Patent ID: 8346589

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of scheduling conference rooms comprising: performing the steps of the method by a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the steps of the method comprising: in response to a predefined triggering event, retrieving stored conference room scheduling information corresponding to a respective conference room scheduling request for a respective meeting, the request having a respective requester and including a plurality of constraints including at least a list of invitees and at least one time-of-meeting constraint; selecting a combination of conference room assignments, for a plurality of conference room scheduling requests including the respective conference room scheduling request, in accordance with conference room assignment fitness scores for each of a plurality of potential combinations of conference room assignments; and assigning conference rooms to respective requests in the plurality of conference room scheduling requests in accordance with the selected combination; and transmitting information concerning the conference room assignment for the respective conference room scheduling request to at least the requester or an invitee of the respective meeting, wherein the plurality of conference room scheduling requests for which a combination of conference room assignments is selected comprises a set of conference room scheduling requests that includes one or more other conference room scheduling requests that have meeting times that overlap with other conference room scheduling requests in the set, and wherein each of the one or more other conference room scheduling requests has an associated plurality of constraints, and the selecting includes optimizing the combination of conference room assignments in accordance with the constraints associated with each of the conference room scheduling requests in the set of conference room scheduling requests.