A successful, motivating project start is indispensable. That’s why experienced project directors invite their team members at the beginning of the project to a kick-off meeting.

A kick-off meeting is a meeting of all relevant project members which also marks the official start of the project or of a new, important project phase. On this occasion, the team members often meet for the very first time in person. This is particularly important in virtual or distributed teams, because the team members might not meet very often during the implementation phase. 

Usually, the kick-off meeting takes place after the project planning and before the implementation phase begins.