Conference rooms can either be a place of dread or a social paradise for your employees. A good conference room can go a long way toward inspiring creativity, productivity and collaboration in your business. Investing in an an effective conference room should be a high priority for any business. Here are a few tips for making your conference room the go to destination for collaboration in your office.
Accessibility
A good conference room should always be well stocked and easily accessible. If you don’t have enough materials or furnishing to accommodate everyone you risk leaving people out and alienating them from participating. You don’t want employees constantly running in and out of your conference room to resupply it with with the necessary tools for the job.
Space
Although it’s important for your conference room to be fully furnished, you also want to leave room for your employees to comfortably sprawl out. The more space you have for writing surfaces, chalkboards and whiteboards, the more opportunities people will have to communicate their ideals and join in on the process.
Bring People Together
Having enough space for everyone to participate is important, but don’t overdo it. If you make everything too spread out you risk distancing people from one another and making it unnecessarily difficult for them to share with one another. You want to find the sweet spot between having enough space to accommodate everyone but also encouraging people to get closer to one another.
Be Informal
You want your conference room design to encourage collaborative contributions and the sharing of ideas. Soft furnishings, informal seating, warm colors and an intimate layout will go a long way toward making your conference room relaxed and enjoyable for all your guests.
Convenience
A good conference room is conveniently accessible to everyone in the office. Make sure that furnishings in the hallway direct people to the conference room rather than hinder the flow of traffic. Invest in conference room technology that will enable people to access meetings remotely.
Shape Equality
Consider how you’ve chosen to shape your conference room. A rectangular conference table will designate a group leader to the head of the table, whereas a round table creates equality and signals for everyone to participate. Round tables also make it difficult for employees to hide away from interacting with their coworkers.
Create the Perfect Conference Room with Help from Glover Furniture
Need to furnish a new conference room? Glover Furniture can help. Glover Furniture and Design Group is a woman-owned and operated business that serves the Delmarva region with educational, institutional, and commercial furniture and design services. For information on how we can optimize your office design, give us a call at 1-800-966-9016 or contact us online. To see examples of our work and stay in touch, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.