Startup Idea: Campus-Wide Conference Room Booking System

Startup idea to develop a standalone software or an Outlook add-on that displays a real-time campus map with conference room availability and details, and allows direct room booking that syncs with Outlook Calendars. The map will include room capacity, AV capabilities and other amenities, and indicate room availability using a color-coded system.

I work in an office setting with a campus of about 1,000 people spread over 5 buildings. Our work constantly involves collaboration with people in other buildings through face-to-face meetings, and finding suitable conference rooms is always a challenge.

My idea: standalone software or an add-on for Microsoft Outlook that shows a campus map with real-time data on booked conference rooms. It would be a bird's eye view of floor plans with conference rooms highlighted to show their availability at a given time:

• Green for available
• Yellow for available, but another meeting is booked within 30 minutes
• Red for unavailable

The map would also include the following information on rooms:

• Room capacity
• Room AV capabilities (video conferencing, room PC, cables for laptop)
• Other room amenities (whiteboard, smartboard, cork wall)

And the software would allow direct booking that would sync with Outlook calendars for all people invited. Currently, we use a list of rooms in Outlook to book meeting rooms, but there is no context to which building they are in, what the room setup is like or what AV amenities exist (some don't have phones, which is awkward for teleconference meetings). We have been unable to find a single tool that would provide a campus map to give precise directions as well as direct booking and real-time availability.