It's hard to run your own company when you spend a huge amount of time attending meetings. If you're not careful, you can easily spend more time doing work for the community than growing your own business. Some meetings are fun to attend, like luncheons with a speaker who is actually breathing and dinners where you're bound to make a good business connection or two. Others, however, are a total waste of time and should be held only when there's actually something that needs to be done or announced. Time for more doodles.
Conference calls around the speaker phone are always a treat, too.
First, it takes about 45 minutes to connect all parties. Then, once connected, no one knows who should speak first. I tend to shout during these meetings like when I make an overseas phone call. And not being able to see the other party is a bit weird. Part of the fun of a good meeting is observing how the other attendees react to words spoken or things thrown.