AgriDigital Town Hall Top Five Takeaways

In the week before Easter, the majority of our team landed in South Coast New South Wales for our first Town Hall for 2025. Before launching AgriDigital I’d never heard of “Town Halls” outside those imposing buildings in most local council areas where community matters used to be debated and decided. Inspired by the idea of community forum, today’s Town Halls are also company meetings which bring together single teams or even the entire company to engage, discuss, debate and decide.

Town Halls can be as varied as the companies that hold them. They can be virtual, in-person, or hybrid; they can be focussed on company announcements, strategic planning, product roadmapping, team bonding or all of the above and more. Sometimes they are called “All Hands” or even “Quarterly Reviews” - the name is somewhat irrelevant to the purpose: to create an event that brings employees together, to build a deeper understanding of the company and its objectives no matter your role.

At AgriDigital, we have experimented with different meeting formats, timing, length, location, agendas and team activities. Here’s our Top Five Takeaways gleaned from our most recent Town Hall but also the past few years' events.

1. Make the lead up count

Town Halls are not just about the two days or so that is spent literally in the Town Hall meeting, but also the communication and anticipation in the lead up. For remote or hybrid teams the opportunity to come together face-to-face happens only occasionally and is especially valued - so create build up and excitement. A few ideas that have worked for us include keeping the location a secret until the last week, but sending out location teasers like suggested packing lists or the weather forecast to keep the team guessing. We also sent out a pre-event info form to ensure that we had accounted for any food allergies and sensitivities and that where there is shared accommodation this is thoughtfully planned out and allows for any medical or diverse needs that may impact an employee’s comfort level.

2. Location matters

If budget allows, consider a “destination” Town Hall, or at the very least a change of environment. At different stages of our growth we have made this work through holding meetings at my family home, in one of our investor’s conference rooms, at the Sydney Start Up Hub, and recently we all went to Bundeena in the Royal National Park and based ourselves in a luxury Airbnb which meant we maximised our time together, which we knew from previous feedback would be highly valued by our remote-first workforce.

Pro-tip: put in the effort in to make any travel logistics hassle-free; this means everyone lands at Town Hall fresh, excited to see their colleagues, and ready to participate.

3. Share out the agenda

Put very simply, don’t have one person (CEO, Founder or whomever) present the majority of the agenda. There are a few reasons why this is generally not a good idea: (1) it puts a lot of pressure on one person to hold the room for a long time - most of us are not skilled enough to do this, (2) no matter the content, listening to one person speak for hours can be pretty boring, and (3) allowing a broad spectrum of the team to present, lead sessions and run activities both showcases and develops talent from within, and it enables a diversity of perspective, style and purpose to flourish.

At our most recent Town Hall, we had a clear purpose as a company to review our current year’s performance, to set out the broad company goals for the year ahead and to present draft team one-pagers to contribute to achieving those goals. Although our executive team had been involved in crafting the agenda and the planning of the presentations and activities, we were not always the best ones to present. Sharing out the agenda really amplified the team’s engagement on the day and ownership after the event.

4. Build trust & commitment through transparency

Everyone is happy to be transparent when things are going well, but the real test is when times are challenging or we have failed in some way. As hard as it can be to share the negatives or the unmet targets, it is crucial. At AgriDigital we are financially transparent with our team. Each quarter we report on actuals to budget, we discuss cashflow forecasting, we celebrate wins and we always look for how we can do better. Sharing the ups and the downs has created a bond and a respect amongst us all.

Town Halls are culture-building events and being transparent about the key financial, strategic and operational aspects of the business has really helped everyone be clear about the mission, make the hard decisions when needed and to trust each other.

5. Your best Town Hall is your next one

We just had a fantastic Town Hall, we were all on a high as we closed out our couple of days together, and the motivation and excitement was palpable for days afterwards. Within 48 hours, we had a feedback form out to understand what worked, what didn’t and how we can do better next time. The general feedback was that it was our best Town Hall yet! Following through on the ideas generated, action items agreed and responding to unanswered questions will be crucial to keeping energy and momentum in place and to build anticipation for our next Town Hall.

‍

At AgriDigital we have taken the Town Hall concept and shaped it into what works for us. I know now that what makes our Town Halls successful is making it all about our team. Our next Town Hall will be our best yet; we’ve got some great feedback to help us, so we will be prioritising more time for team activities and just “hanging out” together, we’ll allow for longer discussion at the end of each session and we’ll also try to ensure that the rainclouds stay away and the sun shines next time around!

‍