The key is to plan for the board meeting, well in advance, and do board work in advance that doesn't need to be done in a meeting.

You only have the board members all together in a room for a few hours, and it doesn't happen often. Doing work in advance of the meeting protects the valuable meeting time for the most important strategic debates and decisions, rather than updates and admin and general questions.

Entrepreneur turned investor, Mark Suster, says this work starts with identifying the themes for the upcoming meeting: