Purpose of first meeting

Here’s a list of the things it would be ideal to do in the first meeting.

1. Explain a bit (only a bit) about the project. This need only be as much as the flyer, unless the person shows greater interest and asks more questions.
2. Explain the role of designers in GeM, and our quest for practical knowledge of how document design is done in the person’s publication, as opposed to purely theoretical perspectives.
3. Explain why we chose that person’s publication: we are looking for a spread of publications that are generally thought of to be ‘good’. Explain that we thought their publication was innovative/striking/a good example of its type.
4. Ask for preliminary thoughts on the design of their publication. Ask permission, and then make notes.
5. Acknowledge this contribution, and ask if they would be willing to speak further as questions arise in the research. Ask if there is anyone else closely involved in the design process that it would be relevant to speak to on another occasion, or in another branch of the company that deals with publications within our grid. Don’t waste time on publications outside our grid. Ask what the relationship is between paper and electronic information in the company, and whether it will be possible to talk to the electronic designer about the relationship between the two. Get their names, and ask if it will be OK to contact these other people for a meeting.
6. Explain that we are designing a corpus that is to be held on – line, examples from which will be used in academic publications about the research. Ask if it will be possible to get some electronic examples of the publication, or to photograph the publication and/or scan it in, to use in our corpus. Explain that we believe that this constitutes ‘fair dealing’ under the copyright act. If the answer appears to be positive, ask who we can contact with a comlete explanation of what we plan to use the corpus for, to request a formal permission letter from the company.
7. Forward a write-up of the conclusions of the meeting, including any names and addresses, to the Project Manager. Email the project manager with who you saw, what company, and what date.