With technology changing every day, it can be tough to keep up. However, if you do not stay on top of technology, your organization could suffer. Here is an idea that can help you to engage your team and keep your company moving forward.

1. Once a month, try hosting a “Technology Innovations Meeting” in your company. For large companies, this could be done by department.

2. Each meeting can be based on a pre-determined technology topic that was chosen by your group at the previous meeting. The topic chosen should be something based on solving a problem, improving processes, increasing ROI for your customers, or researching competitors, etc.  A great way to involve your staff and expose ideas is to pin up a topic list on the wall in your break room. At any time someone can post a topic or technology research idea to the list. Then, at your next meeting you can discuss the list of topics and prioritize them and pick one for the following month that seems most valuable to the group.

3. Anyone in your company or department may submit a request to present on the chosen topic. This gives all staff an opportunity to contribute to your organization’s success.

4. Establish some rules or guidelines for your meetings. Here are some examples: limit presentations to 10 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes for questions; limit presentations to six per month; include 30 minutes for discussion and planning of next month’s topic; Ask each person to sign up to present at least once per year.

5. Each presenter will have the entire month to research other technologies or business practices and compile a comprehensive presentation for their team.

6. Presentations should be recorded for any missing employees to view later. Ideally, each presenter should provide an outline for the group to reference. Important discussions and questions should be noted.

7. After all presentations are completed, the floor can be opened up for discussion. Action and follow-up lists should be created as needed.

8. Before the meeting concludes, the next technology topic would be chosen from the list of topics submitted on the list in the break room.

NOTE: If you are a technology company, monthly is ideal. However if you are not a provider of technology (but use it) then a quarterly meeting may suffice.