Meeting Room Management

Michele Warg
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A company's meeting rooms are in constant demand, and the frequent use of these rooms by different teams can leave things messy and disorganized. Good management is essential to ensure everyone can hold their meetings with as little friction as possible while making things easier on the person doing the managing. From using technology for smooth booking to organizing the rooms themselves, here are a few ways you can manage meeting rooms for maximum efficiency.

Make Each Meeting Room Unique

Having multiple meeting rooms on hand is excellent for preventing conflict when two meeting organizers want the same time slot, but if managers and employees don't know the differences among the rooms, they may end up still booking an inadequate room for their needs. To avoid this, make the rooms easy to tell apart by giving them themes. A creative company could create nature-themed, ocean-themed and modern art-themed rooms, and other companies might use colors or formality levels to identify meeting rooms. Be sure to also give each room a memorable name instead of simply a number.

Use Technology for Your Meeting Room Calendar

Booking meeting rooms is one of the most complex and frustrating parts of meeting management, but programs such as YARooms, Get A Room and Outlook can help automate the booking process. Ensure all managers and workers who book meeting rooms know the ins and outs of your chosen platform to avoid any confusion and conflict.

Set Some Ground Rules

Just as you need to set ground rules for company meetings, you also need to create expectations when it comes to using the meeting rooms. Make a list of meeting room ground rules, and print them out to display them in every room. A few examples include starting every meeting within five minutes of the scheduled time, ensuring all meeting members have left the room by the end of the time slot, and picking up all papers and trash before leaving the room.

Announce Uses for Different Rooms

To accommodate unique needs, set aside a few meeting rooms for different purposes. For instance, leave one room out of the booking system to keep it as a first-come, first-serve space for important meetings that come up at the last minute. This is especially important if your company doesn't have any other spaces for accommodating informal meetings. You can also reserve smaller rooms for those lower on the management ladder.

Meetings are at the core of office culture, so meeting management can be a stressful task no matter how many meeting rooms you have available. For maximum efficiency, create unique identities for the rooms, use a software for booking meeting rooms, and ensure ground rules are known and followed. The result is better structure and a more organized meeting environment for everyone.


Photo courtesy of Adamr at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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