Does your company or freelancing business get by without a full-time, full-sized office space? If so, there may be certain days when your home office leaves something to be desired.
If you’re meeting with a potential client, giving a major presentation to your team, or hosting a networking event, you need a conference room. Not a digital conference room—a real one.
Fortunately, you no longer need a full-time lease to have access to a great meeting room. Rather, with a part-time or hourly rental, you can use a beautiful meeting space without the expense or hassle of permanent occupancy. This is an ideal solution for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and remote or hybrid workforces that typically work from home or in small office spaces.
In the sections below, we’ll highlight five occasions in which renting a conference room is the perfect solution for short-term meeting space needs.
Client Meetings
If you’re getting some face time with a major client—or a potential client—it’s essential to make a good impression. To that end, let’s borrow a term from the world of real estate: location, location, location.
If you want to make a memorable, positive impression and show your client that you value their business, a cramped cubicle or a noisy coffee shop won’t cut it.
Instead, rent a professional conference room. Providing this attractive, quiet, and dignified setting enhances your business’s image and elevates the mood and importance of the meeting. A conference room also provides enhanced privacy for holding sensitive discussions between the leaders of two companies.
Team Workshops and Training Sessions
Many teams work independently most of the time but need to come together on an occasional basis for events like workshops and training sessions. On such occasions, a conference room rental is ideal for providing a spacious and well-equipped environment for collaboration.
Coming together in a high-quality physical workspace allows for in-person connection that may not be necessary on a daily basis, but is incredibly valuable for special work sessions. In a rented conference room, a workshop or training benefits from amenities like projectors and high-speed internet without the overhead expenses of traditional leasing or ownership.
Networking Events
A conference room rental is ideal for hosting a networking event, such as a small meet and greet for an entrepreneur group. Along with offering practical advantages and amenities, a conference room creates a sophisticated ambiance that’s perfect for professional networking.
Compared to a small office, a coffee shop, or a virtual meeting, a conference room can comfortably host a larger number of attendees. Traditional long-table conference rooms are suitable for rotating public speakers among a large group, or for simultaneously hosting numerous one-on-one conversations.
Product Launches and Presentations
Assembling stakeholders in a beautiful conference room is a great way to elevate the enthusiasm surrounding pivotal events such as product launches or major presentations. If your team is close to making a big sale or unveiling a new product or service, it’s worth going the extra mile to set the scene. Along with enhancing the aesthetic for photo ops, operating in a professional setting helps build confidence within a team while presenting a strong brand image to clients.
Board Meetings and Strategic Planning Sessions
For critical gatherings such as board meetings and strategic planning sessions, there are major benefits to assembling in a professional conference room. While there are many practical advantages to convening remotely, the most important meetings should occur in person, whenever possible.
A conference room provides a distraction-free environment equipped with helpful tools like whiteboards and audio-visual equipment. Most importantly, a professional meeting space facilitates clear, effective communication.
Most of us have the sense that we’re better able to communicate in person, and research supports this feeling.
For example, one study found that face-to-face requests are 34 times more effective than emailed requests. It makes sense—we communicate better when we can make eye contact, hear each other’s voices as they truly sound, and converse fluidly without needing to navigate a screen or wait through digital time lags.
Rent a Conference Room in Richmond, VA
If your team in the Richmond, VA region needs occasional conference room use without the cost and hassle of a full-time lease, Gather Workspaces can help. Along with private office spaces and coworking spaces, we provide high-quality meeting rooms to both members and non-members.
Our meeting rooms are available at hourly rates in a variety of sizes and come with amenities like high-speed wireless internet, whiteboards, and unlimited tea and coffee.
Contact Gather today to book a conference room.