[NEW YORK] About once a month, Therese Hampton flies from Portland, Oregon, where her home office is based, to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a 35-minute flight, to meet with co-workers.

She does not go far from there. She joins her colleagues, many of whom also fly in, from the Public Generating Pool, a clearinghouse for 11 public utilities in Oregon and Washington state, where she is executive director. They meet in a room at the airport's Conference Center, which has 8,220 square feet of meeting space, including an auditorium and individual rooms from 450 to 1,100 sq ft that can be combined for larger spaces. Typically, the day-long event will have guest presentations about emerging industry issues. She flies out the same day.

As travel budgets shrink and companies scrutinise productivity, business travellers may discover that the next meeting destination is not a plush resort or downtown hotel, but an airport.