The Blog on Meeting Room Management

Picture this: You prepared all week for an important meeting on Thursday afternoon. Clients have come in from out of town to attend. Partners from across the city will also be joining. In addition to the amount of time you’ve spent preparing the presentation, you spent hours searching for the right room to accommodate the number of people and technical needs, ordered catering so food arrives at the right time, and coordinated with the front desk staff each time there is a change to the guest list.

Boston-based law firm Burns & Levinson is comprised of 125 attorneys who focus on a number of core practices and specialties. The firm was founded in 1960 on the principle of being accessible and responsive to clients. This client-centric commitment to service means attorneys serve as advisors, legal counsel, and business strategists and are available to offer personal attention from senior partners on down.

Workers worldwide report that they spend more time preparing for meeting than they do attending them. So when you walk into that meeting room, you had better be ready.

Operations managers know—one of the biggest expenses associated with keeping a business running is the cost of office space. 

And with the increasing mobility and flexibility of the workforce as well as rising rent prices, it’s getting harder yet more important than ever to understand and drive down the cost of utilization. 

So without further ado, let’s delve right into the true cost of poor office space utilization as well as the key metrics to track to boost utilization and improve the ROI of office space. 

Meetings: the necessary evil of every business. We need them, they’re not going anywhere, yet office employees site them as the number one waste of time throughout their week and biggest hindrance to productivity. Eliminating the many tedious tasks associated with every meeting—such as finding and booking rooms, reserving technology, ordering catering, and dealing with guests—is a first and tremendously important step in saving time, boosting productivity, and improving employee morale when it comes to meetings.

Humans are a curious bunch. Throughout our storied history, we’ve often modeled our behavior off doctrines for decades, if not centuries, before questioning why or setting out to disprove them. These myths and superstitions have led to what today we would consider ridiculous behavior or foolish beliefs; like avoiding cracks in the sidewalk, not handling toads so as not to get warts, or imbibing in the hair of the dog (both literally to heal that dog bite or figuratively to heal that hangover). 

The meeting challenge: We say it so often it, it should be one of our taglines: without a meeting management solution, a one-hour meeting is never just a one-hour meeting. Meetings are a constant source of wasted resources and frustrated office workers. In fact, according to recent research, meetings are considered the No. 1 time-waster at the office. 

The following post is a guest post from GetVoIP

Running efficient meetings is an essential part of running an efficient business.

In the modern workplace, with workplace flexibility and remote workers, scheduling and executing meetings has become more complex. However, it's still possible to conduct meetings effectively by following best practices such as:

• Using a detailed agenda

• Provide necessary preparation materials ahead of the meeting

• Designate a meeting facilitator to provide structure

• Focus on task completion rather than timeframes

• Implement some sort of follow-up mechanism to review meeting takeaways

GetVoIP has put together an infographic that shares these tips, plus specific meeting strategies from some of the most successful leaders from around the world.