[Tomte]

The other way around: get the facts on the table beforehand. Written, so that everyone knows what it's about.

Then do the negotiation and decision face-to-face.

Otherwise your face-to-face talk is just everyone waiting for their turn, trying to remember which points they still need to reply to, and nobody listens to anybody else.

[necovek]

Sure, face-to-face without any prep is only acceptable for one-on-one talks (depending on the type of conversation, maybe a small number of people too).

Having a clear goal (that everybody knows) for any discussion involving multiple people is a must, definitely.