Step 7: Send the kickoff meeting materials to all participants
On your designated date, send a package of meeting materials to each participant, including:

1. Meeting time and date with call-in phone number
2. Meeting agenda
3. Project participants’ contact information
4. Project plan draft

Ask each person to review the project plan carefully. Indicate that additional information will be discussed at the kickoff meeting and everyone should be familiar with his or her part of the plan. Explain that there will be a Q&A session at the meeting to answer any questions.

Step 8: Identify key issues and project dependencies
Review the project plan prior to the kickoff meeting and make notes on points that you want to make at the meeting. Pertinent items include potential bottlenecks, impact issues, risk areas, etc.

What's next?
After all of your preparation, knowing how to conduct your kickoff meeting is the next step. In part two of this series, we’ll detail the best way to lead a project kickoff meeting.