5 Keys to Professional Meeting Room Etiquette 101

At Office Evolution Hackensack in Bergen County NJ we provide members with everything they could possible need for an impressive meeting room. Our rented spaces are first-class, plug-n-play ready, and therefore make the setup for a successful meeting or presentation simple. For your part, the success of the meeting will depend largely on how well you organize the event. There’s a lot of truth in the saying: it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. It’s also important, however, not to major in minor issues.

In this piece we take a quick look into professional etiquette 101.

The five most important meeting room etiquette tips for an organizer include:

Be on time and stick to the schedule
Create a comfortable and effective meeting environment
The guest list
Maintain control throughout
End on time

All these above points look obvious enough, but it’s easy to get lost in the heat of the moment and lose your flow. Okay, let us go through each of these points in turn.

Meeting Structure Is key

A successful meeting is no different to the successful outcome of anything else. The better one plans the better the results. Someone once said that those who fail to prepare are preparing to fail. A little knowledge and forethought really can go a long way. There’s only so much you can do with regards to the attendees at a meeting. But you can take full control of the way you conduct yourself, and thus the outcome of the meeting from the organizer’s side of the table. Members of Office Evolution have everything they need for a successful meeting room or conference room setup in Hackensack. That means the focus can be on meeting etiquette rather than worrying about the physical space, which will pretty much look after itself once you’ve set it up. Our business center manager will also greet your guests at the reception and show them to your meeting room if necessary.

#1 Be on Time & Stick to the Schedule

A meeting organizer’s worse nightmare is when one or more of the attendees don’t turn up on time. It not only holds you up but it also keeps others sitting around waiting and feeling like they are wasting their time. There may be an awkward atmosphere too, depending on the type of meeting and who’s attending. The best thing you can do in these situations is to start anyway. It’s not fair or professional to hold everyone up because of one or two late arrivals. When they do eventually show up, offer to fill them in on the bits they missed after the meeting.

Likewise, if everyone has made an effort to arrive on time and you’re the one who’s late, or late starting, that gets your meeting off to a bad start. And the later you are, the worse the experience becomes for the attendees. To start late is not only annoying for others, but it makes you look unprofessional. Always begin on time unless unforeseen circumstances prevent it.

#2 Comfortable, Effective Meeting Environment

It doesn’t matter how great the meeting or presentation is if the attendees are not comfortable or well cared for. Get this part wrong and it will have a negative impact. If you use an Office Evolution meeting room in Northern New Jersey, you’ve already gotten the meeting off to a great start. It’s easy for your guests to find our coworking center and there is ample parking for all. This should have everyone in a good mood as they arrive.

Set the room up in a way that works best for the type of meeting. If you plan to offer drinks and snacks in the room, make sure you arrange it ahead of time and not as an afterthought. Think too about the best seating arrangement, and who sits where and next to whom (if that’s important). If you have material to hand out, you might want to present it in neat packs. In general, try not to have too much clutter spread over the table if you can avoid it. You can use our large TVs to project from your computer the content you wish to share. Remember, it’s the little touches that can make the biggest differences, but at the same time, try not to major in minor issues.

#3 Organize the Guest List

The way to keep a meeting focused and the audience captivated is to invite the right people. Question who’s on the list and only invite those who really need to be there. One question to ask as you prepare the invite might look like this: What will X actually benefit from this meeting/presentation? Just as important is what will you likely benefit from X’s attendance at your meeting? People who don’t really need to be there will easily get bored and may even be a little disruptive because of it.

#4 Maintain Control Throughout

Don’t let things deviate far from the agenda and the associated schedule—it’s one of the biggest mistakes of them all. You should know how long it will take beforehand. Don’t allow the guests to sidetrack you or interrupt your flow either. It’s important to take charge of the meeting. Have a plan so that you know what to do if interruptions happen. If you expect to take questions at the end, make sure you allow time for it. Also ensure everyone knows there’s a slot specifically for questions and further discussions at the end.

#5 End on Time

It’s hard to end a meeting on time if it starts late. Both delayed starts and late finishes are things that really irk people, especially busy folks who have to be somewhere else. It can take a bit of experience to control of a successful meeting, and that includes its duration. As long as you have some structure in place and a plan B in place in case of unforeseen disruptions, then ending on time is quite doable. One mistake novice meeting organizers make is to just go with the flow, accepting that the meeting will take as long as it takes. This approach might be acceptable to the novice organizer, but it’s not likely to go down too well with those attending.

Meeting Space Solutions

When it comes to meetings, making a great first impression starts as early as the invitation list. Office Evolution Hackensack members get to register our location as their official, physical business address. Having an impressive address at an easy-to-reach location with ample parking is a great start. It puts you and your business firmly on the map (including Google Maps) and increases your online presence. You can also add this address to your Google business listings, thus increasing your chance of free exposure from organic online searches. Members can rent our range of professional meeting and conference rooms from as little as 15 minutes to as long as you need them. We have different sizes, ranging from small to large, that are modern, fully equipped, and designed to impress. In short, we supply everything a meeting organizer could possibly need to setup an inspiring space. The rest is down to you.

If you would like to learn more about our meeting and conference room options, please contact us to learn more.

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At Office Evolution Hackensack, we provide virtual office, coworking, and private office solutions. We offer meeting rooms, offices, a coworking lounge, a shared reception, a business address, and virtual receptionist services. We have many options and price points, and all terms are flexible. Plus, you become part of a community of like-minded professionals.

Whether you live in Teaneck, Bergenfield, Maywood, Teterboro, Hasbrouck Heights, Moonachie, Little Ferry, Rochelle Park, Dumont, Bogota, River Edge, New Milford, Hackensack, Englewood, Paramus, Tenafly and other communities nearby in Bergen and Essex counties, choosing Office Evolution Hackensack in New Jersey will help you be more professional, productive, and profitable.