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Designing a Sophisticated Conference Room

Interior Design Tips office interior design

March 1, 2022

How To Design A Sophisticated Conference Room

This is the space where your team members come together to share ideas, collaborate, conduct meetings and presentations, and have private conversations. Your meeting room should be a tranquil and collaborative space where creativity is encouraged, and employees look forward to being.

Designing a modern conference room is quite an exciting venture, but it can become a bit overwhelming when all the technicalities arise. That is why we have put together a few pointers that will guide you to becoming a competent conference room designer.

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Meeting Room Technology

This may seem like an obvious one, but you would be surprised to learn how big of an impact updated conference room tech can have on productivity.

Communication is key to the success of any company. If, like so many, you have a distributed team, nothing puts a spoke in the productivity wheel like a loss of connection, bad sound quality, or poor video quality from any meeting participants whilst video conferencing.

We will get to some of the latest conference room technology trends later.

Technology Incompatibility

Technology is the sole key to having productive meetings in our day and age. With many businesses, the technology in even modern conference rooms is flawed due to incompatibility with smartphones and tablets. With the growing number of people working from home, it is essential to ensure that each meeting takes place with the help of software that will agree with each team member’s personal devices. This only strengthens the hybrid workplace model of your office.

But enough about technology in conference rooms…for now at least.

Space And Comfort

With everything that is going on regarding the pandemic today, not everybody feels entirely comfortable being crammed into confined spaces and meeting rooms just yet. It is important to respect these concerns by creating an environment where larger groups have more space to breathe.

Employees can focus optimally if they feel safe in their meeting space. The support you can lend to your team will go a long way to create satisfaction in each person. Despite meetings typically taking place behind closed doors, many businesses fail to create even just the illusion of personal space.

5 TIPS FOR CREATING THE PERFECT CONFERENCE ROOM DESIGN

1. Different Conference Rooms Have Different Purposes

When designing meeting spaces, it is important to consider the purpose of the room along with the experienced employees and clients will have in it. As there are many different types of meeting spaces, each team should have a room equipped with everything they need to conduct more productive meetings. Let’s explore some of the different kinds of conference rooms.

The Meeting Room

Intended for smaller groups, these conference rooms are great for having more intimate interactions where participants can collaborate on various topics. Team members can support and improve on each other’s ideas through having an interactive conversation rather than keeping their eyes fixed on a screen.

The Team Room

Not dissimilar from the meeting room, the team room is also meant for smaller groups. This room is ideal for an interactive display as the risk of disorganization present with larger groups is eliminated. Here, employees can strategize and focus on elaborating on ideas. The team room is equipped with video conference technology in case a team member is not present in the office.

The Board Room

The board room is the large conference room we all know so well. Among all the meeting rooms, this is where the larger events take place. Equipped with the best video conferencing technology, this space allows businesses to host longer meetings with quite a lot of participants, either virtually or physically present. Regarded as the “main” conference room, the board room will have a large table and enough chairs for all the participants.

2. Organization In A Conference Room Design

In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”

These words should be the air you breathe when designing your conference room. In keeping everything organized, you will save a lot of time looking for things and setting up the systems. The flow of communication between you and your team will certainly improve when all the focus is on the topic at hand instead of the state of the conference room.

Your conference room should be tidy, and everything should have its allocated place. Some things that may assist in keeping everything neat are waste bins, cable management, wireless audio aids, wireless presentation technology, and smart storage solutions.

Clutter is always a threat to your conference room design when various aids and technological systems are necessary. It is crucial that all employees in your company feel organized in their space before the meeting even commences.

We will elaborate on all the new technologies available to optimize your meeting environment in a later section.

3. Interior Designing Aspect Of A Conference Room

Designing a conference room can be challenging in the respect that you want to generate a comfortable and comely atmosphere while also maintaining the professionalism required for optimum productivity.

Striking this balance is crucial in your conference room design. To create inviting conditions, factors such as the color of the walls and the lighting can have a big impact. Larger rooms would be complemented best by brighter colors, white walls, and bright lighting, whereas a smaller conference room always looks well-rounded with warmer, more neutral color tones and softer lighting.

These are, of course, only guidelines and you should always have the freedom to add your company’s own special character. Glass walls are as attractive as any, but they do work better with larger conference rooms.

The magic of natural light should never be underestimated. It generates a sense of liberation and openness so often craved in an office setting. A person can really breathe in the presence of large fixed windows, for example. Such features are often missing from offices and can lead to a certain feeling of incarceration between company walls.

4. Location, Location, Location!

Imagine walking three flights of stairs every time your team members call a meeting. Sure, one could argue that it aids in fitness and health, but truth be told, people will get frustrated. It is important to think about the positioning of a conference room in terms of how far each team member needs to travel for meetings.

When the inconvenience of meeting other employees becomes too great, people might just start getting lazy in their communication by simply sending a message through email or Slack, for example, instead of officially calling a meeting in allocated spaces. This will lead to a general disconnection where support and content sharing are no longer the themes of the office.

Conversely, suppose a conference room is located two feet away from some employees’ tables in the office. In that case, it may become prevalent that certain individuals are not spending enough time away from their desks. A change of scenery is sure to bring about creativity.

The placement of spaces should be designed after careful examination of their purpose. A suitable guideline would be to place smaller rooms around the interior of the office where employees could have private conversations and phone calls without being interrupted. Other rooms meant for presentations, and brainstorming sessions would do well when placed more around the edges of the office, giving access to natural light. Meetings in these rooms are bound to increase creativity and productivity.

5. The Technology You Need For An Effective Conference Room

Technology is not just a tool but an absolute must-have in our day and age. With the hybrid workplace model being all the more central, meetings really come to life when participants can effectively communicate and interact with in-office employees, regardless of their locations and time zones.

With all the different conference room technologies making their depute in recent years, we will outline some of the most versatile and practical ways to optimize your conference room.

Digital Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards can make a major difference in creative collaboration during meetings. This allows members in the office and those who join the conference call remotely to actively build on ideas and share documents that all participants can view and consider.

Interactive whiteboards are a great way to deliver presentations, allowing for support and interaction. It may also be beneficial to have video walls large enough for every participant to see clearly. There is nothing more frustrating than not seeing or hearing what is being discussed and analyzed in meetings.

LED Video Walls

Although LED video walls used to be too expensive to incorporate into a space, they have recently become quite affordable and have proven to be one of the most innovative means of display in conference room designs.

They have the ability to display bright and vibrant colors, providing high-quality presentations that look great from any angle in the room.

LED video walls might seem a bit extravagant for smaller conference rooms where an HD TV might do the trick, but they are extremely efficient in boosting a large conference call to a higher level of modernity and quality.

Wireless Presentation

Although a good old-fashioned HDMI cable has always stepped in to help, having a wireless setup will surely save a lot of time and effort. You don’t want to have to mess around with a thousand wires and cables every time someone wants to share content from their own device.

When your entire setup is designed to support a wireless presentation, meeting participants can activate their screen sharing and display their content on video walls without anybody ever having to leave their chairs.

Video Conferencing Technology

With more and more companies embracing work-from-home opportunities, it is essential to integrate effective video conference technology. Most digital spaces where video conferencing occurs adequately supply all kinds of methods that improve content sharing during meetings.

Just look at Microsoft Teams. You can do just about anything from whiteboard interactions to sharing and watching educational videos on a single platform in this space.

It is important to realize that you will need the right equipment to make your video conference a success. Obviously, a good camera is essential. It would be smart to use a camera with a wide-angle lens so all participants are visible, regardless of the size of the meeting.

Speakers and microphones can make or break meetings. Be sure to install microphones of excellent quality and speakers that will deliver clear and uninterrupted sound. Some companies invest in the best speakers but do not consider how sound might be diminished in a conference room. It is, therefore, worth the trouble to install acoustic panels.

These panels don’t have to clash with your aesthetic design as there are very stylish options out there. Acoustic panels are very beneficial in providing discretion in private meetings while improving the sound quality immensely.

Place your microphones, cameras, and speakers strategically in various locations to maximize the equity in your conference room.

There You Have It!

Conference rooms are the “safe zones” of any work environment. Whether you’re hosting guests or sharing ideas with team members, a conference room with state-of-the-art technology and suitable furnishing can create a collaborative space where everyone feels comfortable expressing their concerns and sharing their ideas with one another.

At the beginning of the design process, it is crucial to consider the purpose of the space. Are you going to host guests? Have a coffee nook! Is your team considerably large? Ensure adequate seating and table space.

A conference room has the potential to have a big impact on your office. They are responsible for creating long-lasting first impressions as well as ensuring workplace productivity and success.

When times get tough, and anxiety becomes prevalent, a conference room can be like a sanctuary where problems are solved, and concepts and concerns gain a voice in the company. Human interaction has the ability to relieve stress and maintain relationships that just might be the only thing getting you through the day. This is something that most people realized in the time of the pandemic, and supporting this natural human need can be key to the up-keep of positive attitudes and mental health.

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