An effective agenda goes beyond start time, location, topics, and durations. Effective agendas do the following: support the meeting purpose, set the expectations of attendees as to what will be discussed, inform attendees of any preparation that will be required prior to the meeting, give the meeting leader a roadmap for driving the agenda, permit adequate time to cover each item, and allow the meeting leader to adjust the agenda easily if the meeting gets behind schedule. The meeting owner drives the agenda, not the other way around. There are times where you may have a concise meeting purpose and specific agenda items to address the meeting purpose, but the actual meeting deviates from the agenda.