As the seconds tick down to the top of the hour, a dozen or so feet start to assemble just below the privacy frosted glass of the meeting room door. You knew the risk you were taking when you lawlessly squatted in that conference room. The jig is up. It’s time to turn yourself in and return the room to its rightful owner. Squatting just isn’t worth the stress, not when you learn the right way to reserve conference rooms for your meetings.

Having conference room scheduling issues? Avoid double-bookings, delays and equipment blunders with these five tips, plus the right software to keep you connected.

The Root Cause of Conference Room Camping

When you share a common space, be it an apartment with roommates or an office environment, a limited number of conference rooms is bound to cause tension. Scheduling conflicts come from both a lack of available rooms and rooms that are poorly equipped for a wide variety of meeting types. And unless your rooms are configured for reservations, scheduling conflicts will continue to arise.

Lack of Available Meeting Space 

Busy offices are prone to having meeting space and room reservation issues, especially during peak times. There may be insufficient spaces available for multiple meetings to take place at once, or the rooms themselves may just be poorly utilized for the types of meetings they’re supporting. Many meetings are between just two to three people who would be better served in a huddle room rather than a large conference room built for 10.

Poorly Equipped Rooms

Are all your rooms equipped with functioning video conferencing and presentation equipment? If not, your teams may be camping in high-value rooms because they need access to the technology to help them do their work. Fumbling with DIY kit video and presentation solutions can leave your teams scrambling to get their meetings to work rather than discussing agenda items and recording action items. 

Conference Room Scheduling Calendar Integrations

An integrated conference room scheduling system gives your teams the ability to view meeting room availability, avoid double bookings, and book rooms by inviting them to your meetings just like you would any other meeting attendee. Here’s how it works:

 

 

Lifesize conference room systems integrate with Microsoft Exchange®, Office365® and Google Calendar™, making rooms reservable right from within your existing calendaring apps. In the room, the phone displays a running list of available time slots and will automatically prompt users to start the call as soon as members enter the room and the meeting begins.

5 Ways to Improve Your Meeting Room Booking Process

1. Configure Reservable Conference Room Equipment

Lifesize conference room systems can be configured for calendar integration by creating a room mailbox in Microsoft Exchange, Office 365 or G Suite™ and subscribing the conference room system to the mailbox. This ensures that your office’s meeting schedule is fully synced, helping you avoid any scheduling hiccups.

2. Create More Impromptu Meeting Spaces 

Add flexibility to your meeting culture by implementing impromptu meeting spaces throughout the office. Even something like a espresso bar countertop or a small sofa can be perfect for two people to go over a project or take a client video call.

3. Make Walk-in-Only Huddle Rooms

Create nonreservable huddle rooms designed for two to four people so your small teams can congregate and work without tying up your large conference rooms.

4. Cooperate with Your Peers

Are you using the meeting room to practice a presentation while seven other team members need it for a client? If so, try to be flexible. If you can give the meeting room to something more urgent, do it. They’ll be more likely to return the favor in the future.

5. Use a Meeting Agenda to Keep Meetings on Time

When your meeting runs overtime, it can cut into the next group’s call time — which could cost them that new client they have been trying to get on a call. Check out our guide on how to create a meeting agenda that works (complete with a free meeting agenda template).

Learn how to design, set up and deploy the perfect meeting room based on your unique needs.

How Evolution Gaming Made Meetings Easy with Lifesize

Conference room scheduling issues are common in businesses everywhere. Here’s how one business, Evolution Gaming, was able to create a streamlined booking and scheduling system with Lifesize.

Challenge:

With over 250 employees in office spaces across the world, plus satellite studios and teams throughout Europe, Evolution Gaming needed a quick and simple collaboration and meeting scheduling solution.

Solution:

Evolution Gaming worked with Lifesize on a video conferencing solution to schedule meetings and conduct calls via room video systems and mobile attendees.


“We might be a technical company, but we needed a solution to suit everyone. All users have to do now is enter a username and password and click on a name or a meeting room. Each employee can access or host a meeting from their own computer or phone, at any time — it’s that simple.” 

— Alex Haywood, Head of Infrastructure, Evolution Gaming


The company is now using Lifesize video conferencing to host brainstorm sessions; facilitate ad-hoc, day-to-day and weekly communications; and conduct interviews and pitches. Users are able to share their screens, present documents and use instant chat functions, and the company is able to showcase upcoming products and plans with licensees across the globe. 

Conclusion

Conference room scheduling and video call booking issues can cause major delays in your business. Everyone in your company — in-office or abroad — will benefit from a streamlined system. Avoid common conference room scheduling blunders with a convenient conference room booking system from Lifesize.