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“Vibes of your meeting room drives the tribe”
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “corporate meetings” or “business meeting”. You must be getting visions of some bunch of people sitting in a room with their notes, dull and boring who has to listen to the person presenting for hours. Whereas, meeting rooms are the best place to collaborate with teams and clients for discussion but it depends on the ambience the room has to have long productive meetings.
You must be wondering how we can achieve that? No worries, you are on the right platform to know everything about a well planned meeting room.
Nowadays in each and every corporate setup meeting rooms are essential. According to some estimates, middle-rank managers spend over a third of their time at work holding or attending meetings, and for executives, this figure can approach 50%!
What all should be considered before planning a meeting room?
To start with one should be clear about their requirements, for example number of attendees, location of the room, size of the room required or available, number of rooms required for meeting, one or more that one etc. For an effective meeting room setup it is important to keep attendees comfortable, promote communication, and encourage creativity, which will eventually enhance the meeting’s efficiency.
Deciding the objective of the meeting room will help in overall designing. Objectives can be group discussion, team building activities, client meetings, or just listening to the person presenting.
Then come the type of furniture required for a room. If you are clear with the number of attendees then deciding the size, number and type of furniture required become easy. Duration of meetings are usually long hence your furniture should be ergonomic for comfortable and healthy discussions.
Proper lighting and ventilation should be taken care of. Group discussion or writing notes require proper lighting onto the table where as if there are some screen presentations going on then the dim lights are preferred hence the objective should be clear so that the lighting can be decided accordingly. Similarly ventilation is also important which can be achieved by the number of occupancy, size of the room and the nominal temperature required inside it.
If you are clear with your objective you can easily decide what all technologies are required for your room. If you do online meetings with your client you will need proper Wi-Fi connections for smooth meetings and proper cable connections onto your table. If your meetings require presenting something then you may need a projector and a screen or smart screen connected with individual laptops.
After deciding all these parameters you can work on decor of the room. You can paint your room with vibrant colours for vibrant meetings but remember not to go for very dark colors which make look much smaller than usual. One wall can be highlighted with some inspirational quotes to motivate your team.
Now that the basics of the meeting room is decided you can pick perfect in which you can place your furniture:
1. Auditorium Style
This style of rooms is designed as a row of chairs facing the front of the room. They have a big stage. Usually divided by the center and/or side aisles to allow space to move with ease. If the number of people attending the meeting is in a hundred, then this set up style would be a great idea.
Mostly, it is appropriate for mass meetings, annual general meetings, or any launch meeting.
2. Classroom Style
It is best suited for training and lectures. However, avoid squeezing too many people to fit at one table. Since they won’t be comfortable while sitting and can’t focus on training. It is also called “the school style.” It works as its name sounds like.
If the mood of the meeting is light and you have arranged snacks for a huge number of people, this style is preferable. Chairs and tables are arranged to face the front. This kind of setup can be used if you provide your audience with plated food, use their laptops, or take notes during the meeting.
3. U-Shaped Style
This style is best suited if there is a need to combine both presentation and some group interactions or discussions. This style is opportune for small annual general meetings, conferences, and workshops.
Here the Placing of the conference tables is done end to end with one opening. Therefore forming a U shape is another type of set-up style. This style is very common in offices. There is another option of putting a round table and placing the seats around leaving one opening at one end for presentation. Normally the purpose of the opening is to allow visual presentations. So that everyone can see comfortably.
4. V-shaped Style
In this setup, tables and chairs are tilted with an upwards and inward angle. So that even the person on the farthest end of each row can see the speaker. It makes the audience sitting at the back comfortably. They can enjoy the event with smoothness. It enhances concentration during the meetings as well as other benefits mentioned above in the classroom setup style. Additionally, it is appropriate for group training and lectures.
5. Boardroom Style
If you are planning to conduct board of directors meetings, committee meetings, team briefings, and interviews, boardroom style is well-suited.
Offbeat the U style, here seats are on all sides of the tables. A rectangular or an oval table is tailor-made for such a setup. Per contra, if the group is large, you can join tables to form a hollow square informing of a boardroom. If you want to conduct face to face interaction, then it is justified to use this style. However, be careful with the numbers. Since, they determine if you will use a hollow square, a rectangular boardroom set up or just one table. This as a result impacts the communication aspects.
6. Fishbowl style.
6. Fishbowl style.
It is best for discussion-type events as it excludes tables. A lot of chairs are put in an inner circle, while the rest are placed in concentric circles around them. People in the inner circle start the discussion. One central seat may be left vacant, from the outer circle to join in at will. Well-suited for forums and large group meetings. However, this layout could become a problem for attendees who would be reluctant or afraid to participate. A good alternative for them could be placing chairs in one wide circle (open space). These spaces are often used for team building and networking.
Based on your requirement, you can choose the style of meeting room you need to have in your office. If you have huge space, and your requirement is multiple according to the purpose, you have multiple meeting rooms in your office.
After reading all the styles you must be clear of what style best suits into your setup. And if there are still some doubts in your head you can always contact a designer who will provide the best interior and architectural design along with high-quality aesthetics and functionality. He will take care of even the inches of your needs, so you don't have to lose your productivity and also he will make sure that it drives the results desired by you.
If your business deserves the best then why compromise with the ordinary!
Let’s start creating the results your business deserves!
Written by Akhilesh Leekha (September 2020)
Transcript (adding flavor in writing) and Design by Ar. Anshul Ghanghas (October 2020)
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