On any given day I am involved with at least three meetings, and other days my Outlook calendar is a solid wall with me having to eat lunch at my desk. All of these meetings have one thing in common: They have too many people attending.
Corporations are a collection of competing groups, and each group thinks they are the most important group in the room. Once a group gets wind of something, they feel compelled to get their representatives in the room to have their two cents heard. This causes even an hour long meeting to end up being far too short to have everyone's opinion heard and cataloged.
When I am the meeting organizer I corner the project sponsor's representative and get the list of people who's areas will be impacted by the project. Those are the only people I want in the room when the details are being discussed. It's amazing how fast the details get worked out when a small group of experts come together. Once a good set of requirements is worked out, the announcement goes out about what's changing.
This is where the big meeting is required, but only the one. Get the requirements into everyone's hands with the expectation that it will have been reviewed before the big meeting. Keep the agenda to a Q & A session, and you'll find that most questions are just simple clarification questions. Everyone gets their two cents and the project gets to stay on track.
This of course doesn't always work. Some people are tenacious, and will find a way to weasel into every meeting. If you keep with it though, even eventually the most tenacious person will get the hint.
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