Quick Summary
This BNI Tech Talks session explores how to build and tailor a BNI+ meeting using the Meeting Agenda, slides, and scripts. Jeremy Walsh explains the difference between regional content—which provides the default meeting experience for every chapter—and chapter-level customization, including how chapters can show or hide regional slides, create editable copies for local use, add custom announcements, organize content, and use dynamic variables to display information such as chapter, member, and visitor details. The session also demonstrates chapter notes within the Meeting Script, explains the importance of avoiding unintended region-wide changes, and reinforces the value of previewing and testing every update before the next meeting. Q&A covers meeting-format variations, offline HTML and PDF backups, accessibility, slide-control options, recognition settings, visitor and substitute slides, and where to find BNI+ support.
Complete Summary
This BNI Tech Talks session, BNI+ 102: Agenda, Scripts & Slides, provides a practical walkthrough of the behind-the-scenes tools used to build and customize a BNI+ meeting. Jeremy Walsh explains that BNI+ uses a regional meeting agenda as the default foundation for every chapter in that region. Regional administrators can edit the slides and content that flow to all chapters, while chapters receive those slides as protected regional content. At the chapter level, users cannot alter the regional slide itself, but they can decide which available slides to use and can add their own local content where needed.
The session begins by reviewing access and responsibility. At the chapter level, the President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, and assigned support roles have full access by default; additional chapter members may also be assigned to help manage BNI+. At the regional level, access to the region-wide agenda aligns with full regional access in BNI Connect. The session emphasizes that regional users should be especially careful to confirm whether they are editing at the region or chapter level, since a regional change affects the default presentation used by every chapter in the region.
Jeremy demonstrates the Meeting Agenda, which organizes the meeting into sections such as open networking, visitor welcome, leadership introductions, core values, network education, and reports. The agenda provides a structured menu of available slides, allowing chapters to tailor their meeting flow without rebuilding the entire presentation. For example, a chapter that introduces its whole Leadership Team on one slide can hide the individual leadership-introduction slides it does not use. The eye icon beside each slide controls whether that slide is available during the meeting. Chapters can hide regional slides, but they cannot edit them; regions can remove slides from the shared default agenda entirely if they should not be available to chapters.
The presentation also addresses slide order and agenda organization. Sections can be moved using the available controls, although Jeremy cautions that this is easy to do accidentally and should be approached carefully because it changes the flow of the meeting. If a section unexpectedly appears in the wrong place, it may have been moved in the agenda. The session reinforces the value of maintaining a consistent meeting structure while using BNI+ flexibility thoughtfully for legitimate chapter needs.
A major focus is creating and editing chapter-level slides. Chapters can add a blank slide within the appropriate agenda section or copy an existing slide to create an editable local version. Copying an existing slide is useful when a chapter wants to retain the overall design but add its own message, graphics, or instructions—for example, a chapter social announcement or a reminder to submit announcements before the meeting. In the agenda, regional slides appear with a gray background, while the chapter’s editable copies appear with a white background. Chapters can rename their local slides, edit text, add images, resize elements, and reposition the slide within the applicable section.
The session explains how BNI+ variables make regional slides more useful and reusable. Variables are special placeholders that automatically insert relevant information, such as a chapter name, member name, visitor name, or regional statistics, when the meeting is delivered. Rather than creating separate versions of a slide for every chapter, a region can use variables so the same shared slide displays the correct information for each chapter. BNI+ includes roughly one hundred available variables across several categories, helping regions build a consistent agenda while still allowing the slides to be personalized automatically for each chapter.
Jeremy repeatedly stresses the importance of saving and testing changes. After modifying an agenda, slide, or script, users should return to the home screen and run a Test Meeting to confirm that the content appears where expected and looks correct in the actual meeting experience. The Test Meeting allows users to review the presentation and controller views before a live chapter meeting, helping catch hidden slides, incorrect placement, formatting issues, or unintended edits in advance.
The second major tool covered is the Meeting Script. During a live BNI+ meeting, attendees see the Presentation Screen while the person operating the Meeting Controller can see supporting scripts and instructions. These scripts are intended to guide the presenter through the meeting; they do not need to be read word for word, but they can provide useful prompts, role reminders, and process guidance for each section. The script functions much like speaker notes in a PowerPoint presentation.
Regional teams can manage the default scripts associated with their agenda content. At the chapter level, users cannot modify the regional script itself, but they can add their own chapter notes. Those chapter notes appear in the controller and can override the default script for that chapter, allowing the Leadership Team to add local instructions or reminders without changing the regional content. Variables can also be used in scripts, just as they can be used in slides. The session again warns regional administrators to verify that they are working in the correct context before editing, because an unintended regional script edit can affect every chapter in the region.
The Q&A expands on several practical situations. Chapters that meet online, in person, or in hybrid formats may need different versions of certain slides; regions should make the relevant content available, and individual chapters can disable the slides they do not need. If a chapter uses different presentation times for visitors or other meeting segments, it may need separate slides with the appropriate timer settings, since those controls cannot simply be changed once the meeting is underway. When a custom arrangement is required—such as recognizing a person with multiple functions or giving substitutes a separate acknowledgment—a chapter or region can often create an appropriate custom slide, although BNI policy still governs what substitutes and other participants should be asked to do during a meeting.
The session also revisits offline delivery options. BNI+ can generate an offline meeting in either HTML or PDF format. The HTML option is interactive and is generally the preferred backup when Internet service may be unreliable; the PDF option is a flat version of the presentation. Members can practice at any time by running a Test Meeting or using the Meeting Controller. For help with BNI+, users can access the Help Documentation through the question-mark menu in BNI+, submit a request to BNI Connect Support, or work with their regional team on rollout or configuration questions.
The session concludes with three central takeaways: understand the distinction between regional and chapter-level content, use local copies and chapter notes for chapter-specific customization, and always test changes before the meeting. The next BNI+ Tech Talks session will focus on what members see in BNI+, including profiles, roles, and shared responsibilities.
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