Template
All-hands meeting agenda
This all-hands meeting agenda runs for an hour: a welcome, the company update and its numbers, wins and shout-outs, team updates, announcements, one deep dive, and fifteen minutes of open Q&A, each with a presenter and a time.
The builder below starts with those segments and works out when each one begins. Add the questions people sent in and how to ask during the meeting, then paste it into the invite or download it.
All-hands agenda · 7 parts
- 01Welcome
- 02Company update
- 03Wins and shout-outs
- 04Team updates
- 05Announcements
- 06Deep dive
- 07Open Q&A
All-hands agenda builder
The usual segments are already in the form. Set the date and start time, name the presenters, add the questions sent in beforehand, and the running order appears beside the form. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
The all-hands
Segments · 1 h
Questions
Preview
The usual all-hands segments are in the form already. Add the date, start time and presenters, and the agenda appears here with a time for every segment. Or press Fill in an example.
Copy pastes as plain text into email, Slack, Google Docs or Notion. The Word file opens in Word, Pages and Google Docs.
NoteOwl records the all-hands call on your Mac and writes the summary, with the audience’s questions and the answers given.
What should an all-hands meeting agenda include?
A welcome, a company update with its numbers, wins, a few team updates, announcements, one deep dive and open Q&A. Put the Q&A where it can’t be squeezed; a quarter of the time is a fair share.
- Welcome
- What to writeThe host says what’s on today and when it ends.
- Company update
- What to writeWhere the company stands, with the same few numbers every time, good or bad.
- Wins and shout-outs
- What to writeThanks for specific work, by name. Short and specific beats long and general.
- Team updates
- What to writeTwo or three teams, a few minutes each, on what changed and what’s next. Rotate who presents.
- Announcements
- What to writeChanges everyone needs to know about: launches, new people, new policies.
- Deep dive
- What to writeOne topic in depth, from a team or a guest.
- Open Q&A
- What to writeQuestions sent in beforehand first, then live ones. Give it real time.
| Part | What to write |
|---|---|
| Welcome | The host says what’s on today and when it ends. |
| Company update | Where the company stands, with the same few numbers every time, good or bad. |
| Wins and shout-outs | Thanks for specific work, by name. Short and specific beats long and general. |
| Team updates | Two or three teams, a few minutes each, on what changed and what’s next. Rotate who presents. |
| Announcements | Changes everyone needs to know about: launches, new people, new policies. |
| Deep dive | One topic in depth, from a team or a guest. |
| Open Q&A | Questions sent in beforehand first, then live ones. Give it real time. |
An all-hands agenda template to copy
Paste it into the invite or the presenters’ running order and fill in the names and times. It is plain text, so it pastes into an email, Slack or a slide’s speaker notes.
Open a channel or a form for questions a few days before; hard questions are easier to ask in writing.
ALL-HANDS MEETING AGENDA Company or team: Date: Time: start – end Location or livestream link: Host: Who's invited: AGENDA Segment | Presenter | Minutes 1. Welcome and what's on today | | 3 2. Company update: the numbers that matter | | 10 3. Wins and shout-outs | | 5 4. Team updates | | 10 5. Announcements | | 5 6. Deep dive | | 10 7. Open Q&A | | 15 8. Close | | 2 QUESTIONS SENT IN BEFOREHAND - HOW TO ASK A QUESTION: AFTER THE MEETING: where the slides and notes will be
How do you run the Q&A at an all-hands?
Collect questions a few days ahead, let people vote on them, answer the most-asked and the hardest ones first, and post every answer afterwards for the people who couldn’t be there.
- Collect questions beforehand
- WhyPeople ask harder questions in writing, and presenters can prepare real answers.
- Let people vote on questions
- WhyThe most-asked questions get answered, not just the first ones in.
- Answer the hardest question first
- WhyIt shows the Q&A is real.
- Say when you don’t know
- WhyThen say when the answer will come, and post it.
- Post the answers afterwards
- WhyPeople who missed the meeting see them too, including the ones you ran out of time for.
| Do this | Why |
|---|---|
| Collect questions beforehand | People ask harder questions in writing, and presenters can prepare real answers. |
| Let people vote on questions | The most-asked questions get answered, not just the first ones in. |
| Answer the hardest question first | It shows the Q&A is real. |
| Say when you don’t know | Then say when the answer will come, and post it. |
| Post the answers afterwards | People who missed the meeting see them too, including the ones you ran out of time for. |
What does a department all-hands agenda look like?
Like this one-hour all-hands for a bank’s digital team, the week before a pilot starts: two team updates, a guest deep dive on twelve customer interviews, three questions sent in, and fifteen minutes of Q&A.
ALL-HANDS MEETING AGENDA Company or team: Ferncastle Bank, digital team Date: Friday, October 23, 2026 Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (1 h) Location or call link: 4th floor town hall, or the Teams livestream in the invite Host: Daniel Okafor Who’s invited: Everyone in product, design, engineering, and risk and compliance THIS MEETING Why new customers give up at sign-up, and the pilot that starts in November to fix it. AGENDA - 3:00 PM Welcome and what’s on today (Daniel Okafor, 3 min) - 3:03 PM Company update: the numbers that matter (Daniel Okafor, 10 min): Week-one onboarding completion: 11% today, 20% the target - 3:13 PM Wins and shout-outs (Priya Shah, 5 min) - 3:18 PM Team update: mobile engineering (Marcus, 5 min): The release plan for the pilot build - 3:23 PM Team update: risk and compliance (Grace Lin, 5 min): What the pilot needs before it goes live - 3:28 PM Announcement: the onboarding pilot (Priya Shah, 5 min) - 3:33 PM Deep dive: what twelve customers told us (Maya Rao, Northlight Studio, 10 min) - 3:43 PM Open Q&A (Daniel Okafor, 15 min) - 3:58 PM Close (Daniel Okafor, 2 min) QUESTIONS SENT IN BEFORE THE MEETING - When does the pilot start, and which customers see the new flow first? - Will small-business accounts get the camera flow later? - How do we report a verification bug during the pilot? HOW TO ASK A QUESTION Post in #digital-all-hands before or during the meeting, or ask in the room. AFTER THE MEETING Slides and notes in #digital-all-hands by Monday.
How do you plan an all-hands meeting?
Pick the one message people should leave with, build the segments around it, brief each presenter on their time, collect questions in advance, and share the slides and answers afterwards.
- 1
Choose the message
One thing everyone should remember; the update and the deep dive should support it.
- 2
Book the presenters
Tell each presenter their slot and minutes a week ahead, and rotate the team updates.
- 3
Collect questions
Open a channel or a form for questions a few days before.
- 4
Run to time
The host keeps each segment to its time, so the Q&A isn’t the part that gets cut.
- 5
Share afterwards
Post the slides, the notes and an answer to every question, including the ones you didn’t reach.
Can NoteOwl write notes from an all-hands meeting?
Yes. NoteOwl records the all-hands call or livestream playing on your Mac and writes a summary; its Presentation template gives the main message, the key points by section, standout moments, and the questions asked with their answers.
Presentation template
Main message, key points by section, standout moments and the Q&A with answers: a write-up for everyone who missed it. See the presentation notes template.
Every answer, findable
Ask NoteOwl what was said about a topic at the all-hands and it finds the passage in the recording. See search across all your meetings.
Presenters told apart
Each voice is labelled in the transcript; rename a speaker once and NoteOwl learns the voice. See speaker identification.
FAQ
Questions about all-hands meetings
What is an all-hands meeting?
An all-hands meeting is a regular meeting of everyone in a company or department, to share progress, thank people for their work, make announcements and answer questions. Many companies hold one every month or every quarter.
How often should you hold an all-hands meeting?
Monthly suits most growing companies; small teams sometimes meet weekly and large companies quarterly. Keep the same slot so people can plan around it.
How long should an all-hands meeting be?
Usually 30 to 60 minutes. Past an hour, attention drops, so cut a segment before you cut the Q&A.
What is the difference between an all-hands and a town hall?
The names are often used for the same meeting. Some companies say town hall when most of the time goes to open questions with leadership, and all-hands for a meeting built around updates and announcements.
Can I use this all-hands agenda for a remote or hybrid meeting?
Yes. Put the call or livestream link in the details, collect questions in a channel or form so remote people can ask too, and share the notes and answers afterwards.
Can NoteOwl record an all-hands meeting?
Yes. NoteOwl records the call or livestream playing on your Mac, with no bot joining, and writes the transcript with the presenters labelled and a summary. Its Presentation template adds the questions with their answers.
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