Internal meeting space needs to be considered in the same way that you would assess the suitability of external venues. It's one of the options on the table. And, used appropriately, it can save you money.
It is not unreasonable for business managers to think that an internal meeting is always going to be cheaper than an external one, or even that having fewer meetings will save the company money.
But it's not quite that simple; the meetings management industry would not exist at all if it was. Like anything — home working versus office working, train journeys versus plane journeys, city centre shops versus out-of-town retail centres — there are pros and cons on both sides. Despite this, more and more organisations are planning to use their internal space more to cut their costs.
But let's kick off with some good news.
1. People are having more meetings, because they work
The doom-mongers who predicted that virtual meeting technology would mark the end of the face-to-face meeting were wrong.
In America, the Convention Industry Council asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to investigate the effectiveness of meetings in the post-recession climate by comparing industry data from 2009 and 2012. The final report ('The Economic Significance of Meetings to the US Economy') makes impressive reading. In 2012, the number of meeting participants had increased by approximately 20 million, an incredible 1.8 million people were working in the meetings industry and the contribution that meetings made to the overall GDP was estimated at US$115 billion — a rise of nearly 9%.
In another study, the effectiveness of face-to-face meetings was investigated and the results are just as encouraging. The Meetology Group wanted to know whether the meeting environment made any difference to the meeting outcome. The researchers paired participants at the IMEX 2012 exhibition and asked them to develop solutions to a problem. Some were asked to collaborate via a video link, others by phone and the third group by working together at the same desk. The participants who had worked face-to-face won hands down, delivering more ideas, better ideas and a wider variety of ideas than those in the other two groups.
If anyone is in two minds about the format their meetings should take, the bottom line is that you need to get people together to yield the best results. And with that being the case, the money involved in making it happen looks like a price worth paying.
2. To be cost effective, meetings must be held in appropriate spaces
So you know you need to get your people together. The next question is, where?
Well, it depends on the type of meeting. Is it a board, team, strategy, team building or creative brainstorming meeting? They will all need a different kind of space to deliver the best results. If you book your board members into an art gallery and your creative thinkers into some windowless space in a budget hotel, they just won't get the job done — because you didn't provide the security and support required for a confidential meeting or the inspirational environment needed to light a creative fire.
So, money spent on the wrong kind of meeting space is wasted money.
3. Some internal meeting rooms are highly valuable meeting space
This might sound blindingly obvious. After all, if you are holding meetings in your meeting rooms then they are valuable to your company. But are they always? There are some points to consider that a meetings management company would gather about external venues.
- If you were renting out your meeting space, how would you describe it?
- How many people can you accommodate, sitting or standing, class room/cabaret/reception style?
- Does it have huge windows offering great views over the city?
- Or is the lighting controlled to create the best environment for all the audio visual equipment on offer?
- Are the chairs comfortable? Can the ambient temperature be controlled?
- Are the toilets nearby? How far is it from the staff canteen?
One of the most important data fields that the management company would be sure to fill is the cost. Now, if someone else was interested in renting the space you have described — your modern ground-floor room with free WiFi, sound-proof windows, ample parking and a trendy pub nearby — how much would you charge them?
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Sometimes the rooms in your office are a viable alternativeLet's say you have a 24sqm (4m x 6m) meeting room available that can comfortably accommodate 12 in a boardroom layout or 24 for a presentation. If you calculate this based on the published 'per square foot' office rental prices for achieved rents and no other considerations such as heating or lighting costs this would mean…
In London: According to the Q3 2015 figures for Central London reported by Bank Paribas Real Estate, 24sqm of office space would cost you just over £17,000 a year to rent in the City, or just short of £11,500 in Canary Wharf.
In regional UK: The same size space in Edinburgh would cost nearly £7,400 in Edinburgh or Bristol, £8,260 in Manchester or £5,680 in Cardiff (going by the Q3 2015 figures for regional office markets from commercial property agents Knight Frank).
If your 24sqm meeting room is being used regularly for training sessions, board meetings and team meetings with between 12 and 24 people each time, including attendees from different branches or other companies, you are using the space very well. It is not only valuable space, it's a wise investment.
4. Other internal meeting rooms are potentially valuable office space
If, on the other hand, your 24sqm meeting room is being used only occasionally to impress sales reps and visitors and you routinely spend out on travel, accommodation and external room hire for your 10 department heads to hold their monthly target setting meeting, then it could be argued that it's not so much a valuable space as an indulgence. Could it even be more useful to you as reclaimed workspace?
5. Internal meeting space needs to be considered alongside external options
We know, then, that people are more productive when they meet face to face, the meeting environment has to be matched with the meeting type and your internal meeting rooms are either a valuable asset or a waste of space, depending on how you're using them.
This all leads us to the inevitable conclusion that internal meeting space needs to be considered alongside the other external options during the planning stage, to ensure the right meetings are held in house.
Manage your space like a pro
Professional meetings management companies would usually take on this level of oversight (factoring internal meeting space into the available options) to preserve and protect their clients' budgets. If you have your own team taking care of external meetings and events, then their remit could be usefully extended to include your internal meeting space. After all you're paying for it. So make sure it pays.