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How to select the right meeting room - 5 questions you need to ask

26/03/2019

Your signature may say you’re the Executive Assistant but you’re wondering whether it should simply say Meeting Booker!  Event organiser is not detailed in your job description but organising meetings and booking meeting rooms is an important part of your role and you need to get it right! 

Some of the best venue sourcing sites include business tourism promotion sites such as Meet in Ireland, local convention bureau sites like Dublin Convention Bureau, and meeting and venue booking platforms such as Meetingsbooker and Cvent.  But once you have found what looks like the ideal meeting room, there are some key questions you need to consider before booking. 

Questions to help you select the right meeting room

The most important considerations when hiring meeting space is the number of participants, expected meeting duration and, crucially, why the meeting is happening in the first place. Assuming you have been given this information, we have outlined 5 questions you need to ask when selecting the venue. 

1. Does the meeting room have daylight?

Many meeting venues have great meeting rooms but little or no access to daylight!  Make sure to check when selecting your meeting room as research conducted by Mirjam Münch PhD and others dramatically demonstrates that meeting rooms without daylight are not very productive places to work. Without natural daylight we tend to zone out and nod off!
 

2. Does the meeting room have built-in AV?

Many meeting rooms come fitted with AV but be sure to ask what connectivity is available for getting presentations on screen. Smaller rooms will have LED or plasma screens, but you need to know how the presenter’s laptop gets connected to them. HDMI is great but some meeting rooms have wireless solutions which can be even better. Our All Star Suites, for example, all offer seamless connectivity.
 

3. Does the meeting room have easy access to bathrooms and catering?

Find out where the loos are and, if you have a choice, ensure your meeting room is close, but not too close. If you are organising breakfast or lunch, ask where the kitchens are and take note of how far the food might have to travel before it’s presented. Distance is important to guarantee food is served at the correct temperature.
 

4. Does the meeting room have whiteboards, easels and flip charts?

If you’re organising a brainstorming meeting then you’ll want your meeting room to come with tools like whiteboards, blackboards, easels and flipcharts. Be sure to specify the post-it type flipchart paper that can be stuck around the perimeter of the meeting room – it’s great for meetings where you need to be creative and with self-adhesive sheets you don’t need Blue tac!
 

5. Does the meeting room have WiFi and, if so, what are the speeds?

Don’t assume that because it’s 2019 the meeting room you’re hiring has high speed WiFi. Strange as it may seem, some venues still have blind spots so when you’re trying to show that hilarious YouTube video, it’s simply not going to fire. Ask the venue about WiFi but go a step further and ask about upload and download speeds and find out, on average, how many devices can be connected simultaneously – rule of thumb now is to allow 3 devices per person!
 
So, there you have 5 important questions to ask when renting space for your next meeting. Croke Park Meetings & Events ticks those boxes with over 90 meeting rooms all offering natural daylight of various sizes and suitable for all configurations.

Call us on +353 1 819 2300 or email [email protected] if we can assist you with your next meeting or event in Dublin.