Admit it, most meetings are long, boring, and often a waste of time. I had a brief stint doing project manager-type work a few months ago. I worked with a great Project Manager and the best take away I had from it was how to run meetings properly.
Do you even need a meeting?
If it can be sent out in an email, discussed on Skype, or finished by one person at their own desk, you don't need a meeting. There are plenty of reasons to have meetings, but there plenty more not to have them. Figure out if you really need one, and if you're not sure, you probably don't.
Have a precise goal
It turns out that plenty of meetings are done with no clear intentions. What will you have at the end of this half hour to consider the meeting a success? Simply having discussed a topic shouldn't be a goal. Did you create a first draft of ideas? Finalize a set of requirements? Obtained valuable feedback from important people?
Invite the right people
Only invite the people who have a valuable contribution to the meeting. I've been to plenty where attendees were too high up or down the totem pole to have any input. Inviting people simply to learn might be good, but I prefer to specifically state that it's optional. That means if they have higher priority tasks to do, or feel that the meeting is worthless, then they can opt not to go.
Have a rough schedule
Scheduling a meeting for 2-4 hours with just the title Discuss this? Bad idea. People can easily veer off topic, or lose sight of the end goal. I've attended plenty of meetings where hours were lost and nothing was accomplished. Having a schedule also ensures that all the objectives of the meeting are met, reducing the need for follow up meetings and emails. More importantly, it helps accurately estimate the time needed for a meeting. No need to book 2 hours if the topic can be discussed in 30 minutes. It might also be nice to note that people can't pay attention to your voice for that long.
It's also best that this schedule be sent out before the meeting, so participants can know what to expect and prepare if needed. There's nothing worse than having a crucial question at the meeting and having the response be, let me check and get back to you on that. If it's information that can easily be obtained beforehand, it should be ready at the meeting.
Take and send good notes
The Project Manager I worked with was great at this. She would take notes during the meeting, sometimes displaying those notes through out. Then, she would have meeting notes sent out within minutes after the meeting. This ensures that everybody is on the same page, if someone disagreed with her notes or had additional information, they could immediately see and respond.
Clearly state any action items
At the bottom of our meeting notes was always a list of action items, who was responsible for them, and when they were due. It reduced any confusion on what needed to be done and by whom. Don't end the meeting without reiterating these.
Maybe this all sounds like common sense, but they seem to be forgotten quite often. And for any newbies that have never had to organize a meeting before, I'd suggest to take these steps and look like you've got everything under control.