Method Community

I'm curious to know how others create and send meeting requests or meeting invites after scheduling an activity in Method.

With Method I can send an email, but what I really need to do is to send a meeting request for that meeting I just scheduled and added to Method. 

Has anyone found an creative, easy way to do this?

Many thanks, Gregg

Hello Gregg,

   This is a great questionsand I'm hoping we do get some ideas from the community.  I want to make sure I have the correct idea.  The idea is to send an meeting activity to an employee. The employee can click on a link to accept the meeting. Unfortunately, I've not seen this available in Method emails.  On the other hand, I did have an idea.  You can add a link to a custom page where an employee can accept or say they can make the meeting.  Say they select the meeting activity from the grid and click a button called 'Accept'.  It can save a value to a custom field on the activity and send you an email that the meeting has been accepted.  The custom field can then be used to montior acceptance of a meeting.

I hope this helps,

 Greg

I am responding to Greg's questions below in blue -- thanks Greg, for responding and I look forward to dialog about this:

 This is a great questionsand I'm hoping we do get some ideas from the community.  I want to make sure I have the correct idea.  The idea is to send an meeting activity to an employee.

>>>To an employee or to someone outside of the company like a vendor or prospect or client. This is pretty standard stuff in Outlook and even Google calendar.

The employee can click on a link to accept the meeting.

>>>Yes, but... (see below)

Unfortunately, I've not seen this available in Method emails.  On the other hand, I did have an idea.  You can add a link to a custom page where an employee can accept or say they can make the meeting.  Say they select the meeting activity from the grid and click a button called 'Accept'.  It can save a value to a custom field on the activity and send you an email that the meeting has been accepted.  The custom field can then be used to montior acceptance of a meeting.

>>>This accomplishes half of the point of a meeting request. The other half of the value of a meeting request is value for the recipient – it automatically adds the appointment to their calendar (so they don’t have to manually add it to the calendar or don't forget to add it) and with many systems it also tells you if the appointment conflicts with anything else on their own calendar (outside of Method, probably) when they try to accept. If you send me your email address, I will send you one and you will see. Frankly, it is this convenience for the recipient that is most important for us. 

Hello Gregg,

     There is the ability to sync with a Google Calendar and Outlook calendar to see where meeting conflict with other appointments.  Both work in similar ways.  Users can sign into their Method account with their Google OpenID.  Method will then create a Method calendar in your Google account.  From the calendar, you can copy meetings from Method to your main Google calendar.  It will also show both calendars in the same screen to allow a user to see if meetings overlap.  Outlook has the same thing.  If you install the Outlook plugin, you will get a Method calendar in your calendar menu allowing you to see where meetings are throughout the day.

Greg

This is great to know. thank you!

I was also referring to the benefit of using meeting invites (ical) with people who are outside of your organization and who DO NOT use Method. The meeting invite allows them to click the "Accept" button to automatically add the appointment to their calendars no matter what calendar program they use, and also to automatically check for conflicts. 

Gregg