Choosing Meeting & Conference Room Furnishings

Will meetings and conferences be a regular happening in your office? If so, you will need to allocate office space and purchase furniture to accommodate these meetings and conferences. Costs to furnish a meeting room or conference room can run from a few hundred dollars to well into the thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars.

Furniture

Basic meeting/conference room furniture consists of the following:

• Tables to accommodate the maximum number of people that you anticipate hosting.
• Chairs to provide adequate seating around the tables. If your room is large enough, extra chairs could be placed around the perimeter for extra attendees.
• White board and/or flip charts for illustrating ideas and notes
• Projection screen for presentations
• Additional table to hold handouts or refreshments

Décor

The first issue you must address is the type of décor you want your meeting or conference room to have. If your office is professional in nature (for example: legal or consulting) and you will be hosting clients from the outside, you should select a better line of furniture in order to project the proper image of your business. If the room will be used mostly for internal meetings and conferences, then more economical and durable furniture should be selected.

Buying Tip

Remember, if cost is a limiting factor, you can buy lower end furniture now and in a few years sell the original furniture in order to buy the better furniture that you really need. You can also save money with used or refurbished furniture.