Why you should Rent your Meeting Space

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Meeting Space Rent

It’s a fact of life (or a fact of business) that you’ll eventually have to have meetings. One-on-One, group meetings, team meetings, etc. You name them, they’ll have to meet at some point. Have you considered renting that meeting space?

So when you’re finding a space for those meetings to occur, it is often a corner of the office somewhere, where everyone has to bring their chairs and scoot over. Just making what might already be an uncomfortable space, even more so.

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones that has their own proper meeting space. But of course, owning space is very different from renting it.

For one, you have to maintain it. It can be costly to maintain a meeting room up to standard. Of course when it’s just your team, a little mess can be expected; some markers laying around, a used whiteboard, some leftover snacks.

But then if you want to bring a new client into that space, you’ll have to make sure it’s all clean and tidy. And your staff, as great as they may be, are busy making sure the business runs. They don’t have time to clean up every speck of dirt. Which then means you need to hire a cleaning crew, or extend the current crew’s service into the meeting room. But that brings potential reservations over confidential information…

And that isn’t even mentioning the cost of maintenance. What if the chairs break? Or the meeting table is damaged? The TV on the wall starts displaying static?

It’s just a whole cycle of never ending issues.

And of course, think about the opportunity cost. Space is expensive, especially in large cities. You already pay a significant amount for rent, and having enough space for your employees to actually do their job, do you really want to have to worry about paying rent for a room that will be sitting empty most of the time?

Unless your meeting space is doubling as your break room (which it really shouldn’t be), then it’s actual wasted space, and wasted money.

For those who are looking to cut some costs on their rent, and have a top notch, clean, and well stocked room, you should consider renting your meeting space from The Rostie Group. Free Wi-Fi, full technical support, videoconferencing, and delicious catering are all available.

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The May Scoop is Out!

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Enjoy this month’s Scoop and learn about exciting events happening around Toronto’s Waterfront. If you would like to advertise in our growing newsletter we are always happy to showcase local companies and community partners. For more information on advertising, email marketing@rostiegroup.com

And you can download a PDF version here

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Have you seen our Reservation Portal?

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Here at the Rostie Group, we’re always looking to improve your experience. To that end, we have been working on something that is a long time coming.

A major updated to our reservation portal has made it better than ever before!

We have focused on eliminating the tiresome negotiation process of booking meeting rooms and streamlining the process to be as smooth as possible for our users.

If you’ve booked with us before, you can easily rebook meetings with a single click! This allows your layout, catering and other requests to remain the same as the last time you booked.

Whether you are using desktop, tablet or your phone we wanted you to have the best experience, so we redesigned the layout to be mobile ready no matter what screen you’re on.


If you are a new user, you’ll see how easy it is to view the catering menu and choose an option suited to your needs. Depending on the room size, you will also be able to view the meeting rooms various custom layouts and choose one that best fits your meeting requirements.

Delicious Catering

We understand that getting used to any new piece of software can be challenging. Not to worry, we will soon have an online tutorial added to our website to guide you through it and show just how easy it is!

Don’t forget- we don’t just offer Meeting Rooms! Check out our diversified Virtual Offices Packages and start your plan today.

What are you waiting for? Click here to go see the new Portal right now!

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The Oxford Way

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Back in September 2017, Oxford Properties conducted a customer satisfaction and loyalty survey. Many clients took the time to let Oxford know whether they were meeting or exceeding service expectations. To celebrate the fantastic results Oxford have created a visual representation of this commitment via “The Oxford Way” video:

We love being part of WaterPark Place!

Here’s some events they’ve held in the building over the past year:

Click here for more information on how you can become part of the Oxford community.

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How to Run More Effective Meetings

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More that 10 million meetings occur every day in the United States alone, so there’s no denying that meetings are a very important part of the corporate world. But despite that, a lot of people do meetings wrong and end up losing money through lost productivity or even worse, unclear goals.

Be prepared

It’s always a good idea to let people know the overall details of the meeting but it’s also important to provide relevant documents or information that would help everyone come to your meeting prepared. Sometimes a meeting might require research and for your attendees to have some time to gather their thoughts and ideas. It also cuts down on time spent running people through information that everyone could already be aware of.

Know your objective

The biggest mistake people make when calling a meeting is having a poor agenda or not having one at all. Without a good agenda or a facilitator to keep things on track people can go off topic and not add anything of value to the meeting at all. This becomes one of the major reasons why people consider meetings a waste of time.

Make the objective of the meeting clear before you start. That way people are able to come prepared and know what’s necessary to make it successful. With the material you’ve given your attendees, having a clear objective will also allow them to come into the meeting with any concerns they may have going forward, which can be answered easier.

Invite the right people

Cramming the room with as many people as possible doesn’t always accomplish the best results. The more people you have, the more likely it is that people are going to take the meeting in the wrong direction, be afraid to contribute or feel like they can afford not to pay attention. You might also be keeping a lot of people from doing important work that will end up costing you time and money in lost productivity.

Instead it’s about getting the right people who can contribute the best to your objective. These are the people who are most relevant to the problem at hand, whether they’re working on the front lines or overseeing the team that will be solving a problem. Having the right parties present also lets you communicate more clearly with the right team and ensure that they’re on the right track.

Provide key takeaways

It’s all too easy for people to come out of a meeting and go about their day without actually putting anything they’ve learned to use. This comes down to the facilitators. At the end of the meeting, provide your attendees with some key takeaways and goals. Clear tasks help give a purpose to your meeting and people can leave it with something tangible to take back to their desks.

You can also have someone tasked with taking notes during the meeting and putting together a contact report to send out after. This way all attendees have a written record of what needs to get done. This can also be used to track progress for future meetings.

Ineffective meetings can kill productivity and be a waste of time. But with the tips listed above, you can make sure your team can make the most of their time and tackle goals with more direction.

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How to run more effective meetings

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How often do you run across a coworker, sighing as they go onto their way to a meeting? Or maybe you’ve read one of hundreds of articles that say meetings are a waste of time. It’s not surprising that many people react this way.

An unstructured meeting can be a waste of time, but at the end of the day these are still very important parts of running a successful business.

If done right, a meeting allows your team to get together to collaborate, solve problems and build stronger relationships.

Effective leadership and discipline is needed to get the most out of meetings. But how do you effectively lead one?

What’s the purpose?

Communication is the key to mastering meetings. A long meeting doesn’t always mean a successful one, but on that note, neither does a short one.

A successful meeting is one that addresses all the issues at hand so that everyone leaves it feeling sure about what they need to accomplish.

Come into it with a plan. Why have you brought everyone together? What is it you hope to achieve? Have you scheduled enough time to hit all your talking points?

There are many reasons to hold a meeting:

  • Problem solving
  • Creative brainstorming
  • Team or morale building
  • Training sessions

If you have a clear picture of what you’re holding a meeting for, it’s easier to build a plan.

Create an agenda

Agendas can give your meeting a solid outline. You may not end up hitting all the points on it, but referring to an agenda helps you keep things on track. Otherwise, unrelated topics may come up and waste everyone’s time. Remember, if it’s not worth creating an agenda for, it’s not worth meeting.

A good agenda should be concise and cover just a few major topics. This helps you leave enough time for discussion so that you can expand on those talking points.

By keeping it to just a few topics, it also helps focus your team on what they need to do. It’s easier to send an employee away with one or two major tasks rather than fifteen small ones. Too many tasks can easily lead to confusion and ultimately, procrastination.

Meetings start on time

There was a famous story of a meeting Steve Jobs ran while he was at Pixar. Jobs was to meet with Lucasfilm’s Chief Financial Officer, who decided that he could show he was in control of the meeting by getting there a few minutes late.

He eagerly walked into the room, expecting everyone to be waiting for him. Instead, Jobs had already started the meeting and was now in control of it.

Showing up early shows you’re serious about being productive and getting things done. It also shows that you value your team’s or your client’s time.

No phones under the table

Meetings require your full attention. If you’re staring down at your phone while someone is talking, it can come off the wrong way, especially if there are clients or bosses in the room.

It’s best practice to turn your phone on silent and place it face down on the table or tuck it away in your pocket. That way, you’re not distracted by flashing screens or the temptation to look at the time.

If you have a scheduled call to take, then plan to step out of the room beforehand so as not to distract anyone.

Meetings end on time

Just like starting your meeting on schedule, ending it on time shows you respect other people’s time. It keeps everyone on task and ensures that there’s no time being wasted.

Be sure to discuss the end time of the meeting before it starts and reinforce it again as you approach the time. With a ten-minute warning, you can then set a clear boundary and start wrapping up.

You can then take the final few minutes to summarize ideas and assign clear tasks.

There are exceptions to this. Sometimes, ideas might come up towards the end of a meeting and take everyone down a rabbit hole. If the ideas are flowing and you’re making breakthroughs, you don’t want to interrupt anyone.

Build contact reports

If agendas are important pre-meeting, contact reports are just as important post-meeting.

A contact report helps you follow up with everyone after you’re done. Not everyone will have taken notes so it’s a good idea to have one person dedicated towards it.

This person can then create a contact report, which will cover all the important talking points, key takeaways and tasks to be completed and by who.

Having a successful meeting can do many things for you as we’ve covered. It can build morale, help solve critical problems and more. But unfortunately, many meetings are run haphazardly which is why people remain cynical towards them. That doesn’t need to be the case.

Whether it’s a small or a big team, these tips will help you keep these meetings on track so that your company can communicate and solve problems more effectively.

 

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Meet You @ The Rostie Group – The 3 Meeting Room Styles

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Toronto Meeting Rooms

 

The Rostie Group is the perfect location to book your meetings and training rooms. We’re just a short walk from Union Station through the PATH so you won’t have to brave the elements any longer. Overlooking the lake on one side and Toronto’s Financial Core on the other, the view alone is enough to get your creative juices flowing. With over 7000 sq. ft. of meeting space, our variety of modern meeting rooms can host anywhere from 2 to 100 people.

On top of the great venue, our caring and dedicated team will give your events a personal touch, customizing any room to the specific needs of your event. We buy high q
uality local food, providing fully catered pre-fix menus and/or a breakfast meeting menu with freshly made and just out of the oven pastries, croissants and bagels. Our team also provides in-house technical support to help set up rooms for you’re A/V needs.
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Over the last 25 years, we’ve had the pleasure of overseeing a large variety of businesses using our space for events such as:

1. Training events and Town Hall meetings

Join the growing number of businesses conducting Town Hall meetings to engage with their employees in a more personal setting. Our larger rooms like Rainy Lake and Muskoka are perfect for hosting bigger, training sessions or conferences; these rooms can be customized to be open concept and promote collaboration and teamwork.

For the last 15 years we have also been host to several Canadian universities such as Concordia and Dalhousie. They employ this style of meeting to enrich their learning experiences while utilizing our video conferencing systems to best help their students succeed.

food-22. Formal meetings

Our Atlantic and Pacific rooms are perfect for formal meetings such as off-site arbitration, board meetings and client consultations. With modern design and video conferencing equipment, you will be more than ready to close your next deal. Our Toronto Bay room which looks out onto the Toronto Waterfront also has a comfortable seating area and has the amenities to conduct a more personal meeting if required.

3. Interviewing rooms

Get out of the loud and crowded coffee shop and into one of our conveniently-priced smaller rooms like Lake Joe, Baltic or Caspian. They provide the perfect intimate atmosphere to have one-on-one interviews. With soundproof walls, you will be sure to have the privacy you expect in your meeting. These rooms also come equipped with A/V hardware and can be used for video conferencing.

And much more

With fully customizable rooms, we are fully flexible and can adjust the space for any sort of meeting, event or training session required. You can easily book online at www.TorontoMeetings.com or call us toll-free at 1-800-648-1840 or 416-216-4622.

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Ahoy! Join us for the Redpath Waterfront Festival Canada Day weekend!

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Calling all mates! Celebrate summer in full sail with the Redpath Waterfront Festival, presented by PortsToronto as they launch the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Great Lakes Series.

waterfront festival 2016

Tall ships return to RWF and will be docked in HTO Park for public deck tours. The star ships include: Draken Harald Hårfagre, the most authentic Viking ship built in modern days; the Spanish ship El Galeón, with 5 decks to explore; and from the USA, Pride of Baltimore II. Other ships include St. Lawrence II, Playfair, Pathfinder and Canadian Ocean Racing’s O Canada.

Draken

The Royal Canadian Navy will be joining the festival for the first time with two 55-metre, coastal defence naval ships, the Ship Shape Obstacle Course, the Urban Fresh Navy Cook Off, and a host of interactive on-land activities!

redpath festivalReturning this year, the Waterfront Artisan Market will offer unique products and delicious treats from 50 top artisans, crafters, chefs and bakers! Enjoy our beautiful waterfront while you eat, shop and browse at Toronto’s newest open-air market. Also returning is the Ultimutts Stunt Dog Show, featuring non-stop, jaw dropping tricks from adorable rescue pups! See them play piano, do handstands, skateboard, tightrope walk and so much more.

artisan market

Celebrate Canada Day with us and take in the spectacular firework show at Harbourfront Centre on July 1st. A crowd favourite, the grand finale Parade of Sail on Sunday, July 3rd, will feature all festival ships and unique local vessels as they sail through the Toronto harbour to bid farewell. Bring the whole crew!

The Rostie Group is a proud Festival Partner with The Redpath Waterfront festival! We have had a behind the scenes look at a lot of the planning and hard work that goes into making the festival the best event on Toronto’s Waterfront every year!

Visit www.TOwaterfrontfest.com for more information.

 

 
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The Scoop is out for June!

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Summer is always bustling down by Toronto’s Waterfront! The Rostie Group has opened The Sales Hub – coworking for sales professionals! The first of its kind, this open workspace caters to high-energy deal closers looking for a place to be productive.  Come and check it out today!

Mark your calendar for the Rise & Shine Executive Breakfast on June 15th: Video Presenting for Business Professionals and Executives with film director Kunle Bristow! Video is the best way to build your brand and connect across a wide variety of platforms. Learn more about how you and your brand can utilise video on June 15th!

Canada Day is also around the corner, which means the Redpath Waterfront Festival is gearing up and putting their sails up! Tour international tall ships, visit the Royal Canadian Navy Cook Off, and celebrate with the Parade of Sail. Free and running July 1-3, this is the summer event you don’t want to miss.

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