Business meetings may be all the rage—isn’t everyone having them? Problem is, not many folks like them, though they feel the need to attend them.

Here’s how to make your next meeting interesting, fun and successful using Excel.

• Rather than becoming a talking head of numbers, do a quick go over of your seasonal sales using an Excel spreadsheet. Make sure you add Sources and Uses information to the spreadsheet making the presentation more interesting to your employees.
• When talking inventory, go over the inventory management sheet. Visuals help others to understand and retain pertinent job information.
• Pass out a calendar at the meeting using excel calendar. A great step by step tutorial on creating a calendar without using MACROs can be found here: http://www.advanced-excel.com/excel_calendar.html.
• Use Excel Pivot Table to show off stock movement. View it by day, month or year.
• Put together a survey through Excel that offers your employees an opportunity to express their concerns and ideas without necessarily having to have to put their name on paper.
• Change or modify your spreadsheet, personalizing it for your specific needs and employee interests.
• Instead of showing pertinent numbers previously calculated within your power point presentation, calculate important numbers during the meeting. This has a dramatic effect on listeners, and lets them know that you haven’t modified any of the numbers.
• Make charts using Excel formulas. Logicalexpressions.com has some step-by-step instructions.
• Try the interactive map. “Interactive map” means, in this case, “interactive image,” and should not be confused with an actual map. Paste pictures, drawings, and graphics, add text, and keep the crowd interested.
• Build a game. Use the game as the half-way point or use it to explain the newest trends in your business. A great example can be found here, http://www.exceleverest.com/blog/category/Strange-Uses-of-Excel.aspx plus other “wacky” projects you can put together using Excel.

Excel truly extends beyond spread sheets and it’s nice to know that you’re no longer limited—and that’s great when you can get almost everything you need for your next business presentation from one key source.