After 15 years as a direct sales consultant juggling to find inexpensive and appropriate meeting spaces, Alayna Stiffler decided to make a change to help all those in her situation. The Locust Grove resident founded A.D.S. Meeting and Training Center at 107 and 708 Westwood Office Park in Fredericksburg.
“Small business owners, including those in direct sales, are challenged finding locations to hold meetings,” Stiffler said. She knew this from personal experience. Once meeting at a local coffee shop, she noticed people at the next table listening in. Another time she caught someone stealing from her home as they left a meeting there. When her reservation for a restaurant’s back room was double-booked and her group was seated instead in the main dining room, she was greeted by a person at an adjacent table saying, “Lady, I’m having dinner with my family, and I don’t want to hear your meeting.”
Stiffler had been contemplating the start of a meeting room business. The clincher came when for the third consecutive month the room she’d booked had been double-booked. “I realized then and there it was time to take my idea to reality,” she said.
A.D.S. Meeting & Training Center is designed to meet the needs of any group. It’s a do-it-yourself setting, in which tools are available to set-up within the right sized room by those holding the meeting. The tools include tables, chairs, dry erase boards, two flat screens, password protected Wifi, projection cabling and coffee, tea and creamer. The meeting rooms are dismantled and cleaned after each use. “You can walk in anytime and design your own space because the rooms are cleaned and ready,” Stiffler said.
Rooms range in size from the smallest at 600 square feet to the largest at 2,000 square feet. Rooms may be rented for recurring or one time use. There are no leases.
The rooms have been used for direct sales meetings, baby and bridal showers, holiday parties, co-working space, trainings, and bridal party dressing rooms. “Space has even been reserved as a backup for a small outdoor wedding, should it rain,” Stiffler said.
Rental rates are customized, based on a client’s needs. There are special rates for direct sales and nonprofit groups.
Parking is abundant and free. “The parking lots are well lit and frequently patrolled by Fredericksburg police,” Stiffler said.
A.D.S. is adjacent to restaurants and stores, including Staples. It’s minutes off I-95 and halfway between Richmond and D.C. “It’s a great centralized, easily accessible meeting location with conveniences right next door,” Stiffler said.
“I saw the need and the need still exists,” said Stiffler. Customers agree. Norwex Independent Sales Consultant Leona VanGee holds regular meeting at A.D.S. “This is an asset to the community,” she said.
For more information about A.D.S. Meeting and Training Center, call Alayna Stiffler at 540-370-0000.
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