You’re hosting a meeting in the dynamic city of Leeds, good choice! You’ve booked a meeting room venue, you’ve informed delegates of the date, time and location and you’ve even had the attendance replies back. You’re ready to go, right? Not quite.
Whilst you’re almost there you might want to consider the following points and ensure that they are implemented so that your meeting in Leeds is a phenomenal success, after all, when it comes to business, minor details speak volumes.
- Go on a site visit
You may have invested a lot of time researching meeting rooms in Leeds. You’ve looked at customer testimonials, you’ve spoken to the venue direct on the phone and are happy with their friendly and professional attitude and quite simply you’re sold by that particular venue.
However, you wouldn’t buy a house without visiting it first and a similar level of diligence should be taken when booking a meeting room.
Before you commit to a particular venue, book a site visit. When you visit the venue consider aspects such as the friendliness and efficiency of the staff, the amount of space in the car park for your delegates to park, the accessibility of the meeting room and whether there is anywhere to eat lunch, amongst other points.
Only when you are happy with every element of the meeting room should you take the plunge and commit to that particular venue.
- Visual stimulation
In its infographic on how different colours can boost productivity in an office, Entrepreneur notes how blue is universally known as a booster of productiveness, concentration and focus.
Whilst it might not be feasible to quickly paint a meeting room in Leeds blue, you might want to consider implementing some vibrant props and accessories into the meeting space, designed to encourage stimulation and concentration. For example, you might want to add some visual stimulation in the form of a predominantly blue poster on the wall of the meeting room, as they say, it’s the little differences…
- Let there be refreshments
According to the Royal College of Nursing’s (RNC) ‘Water UK’ paper, good hydration contributes to workers’ health and safety.
“Even mild levels of dehydration adversely affect both physical and mental performance,” writes the RCN.
One small but effective difference you can therefore make to your meeting room in Leeds is to make sure there is water available in the room and that attendees have regular breaks to rehydrate themselves and remain focused throughout the duration of the meeting.
- Cater for all dietary requirements
Continuing along the refreshments theme, if you are offering breakfast, lunch or dinner as part of your meeting package, make sure that the meals will cater for different dietary requirements. It might be a good idea to ask delegates whether they have any dietary requirements prior to the meeting to ensure the catering team will accommodate such requirements.
Failing to provide suitable refreshments for all of your attendees will not do your perceived professionalism any favours.
- Think like a director
Boring meetings conducted in drab surroundings is not conducive with a successful, buoyant gathering. According to Patrick Lencioni, author of ‘Death by Meeting’ and president of the management consulting firm, The Table Group, the cure for an uninspiring and unproductive meeting is for the presenter to think like a film director. Lencioni suggests replacing “agendas and decorum with passion and conflict,” in order to “engage people and give them something to care about.”
With this in mind, why not modify the layout and design of the meeting room so that it is excitingly resonant of a film set. Okay, maybe not, but again having visual stimulation and some effective audio-visual material present in the meeting, could be effective in stimulating your audience.
- Open the window
It might sound too obvious and trivial but you’d be surprised of the positive effect merely opening a window and letting fresh air circulate into a room can have during a meeting. Ample research proves that fresh air is a simple way to boost brain power and stay focused.
With this in mind, it is important to choose a meeting room in Leeds that has windows so not only will you and your attendees reap the many benefits of having natural daylight in the meeting room, but you will have the option to open the window and give the whole room a productivity boost.
- Seating
How comfortable are the seats you are expecting your delegates to sit on? If ‘not very’ is the answer, you may want to consider replacing the chairs with more comfortable alternatives, or, perhaps more easily, choosing a meeting room venue that already has comfortable seats.
As the Workplace Depot notes, “Not only can a comfortable chair increase concentration, it is also good for your health.”
Again, it’s the little differences that make a big difference to the effectiveness of your meeting.
If you are looking for a high-quality meeting room for hire in Leeds that pays exceptional attention to minor details and will cater for your individual circumstances and requirements, get in touch with Carrwood Park, a quality meeting room venue on the outskirts of Leeds.
