topics, decisions and tasks to be performed. 

**What is the estimated time for the meeting?**  According to the number of topics to be addressed, try to estimate and set the duration of the meeting and stick to it on the day of the meeting.

### Establish an organized and clear meeting agenda

> _According to the survey on meetings presented by Doodle, 67% of the interviewed employees think that a good meeting goes through a clearly established meeting agenda._

**List the different items in the meeting agenda >**  A meeting agenda consists of a list of items that resume the topics to be covered during the meeting. The establishment of a precise meeting agenda will ensure efficiency and rapidity during the meeting and will thus avoid unnecessary digressions and off-topic debates. Depending on the topics to be addressed, you can build the frame of the meeting by choosing, for example, a list of points hierarchized in different levels (ex: 1., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3,). If this organization does not seem relevant to you, you can try to group the items to address according to criteria that makes sense regarding the type of meeting: _departments or services concerned, addressed topics, topics ordered according to the interventions of different presenters, steps of the project to realize,_ etc.

**Define the role of the presenters >**  Depending on the established items, define who will speak during the meeting. In order to avoid taking attendees by surprise, schedule each person’s interventions ahead of time according to the meeting agenda. This will encourage them to prepare the meeting and will improve the efficiency and length of the discussions.

**Make the meeting agenda accessible to allow attendees to consult it >** Once the meeting agenda has been established, make sure to share it with all the attendees a few days before the meeting. A good preparation of the different interventions will contribute positively to the smooth running of the meeting. Furthermore, a previously established meeting agenda is likely to ensure a well-organized and productive meeting. The attendees will feel concerned and will not have the impression that the upcoming meeting will be wasting their valuable time.

## During the meeting – the roles of the meeting moderator and the drafter

### Progress according to the set order 

On the day of the meeting, keep the goal of the meeting in mind. The moderator of the meeting is responsible for its smooth running and must avoid any misplacements by following rigorously the pre-established meeting agenda. This will avoid the attendees to feel lost and they will be able to follow the discussions by referring to the common frame previously diffused. 

### Address the covered topics in a systematic way

The moderator of the meeting must try to facilitate the task of the meeting minutes drafter by being clear and rigorous in the way he conducts the meeting. By discussing each item of the meeting agenda in a systematic way, you will ensure a productive meeting and meeting minutes drafting while avoiding wasting time. But how can you discuss the various items of the meeting agenda in a systematic way? 

Here is a solution that considers the discussion of each item of the meeting agenda following three steps that will come out as three separate blocks of information in the meeting minutes: 

**Step 1 – the minutes of the discussions:** Every topic covered in a meeting generally leads to a discussion that will need to be transcribed in the meeting minutes > _this constitutes the first block of information of the discussed item._

**Step 2 – the result of the discussions:** The decisions and high points of the preliminary discussions should be highlighted > _this constitutes the second block of information of the discussed item._ Many employees often complain about leaving a meeting without really knowing which major decisions were made. Highlighting them will avoid that kind of uncomfortable feeling.

**Step 3 – tasks arising from the decisions:** The attendees will have to perform various tasks to reach the set goals > _this constitutes the last block of information of the discussed item._ Thanks to a clear division of tasks to perform, the attendees will be operational as soon as the meeting ends. This will avoid people forgetting what they are supposed to do from a meeting to the next. 

This method will encourage you to proceed in an efficient manner and will facilitate the drafting of the meeting minutes. Furthermore, when the attendees will have to review the meeting minutes, they will easily obtain the necessary information. Needless to say, certain items will not require such a structure and can therefore be covered far more quickly – for example by using only one of the three proposed blocks of information. 

In summary, the success of a company meeting is largely dependent on its preparation. By focusing on clearly set goals and on a clear meeting agenda, you will necessarily limit the length of your meetings and thus keep the attendees active and concerned. Establishing a meeting agenda can sometimes seem tedious. The trick is to create a meeting agenda template according to the different meetings that you conduct. This way, from one meeting to the next, you will only have to make a few changes to the template of the previous meeting agenda for the upcoming meeting, without having to create a new one each time. 

Do you want to facilitate the preparation and conduct of your meetings?

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}

[^1]: To carry out the study in question, more than 6’500 professionals from the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and the United States were interviewed. 

Do your company meetings tend to drag on? In this article you will find a few tips to limit their duration! 

This image introduces tips on how to keep business meetings short, illustrated with a stopwatch showing 25 minutes

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How to limit the duration of a meeting?

## Table of contents

The table of contents facilitates the browsing through the meeting minutes. Furthermore, a single click will bring you to the item to be treated. From the table of contents, you can also:

* Decrease the indentation of an item
* Increase the indentation of an item
* Delete an item
* Drag and drop the items and/or sub-items to organize them

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive1_c190e8d7b5.png)

## Item by item

For this new version, the drafting has been redesigned: from now on, only the item to be treated will appear on the screen. Once you are done with an item, you just need to click the button with the title of the next item to be treated to progress in the drafting. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive2_2_d8f1773246.png)

## Redesigned Toolbar 

Each item and sub-item has its own Toolbar. From the **\+ button** you can:

* Attach a file
* Add a note
* Add a decision
* Create a task
* Add a sub-item to the meeting agenda
* Import tasks from the workspace

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive3_3_e41bc9c72a.png)

## The “move” button 

It is now possible to move a note, a decision, a task or a file to another item in the meeting agenda. Click the button with the **three vertical points** (1) and **Move the note** (2). A window will open with all the possible destinations. Click the item to which you wish to move your note (3). The same procedure applies to move a decision, a task or a file.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive4_3_7828884129.png)

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive5_1_68b88ca912.png)

## The pending tasks box 

Pending tasks from the workspace are now available in a box that you can access with a button. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive6_8c12348415.png)

From the pending tasks box, it is possible to import tasks into a specific item: click the tasks to import (1) and, with the drop-down list, select the item in which you want to import the tasks (2). Then, click **Import** (3).

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive7_6e99b65c52.png)

_Info : if you would like your pending tasks to figure as an item in your meeting agenda, like in the previous version, you can simply create an item entitled “Pending tasks” and import all the pending tasks from the workspace._ 

## The 5 steps of the meeting

At all times, you can see which step of the meeting you are in. The user with all access rights can click on each step to change the status of the meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive8_3f51cf7d39.png)

_Info : other buttons at the bottom of the page also allow you to switch from step to step._ 

## Display of access rights of each attendee

You can now click on the attendees of a meeting to see the distribution of access rights. Click on the attendees (1), a window will open with a list of the meeting attendees and their access rights for the current meeting (2). 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive14_c86280b5bd.png)

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive15_07a2d15e76.png)

This can be useful if you need to modify meeting minutes but you do not have the appropriate access rights. You can then spot the attendees who have full access rights on that meeting, who will be able to change your access rights. Attendees with full access rights are represented by a logo with a crown on a blue background. 

\-

A collection of articles explains all the ins and outs of the new Meetings module.

::button-primary[Access the Help Center]{link="https://help.wedo.swiss/en/collections/3202989-meetings"}

The new version of WEDO revises the meeting module to simplify the drafting of the meeting minutes. With this article, discover the improvements this update offers!

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Meeting module : improvements that will facilitate the drafting of your meeting minutes

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_wedo_cofounders_1024x768_9876cf7c19.jpg)

> _Sick of long, unproductive meetings? Two Fribourgeois propose a digital solution, WEDO, to make them efficient. Explanations._

Between three and six weeks a year: that's the time we spend on average in work meetings, according to a survey published in 2017 by the Opinionway Institute for the business consultancy firm Empreinte Humaine. According to this survey of a thousand employees in companies of various sizes and in a variety of economic sectors, nearly one out of every two sessions is considered unproductive. More than 25% of the respondents do not see the need to participate. As a result, 44% of them discreetly use their smartphone to do something else during this time (typically reading and sending emails).

This scourge has a name: Meeting madness. Antoine Sudan and David Dutch suffered from it for several years after graduating from engineering school. "Meetings are not useless in themselves," they say at the outset. "The problem is that they are poorly prepared, the agenda is not respected and you come out of them far too often without being sure of what has been decided. Amazed at the time they spent on this commendable but frustrating exercise, Antoine Sudan and David Dutch developed the WEDO web application. That was in 2014\. Today, four years and thirty updates later, this web application is used by more than a hundred organisations, municipalities and companies in French-speaking Switzerland, including Groupe Mutuel, Groupe E Connect, HES-SO Fribourg and Banque Cantonale de Fribourg.

Neither blockchain, Dropbox, nor intranet, WEDO is a collaborative platform whose layout automatically adapts to the size of the screen you use (iPhone, PC...). It is in fact an interface with a common and participative space. Very didactic, it has been designed to be within everyone's reach. Regardless of its functionalities and technical qualities, the WEDO application is based on in-depth reflection and careful analysis of the factors that make working meetings so often disappointing and time-consuming. In other words, this organizational solution has been developed to respond directly and pragmatically to certain recurring problems. One example: the agenda often remains a little vague until everyone is gathered around the table. To avoid this, WEDO offers a feature that allows you to record and schedule the items to be discussed. Once this is done, simply open the application and follow the thread of questions. No more digressing, in short.

## EASY TO KNOW WHO'S DOING WHAT

The minutes are a chore? Thanks to WEDO, it is possible to write it live. "This is one of the interesting features of our meeting management module. You have an agenda, with a series of items to be discussed, and you can add under each item blocks of information, whether they are notes, decisions or tasks to be carried out," explains Antoine Sudan. Decisions made and tasks assigned during meetings can then be recorded by the minute writer at the time. Since this information is displayed in a specific place in the module and all participants have a personal access account, it is very easy to retrieve this information later. In short, at the end of the session, everyone knows where to find the answer to the famous "who does what" question.

In addition, it is possible to export an agenda or minutes by generating a PDF file so that it can be shared, printed and signed. You can also easily create extracts from minutes, or retrieve notes through the minutes using simple keywords. Gone are the days when you had to open multiple files to get your hands on information!

"The strength of WEDO is that it covers all phases of meeting management: before, with the preparation of the agenda, during, with the taking of important notes, and finally after, with the follow-up of tasks. Indeed, in addition to our module for meeting management, we have developed another one for task management and scheduling, and both interact with each other. Therefore, you have the means to ensure a continuous and dynamic follow-up of the work. This way, you can see at any time what has been done between sessions and what remains to be done. You no longer have to wait to obtain or pass on information, nor do you have to send several confirmation e-mails or call three times to find out how much a quote will cost," says David Dutch. In addition, each user can activate synchronisation with his electronic calendar (Outlook, Google Calendar...).

## MEETINGS SHORTENED BY ONE THIRD

It is also possible to create specific spaces for certain projects, departments or work teams, so that tasks can be distributed in one click. As soon as a job is indicated as completed, the participants concerned receive immediate and automatic feedback. "All of these processes greatly speed up the processing of decisions and shorten the duration of sessions by an average of one third," says Antoine Sudan.

Solving complicated problems with a simple software: that was the challenge of the creators of WEDO. The first person they told about it - a former professor - predicted that « it would never work ». Which makes them laugh a lot today. « Luckily, our engineering mentality soon got the better of us and we refused to let it get us down ». While many young entrepreneurs start by trying to raise funds, Antoine Sudan and David Dutch decide to develop their application while working and approach their first customers in parallel. They conduct more than 300 interviews for this purpose. Right from the start, they rely on user feedback to improve their product. The first version is officially released in May 2015\. A few prospects test it. « With each new release, we surveyed our customers to find out how we could improve WEDO. And we continue to solicit their opinions and feedback. For example, some of them recently commented that they would have liked to have been able to define specific access criteria, to avoid having participants pop up with irrelevant questions on the agenda. While a General Secretary should certainly be able to modify the agenda, this is not necessarily the case for any participant. So in the latest version of WEDO, we have introduced a new tool to set up access rights very finely ».

  
![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_wedo_montage_1024x525_23213decc1.png)
  
  
## START WITH A FREE TRIAL

What about the price? According to a common practice in applications, it depends on the number of users. It varies between 15 and 25 francs per person per month. WEDO is available in packs of five, ten or fifteen users; above twenty, packs are sold in increments of ten additional units. The subscription covers all updates, data hosting and support, i.e. all services with the exception of change management during the first year to maximise the chances of success, which is also calculated on the basis of a flat rate depending on the size of the network. 

"But what we always offer in the first place is a free presentation of WEDO. That's why you'll find a big blue button on the homepage of our website [www.wedo.com](/) that you can click on to schedule a demonstration by booking a date at your convenience directly in our calendar," say Antoine Sudan and David Dutch, who claim that the data will only be hosted on servers located in Switzerland.

Source: original article [Le Matin Dimanche](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/article_wedo_matin_dimanche_316cb86cf5.pdf)

Sick of long, unproductive meetings? Two Fribourgeois propose a digital solution, WEDO, to make them efficient. Explanations.

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The cure for meeting madness is called WEDO

## Monitoring of meetings in three steps

The new meeting module (version 2) just came out. It is based on the concepts of the first version but with two new major improvements:

1. Modifications are possible simultaneously by several attendees and
2. The meeting agenda is written item by item for more accuracy

The meetings are still managed in 3 phases:

* Before the meeting: preparation of the meeting agenda
* During the meeting: drafting of the meeting minutes and update of the tasks
* After the meeting: meeting minutes and traceability of the assigned tasks during the meeting

## Preparation of the meeting agenda

Once a meeting has been added, you are asked to choose the attendees and to prepare your meeting agenda item by item.

The items can be reorganized by a simple drag and drop and they are automatically numbered.

On each agenda item, 8 options are available:

* Indent, modify or delete an item.
* Add notes: notes allow you to list the information.
* Add decisions: decisions made during a meeting are clearly visible in the meeting minutes.
* Add tasks: tasks can be linked to precise items of the agenda meeting.
* Attach files: each item can have one or several files.
* Presenter: your meeting agenda is a common thread for the chair of the meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_08_diapositive1_1c7e3a55f5.png)

Synchronization of the calendar : once the meeting agenda is prepared, an event will synchronize itself in the agenda of the attendees (compatible with Outlook, Google Calendar, etc).

## Drafting of the meeting minutes and update of the tasks

During a meeting, you will find your meeting agenda item by item with its notes, attached files and linked tasks.

You can then draft one or several paragraphs in each item with the notes system, show the decisions that were made and list the tasks to do for the next meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_08_diapositive2_40ae870cd3.png)

The meeting agenda serves as a guide to help you structure your meeting and control the duration of the meeting.

Modification of deadlines and comments on the tasks are also automatically traced by WEDO to be included in the meeting minutes.

## Meeting minutes and traceability of tasks assigned during meetings

At the end of a meeting, the meeting minutes are accessible to all the attendees and each collaborator will automatically receive the tasks that have been assigned to him in his personal space.

Tasks that were completed between two meetings will automatically appear as completed in the following meeting. The task history allows you to visualize all the modifications brought to each task with a link towards the corresponding meeting minutes. In short, WEDO offers a complete traceability of the tasks throughout meetings.

When you create a new meeting, the information of the previous meeting minutes is reused to save you time and avoid having to copy-paste and the risk of mistakes.

## Bonus

### Search

WEDO’s search tool indexes the text of all your meeting minutes through all the workspaces of your network. Simply enter one or several keywords to instantly find a specific file.

### Locking

All meeting minutes can be locked after being reviewed to ensure the traceability and reliability of your archives. 

### PDF export

A single click will allow you to export your meeting agenda and meeting minutes as PDF files. The export module will allow you to select the information you want to keep in the file. This is very practical to generate extracts of the meeting minutes.

## Conclusion and acknowledgments

This new version of the meeting module allows you to save time and money. 

Customers who use this module successfully have confirmed saving up to one hour per meeting because the meeting minutes are drafted during the meeting and not afterwards. They have also noticed that their meetings are approximatively 30% shorter than before. Meetings are better prepared, better focused and thus more effective. They have also noticed a time saving when it comes to decision-making and task management. 

We were able to integrate all the suggestions for improvement from our customers in this latest version. Hence, we would like to thank them for their helpful advice and comments. WEDO will continue to evolve to become a complete collaborative tool, intended primarily for Swiss companies. 

A revisited meeting module that saves up to one hour per meeting due to its simplicity of use and the monitoring of tasks from one meeting to another.

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Redesigned meeting module : simpler, more accurate and more efficient

The latest version of WEDO has a brand new feature dedicated to taking minutes. No need to multiply documents and spend hours updating minutes after a meeting. Write your minutes in real time, validate decisions and plan the resulting actions in the same place and during the meeting. Ensure your communication from decision-making to task completion.

## Start by creating a meeting

In each workspace, you will now find a Meetings tab. The action bar allows you to **Add meeting** to it.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive1_ca5496233d.png)

In the small window that opens, give a title and plan your meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive1_ca5496233d.png)

## Before the meeting: prepare your agenda

Once the meeting is created, you can add participants, write the meeting agenda, prepare tasks to be discussed, and attach files to be presented.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive2_62512669eb.png)

When you click on **Meeting agenda is ready**, it validates this document which will be available in WEDO to all participants.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive3_cc594b3ed3.png)

All your colleagues who have access to WEDO will be able to consult all the agendas that concern them in the same place. **In addition, all meetings that users attend are automatically synchronized with their Outlook (or other) calendar.**

## During the meeting: write up your minutes and update tasks

When the meeting starts, you open your previously created agenda and click **Start Meeting**. The screen will then be split in two: the left part for writing the minutes and the right part for updating the tasks in this workspace. Note that tasks previously linked to this workspace will be automatically displayed during a meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive4_517abc6065.png)

Changes made to tasks are recorded throughout the meeting. When the minutes are taken and the task list is updated, you can **End the meeting**.

## After the meeting: a structured minutes and assigned tasks

A closed meeting automatically displays a beautiful minutes with all the important information from the meeting: attendees present, absent and excused, the minutes themselves, new tasks, completed tasks, changes in deadlines, comments, and more.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive5_1512c15016.png)

Each employee can view all the reports that concern him or her from any device (PC, tablet, smartphone). He automatically receives the tasks assigned to him in his personal space. The tasks are linked to their meeting so that they can quickly find the discussion that led to the task in the first place.

## Search for reports and tasks

In this new version, the search has been improved. A simple keyword allows you to find reports, tasks or activities previously discussed.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_03_diapositive6_e1541102903236_564dba249e.png)

## Conclusion

You save a lot of time and energy because you:

* Centralize all agendas and reports,
* Provide everyone with the level of information needed to follow up on their meetings,
* Retrieve the discussions, decisions and actions resulting from them until their execution.

The report writing module is a first step towards an ever more complete collaborative tool. More new features are planned and we would be delighted to hear your opinion on this new module. Do not hesitate to write to us.

## Also to be discovered in this version

* Checklists with key date (tasks that can be scheduled before and after the key date),
* Retractable menu,
* New enriched description for checklists and workspaces.

Perfectly controlled meetings, from decision making to the execution of the task in three steps.

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Complete module for taking minutes

This WEDO update brings a new feature: activity feed. These are chronologies that include all events, comments and notes.

The feeds exist at three levels:

* General activity feed with information about you on your network
* Feeds by topic to view the progress of sessions, projects, services, etc.
* Per person feed to track your history or that of one of your colleagues (depending on your rights)

## Overview of a topic's workflow

This is what the workflow for my "Project Zero Paper" topic looks like:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_09_flux_d_activite_4dc944ad2e.png)

## Note-taking

You can see from the image above that it is possible to add notes in the workflow. This way you can write information for a topic or for your entire network quickly. Using the "Add Recipient" button, you can notify the people affected by your note. It is possible to add **people**, **topics** or checklist **templates** to the recipients.

## Usage example

I would like to inform the whole working group for the "Project Zero Paper" about the next meeting. I am writing a note to this effect. I can add addressees via the button or by entering the title of the subject preceded by an @.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_09_note_avec_mention_7ecec0df0e.png)

## Conclusion

Thanks to the workflows, you can keep up to date quickly and communicate even more easily with people in your network. Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions for improvement via the support in WEDO.

How can I see the progress of a topic at a glance?

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Activity feed

Trello

Asana

Decisions

Monday.com

eSéances

MS Teams

MS Planner

OneNote

Every day, we juggle a series of tasks, from answering emails and attending meetings all the way to cooking dinner or finally folding that pile of laundry staring us down for days. Task management is everywhere around us, whether we realize it or not. 

But here's the catch: managing tasks is more than checking boxes. It's making sure the right boxes are checked at the right time, by the right people.

For individuals, good task management can mean less stress and more time to spend on what matters most to them. For teams and organizations, it's the difference between controlled chaos and seamless collaboration. When done well, task management becomes a superpower, moving businesses toward growth and ensuring projects are delivered on time (and with fewer sleepless nights).

In this guide, we're going to explore strategies, tools, and best practices that turn task management into a fine-tuned system. Whether you're wrangling your own to-do list or leading a team toward big goals, this can be your roadmap to staying on top of your game. 

Let's get started!


The Ultimate Guide to Task Management: Strategies, Tools, and Best Practices

There’s a special kind of dread that comes with a recurring meeting invite.

It’s always there, every Tuesday at 10, or even worse, every Friday at 3, clogging up your calendar. People join out of habit. Cameras off. Agenda optional. And somewhere between the first status update and the fifth half-decision, you realize: this meeting isn’t helping anyone. It’s just... happening.

A lot of recurring [meetings](https://wedo.com/features/meetings) were meant to create structure. Instead, they often create inertia. Same attendees, same talking points, same outcomes (or lack thereof). Over time, they stop being useful and start being background noise.

But here’s the thing: it’s not the recurrence that’s the problem. It’s the lack of structure. And when you fix that, you stop wasting time and start making it count. In this post, we’ll walk through how to redesign your recurring meetings to create real clarity and value, so people leave with direction, not déjà vu.

## The Compounding Cost of Poorly Run Recurring Meetings

One bad meeting wastes time. A recurring one builds a culture of wasted time.

It’s not just an hour lost every week. It’s five people spending one hour each, every single week, often just to rehash the same updates or decisions that never landed. Multiply that across a month, then across multiple teams, and you’re suddenly burning dozens of hours on meetings no one finds valuable.

And that’s just the obvious part.

Poorly structured recurring meetings come with hidden costs:

- **Delayed decisions -** when ownership isn’t clear, decisions get deferred.
- **Lost accountability -** if follow-ups aren't tracked, nothing moves forward.
- **Fragmented focus -** context switching and repeated discussions drain attention.
- **Participation theater -** people show up, but mentally check out.

Over time, these meetings start functioning as placeholders rather than progress points. And because they’re recurring, they rarely get reevaluated. The longer they stay broken, the more time, trust, and attention they quietly erode.

The worst part? Teams often *feel* this happening, but don’t know how to fix it. So the meetings stay. And the drain continues.

## Signs Your Recurring Meeting Is Broken

You don’t need a survey to know when a recurring meeting is off the rails. You can feel it. But just in case you’re on the fence, here are the most common red flags:

- **There’s no real agenda.** Maybe there was one once, but now it’s just bullet points copied forward, or nothing at all.
- **It’s the same conversation every time.** No progress, just recycled talking points.
- **A few people dominate, others stay silent.** It’s unclear who’s supposed to speak, so only the loudest voices fill the gap.
- **People multitask or don’t show up at all.** Engagement drops when the meeting stops delivering value.
- **Nothing gets documented.** Decisions, context, and action items vanish the moment the call ends.
- **Everyone leaves with a different interpretation of what just happened.** No shared record means no shared understanding.

When even the organizer doesn’t look forward to the meeting, that’s a signal. Recurring meetings aren’t passive calendar events. If they aren’t driving alignment, clarity, or momentum, they’re just slowly draining it.

## What a Structured Recurring Meeting *Should* Look Like

![The Structure of a High-Value Recurring Meeting — infographic showing six key elements: clear purpose, evolving agenda, defined roles, documented decisions, progress review, and intentional attendance.](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/the_structure_of_a_high_value_recurring_meeting_en_897b3c5b75.png)

Not every recurring meeting is a lost cause. The good ones do exist, and they don’t happen by accident. Here’s what separates a structured, high-value recurring meeting from the kind people join out of obligation:

- **There’s a clear purpose.** Everyone knows *why* this meeting exists, whether it’s to resolve blockers, review key metrics, or make decisions. If the purpose changes, the format changes with it.
- **The agenda evolves.** It’s not a static checklist. It’s built in advance, focused on outcomes, and time-boxed. New topics are added intentionally, not out of panic or filler.
- **Roles are defined.** Someone’s leading the discussion. Someone’s capturing notes. Someone’s accountable for follow-ups. If no one owns it, it won’t get done.
- **Progress is reviewed.** Last week’s action items don’t disappear into the void. They show up again, visibly, until they’re done or resolved.
- **Attendance is intentional.** If someone doesn’t need to be there, they don’t get dragged into the call. Relevance drives participation, not habit.

When a recurring meeting is structured this way, it stops being a placeholder and starts becoming a lever for progress. It helps people show up prepared, stay engaged, and leave with clarity, not confusion.

## How to Fix a Broken Recurring Meeting

If your recurring meeting feels off, it probably is.

And like most of us, you probably don’t want to keep pulling people into a meeting that isn’t helping anyone move forward.

However, you don’t need to overhaul your calendar or reinvent how your team works. A few thoughtful changes can make a big difference, bringing structure, purpose, and energy back into the rhythm.

![Fix Your Broken Recurring Meeting: 7 Smart Changes — infographic showing seven tips for improving recurring meetings with icons for each step.](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/fix_your_broken_recurring_meeting_7_smart_changes_en_a22c5c7735.png)

Here’s where to start.

### Reconsider the standing invite

Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is hit pause.

Cancelling a recurring meeting, at least temporarily, can create space to rethink its purpose. You’re not removing it out of frustration. You’re making room to rebuild it with the right intent.

This also signals to the team that their time matters, and that the meeting will come back stronger, not just… back.

### Set a purpose and an end date

Not all recurring meetings need to last forever. In fact, most shouldn’t.

If a meeting exists to help move a project forward, consider setting a natural expiration point. You can always restart it later if it’s still needed. But adding an end date gives everyone a reason to focus, make decisions, and avoid dragging things out just to fill the time slot.

And if the meeting’s purpose can’t be clearly defined in one sentence? That’s a sign to rethink it entirely.

### Get clear on what the meeting is for

Vague goals lead to vague meetings.

Before restarting the series, take a moment to clarify what a successful version of this meeting would look like. Is it meant to surface blockers? Make decisions? Align on progress?

If you can define the purpose clearly, the rest, agenda, frequency, attendees, gets much easier to shape.

### Refresh the format so it works for the team (not just the calendar)

If your current format feels flat, it probably hasn’t been updated in a while. Look at what’s missing:

- Are the same few people speaking while others check out?
- Are action items getting lost after the call ends?
- Does the meeting feel disconnected from what’s actually happening week to week?

Now’s the time to make the structure work harder:

A dynamic agenda, a few defined roles, and a consistent way to track outcomes can go a long way.

### Set new norms for how the meeting runs

As the format changes, so should the expectations.

It helps to say them out loud, or better yet, write them down. Things like:

- “Add topics to the agenda before the meeting”
- “Use the first few minutes to review open action items”
- “End with a recap of who’s doing what”

You’re not making it rigid, you’re making it clear. And that clarity gives people a reason to stay engaged.

### Make attendance flexible

Not every meeting needs to be a full house. If only three people are actively working through a handoff or decision, everyone else can sit it out.

Encourage people to attend when it’s relevant, not just because their name is on the invite. That shift alone can turn a meeting from a time sink into a focused working session.

### Give the structure somewhere to live

It’s tough to keep a recurring meeting useful if the details are scattered across inboxes, chat threads, and documents.

When your meeting prep, discussion, and follow-ups are all in different places, things slip. And people lose track, not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have visibility.

That’s why having a centralized tool matters. One place for agendas, notes, and action items. One place to stay aligned.

### Revisit the structure regularly

Fixing a recurring meeting isn’t a one-time task, it’s a habit. Once you’ve got the structure working, set a reminder to check in on it every few months. Is the agenda still relevant? Are action items getting done? Has the purpose shifted? Small course corrections over time can keep the meeting sharp and valuable, instead of slowly drifting back into autopilot.

## Why WEDO Makes Recurring Meetings Work

Let’s face it, recurring meetings aren’t going away. And honestly, they shouldn’t. When they’re structured well, they can keep teams aligned, accountable, and moving forward without the daily scramble. The problem is the lack of visibility, ownership, and follow-through.

[WEDO](https://wedo.com/features) gives recurring meetings the infrastructure they’ve been missing:

- **Shared agendas** that evolve week to week
- **Real-time note taking** so nothing slips through
- **Automatic follow-up tracking**
- **Integrated [task management](https://wedo.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-task-management-tool-for-your-team)** that connects discussion to action
- **One space for context, decisions, and accountability**, before, during, and after the meeting

No more toggling between docs, inboxes, and sticky notes. No more repeating the same update three weeks in a row. With [WEDO](https://wedo.com/features), your recurring meetings don’t just feel better. They actually work better.

Ready to make your recurring meetings worth everyone’s time? [Try WEDO for free today](https://wedo.com/signup) and see what structured meetings can actually do for your team.

Tired of unproductive recurring meetings? Learn how to structure them for clarity, engagement, and follow-through, without wasting everyone’s time.

“How to Structure Recurring Meetings — illustration showing a process loop with arrows around a gear icon.”

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Recurring Meetings: How to Structure Them for Clarity and Value

![Illustration showing the integration between WEDO and Microsoft Teams. On the left, the WEDO interface with agenda items; on the right, an active Teams video meeting.](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/wedo_teams_en_3bc984dd21.png)

[Microsoft Teams](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software) has become the default meeting room for many organizations. It’s fast, reliable, and deeply integrated into daily workflows. But it’s not built to manage the full lifecycle of a meeting.

It connects participants in real time, but once the call ends, that connection stops. The agenda, decisions, action items, and shared documents? They live elsewhere. Often in people’s inboxes, personal notes, or not at all.

Teams provides the space to talk. What it doesn’t provide is structure. And without structure, even the most productive conversations can get lost in follow-up.

That’s where [WEDO](https://wedo.com/features) comes in.

By integrating directly into Microsoft Teams, WEDO brings full meeting management into the same space where the meeting takes place. From setting the agenda to assigning tasks and locking the minutes, WEDO turns every meeting into a complete workflow, with nothing falling through the cracks.

## WEDO Brings Meeting Structure Into Microsoft Teams

For most teams, the moment a meeting is scheduled in Teams, the scramble begins: backchannel messages, scattered agendas, last-minute doc sharing. People show up uncertain about what’s being discussed or why they’re even in the room.

This kind of disjointed preparation wastes time, drains energy, and turns meetings into something people get through, not something they contribute to.

WEDO changes that without requiring a new system or process. Once added to a Teams workspace, it becomes a tab inside the meeting channel. From there, everything starts to come together.

You don’t need to switch platforms or introduce a new system. Instead, WEDO adds the structure Teams lacks, directly inside the interface your team already uses. From there, you can do everything you need to run an effective meeting:

- Build a shared agenda
- Collect input from attendees
- Attach relevant documents
- Assign roles and clarify objectives
- Launch votes or approval blocks when needed

And none of it happens in a vacuum. Every topic is tracked, every file is in context, and every decision has a place to live, without ever leaving Teams.

This integration allows meetings to move from preparation to execution without breaking flow. No toggling between apps. No chasing files in email threads. Just one workspace where discussion and documentation stay connected.

![Screenshot of the WEDO app in Microsoft Teams showing a list of upcoming meetings with date, status, and participants, plus a form to add a new meeting.](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/wedo_meetings_teams_en_caa3e23498.png)

For teams that already rely on Microsoft Teams to collaborate, WEDO fills a very specific and often overlooked gap: it gives the meeting lifecycle a defined start, middle, and end, without needing to leave the environment people are already working in.

::button-primary[How to integrate WEDO with Teams]{link="https://help.wedo.com/en/articles/48757-integrate-wedo-into-microsoft-teams"}

## Keep the Meeting on Track, and Make It Count

Once the meeting begins, WEDO stays open in the Teams tab, right alongside the call, so everything stays in context. The agenda isn’t something people saw once in a calendar invite. It’s right there, visible and active, guiding the discussion as it unfolds.

As the conversation moves forward, so does the documentation. Notes are written live. Tasks are created in real time, with deadlines and assignees. Decisions are recorded directly under the item they relate to.

This kind of live collaboration creates clarity in the moment. No one’s wondering what was said or who’s responsible for what. And if alignment is needed on the spot, voting blocks allow participants to weigh in and move forward without delays or email follow-ups.

The collaboration feels natural because it’s happening where the conversation is happening, in the same interface, with the same people, in real time.

WEDO makes meetings easier to follow *while they’re happening*, not just easier to summarize afterward. Which means less confusion, fewer follow-ups, and more time spent moving work forward instead of revisiting what was already covered.

## After the Call Ends, the Work Continues

The real test of a meeting isn’t how much was discussed, it’s what happens after.

Without structure, even productive conversations lose momentum. Tasks get forgotten. Decisions blur. The same topics resurface week after week, because no one can find the original context.

WEDO closes that loop, *still inside Teams.*

Once the meeting ends, every task, note, decision, and document stays exactly where it belongs. Meeting minutes aren’t buried in a shared drive or manually rewritten after the fact, they’re already done. You can lock the report to preserve its integrity, and request electronic signatures directly from within the platform, whether you need SES, AES, or qualified signatures with legal weight.

Tasks remain connected to the specific agenda item they came from. If someone needs to review why a decision was made, they don’t have to guess. They can open the meeting, find the topic, see the discussion, and track the resulting action, all without leaving Teams.

That kind of traceability builds accountability. People know what they’re responsible for. Nothing slips through the cracks. And when you come back to the next meeting, the conversation can move forward instead of starting over.

WEDO makes that continuity automatic. The meeting doesn’t disappear once the call ends. It becomes part of a living record the whole team can rely on.

## Control, Privacy, and a Clear Line of Ownership

![Map of Europe highlighting Switzerland with markers for Zurich and Geneva. Text: “Your data is safely stored in Swiss data centers located in Zurich and Geneva.”](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/data_storage_en_16a2492132.png)

Bringing [WEDO](https://wedo.com/integrations/ms-teams) into Microsoft Teams does more than streamline your meetings. It reinforces trust in how your information is handled.

Even while operating within the Teams interface, WEDO keeps all meeting data, like notes, documents, tasks, and decisions, under its own roof. Content is stored securely on servers located in Switzerland, where it remains subject to WEDO’s strict data protection policies and your organization’s governance standards. No data is shared with Microsoft. No content is duplicated or processed outside the WEDO environment.

This separation is important. Many collaboration tools prioritize integration at the expense of ownership, but WEDO takes the opposite approach. It offers full interoperability with Microsoft Teams without relinquishing control over your content. That means you can collaborate in real time without compromising on confidentiality, data residency, or compliance.

For organizations working in sensitive environments, whether legal, financial, public sector, or research-focused, knowing exactly where information is stored, who can access it, and how long it’s retained isn’t a preference. It’s a requirement.

WEDO helps you meet that requirement without extra complexity. Meeting content stays visible and accessible to the right people while remaining protected and centralized under one secure system. Teams provides the space for discussion. WEDO ensures the record is complete, accurate, and entirely yours.

## The Meeting Space Is Only Half the Equation

Microsoft Teams gives you a place to talk. WEDO gives you the structure to make it count.

From preparation to follow-up, WEDO fills the operational gaps that Teams doesn’t address. Agendas stay visible, decisions are documented in real time, and tasks remain tied to the conversations that created them. Everything lives in one place, connected to the meeting, and accessible to the people who need it.

And because WEDO keeps your data under your control, you can collaborate with confidence, without compromising on ownership, privacy, or clarity.

If your team already runs on Microsoft Teams, [WEDO](https://wedo.com/features) doesn’t ask you to change how you work. It simply makes every meeting easier to run, easier to track, and harder to forget.[Try WEDO for free today](https://wedo.com/demo) and turn every meeting into something you can build on.

Discover how WEDO brings complete meeting management into Microsoft Teams, streamlining agendas, notes, and action items in one integrated workspace.

Graphic titled “WEDO + Microsoft Teams.” Shows an online meeting with several participants, WEDO agenda items, and icons for microphone, calendar, and meeting.

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WEDO + Microsoft Teams: What Your Meetings Were Missing

In the fast-paced world of administrative management, executive assistants play a crucial role. The Swiss army knives of any organization juggle many tasks and deadlines while supervising those of others. Faced with these challenges, they often find themselves overwhelmed by routine, repetitive responsibilities. We immersed ourselves in the daily lives of 6 executive assistants who use the WEDO platform to understand the workings of their organization, the challenges they face, and the tools they have put in place to facilitate their management.

According to our study, the most time-consuming tasks for executive assistants revolve mainly around administrative functions. These activities, while necessary, tend to monopolize a significant proportion of their working time, preventing them from concentrating fully on more crucial aspects of their role, such as operational and strategic development.

Among the most time-consuming tasks in their job descriptions, the executive assistants surveyed identify the following:

**1. Meeting preparation:** preparing agendas and presentation documents, taking and sharing minutes, following up on decisions and tasks delegated at meetings,

**2. Diary management and meeting organization:** planning and coordination of appointments, team meetings, and conferences, taking care to avoid scheduling conflicts,
**3. Document preparation and management:** drafting, proofreading, and organizing important documents such as reports, presentations, correspondence and contracts,

**4. Project coordination:** managing and following up on specific projects, liaising between different departments, and meeting deadlines.

Internal and external communications, administrative support, and human resources management closely follow those.

## How to lighten the administrative load for an executive assistant?

When asked what tools were used to monitor collaboration before WEDO was integrated, the most common programs were Outlook, Word (for taking minutes), and Excel. However, these tools had significant limitations. Respondents reported difficulties related to the cross-functionality of information between different team members. For example, these tools were not conducive to **active, real-time collaboration when taking PVs**, making this task often cumbersome and time-consuming, and necessitating numerous round-trips. The systematic use of e-mail to distribute these documents wasted considerable time without guaranteeing effective communication.

Furthermore, the limited nature of these tools prevented efficient tracking of tasks and projects. Users faced significant challenges maintaining a clear, up-to-date overview of projects. In short, although these tools are widespread and familiar, their use in team collaboration and project management needs to be improved.

This situation underlines the importance of cross-functional tools and solutions to lighten the administrative workload. With the implementation of WEDO, the executive assistants surveyed were able to optimize their administrative processes.

### 1. Meeting preparation and management

![computerized agenda for real-time note-taking](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/reunion_ENEN_aad2ef7f0e.png)

One of the most time-consuming aspects of the job is the preparation of meetings. With WEDO, executive assistants benefit from automated management and considerable time savings in preparation and follow-up. The platform enables uniform management of minutes, clear distribution of post-meeting tasks, and automatic tracking of topics from one session to the next. Users report an average time saving of 55% for these tasks.

![save time spent on meetings](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/55_ENEN_83c8604c19.png)

WEDO's meeting module lets you integrate blocks of paragraphs, tasks, file attachments, personal notes, votes and signatures, among others.

![testimonial Regula Oberdorfer](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/Regula_Oberdorfer_ENEN_1a54d3c30f.png)

### 2. Project management and task tracking

![efficient task management](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/tasks_ENEN_be99588a59.png)

Project management and tracking represent another major challenge. WEDO simplifies this task by offering clear delegation possibilities, the creation of checklist templates to standardize processes, and real-time task tracking. This leads to better prioritization and more efficient day-to-day management.

![testimonials Aline Volery and Nicole Thalmann](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/testimonials_Aline_et_Nicole_ENEN_11a8dc6cff.png)

### Use case: facilitating HR processes and the transmission of specifications

When executive assistants are involved in HR processes, the integration of WEDO proves to be a major asset. The platform makes it possible to standardize on-boarding and off-boarding procedures by means of specific checklists. These checklists, drawn up for each stage of the process, automatically assign the relevant tasks to the team members concerned. This method ensures structured, efficient management of personnel transitions, eliminating the operational uncertainties often associated with the question "What steps should I take?".

By simplifying these processes, WEDO not only eases the workload for HR managers, but also contributes to a clear, documented handover of tasks and knowledge from one employee to the next.

![simplified hr processes](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/Modeles_checklists_ENEN_fdf58af70f.png)

One of the decisive advantages of WEDO, highlighted by our management assistants, is the ease with which recruitment interviews can be documented in real time. Each exchange can be recorded directly in a standardized (and customized if required) agenda, enabling these interactions to be saved methodically and instantaneously.

### 4. Transmission of information

WEDO lets you link documents to tasks or meetings, ensuring that all the necessary information is in the right place. Global search makes it easy to retrieve documents, and to find a specific file based on a keyword found in the PDF file.

In terms of communication, WEDO users particularly appreciate the immediate visibility of entries and the ability to restrict access to certain information.

![Alexandra Locher](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/Alexandra_locher_ENEN_e53527e95c.png)

**We asked our users to rate the platform on a scale of 1 to 10, to qualify the positive impact WEDO has on their daily tasks.**

![Best collaborative software for executive assistant productivity and organizations](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/preparation_reunion_note_ENEN_1_d92c7629a1.png)

![Alicia Aubert](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/Alicia_Aubert_ENEN_5d3644b8f7.png)

Executive assistants can greatly ease their workload by equipping themselves with a collaborative platform. Do you have any questions or doubts about WEDO's compatibility with your needs? We'll be happy to give you a short 30-minute demonstration.

::button-primary[Try WEDO for free]{link="/signup"}

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}

In the fast-paced world of administrative management, executive assistants play a crucial role. The Swiss army knives of any organization juggle many tasks and deadlines while supervising those of others

An executive assistant speaking on the phone with colleagues blurred in the background, overlaid with the text “How to make an executive assistant’s daily life easier” and “Use case”

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Making daily life easier for executive assistants

Held once a month, quarter, or half-year, as required, these privileged meetings provide a confidential and open communication space, encouraging in-depth discussion of individual and collective objectives. They create a valuable opportunity to discuss each employee's specific challenges and needs, fostering better mutual understanding. Moreover, these meetings provide a framework for recognizing individual achievements and contributions, reinforcing a sense of accomplishment and belonging to the team. Thanks to these personalized exchanges, bilateral meetings contribute to more effective personnel management, more focused professional growth, and solid, fulfilling working relationships.

## Key topics for a bilateral meeting

During a bilateral meeting between a team leader and an employee, several key topics must be addressed to ensure effective communication and optimal management. Here are some of these topics:

### 1. Ongoing assessment
Discuss objectives for the current period and assess progress and results achieved. Identify successes and areas requiring further attention.

### 2. Professional Development
Explore opportunities for employee development, training, and professional growth. Identify skills to be strengthened and possible progression paths.

### 3. Feedback
Exchange constructive feedback on work performed, highlighting strengths and addressing areas for improvement. Encourage open dialogue to stimulate continuous learning.

### 4. Needs and Challenges
Allow employees to express their needs regarding resources, assistance, or support to accomplish their tasks. Discuss possible obstacles and find solutions together.

### 5. Work-Life Balance
Address workload-related issues, stress levels, and work-life balance. Identify measures to support employee well-being.

### 6. Projects and Initiatives
Discuss future projects, new initiatives, and potential employee contributions. Encourage active participation and creativity.

### 7. Management feedback
Offer employees the opportunity to share their feelings about management, work methods, and team communication. Foster an environment of trust and continuous improvement.

### 8. Focus on Vision
Ensure that the employee understands and adheres to the team or company's overall vision, values, and goals.

### 9. Resources and Support
Identify the resources required for the associate's success and ensure that he/she has the proper support to carry out his/her tasks.

### 10. Long-Term Planning
Examine longer-term perspectives and discuss the employee's career aspirations and how these align with team or organizational goals.

_"Enabling discussions in bilateral meetings, in a more intimate way and with a long-term vision, brings a notable benefit to the employee's career in the company. It makes them feel valued, heard and recognized above all. Setting clear, long-term objectives is a real motivator for them."_

**Marie Rudaz-Jaeggi**, *[AmbitionSuccess.ch](http://ambitionsuccess.ch/)* - MORGES

Team leaders and employees can establish fruitful collaboration, foster professional development, and maintain a positive working climate by addressing these topics regularly and in-depth at bilateral meetings.

## Use WEDO to keep track of your bilateral meetings!

![1_1 ENFR.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/1_1_ENFR_78b8a89537.png)

With WEDO, you can prepare your agenda jointly with your manager or colleague. In this way, each participant can prepare the questions or topics to be addressed.

Generally speaking, the agenda items for a bilateral meeting are recurrent. WEDO enables you to set the topics so that they recur from one time to the next to ensure that discussions are followed up and that objectives evolve.

Once completed, the minutes are locked and remain available to both participants for consultation.

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}

During a bilateral meeting between a team leader and an employee, several key topics must be addressed to ensure effective communication and optimal management.

A smiling person listening to their counterpart in a one-on-one meeting, overlaid with the text “Topics for a one-on-one meeting” and “Use case”

Notes