Can we get to grips with teleconference scheduling already? Why do I always have to look for the times, the numbers, deal with people who send an invite five minutes before it starts and complain that I did not participate? What is so difficult about it?

Look, if you want to schedule a teleconference, here is what you do:

• Set the objective. We are not interested in a teleconference “just to share information”, you can send that by e-mail, we have other things to do.
• List people who you want to attend and make sure you have a good reason for them to attend at all. Too many conferences have too many people in them.
• Pick a good time for all of them. Hint: a good time is never today. If you need a decision today, you will have to call each person individually and discuss.
• Put together the teleconference call-in and call-back numbers that could be useful for all of the people you invite. I am not going to dial international to spend one hour on a teleconference, this is so passe.
• Finally, send an invite with the objective, agenda, numbers and reminder.

It is that simple. Oh, and if you need to reschedule – start from the beginning.