Meetings, what is a workplace without them? Having internal meetings with your team, meetings with the managers to streamline the workflow within the office, and most importantly, meetings with new and old clients - they are an essential part of running a business. And the best place to host most of these meetings is a well-equipped and set up the conference room.
Your conference room makes a strong and vital impression on your workplace. It is a space that can spark unique ideas, induce higher productivity levels, and score even the most sought-after clients. By creating a professional yet comfortable environment within your conference room, you can avoid any distractions and optimize it for maximum functionality.
Unfortunately, conference rooms are often found lacking in office buildings. This had led to people complaining about inefficient meetings that added value to their work. The Harvard Business Review surveyed 182 senior managers across America to find that 71% of them believe meetings are unproductive, while 62% said that the meetings held at their workplace tend to miss an excellent opportunity to bring together the team.
So, what is the first step in ensuring that meetings are productive and offer value to the attendees? Setting up an appropriate conference room, of course! Let's determine the best ways to accomplish this using modern design trends for conference rooms.
Design a Modern Conference Room
Before proceeding with the specific changes you can make in your conference rooms, you should first consider the main purpose of the room. Will it be used for internal meetings and training sessions? Or will you be hosting video conferences with international clients and pitching new projects?
Your conference rooms need to be optimized based on what they will be most used for. Determining its central purpose beforehand will allow you to focus on designing the conference room for maximum functionality and usability.
Regardless of what you plan to use the conference room for, remember that it needs to be optimized with a modern touch. Sprucing it up with a professional touch through 4K displays, ergonomic furniture, and other A/V tools can make the conference room an innovative and productive space to host meetings.
Include Video Capabilities
Having well setup audiovisual functionality within the conference room is a great way to set your meetings up for success. Video equipment should no longer be considered a luxury that is meant only for fancy conference rooms. It has become an essential design trend for conference rooms and should be included in all of them.
This is especially true in offices where hybrid and remote work is becoming the norm. With video equipment, you can ensure that your entire team attends and participates in the meetings without anybody missing out simply because they won't be coming into the office on that day.
While considering the floor plans and setting aside space for your conference rooms, do remember to consider what type of screen and camera setup will perform best within that space. Having the same equipment installed across all the conference rooms is often the most effective way to go about it. It allows easy training of your AV personnel, and you can easily acquire the equipment from a single manufacturer at the best prices.
However, this isn't always doable since certain spaces can have unique AV demands. By carefully considering these demands, you can ensure that each conference room has the most efficient setup needed for highly productive meetings.
It is worth consulting an AV expert regarding the best setup for your conference rooms. They will be able to guide you best on the screens and video equipment to use.
Tuck Away the Cabling
Do you enjoy the sight of cables duct-taped on the floor and walls? Of course not! It is a horrible sight and can make any space look extremely unkempt and messy. Exposed cabling is a major indication of the fact that the design of your conference room was an afterthought at best. This hardly makes it a space that would drive people to perform at their best and bring their most creative selves forward.
An impeccable conference room design should have all the cables and wires tucked away neatly. It is true that you won't be able to hide away every cable or cord, especially if you have a complex AV setup done in the conference room.
But you should still try your best to ensure that you are organized in a neat and discrete manner. Try to arrange the furniture in a way that hides away most of the cabling so that your conference room looks professional and uncluttered.
Focus on Flexible and Smart Meeting Spots
Large conference halls make the perfect areas for client meetings and departmental check-ins. But designing such conference rooms requires plenty of brainstorming and conceptualization.
Instead of trying to design the entire space as one large room, a better way to go about it is to turn it into smaller, flexible conference spaces.
You might think that this would require tearing down drywall and installing doors, but it can actually be done with some simple wall dividers (the removable kind!) to divide the conference room space into smaller areas. Using removable dividers also allows you the option of merging the space back together for larger training sessions and conferences.
Before you get started with designing such large conference rooms, be sure to spend an ample amount of time and effort in strategizing an effective layout for the entire space. Consider different chair arrangements and the best furniture to make the most of this area.
Ask whether a large conference room table would be feasible if you end up transforming the space into smaller meeting rooms. Would smaller tables work well if there's a need to merge the space back together?
Contemplate all of these options before you make the final decisions about the conference room layout and seating configurations.
LED Video Walls Are All In
LED Video Walls are the most innovative design trend for conference rooms in 2022. They can instantly transform the functionality of any conference room and make it significantly more effective for a better flow of work.
Not too long ago, LEDs were considered the unicorns of the conference room. They were extremely difficult to acquire and cost a ton, causing most offices to be unable to afford them within their conference room design budgets. Fortunately, LEDs have now become significantly cheaper and easy to get, allowing businesses to have the best displays in their conference rooms without having to dig too far into their budgets.
LED technology is a world apart from any projector display or even the usual monitors that have been used in conference rooms so far. It allows a mesmerizing display of colors with high-quality and extremely sharp images no matter which angle they are viewed from. This proves to be quite an asset for conference rooms that have a circular layout.
Moreover, LED video walls are easy to set up. They require minimal maintenance and boast high energy efficiency levels.
Install Ergonomic Furniture
Your employees can only perform at their best in a conference room if they are comfortable, and the best way to bring comfort into any workspace is by opting for ergonomic furniture.
The beauty of ergonomic furniture lies in the fact that it is specially designed to meet your body's exact needs while you work. It ensures the screen is at the right level for minimal eye strain, keeps your body in the correct posture as you sit to work, and offers exceptional comfort to prevent shoulder pains and neck strain.
One such ergonomic product is the Premium Ergonomic Office Chair (C7) by FlexiSpot, and it is an essential piece of furniture for your conference room. This ergonomic chair comes with 3D lumbar support and a 135* lounging tilt for maximum comfort. It has a three-height adjustment levels system with gentle rebounding and an elegantly curved backrest.
The backrest naturally supports the curve of your back, offering maximum comfort to your neck and spine. The chair is made of a breathable mesh made from imported Italian chenille for ventilation.
The Premium Ergonomic Office Chair (C7) is also equipped with well-cushioned 4D armrests that are adjustable as per your seating position. It has been tested with over 10000+ pressure cycles to offer you the best quality.
Intelligent Acoustics and Noise Control
Now that your team is seated comfortably and has the best possible environment for work, the final thing to consider is the room acoustics. It is important for your conference room to have crystal clear acoustics to allow optimal focus on work and productive meetings.
You should utilize sound absorption techniques and acoustic or sound panels to create a space with minimal noise interruption. This allows proper sound management inside your conference rooms.
Intelligent acoustics aren't just important for team meetings and internal sessions; they also play an essential role in discussions with your clients. Moreover, the conference room will probably be used to host private meetings and conversations during which you'd prefer to ensure that the sound doesn't travel out of the room. For all of these purposes, you should plan out your room acoustics well.
