Although it is rare nowadays to step into a coffee shop without seeing at least one meeting in full swing, flexible working for some executives can be more of an intrepid experience. In a new global survey, they have revealed that they are all but traditional in their choice of meeting location. More than 26,000 respondents from over 90 countries were asked the strangest place where they had ever had a business meeting, with the oddest venues including a convent, an old railway tunnel, a nursery and a maggot farm.

Some of the locations revealed by the study seem more suited to an action-packed thriller, others indicate that there’s literally nowhere that business people consider off-limits for a meeting; they include in an airline hangar, on a submarine, down a mine, in an out-of-service elevator and on an old shrimper.

Common grab-a-meeting venues seem to be cars and coffee shops while planes and airports are also popular choices reflecting the international nature of business today. However, it gets curiouser: toilets and bathrooms feature recurrently among global respondents.

On the upside, swimming pools, saunas, beaches and yachts all feature frequently throughout the responses, showing that business meetings aren’t always such hard work.

Although peaceful and quiet, it is unlikely that caves will become a hit any time soon! A wedding banquet, however, would be far more palatable.

A Regus spokesperson comments: “The strange places that people find themselves in for business meetings, from bathrooms to abandoned buildings and beaches show just how open-minded and flexible people have become in the business world. The venues revealed in this research may not be to everyone’s liking, and some certainly give pause for thought in terms of safety and professionalism.

Luckily for less adventurous professionals, a huge network of professional and productive meeting places is available around the world helping them focus on targets rather than their unusual surroundings.”

Regus is the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces, with products and services ranging from fully equipped offices to professional meeting rooms, business lounges and the world’s largest network of video communication studios.

Top 10 strangest meeting places globally

In the bath
At a cycling event
In a cave
A rubbish dump
At a wedding banquet
On a sleigh during a sleigh ride
A Brussels sprout field
On a Navy warship
In a shed
In an office pantry