If you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur or simply have to organise meetings with your team, there is a lot to consider when choosing a meeting venue. You need to ensure the venue you hire provides the perfect space to conduct the meeting and represents your business. It needs to enhance the productiveness of the meeting. It needs to house the number of attendees comfortably. Here are 4 tips for choosing the perfect meeting venue.
Natural light
It is always recommended to assess the room yourself before booking. You need a space with plenty of natural light to generate bright ideas! Small business meeting rooms need to be fresh, inviting and have a substantial amount of natural light coming through too. If the room is too dark then your guests are going to find it increasingly difficult to concentrate. You need an environment whereby everyone is alert and focused. That’s why the decoration and amount of natural sun light is important.
Meet in Place’s 87 Nassau, New York. Photo: Tom Mannion
Size matters
You will need to make sure you find a venue boasting a meeting room which meets your capacity requirements. When dealing with a small group a lot of people think that any size venue will do. If it’s too big, then it doesn’t make a difference, right? Wrong! A big room can actually be very distracting for those in attendance, which is the last thing you need if your attendees are doing a business training course, like an online MSW program. Evidently you need to make sure your guests are comfortable, but too much space will be detrimental to the productivity of the meeting.
Think about layout
Aside from the points already mentioned, you also need to organise the room in a manner that makes your meeting productive. If you’re conducting a creative meeting you might opt for a relaxed, informal seating arrangement like sofas and easy chairs. When choosing seating arrangements you can opt for anything from a theatre layout to a classroom layout to a banquet layout to a u-shaped layout to a boardroom layout and more! A u-shaped style or boardroom setting tends to work the best when dealing with smaller groups. These layouts both ensure everybody is included and thus are the recommended options to consider.
Brand message
The room may be small but the feel of the entire venue should represent your brand message. The venue you select has an effect on your business’s reputation. Your guests will judge your company on the meeting that has taken place. If you have selected a smart, sophisticated and professional venue with a five star edge, then that will reflect on your business. However, if you select somewhere that is boring, basic and cheap looking, then this will reflect on your business too. Think about how you want your company to be viewed?
If you use this article as a guide then you should have no trouble finding the perfect meeting rooms for any small meeting you are hosting. Once you have picked a venue you must arrange the room in a manner that enhances productivity levels and makes everyone feel included.
Stay fabulous
Christine
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