Calling a meeting is almost always the worst way to accomplish something.<p>IMO it should only be done when you need to make an announcement or poll feedback from a group of people you don't usually interact with or who are busy.<p>If you have a question for a specific person, don't call a meeting; just use the easiest channel to contact that person and publish the answer.<p>If you need help with something business critical, don't call a meeting; do enough research to formulate an intelligent question and ask that question.<p>If you need to learn about something but it's not urgent, or even if it is urgent but not for anyone else, find the best person to learn from and ask them for a 1 on 1 at their most convenient time.
What's that saying? You almost always have to get approval from your manager to spend $500 on a tool, but call a meeting with 20 people and no one bats an eye.
Some elements that can help are:<p>- an agenda<p>- sending an e-mail with the meeting goals or slides in advance<p>- a moderator that keeps the meeting on topic<p>- marking non-essential people as optional<p>- minutes, or recording the meeting