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Different meeting rooms cater to different needs

By June 3, 2025June 24th, 2025Food for thought

Several 4-8 person meeting rooms rather than one large boardroom.

For meetings that foster synergy, research suggests an ideal number of attendees is between 5 and 7 people. Anything more and everyone doesn’t gets a chance to speak, too many voices and ideas are going back and forth, and in the end, decision-making quality suffers. When meeting virtually, body language is harder to read and relationships are harder to build, so 4 to 6 people is likely to be the optimal number. – FELLOW

According to Fellow’s 2024 State of Meetings report, “Across all company sizes, 80.8% of meetings have fewer than eight attendees.”

For meetings that foster synergy it is also very helpful for people to gather around a round(ed) table because all of the focus directoed to the centre or problem at hand, generating more effective brainstorming abouot a solution.

Boardroom Settings for presentations or negotiation-style meetings

The “head of the table” is a respected position in Western culture, and we tend to give that person’s opinion more weight. If at the head of the table a presentation is happening, it is very natural for people to focus in that direction as well.

Therefore, large meeting rooms are ideal for accommodating larger gatherings like training sessions, client presentations, company-wide meetings, and workshops. They also work well for multi-departmental conferences and large team meetings. 

When a meeting is arranged to negotiate a win-win outcome for two opposing sides a boardroom also feels more structured and formal. ijlll.org