There’s a cliche that everyone in business knows, and that is this: Time is Money.
Sure, you make money for the time you put in at the office, but what it also means is that time has a monetary value attached to it, so time should be spent wisely, efficiently, and in a cost effective way.
Why am I talking about this in a post about meeting rooms? If you work in an office where a lot of meetings occur — and half of them now include someone joining over video — it may already be evident. Meetings consume time well beyond the meeting itself: the prep, the gathering and settling in, the connecting of devices and people. And that’s when it’s well organized. Here are a few reasons why having your meeting room technology up to date and always ready to go matters so much.
Enhancing the ability to communicate ideas and information
When nobody has to fight the room — hunting for the right cable, guessing at inputs, restarting a call — productivity and focus go up, and your staff communicates more effectively, which is the whole point of meeting in the first place. Your meeting room should accommodate a wide variety of personal devices without friction and be equipped with presentation technology people can trust.
Bringing in remote and hybrid team members
Hybrid work is no longer the exception — some of your most valuable people are on the other side of a Teams or Zoom call for most meetings. If the room can’t connect them so naturally that everyone forgets the distance — clear audio in both directions, a camera that frames the room, one-touch join — you’re losing time with those people and whatever ideas they would have brought to the table. The room is now half the meeting; the technology decides whether the remote half participates or just watches.
Reducing stress and complication because you can trust the tech
Ask your staff if they like attending meetings and you may hear hesitation, or groans. My hunch is that it’s because so much of the time gets spent doing things besides discussing the topic at hand. Your team sees the value of sharing ideas — what they resent is watching someone troubleshoot a display. When you have to huddle around a laptop or apologize to a client while the call reconnects, you’re killing the spirit of creativity and collaboration.
Making your team more effective and competitive
An efficient team is a more effective (and cost effective) team. A meeting room that just works lets your staff share ideas quickly and get back to their own responsibilities. Their work environment — meeting spaces included — should foster productivity, not hinder it. If your rooms are the reason meetings start late, we should talk.