For making decisive strategic choices, organisations often opt for meeting space "outside the door". So that people can concentrate on important decisions in peace. Pretty logical. But how do you go about it? Booking external meeting space seems simple, but often disappoints in practice. The following scenario occurs regularly.
"It still seems better that we meet outside, otherwise we will be 'bothered' again by colleagues with operational questions," the departments jointly decide. The finance colleague sputters a little but then is also converted. Questions and comments about where, how long, when and whether the lunch is tasty soon appear on the table. Everything has to contribute to the success of the meeting. Everyone agrees.
The HR colleague remembers a meeting venue run by people with intellectual disabilities. Not everyone is immediately enthusiastic about this idea. This is because the location of this venue is not so favourable. It is therefore jointly decided to draw up a number of conditions that the external meeting location must meet. Internally, there are colleagues who do know a few locations. "And if not, we always have Google."
Tenders must then be sought. Two colleagues from the operations department get to work. Fortunately, they both have experience booking external meeting space. Quickly they exchange their favourite meeting venues. They may not quite meet the set conditions, but they will surely be fine. When they approach the venues, they soon encounter limited availability of meeting locations. The desired date turns out to be quite popular. Quickly they go back to the operations manager for a new date. Too bad they then have to call all the venues again, but eventually they receive offers from two meeting venues.
Tip 1: first check whether the desired date is popular. Are there big conferences around that period, international events or the start of a new (school) year? Then venues will be busy.
Negotiating the price of both meeting rooms takes time. One had never been booked before. So they did not know the company. And the contact person of this meeting venue did not want to give a discount initially. After long insistence, a small discount was given.
The other location was already familiar to the company. Several bookings had been made here in the past. But here too, it was difficult to negotiate discounts and cancellation terms. In fact, there were enough requests from other customers for the desired date. Too bad!
Tip 2: Realise that not only finding suitable locations is time-consuming, but also negotiating the right price and conditions.
Still, the company's choice became the unfamiliar venue that had never been booked before. Pretty exciting. If only that goes well. First, the cancelled location was informed that it was not going ahead. Then the preferred venue was informed of the good news. In the conversation that followed, the organisers learned that an advance payment was required. That was a complete surprise. After long urging, the colleagues eventually managed to make other arrangements on this. However, the venue did ask for a brief written confirmation that the invoice would be paid within 14 days of the event.
Tip 3: More and more meeting venues are asking for advance payment. And engage with the desired venue first, before informing the cancelled venue.
As the meeting date approached, more and more contact was made with the venue. Details about the meeting, room set-up and dietary requirements, everything had to be phoned. This cost the colleagues a lot of time, as "half a word" proved not to be enough with this new venue. Finally, they also managed to agree with the venue that certain internal codes of the company would be mentioned on the invoice.
Tip 4: Keep in mind that it takes a lot of time to coordinate all the details of a meeting with the venue. If everything is in order, the meeting will run smoothly and the chances of a 'decisive' meeting are highest.
The meeting took place. The new venue pleased, and the sandwiches were tasty. After the meeting, the company received the invoice from the venue. Because the colleagues work in a large company, internal codes are used on the invoices. These had been passed on to the venue, but the agreed internal codes were missing from the invoice received. So the invoice had to be returned. This again led to discussion about the 14-day payment period. Did it now start after receipt of the first, incorrect invoice or after the second, correct invoice?
Tip 5: When agreeing a payment term, pay attention to how much time it takes to process an invoice internally. This is often longer than most people think.
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