The conference room really is the nerve center of your organization. It could be where you outline your strategy to conquer the world and smite your enemies, or at least discuss how to grow market share in a competitive culture.
Some companies refer to it as the war room, and design it with a bunker-like look and feel, where every meeting feels more like you’re mounting a noble campaign vs. going over dull quarterly sales forecasts – again.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. While you probably can’t escape more budget presentations, you can envision better conference meeting rooms, with comfy chairs, the ability to easily connect multimedia equipment, and enough room for everyone to have a say. Throw in an inspiring view and your whole outlook can change.
To get you inspired to create a better official gathering place at your workplace, take a look at some of these great locations.
Foursquare - The world headquarters of this New York City-based location app focuses on fun and innovation through its whole culture, including a ping-pong table and gymnastics area. The office in the Soho neighborhood at Broadway and Houston is designed to be bright and shiny, but fun and productive. There are four themed conference rooms based on Foursquare tags which are designed to trigger different ways of thinking or different types of projects. These include “I Love Brooklyn/Brooklyn for Life” that resembles a sparse walk-up apartment, except with a huge white board; and “The Socialite” with an elegant palette of furnishings and colors and even a chandelier. Some conference rooms provide stellar views of the Manhattan skyline.
KBP West - The advertising firm has received accolades for its marketing skills plus its impressively designed office in San Francisco. Jensen Architects/Jensen & Macy Architects created the look, which includes three distinct meeting rooms, separated by soundproof walls. However, if needed, the walls can all be lifted and all three rooms can become a larger central meeting hall. The conference meeting rooms also include libraries, and swiveling chairs in bright complementary colors, rather than traditionally sedate furnishings.
The Bannff Centre - The conference center in British Columbia, Canada, is designed especially to inspire businesses to innovate and make creative decisions, whether they are local firms wanting to gather in a better location than their facility, or for groups of diverse businessmen and businesswoman to come together at a central location. At the Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation Meeting Rooms, visitors will find 17 different-sized conference rooms throughout the seven-floor building, some with multiple boardroom tables, but all with a striking view of the beautiful Borgeau Mountains.
Trip Advisor, Singapore - The travel and booking site brought in renowned design firm Kyoob-id to come up with something special for its Asia Pacific office location. The final look was intended to be a travel experience for employees, but the good kind of travel that can be fun, creative and nourishing. Its seven conference meeting rooms all have a focus on natural lighting, lighter colored furnishings, and a bright white central conference table. But there also some bolder colorful accents that are a bit fun and one solid blue wall. The conference rooms also look over the city skyline as well.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of interesting office locations, but even this sampling can illustrate that offices can simultaneously be functional, but also help deliver a company’s brand and values to employees and clients through their design.
For more inspiration for planning your conference room look, visit us at Hyperspace