All, what are your best practices for naming shared calendar events?
For example, Lunch with Joe is fine for me, but useless to Joe who might receive the invitation. I’ve seen some use something like Ciaran <> Joe lunch or lunch Ciaran and Joe. But I haven’t yet discerned a consistent pattern that appeals to me.
Does anybody have a set of rules that works well for them? Something like [host]<>[invitee] [type] re [subject], e.g. Ciaran <> Joe meeting re new case or similar?
Thanks.
I usually do Name/Name topic, or just name/name if it’s obvious or needs to be discreet. This scales up to about three participants. Beyond that, we sometimes do initials at work (AB/CD/EF/GH…), but the more popular convention at that scale seems to be to just title the meeting with the subject or goal.
I always give the reason for the meeting as the title. I can look at the list of invitees if I wish to know who will (hopefully) be there.
Same here. “Lunch with Joe” has no meaning, unless it’s just about eating. Sometimes I add a name (“Job Interview Joe”), but most of the time I use the event’s topic/content. And if it’s some supplier wanting to discuss a contract, the name is completely meaningless. “Contract: 200000 face masks” or whatever would be the title and whover the supplier sends will introduce himnself. And I just need the tima and location.
Most of my meetings are client meetings so I will do “Client Name/My Name - Zoom” this allows me to see their name first and if it’s a call I will substitute zoom with call or lunch. So on.
I put “Teams” or “Phone” in the location and I know it’s a (video)-call
Most of my meetings are zoom so I add the url there. Some of my clients are older and adding to the subject makes it clear about the platform.
This is a topic that’s been a stone in my shoe for all the 5+ years I’ve been working in cultures that routinely do automated invitations.
For meetings with two or three participants, my formula is . “Bill & Mitch to discuss TPS reports. Mitch to call Bill.” I just sent an invitation a few minutes ago with a text very similar to that.
With four or more people, it’s just the topic of the meeting, with the names in the invitees art the invitation. Those are always on Zoom nowadays, so the Zoom invitation goes in the notes and/or URL field.
What I’d really like is for a calendar app to show me a different face on the invitation than the one the other folks see. So in the example above, the recipient would see "“Bill & Mitch to discuss TPS reports. Mitch to call Bill.” on the invitation. But on my calendar I’d see “Bill. TPS reports. Call him.” And then I could add a private reminder to myself too – “Tell him he NEEDS to get them in on time.” Has anybody figured out workaround for that?
This seems to me to be such a universally attractive feature that I’m surprised it isn’t standard for all calendars.
I’ve done some of those sorts of notes in Agenda.
Everybody says Agenda when I mention that problem. 
But Agenda is a full-fledged note-taking app – a heavyweight tool for just that single purpose.
I’ve started keeping daily notes, and I’m dropping meeting reminders in there in advance. For example, I have a meeting tomorrow I wanted to make some notes on, so I created tomorrow’s daily note today.
I follow this syntax: Medium (Zoom, Call, etc): Their Name (Company) + My Name (Company)
I only include the company names if it’s someone I’m not familiar with yet or if it’s an intro meeting. That can be removed once you’re on a first-name basis.
Further details go in the description section of the event as there is no need to pack a ton of information into the event name itself. The point is that you can pull more details if needed in the description section but know exactly who you’re meeting and how you’re meeting them.
Another little hack is to include who will be calling who in the description section if it’s a phone call. Example: Dillon will call Joe at the scheduled time
Example: Zoom Meeting between me and another person at a company I do not really know…
Event Name: Zoom: Dillon (Vendrive) + Joe (Company)
Location: Zoom Link
Description: To discuss a deal we’re going to close (more details and context)…
I think most people get into a behavior of never using the input fields as they exist and default to only using the Event Name. By using all of the appropriate fields for an event you can create a much better experience for the other party and avoid ambiguity.
In fact, when someone schedules a time with me using Calendly, it creates an event following the above structure, which is super nice once you get to the day of the event.
Would love any feedback on how to make the above better 