Capacity figures for meeting rooms are rarely as clear-cut as they seem, so we have created a room size guide to help plan for the correct number of delegates for your meeting.
Layout Changes Everything
How you can arrange the furniture in a meeting room greatly affects how many people you can fit in. A room set up in a theatre style with rows of chairs will hold the most amount of people, whilst a boardroom with tables in the middle and chairs around the outside will hold half the amount of people as a theatre style setup. A room set up in a U-shape or cabaret style will hold somewhere in between.
A Rough Space Rule
You can use the following rough space guide to help determine suitable meeting rooms based on delegate numbers and room layouts. Allow 1-1.5m² per person for boardroom/classroom style meetings and 0.6m² per person for theatre style meetings.
Fixed Furniture and AV Equipment
Fixed items such as a built-in screen, projector unit or a permanent credenza will also occupy floor space and reduce your actual meeting room capacity. Again, ask for a scaled up floor plan of the meeting room and the advertised capacity.
Check Ventilation for Longer Sessions
Ventilation for sessions longer than 1 hour: Even when booked for hours, sessions affect people’s concentration for hours to come. So proper ventilation at recommended ventilation rates for occupied spaces is more important than most people realise.
Ask About Flexible Configuration
When choosing a meeting room in Chester it’s a good idea to ask for a scaled up floor plan of the space and ask them how they would set the room up for you.
A useful reference for Meeting Rooms Chester is https://rowtonhallhotel.co.uk/conference-venues-chester/meeting-rooms.
A clear floor plan and a conversation about layout is far more useful than a single number.
