Guidelines for Booking a Room at UCL

These guidelines are intended to be helpful if you need to book a centrally bookable room. Some careful planning may be required prior to a lecture in any UCL centrally bookable room if you intend to use AV or IT equipment.

Booking a Room

The design of the room which you book for your lecture or meeting and the equipment which you may use, are critical for the success of your event. Some careful planning is therefore recommended to ensure that you know what is available at UCL and that the room and equipment, which are booked for you, match your requirements as closely as possible.

Step 1 - Identify all your requirements

Before contacting Room Bookings, it is important that you identify your requirements carefully. The following check-list below will ensure that you have considered all factors.

The next section will explain how to check what is available in each room.

Room	What size of room do you need? Is the shape of the room important?
Furniture	Will you need to rearrange tables and chairs? If so, please make sure you do not book a room with fixed seating. Do you want people to sit in rows or in a circle? Do you want participants to sit round a large table?
Lighting	Will you need to project slides or a video and therefore need efficient black out?
Board	Will you need a white board or a black board? Please remember to bring chalk or white board NON PERMANENT pens with you.
AV equipment	Overhead projector (OHP) and screen Do you need an overhead projector & screen to project transparencies? Slide projector and screen Do you need dual projection to show slides side by side? This requirement should be discussed with staff in the AV Centre (ext 46677 or av-support@ucl.ac.uk). Please note that not all rooms are suitable. Please ensure that your slides are in modern glass mounts. The AV Centre can advise if you are not sure that your slides are suitable for modern projectors. TV and video player What format do you need for the video?
IT equipment	If you require the use of IT and especially access to the UCL network and the Internet, you are strongly advised to discuss your requirements with the AV Centre prior to your lecture (ext 46677 or av-support@ucl.ac.uk). Laptop and data projector Do you need to connect your laptop to a data projector? Will both the software and your files be installed on the hard disk of your laptop? Do you need your laptop to access the Internet? Computer and data projector Managed PCs are installed in a number of lecture theatres and they all have floppy, CD and Zip drives. If you currently use the UCL staff WTS (Window Terminal Service), you can login using the same UserID and password. If not, please contact the AV Centre.
Catering	If you need refreshments of any kind to be provided at the beginning or in the middle of your lecture, it is essential to enquire about available options and to confirm the booking sufficiently in advance. Room Bookings can advise (ext 41819 or roombookings@ucl.ac.uk).

Step 2 - Check Availability

You are advised to log on to the Room Bookings web pages to see the availability of rooms on specific dates and to check what equipment is permanently available in such rooms.

You can do this directly on the appropriate room bookings page. You will have be able to choose one of the links to Lecture Theatres, Teaching Rooms or Other Rooms.

The information available on these pages will be as follows:

the availability of each room for the next three months (click on Diary on the right-hand side)
the list of equipment, which is available in the room (click on Info on the right-hand side)
the images of each room (click on Photo on the right-hand side)

Step 3 - Book room/equipment/catering

Please provide UCL Room Bookings with all the details of your requirements for hardware and software as well as audio-visual equipment. This is critical to ensure that you are allocated a room with the right equipment for your event. You may be asked to speak directly with staff responsible for technical services to ensure IT compatibility.
If you do book your room via a departmental secretary or administrator, it is important that you are precise in your requirements for AV or IT equipment. You are advised to check that your needs have been understood and communicated fully to Room Bookings.
Confirmation of bookings will be sent by either email or hard copy. Please check this confirmation for inaccuracies or omissions.
Book a time prior to the lecture if you are unfamiliar with the room to check the room and the equipment.
If assistance from a member of the Audiovisual Centre is required for the beginning of your lecture or for a prior session, please book this directly with the AV (ext 46677 or av-support@ucl.ac.uk).

The Room and Conference Bookings Office is open from 8am to 7pm, Monday - Friday.
Requests to book rooms may be made by telephone 020 7679 1819 (ext 41819) or by emailing roombookings@ucl.ac.uk.

When booking a room by email, please remember to include:

the date(s) of your booking
start time and end time
number of participants
preferred room/type
and for teaching events, the module/course code.

Problems during an event

If you experience difficulties in a centrally bookable room, you should call the telephone numbers which are displayed in all such rooms. All centrally bookable rooms are equipped with a telephone for outgoing calls only.

Difficulties with equipment (AV or IT)
Please call the AV Centre on ext 46677 for immediate action.
AV colleagues are on site from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
Any other difficulties (cleaning, broken furniture, heating, ventilation, lighting, etc)
Please call Room Bookings on ext 41819 as staff will be able to assess which part of the UCL Estates is concerned and liaise with the appropriate unit.
Room Bookings staff are on site from 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday.

After you have used the room

Please send your requests/suggestions/complaints by email to roombookings@ucl.ac.uk.

Room Bookings staff will then contact the appropriate unit depending on the nature of the communication. You will be sent feedback by email within two working days of your message being received to acknowledge receipt and to inform you of the action taken or to explain the reason for possible delays.

If you do not receive such feedback or are not satisfied with the response, please contact:

Follow-up after your event
Alec Gray
Room Bookings Manager
Tel: 020 7679 1819 (ext 41819)
Email: alexander.gray@ucl.ac.uk
If your original message concerned AV or IT equipment:
AV Centre Manager
Tel: 020 7679 6676 (ext 46676)
Email: av-support@ucl.ac.uk
Jeremy Speller
Head of Media Services
Tel: 020 7679 4906 (ext 24906)
Email: j.speller@ucl.ac.uk

ONLINE BOOKING:

View all bookable rooms and space

Search for bookable space

RELATED LINKS:

Guidelines for Booking a Room at UCL

Further Information for External Clients

Audiovisual Equipment

Organising Events

Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech

Academic Calendar 2012-2013 (PDF)

Academic Calendar 2013-2014 (PDF)

IS Conferences

UCLGuest Wireless Access

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