Whether you need to book a meeting room to impress a client or provide space for an all-hands meeting when it’s the one time a year all of your employees come together, there are several pieces of advice you should follow to avoid making mistakes. Here are four tips for booking the perfect meeting room.
Pick the Right Location
Location is a critical key to a successful off-site meeting. Your ideal meeting space is centrally located to all the participants. It must be accessible to everyone, not tucked down a side street no one could find. You must have adequate and ideally free parking for everyone coming or easy access to public transit. If most of your attendees take public transit, you should give priority to any meeting place near a station such as the meeting rooms in Kings Cross. Once you understand the general area and proximity requirements, you can quickly narrow down the list of options.
Have a Realistic Expectation of Headcount and Space
Are you planning on an all-hands meeting for your team that includes remote workers and contractors who are rarely in the office? Rent a meeting space with room for everyone. If in doubt, round up because you’ll hurt morale if you try to crowd 200 people into space meant for 150.
Also read: Is A Well-Designed Office Space At The Heart Of Employee Engagement?
Also, give people enough space, especially if you’re trying to impress someone. Interviewing a prospective contractor or new hire in a cramped but upscale office gives them the wrong impression. Meeting a customer in a closet-sized meeting room suggests you either don’t care about their comfort or cannot afford to dedicate more to impress them. Now they’ll wonder what else you’re cutting corners on to save money.
If you cannot afford to rent the space as large as you’d like, then you can start considering scaling back the amenities or hold smaller departmental meetings over several days instead of having everyone in the company show up at once.
Consider the Amenities You Need – and Those You Don’t
When researching meeting rooms, list the essentials you must have versus the wants before you start vetting facilities. You want nice chairs but must have sufficient seating for everyone. You want the ability to cater the event without having to go through a third party. You need the right equipment to make your presentation. You want an executive chair and table to impress clients. Be certain that your needs are met before you start weeding out potential locations because they don’t have the extras you want.
Facilities
Sometimes, we need to rent a meeting space with more than just a large conference table and chairs. You may want to book a facility with affordable hotel room rates so your team can spend the night as part of a team-building exercise. Or, perhaps you need to rent a room for use for product demonstrations in addition to more private meeting rooms.
Conclusion
Choosing the right meeting room can make all the difference in a business setting. Make sure that you follow the tips outlined in this article if you want to pick the right conference room for your needs.
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It’s nice that you pointed out separating the wants from the needs when choosing conference rooms. It might be great to have free wifi and wagyu catering, but when you’re meeting with vegetarians to discuss and not to browse, what’s the use. It’s always more practical to be on the safe side instead of being a show-off in scouting for hotel venues.
It sure is helpful when you pointed out the importance of considering the amenities that you need in renting out the perfect conference center for your office like chairs and equipment for presentations. My boss is looking for a conference room to rent for a quick presentation for possible clients this coming weekend. He will be talking with executives, which is why we need top scale equipment and amenities for this meeting. I’ll be sure to look for a rental that can accommodate these needs.
That’s a good point that you would want to not have to pay for the amenities that you wouldn’t need. I wouldn’t want to have to pay for something like a [projector if I was just going there for something like a job interview. I’ll have to look for an option in my area that would have everything that I need and not a bunch of stuff I don’t need before I book it for a meeting.
I appreciate that you explained what to consider when renting a meeting room such as enough space if you are having a conference or the right equipment to make your presentation. I think in general that location is a must when looking to rent a meeting room. What you said about listing the essentials you must have versus the wants before you start vetting facilities was really interesting to me.
I am glad that your article mentions the importance of having a realistic expectation of who will show up to the meeting and how much space everyone will take up. My uncle is looking to book a conference room in the future in order to have an important meeting with several of the other key players in his restaurant business. I will be sure to inform him that it is additionally important to pick a good location that will be accessible to all who are attending.