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In Microsoft Outlook meetings and events, you have the option to add a location. Often times that location is an online meeting, but there are also a number of conference rooms you can reserve via Outlook.
These rooms are separate from Series25 and Campus Scheduling. In contrast, many Outlook conference rooms are managed by specific departments, or are only bookable by certain groups.
If there is a meeting room in your department's area that is not mean to be bookable by all St. Thomas, it is a best practice to work with ITS to set up an Outlook conference room. Outlook rooms prevent double-booking, allow ITS and owners to manage the room calendars, and are not tied to individual user accounts. Although you can create shared calendars on your own for this purpose, it is better to have an ITS managed Outlook room that is not connected to any one person or account.
Using Room Finder to Book a Room
Please read this Microsoft article to learn how to locate, check availability, and reserve rooms in Outlook:
Use the Scheduling Assistant and Room Finder for meetings in Outlook (microsoft.com)
If you add a Teams meeting or Zoom meeting to your Outlook meeting invitation, the join link will show in the location space by default. For hybrid meetings, you can add the Teams/Zoom online meeting and then remove the link from the location field. Then select or enter the physical location or room where the in person part of the meeting will be held.
Requesting a Bookable Room in Outlook
If your department has a space that you wish to make bookable in Outlook, please submit a ticket here. You will need to provide the following information:
- Room Name:
- Most Outlook rooms are named after building, room number, and purpose. For example, LIB 204 Conference Room, OEC 002 Multimedia Studio.
- Room Number:
- Building (OEC, MHC, ASC, etc.):
- Room capacity:
- Who can book the room:
- This can be a security group that already exists, or a list of users.
- Should reservations in the room be approved? If so, by who?
Please note, you can also request other bookable resources in Outlook. For example, a shared departmental vehicle. Or, a co-working space that can be booked by a set number of people for a certain amount of time. If you wish to request something other than a regular conference room, please use the same request form. There may need to be a consultation with ITS to make sure you get what you need.