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Unused meeting rooms are costing organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars on average each year, but there’s a simple way to avoid burning a hole in your budget. Meeting room booking displays let employees check in, and automatically frees up unused rooms for others to use.

Looking to find out more about our meeting room booking display system? You might find the answer to your questions in our database, and you should always feel free to contact us with any questions you can"t find the answer for.

Your Pronestor conference room scheduling displays can be integrated with your Exchange environment so meetings are shown on the meeting room panels. This is done with a service account that has the right application impersonation in Exchange.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Besides that Roombelt offers high level of design customization (via custom CSS), which we appreciate a lot because of our high branding demands. But the best thing is support - fast, friendly and always willing to help and solve the problem.

It is simple to setup and use and just works. It looks great and the support by the team has been above what I would expect from IT service providers. They really went the extra mile for us and I have been a happy client ever since!

Roombelt is the perfect solution for our meeting room scheduling needs at RegioHelden. It perfectly integrates with Google Workspace and follows the "do one thing and do it well" principle. No desk booking or other feature that we wouldn"t use but had to pay for.

Additionally Mateusz always listens to his customers and is usually super responsive and fast if issues arise. Great tool, great team. Happy to be their customer for many years!

We have used Roombelt for over 1 year now and haven"t had any issues with it. It just works. Every morning the meeting display has just been available.

This special view shows all current and upcoming meetings on a single screen. Put it on a TV in your lobby or kitchen and help employees and visitors find the right conference room.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Teem"s room scheduling software integrates easily with iPads, Android, and Crestron room scheduling displays for user-friendly reservations. Employees can quickly see a meeting room"s availability, capacity, and equipment. And they can reserve it with one tap.

Get rid of analog conference room displays that need to be updated constantly. Teem conference room scheduling software shows real-time availability at a glance. Employees can make reservations right from the meeting room display, making it easy to schedule a room on the fly while encouraging spontaneous collaboration.

What if there was a way to almost entirely eliminate complaints about meeting rooms not being available when they’re needed? Teem conference room scheduling displays can help you put an end to scheduling headaches and keep meetings on track.

Teem meeting room display app themes for iPads are customizable so they match your brand and company culture. Choose from a dozen standard themes, then add your own background image to personalize each room display. All of our themes offer a clean, user-friendly interface that connects with your office atmosphere.

Employees can also book a room from their desktop or mobile device, thanks to seamless integration with popular calendar and email systems such as Exchange, Office 365/Outlook, and Google apps. While other conference room scheduling solutions require extensive work to integrate with systems like Exchange, ours is simple.

Forgotten reservations waste valuable real estate and frustrate employees who need the space. And when those reservations are recurring, your conference rooms could be sitting empty week after week before someone notices. Teem"s room scheduling displays have a check-in feature designed to banish ghost and recurring "zombie" meetings.

Having an interactive conference room schedule display means meetings can also be ended early. With a simple tap on the display, the reservation is ended and the room becomes available to other employees who need it. Integration with room sensors or beacons is also possible, which allows the meeting room display to automatically take action related to occupancy.

What if the room someone wants to reserve is already occupied? Employees can use meeting room displays from Teem to find out which other rooms are available, without walking around from room to room, then book an available space anywhere – right from the display they’re currently viewing.

We’ve all been there. Something in the meeting room didn’t work during your presentation, whether it was the TV screen or the videoconferencing service. With our Work Requests feature, report those issues right away from the conference room display, so IT knows what’s on the fritz. Things don’t get fixed if no one knows they’re broken.

Want to remind employees to sanitize their smartphones, celebrate big wins, or let employees know about an upcoming event? Why send an email when you can share the news through conference room digital signage?

Being more energy efficient both reduces office overhead and adds to your organization’s sustainability efforts. As an administrator, you can easily set operating hours for your meeting room displays, allowing them to automatically dim or turn off outside of regular business hours.

Turn your floor plans into interactive, isometric maps that appear on your conference room displays. Available spaces show up as green, while booked spaces are red. Employees can tap on a meeting room to see its capacity and equipment. (Currently for Apple only.)

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Customize meeting controls that match your workflow. Company-wide or room-by-room, decide which rooms need more privacy, check-in requirements, or impromptu meetings.You can also:Set smart work hours: Display screens dim during hours no one is around.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Our solution needs a tablet in the entrance area and nfc tags for the employees. You’ll have the data available in the cloud in case the tablet cannot be evacuated. Administrators can set up the look of the welcome screen and configure all the email notifications.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Yealink RoomPanel is an 8 inch all-in-one meeting room schedule panel runs android 9.0 and comes with full RGB programmable LED background illumination for immediate visible communication of room status. It includes 10-point touch capability, 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, built-in NFC/RFID reader, enhanced microphone arrays and speakers to meet all modern workspace demands. Also equipped with Power-over-Ethernet and a variety of mounting brackets, Yealink RoomPanel could be easily mounted on any surface

High Visibility LED Bars out Room Status: Full RGB LED bars for immediate all-round visible communication of room status. Environment self-adaptation. Automatically adjust the screen brightness and automatically wake up the screen.

Flexible Connectivity Options - WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, RFIC & NFC: Support wireless network deployment and anti-jamming dual-band Wi-Fi. Directly connect to room sensors without extra gateways and support proximity features. Enhance ID authorization security and track meeting attendees.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

When the time comes, those people who had the room booked find out that they didn"t really need it. They don"t really go at all. This means the meeting sits completely empty. Even though other people may need to use it, they don"t know if it is available or if there is a way to confirm it.

A guest comes to visit without beforehand noticing, a small meeting room was empty, but there is no way to check on the spot if there will be a meeting soon. Embarrassment might come if a bunch of people walks into the room when you are in the middle of a conversation with the guest.

SyncSign can seamlessly integrate SignSign Display with your existing calendar system (Microsoft Office 365, Google Calendar/G-Suite, or MS Exchange), and synchronizes the room schedule to be displayed on the conference room sign. When you create ameetingevent in calendar software (e.g. Outlook), the meeting information will automatically be displayed on the appropriate conference room sign.

The room sign shows the current and upcoming events, everyone in front of the sign knows who will be using the room during which period of time— making things in order in a silent way.

John is the IT manager of their company. He wants to display the reservation status of his company’s three meeting rooms on a digital sign to ensure that the reservation information of the meeting room can be displayed, so as to improve the efficiency and utilization of the meeting room. The status quo is they paste a paper on the door to show the room schedule, which is not only inefficient, unproductive, but also not environmentally friendly.

A single IoT Hub can manage up to 16 Displays. These 3 meeting rooms are no more than 40 meters from each other, thus one Hub can manage all these 3 Displays.

Basic plan is free.The advantage of Cloud-hosted software is that the setup is simple and fast. With just a few steps via the SyncSign App/Web Portal, then they are all set!

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Take control of your meeting room scheduling by using your existing calendar systems and improve and streamline your work-flow. Make an impact on employees and visitors with our sleek meeting room displays and way-finding solutions installed in your office locations.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Purchasing an extended warrantyTerms and conditions apply. Not available in all countries. Contact your reseller. offers security and peace of mind that comes with knowing your Logitech video collaboration room systems and devices are protected against defects for up to five years from the purchase date. Extended warranties are available for either one year or three years beyond the original Logitech manufacturer’s two-year warranty.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

A few companies have innovated on this practice, replacing the post-it note with a proper sign-up sheet that lists out all of the available time slots. Some have even gone so far as to attach a pen and string to the schedule, making the sign-up process that much more convenient.

While both of these methods do a decent job of letting people know when the meeting room is booked, neither is fool-proof. If a meeting is canceled, for instance, a schedule that’s been printed on paper is not going to automatically update itself. And in the off-chance that someone actually remembers to cross out their booking, it’s unlikely that the people who are next in line for the conference room would notice.

Formerly EventBoard, Teem is everything you need in a conference room schedule display solution and much, much more. In addition to providing a centralized dashboard, Teem also provides a LobbyConnect Visitor Management System and a feature called Flightboard which—just like an airport flight monitor—allows you to check the status of all of your company’s conference rooms in one glance.

Oh, and it also integrates with just about every program imaginable (Office 365, Exchange Google Apps For Work, Slack, HipChat, etc) and provides detailed analytics that will help you plan your meetings better.

By introducing Bluetooth Beacons into your workplace, you can easily keep track of who’s in which room. It may seem a little Orwellian at first, but it makes booking conference rooms a breeze.

Basically, all you have to do to book a conference room is walk into it. The Beacon will detect your presence and then update the system automatically. A simpler solution is difficult to imagine.

Steelcase isn’t just a furniture manufacturer. They also produce meeting room software too. So if you’re renovating your conference room and want new furniture and a fancy conference room schedule display, you’ll only have to make one phone call.

Workscape uses smart sensors that can detect whether or not your meeting room is empty or full. If your meeting is canceled at the last minute, there’s no need to update the schedule manually. The smart sensors will detect that no one is in the room and update the schedule automatically.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Today’s workplace comes in all shapes and sizes, and it’s never been more important to keep it organized. Reserve meeting rooms with wireless meeting room schedulers. Share and book desks, reserve assets and do the visitor management in a smooth, delightful, and functional way. Joan will help you create a collaborative workplace your team will simply love.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Microsoft Teams Rooms is Microsoft"s conferencing solution designed to transform your meeting room into a rich, collaborative experience. Users will enjoy its familiar Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business interface and IT administrators will appreciate an easily deployed and managed Windows 10 Teams Rooms app. Microsoft Teams Rooms is designed to leverage existing equipment for ease of installation to bring Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business into your meeting room.

To collect logs in Teams admin center, go to Teams devices > Teams Rooms on Windows. Select the display name of the device you want logs for. In the top panel, select "Download device logs." Once you confirm, the logs will be ready for download in the History tab after a few minutes.

You can also use PowerShell to collect logs. You must invoke the log collection script that ships with the Microsoft Teams Rooms app. In Admin mode, start an elevated command prompt, and issue the following command:

Downloaded logs on the device can take up disk space. If logs are not regularly cleaned up, they can interfere with the normal functionality of the room. Teams Rooms deletes downloaded logs after 30 days. IT admins can override the log clean up using the device registry setting.

If you desire a front of room display to automatically switch to Teams Rooms when it wakes from standby mode, certain conditions must be met. This feature is optional but supported by Microsoft Teams Rooms software, provided underlying hardware supports the feature. A consumer TV used as a front of room display needs to support the Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) feature of HDMI. Depending on the dock or console selected (which might not support CEC, refer to manufacturer support documentation), a controller such as an HD-RX-201-C-E from Crestron or Extron HD CTL 100 from Extron may be needed to enable the desired behavior.

If Microsoft Teams Rooms isn"t running well, performing a factory reset might help. To do this, use the Microsoft Teams Rooms recovery tool and follow the factory restore instructions.

There is a known issue where the Microsoft Teams Rooms can become unusable if the Keep my files - Removes Apps and settings, but keeps your personal files option is selected during the Windows Reset process. Do not use this option.

Domain-joining Teams Rooms enables you to grant domain users and groups administrative rights. By doing so, you will not have to remember the local machine level administrator account password.

When you join Teams Rooms to a domain, it is required that you create a separate Organizational Unit (OU), so that you can provide Group Policy Object (GPO) exclusions to the OU where all Teams Rooms objects reside. Disable all GPO inheritance so that unsupported Group Policy settings do not get applied to Teams Rooms. Create machine objects in the OU before joining Teams Rooms to the domain to assure that Group Policies applied to the default computers OU are not applied.

Even if you create a separate OU and block inheritance, there are some group policies which could cause issues if they have No Override set. A Group Policy with No Override set beats an OU with Block Policy Inheritance set.

Or equivalent means of disabling password expiration on the local account. Failure to do this will eventually cause the Skype account to fail logon complaining about an expired password. Note that this impacts all local accounts on the machine, and thus failure to set this will also cause the administrative account on the box to eventually expire as well.

When Microsoft Teams Rooms is compatible with the next version of Windows 10 OS, Teams Rooms automatically updates to the next version through Windows Update. Microsoft Teams Rooms should not be upgraded to the next release of Windows 10 manually or via enabling Windows Update for Business (WUFB) group policies “Select the Windows readiness level for the updates you want to receive” and "Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received" through GPO. Teams Rooms with these group policies enabled is known to run into issues with Windows 10 OS updates.

This functionality is off by default. You need to enable remote PowerShell for your environment on the Microsoft Teams Rooms system to perform the operations below. Refer to the documentation on

Open the Local Security Policy and add the Administrators security group to Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Access this computer from the network.

invoke-command { $package = get-appxpackage -User Skype -Name Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem; if ($package -eq $null) {Write-host "SkypeRoomSystems not installed."} else {write-host "SkypeRoomSystem Version : " $package.Version}; $process = Get-Process -Name "Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; if ($process -eq $null) {write-host "App not running."} else {$process | format-list StartTime,Responding}} -ComputerName

By default, Microsoft Teams Rooms connects to Windows Update to retrieve operating system and USB peripheral device firmware updates, and installs them outside of configured business hours. You can configure business hours by signing into the administrator account and running the Settings app.

If you want to manage updates manually, and are unable to follow the normal procedure for Microsoft Store for Business to Distribute offline apps, you can acquire and run the latest MTR-Update script from Manually update a Microsoft Teams Rooms device.

By default, Microsoft Teams Rooms attempts to connect to the Windows Store to get the latest version of Microsoft Teams Rooms software. Therefore, Teams Rooms requires regular internet access. Before contacting Microsoft with support issues, be sure Microsoft Teams Rooms is loaded with the latest version of the app.

Enter the Administrator password. The Setup screen will appear. If the device isn"t domain-joined, the local administrative account (username "Admin") will be used by default. The default password for this account is "sfb". Change this password as soon as possible. If the machine is domain-joined, you can sign in with an appropriately privileged domain account.

The console restarts into its normal operation mode, running the Microsoft Teams Rooms app. You can remove the keyboard, if you attached one to complete this procedure.

Meeting invitations might not appear when sent across domain boundaries (for example, between two companies). In such cases, IT admins should decide whether to allow external users to schedule a meeting. See the article for the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet Set-CalendarProcessing, specifically the "ProcessExternalMeetingMessages" parameter.

In the event that a mirror image is displayed in room preview, the IT admin can correct by cycling camera power or flipping the image orientation using the camera settings.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Microsoft Teams panels are the compact touchscreen devices that are mounted right outside of your meeting spaces, typically next to entrances. Teams panels provide you the ability to view location and meeting details at a glance—and reserve an available meeting space on the spot. With rich, large text and color-coded indicators, you can see the meeting space’s availability from a distance.

Teams panels are dedicated Microsoft Teams devices that display meeting details scheduled via Teams or Outlook 365 calendaring applications. With meeting details prominently displayed, attendees can confirm they’re in the right meeting space, at the right time, and for the right meeting.

Dedicated display of meeting space and meeting details. You get at-a-glance details about a meeting space, including its location and availability. For a reserved meeting space, you can see key meeting details, such as meeting title, meeting schedule, and meeting organizer.

Reserve available meeting spaces for ad hoc meetings. Using the touchscreen panel, you can reserve an available meeting space on the spot for an ad hoc meeting, and join that Teams meeting from the in-room Microsoft Teams Rooms or Surface Hub devices.

Color-coded indicators for space availability status. You can see meeting space availability from afar and up close with vibrant LED and Home screen indicators. Green indicates that the meeting space is available, and if necessary, you can reserve it right from the panels itself. Red or purple indicates that the meeting space is reserved.

Customize wallpaper and reserved state indicator. Admins can change the default look of the panels through settings. For example, admins can change the background wallpaper, or change the color of the busy state indicator.

The hardware, software, and network requirements to deploy panels devices may differ depending on which type of panels devices you"re deploying. Refer to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) documentation to know what"s required for your set of devices.

If you already have Microsoft Teams Rooms deployed in the meeting space where you"re installing Teams panels, then you don"t need an additional license to use Teams panels.

If you"re involved in planning, deploying, and managing Teams panels devices, then this section is for you. This section isn"t intended for the end users of Teams panels.

Meeting space inventory and capability planning: Create an inventory of your organization’s sites and meeting spaces for deploying Teams panels devices.

Take an inventory of the existing bookable meeting spaces in your organization. Identify the sites and meeting spaces that are in scope for deploying Teams panels. Work with your facilities and audio-visual teams to determine where and how to install the Teams panels devices, and if any additional hardware is needed for mounting the panels.

Based on the number of meeting spaces that are in scope for deploying Teams panels, procure the devices from one of the partners certified for Teams panels. Visit the partners’ websites to learn more about the devices and procurement options.

Meeting spaces in your organization may have different hardware requirements for installing or mounting the devices. For example, hardware required for mounting the device on a glass, plaster, drywall, or wood paneling may not be the same. Refer to the device partner"s documentation for available mounting options.

While the ordered devices are being delivered to your organization, work with your networking, facilities, and audio-visual teams to make sure that deployment requirements are met and each site and meeting space is ready in terms of power and networking.

Power supply (Panels generally support Power over ethernet plus (PoE+) for power. Refer to the OEM documentation for any device-specific power requirements.)

Every Teams panels device requires a Microsoft 365 room resource account. You use the resource account credentials to sign in to Microsoft Teams app on the panels device.

If you already have a room resource account set up for the meeting space where you"re installing panels, use the same room resource account to sign in to the panels device. However, make sure that the room resource account has a Microsoft Teams Rooms license assigned to it in order to use it as panels resource account.

If you already have a Microsoft Teams Rooms deployed in the meeting space where you"re installing Teams panels, you don"t need to purchase a separate license for deploying panels. The admin signs in to the panels device with the same credentials as the Microsoft Teams Rooms for the same space.

For large meeting spaces, such as board rooms or conference rooms, with multiple entrances, you can mount one panels device at each entrance. Multiple panels that belong to a single meeting space share the same resource account and sign in with the same credentials. You don"t need to create separate resource accounts for each panels for the same space.

Consider using naming conventions for the Teams panels resource account. Make the display names for your Microsoft 365 resource accounts descriptive and easy to understand. These are the names that users will see when they search meeting spaces while scheduling meetings in Outlook or Teams calendars.

After you"ve deployed panels, you should test them. Check that the features supported by Teams panels are working on the deployed device. Try creating several meetings for various time slots via Teams or Outlook 365 on your computer. Check if the panels correctly display the meeting details and availability for the scheduled meetings. Try using the Reserve button to check if you can reserve an available meeting space directly from the device.

To manage your Teams panels devices, in the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Teams Devices > Panels. From here, you can change the device configuration profile, manage updates, restart devices, add and remove device tags, and more. For more information, see Manage your devices in Teams.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

Nowadays business owners tend to use tablets outside meeting halls since they allow workers to quickly check if the room is available, and book space for meetings at a specific time. Tablets allow for easier spotting of the place availability since it is possible to set up colored visual signs that employees can spot from afar. This helps workers to reduce the amount of time they spend searching for a vacant meeting space.

Moreover, the variety of apps available for display equipment allow for easy preliminary scheduling of conference rooms. In such a manner, company chief executives can set up a strict schedule for accommodation usage. Generally speaking, a wall-mounted monitor tablet is a highly versatile meeting room management tool.

A great many devices are available, and that is why finding the best option for meeting space monitoring may turn out to be a difficult task. Companies have different meeting policies and budgets available for purchasing hardware. The given article aims to provide insights into the best tablets that may fit the needs of most companies.

Third-party product support. There are many efficient mount add-ons for iPads, that enhance their display capabilities. For example, one may purchase a LED light mount that connects to the tablet and synchronizes its color with the color on the screen. This helps workers to quickly spot whether the meeting room is available.

It is also worth mentioning that one should take precautionary measures to avoid battery swells on an iPad. The touchpanels are not intended for being constantly plugged in. Using smart plugs is advisable, in order to avoid damaging the iPad.

Devices of this brand are the best option for large companies, or business owners, who want to equip their headquarters with commercial-grade hardware solutions. Crestron produces high-quality tabs specifically for room scheduling, availability indication, and other office work-related purposes. Crestron"s products are of high price tier and thus require major investment. Prices for those panels start from $1300. But the price is definitely worth it since Crestron offers its customers a full-scale dashboard for business.

Crestron-developed tablets are enterprise-grade, thus offering a vast functionality for all sorts of office-related tasks, conference room booking in particular. To sum it up, those are the main reasons to choose Crestron devices for your office:

Specialized software. Crestron touch panels are highly focused on office scheduling. It supports a lot of apps for enterprise labor. For example, it is possible to set up a calendar for future meetings and events.

Smart power usage. Crestron panels are powered by Power-over-Ethernet technology, which ensures a stable internet connection and prevents battery swell.

In terms of workspace scheduling, Crestron also provides separate indicators for office availability. Those are mounted on walls and connected to the touchpad for further management. The text on the indicators can be manually customized.

Technical support. Samsung"s specialists offer a variety of options in case of any device malfunctions. For example, the touch panel can be exchanged for a new one, in case of serious issues.

The compatibility with PCs is especially useful when the tablet is used as a conference room scheduling display. Samsung Galaxy Tabs can be easily accessed and configured from a computer.

Those tablets are a great choice for business owners, who have just recently started their business or are just trying to save funds on meeting hall availability displays. Amazon Fire tabs are sold at rather low prices starting from $49.99. Of course, those devices have much worse performance in comparison to the touchpads described above.

Amazon Fire may definitely perform well, when used strictly for office-related tasks, such as conference hall scheduling monitoring. Amazon devices have some beneficial points:

Cheap price. The low price of Amazon Fire allows for easier bulk purchasing. This may benefit organizations with many rooms in their headquarters, or the ones needing to provide each worker with a personal touch panel for work.

Android-based. Fire OS developed by Amazon is based on Android. Thus, Amazon Fire is a highly versatile tool since it supports a huge variety of third-party scheduling applications.

A rather moderate solution for a meeting room vacancy viewing. Though Chromebase mini has better hardware specifications than Amazon Fire, it still lags behind the first three conference hall panels. Chromebase mini"s average price is $326.99, which is affordable for most companies. Still, it might seem overpriced, when you compare it to display solutions like GoGets.

UnSpot display is a modern solution for meeting hall booking and viewing. This system allows for easy and quick room booking. The software solves a lot of workspace managerial issues and helps employees navigate the building more efficiently. With UnSpot, office reservation turns into an efficient and enjoyable process.

lcd panel scheduling meeting rooms set up manufacturer

One might think that the society we are living in, highly characterized by individualism, careerism and hectic lifestyles in general, would cause people to have less meetings due to lack of time – thereby forcing people to prioritize their time differently. But, organizations today are very information intensive, fast-paced and characterized by collaboration, implying people actually meet a lot (not just on Tinder)!

In fact, time spent in meetings have increased with around 10% every year since 2000. Statistics show that the average US employee attends 62 meetings per month(!). That’s a whole lot of meetings. Hence meeting rooms have become “most wanted” at workplaces, to say the least. But why is that an issue? Why can’t people just use their meeting rooms, have great meetings and live happily ever after?

The increase in information and meetings have posed a big challenge for organizations and their employees. There seems to be a never-ending demand for meeting rooms and you could literally claim that meeting rooms have become the new hard currency of companies. Because when the frequency of meetings increase, so does the competition of meeting rooms! Honestly, how many times haven’t you heard or said this yourself:

Todays fast-paced work environment requires people to communicate in order to make quick decisions and move forward with projects. And even though we have all the imaginable technology there are to communicate, it’s often both faster and more efficient talking face to face. The fact is that 25% of all meetings are spontaneous, meaning they aren’t planned in advance, but emerge from a matter or an idea that has to be discussed quickly.

Sometimes these spontaneous meetings can be held during a walk or a stand up in the corridor or kitchen. But usually people do need a meeting room, which means it has to be easy to find and book a room. Otherwise the risk is huge that you are just running around searching the office for meeting rooms – in other words, losing and wasting valuable time (and money!). And all of a sudden, the meeting is not that spontaneous anymore and focus have shifted from the meeting itself to catching a room for it.

Another factor contributing to the competition of meeting rooms is simply that there are too few of them. Or are there…? Of course, there could be an actual lack of meeting rooms. But, no matter how many meeting rooms there are in an office, they always seem to get fully booked. Strange thing… A lot of the time though, meeting rooms are in an experienced and not an actual shortage (nevertheless a common source of frustration and friction).

The thing is that no-shows or “ghost meetings” (i.e. when a meeting gets cancelled, but the room is still booked) are a lot more common than you might think. Our customers typically see a no-show rate around 30%(!). In other words, plenty of rooms are available, but when checking the calendar they are occupied – because people forget to cancel their room reservations.

It is also common that meeting rooms are booked for e.g. an hour, but only used half of the time. Again, the rooms seem to be occupied a lot more than they actually are.

Recurring meetings are sneaky meeting room thieves as well. These are the kind of meetings that are booked, let’s say once a week for 6 months but after a while aren’t taking place anymore. The room reservation is still left in the calendar though.

Surprisingly many companies still handle their room bookings in the old-fashioned way i.e. via the receptionist at the front office. This is a booking process that requires multiple channel communication with unnecessary communication back and forth between parties, which usually ends up with confusion!

One situation that easily arises when many parties are involved in the booking process is double bookings. You could have the most structured and organized person working at the front office, receiving the bookings, but if people forget to communicate cancellations or changed meeting times, double bookings comes knocking on your door. Double bookings of meeting rooms are also common at shared office spaces where people use different calendar systems that aren’t talking to each other.

There are many reasons why there never seem to be enough meeting rooms and the reasons described above are just a few of them. But the coreproblem lies in the gap between the digital and physical world – our digital calendars simply doesn’t translate into our physical workplace and vice versa. We need to bridge this gap in order to be able to use our workplaces to their full, unlocked potential! So how do we do this? The somewhat magical solution is called meeting room management – woho!

So, what does “(meeting) room management” really mean? Basically, “room management” is an umbrella term that involves everything from meeting room scheduling to digital signage to workplace analytics. In short – solutions that help organizations to manage and use their office spaces in a smart way.

Surprisingly many organizations are still using really old school conference room scheduling methods; such as signup sheets or manual signs that could slide between open and close. Out-of-date solutions that are inefficient for many reasons – above all because they work poorly. These methods entirely rely on peoples’ engagement and ignores the fact that people are quite forgetful.

Although most organizations schedule their meeting rooms through email clients like Outlook or Google Calendar, the email clients’ calendar systems aren’t really designed for physical meeting bookings. When booking a meeting room from your email, the physical reality isn’t taken into account. What do we mean by that? Well, an email client can’t handle last minute cancellations and no-shows (to name a few) automatically. That can only be done if the organizer of the meeting actually heads back to their computer and cancels the room reservation – which, as you probably know, rarely happens.

Traditional methods of managing meeting rooms doesn’t have to be bad by nature. But meeting culture and room usage will improve significantly with a room management system that bridges the gap between the digital and physical world – so that people can focus on their actual work instead of searching for and managing meeting rooms. You already know that emails are more time efficient than written letters. And you already know that WiFi connectivity is usually easier and more flexible than having to be plugged into an Ethernet cable when working from your laptop. So, what’s the reason not to digitize the management of your meeting rooms and meeting room bookings? Probably no reason at all.

What characterizes an efficient meeting room management solution then? Well, the cornerstone is aroom management software that seamlessly connects your calendar system (usually in your email client) with a physical device – thereby bridging the infamous gap. The software and the physical product don’t make any difference by themselves – the magic happens when you combine them! You could say that they are the yin and yang of a smart workplace.