When it comes time to book a meeting room for your next board meeting or other event, it might be time to start booking virtually. One of the biggest advantages of having virtual meeting rooms is that it provides meeting solutions for remote employees. According to the AARP, nearly 75% of older Americans said they would prefer greater work flexibility, with many requesting work from home as an option.
Working from home is probably the most common reason to book a meeting room with a virtual suite, and there are many advantages to hosting virtual meetings. No matter what your reason to book a meeting room might be, from connecting with remote employees to getting all the board members across the country (or globe) on the same page, here are some major benefits you should be aware of.
Extremely Cost Effective: Lets face it, office spaces cost a lot of money. Travel also costs a lot of money. Having a virtual meeting means that each person attending only needs a computer or mobile device and access to the internet. Rather than spend thousands of dollars on travel, hotels, and booking a meeting room at a physical location (not to mention the hundreds of hours wasted), go virtual. Most meetings can be handled virtually and do not require each person to physically attend.
Allows Global Connection: By nature of being virtual, the tech advancements we have made mean that people from all over the world can be connected in an instant. This is especially helpful for worldwide organizations, or for companies who do business overseas. Being able to have your supplier in China, your shipping agent in California, and yourself in your home state all in a virtual meeting together can be extremely valuable for effective communication.
Increases Productivity and Efficiency: This goes hand in hand with saving money. When it comes to being productive and efficient, much of the time it doesn’t make sense for everyone to spend hours driving through traffic or days riding on planes, just to attend a meeting together. Not only is the travel time consuming and inefficient, it often leaves people feeling drained and fatigued, meaning they aren’t at top performance come meeting time. Keep everyone fresh and vitalized by using virtual meetings to keep everyone in touch and make important business decisions.
Real Time Interaction: Unlike email or text messages, when you book a meeting room for a virtual meeting, everyone who is attending is able to speak and respond in real time. This makes it much easier for ideas to be communicated, problems to be discussed, and solutions agreed upon. Additionally, using webcams enables real-time video of each speaker to keep that human touch on the meeting and help everyone pay attention to what is being said. Desktop sharing software can even be used if a demo needs to be done, or to show a presentation, or to collaborate and give feedback on a project.
Access to New Opportunities: Hosting virtual meetings gives rise to opportunities that simply didn’t exist before. Having a hard time landing a meeting with an important client or potential partner? Get them on a web meeting. This is much more convenient for both of you as it requires no travel and can be done from a home or office setting. Additionally, hosting virtual meetings can increase the number of people who can attend because you are no longer worried about compensating flights and hotels for everyone in attendance.
Great Environmental Impact: As mentioned before, in person meetings require significant travel. This travel, of course, leads to extra emissions being released into the atmosphere and fuel being burned. By hosting virtual meetings, you are able to easily reduce your companies carbon footprint and help have a positive environmental impact.
As a technology company, we will be the first to tell you that virtual meetings are not a perfect solution for every situation. There will be some meetings where physical attendance is necessary or preferred. However, this will not be the case the majority of the time. Start thinking lean, figure out how to save time, money, and energy by utilizing virtual meetings in your organization.
