The days of plotting to upgrade your cramped corporate cubicle digs with a nice chunk of corner office space are coming to an end. The mobile employee is the aspirational model for professionals these days. And it works for their managers too, since it saves money: With concerns over capital investment, operational costs and carbon footprint, companies are evaluating their use of building square footage more than ever.

More and more employees are working flex hours, telecommuting and making other adjustments. In fact, this trend has paved the way for an emerging science called "Strategic Space Alignment" (SSA), in which commercial property managers seek to optimize the square footage in a building - whether an office, a retail center or a university property - so that the carbon footprint is reduced and maximum use is made of the occupied space.

But no matter how efficiently space is used - and regardless of whether employees can work from wherever they want - face-to-face meetings are still needed for certain projects. Which means companies need a conference room, even if the place sits empty for many hours of a work day.

Until now, that is. A Seattle-based company named eVenues is helping office-space decision makers rethink the entire concept of the conference room. It's created an online destination marketplace that connects the meeting space "need" with available venues. It can accommodate individuals and businesses based on variables such as date/time/type of meeting, kind of business, availability, size, duration, location and budget. The solution is also convenient for today's mobile professional, traveling entrepreneurs or speakers in unfamiliar cities. They can use their smartphone to find a close and available spot and book it from their device using a credit card in less than two minutes. eVenues now oversees more than 100 spaces in 47 venues in more than two-dozen cities and is adding two venues a day.

eVenues also serves the needs of businesses that need to temporarily expand capacity and/or house additional temp staff for new projects. It's been used by educators, who seek the venues to stage temporary classrooms and workshops. And conference coordinators can stage seminars without resorting to expensive hotels or conference centers.

For companies with room to spare, it serves as a revenue-generator. Facilities managers at these companies go to eVenues' site, rent out their unused space, and eVenues will send them a check. In order for a venue's space to show up for rent in the central marketplace, a venue must complete its profile by pricing their space by the hour or day and turn on their availability. eVenues operates the central reservation system but gives these companies a free, easy-to-use room manager service to help oversee their own listings and availability, track reservations and handles automatic payment. Venues can use eVenues every day or they can use the service only when they have space to spare, similar to the way eBay works.

"This brings people together in an affordable way," says David Jennings, co-founder. "It leverages new technology and the methods for how consumers want to find and rent available space. At the same time, it gives venue managers a simple way to market and manage the efficiencies of their spaces."