Meetings are an important of your daily corporate life. They can be called at any time, in any space available and are usually rather informal. A Conference on the other hand is usually formal, will have an agenda and a programme of activities planned. In short, meetings could be randomly called where a conference demands a preparation. Either way, you should have a conference or a meeting room set up at your office.
As mentioned earlier, meetings could be informal and therefore could be carried out- practically anywhere but why not be prepared? A conference room can be set up at your office and can be easily used for both formal and informal meetings as well as group discussions and brainstorming. The appeal of a conference room need not be explained and today we are going to discuss the basics of setting up a conference room at your office.
1. Space:
Let’s start with the basics. A meeting will be a gathering of a number of people and therefore you should remember that a meeting room will need some space. An average meeting room will provide seat for at least 8 people without any trouble or pushing or pulling of the seats. So set apart the large room at your office for a conference room. Remember, we want the participants to be able to move around the table and chairs without any trouble so this room has to be spacious.
2. Lighting:
The preference of lighting would be of course- natural lighting. A couple of big windows along a wall should do the trick. If natural lighting is not manageable for some reason, we’ll have to turn to ambient lighting. Make sure that there are enough lights set up to have the room brightly lit up. You can try Wall washers or Spotlights to experiment with the lights but make sure to have an easy control system for the lights so you can easily manipulate them since that might come handy during presentations.
3. Noise Control:
Let’s face it, you don’t want the sudden distraction from outside to interrupt your speech or presentation. We all know how hard it is to give a presentation without anyone stealing your flow of speech and once lost, getting back to your rhythm can be tough. Sometimes people even forget their key points during a speech just for getting distracted. Which is why, it is highly recommended that you make the meeting room sound proof. It can be an important privacy factor for confidential meetings.
4. Conference Table:
The need for a conference table in a conference room is self-explanatory. The question is- what kind of table do you want or should have? There are tables with space in the middle for cable management or there are those that have a plain desktop. Both of them have their perks and we shall discuss them in details in future blogs. Meanwhile you browse through our collection HERE.
5. Movable Chairs:
Our set of conference tables come as a set with movable chairs. Why? Because you should always have movable chairs in your conference room. Imagine this- you are presenting a very complicated chart about the recent financial growth of your company. One of your colleagues have to leave to take a very important phone call- he gets up, pushes the chair and it makes a very annoying grungy noise which not only interrupts you but also distracts your entire audience. We don’t want that. Nobody wants that. A movable chair will offer you a silent gateway, not to mention it will make movements much easier. And comfort should always be a priority in decoration.
6. A White Board and A Screen:
Set up a whiteboard in the conference room. It will allow you to scribble your ideas while explaining them to your teammates, making things much easier. A screen can be set up alongside the board or across the room along the other wall; wherever it’s easier to accommodate. Nowadays a screen is a must have equipment for a conference room. You can easily use a projector to show off your slides or share a snapshot from your phone through the screen. What kind of screen you will have surely will depend on your necessity and budget but you should have a screen set up as one of the first thing in the room?
7. Storage Space:
A conference should not have any excessive furniture in it, but a small storage unit is certainly not excessive; rather necessary in our eyes. Whether you want a place to keep the files and handouts safe and well arranged or you want to keep the notepads and other office supplies close at hand for the meeting, a small storage space could be useful in the conference room. Don’t overdo it with a huge cabinet, a mini cabinet will work just fine. Or for mobility, there’s always the option of mobile drawer units.
8. Add ons:
Now that we have the basics covered, let’s not forget the add ons. You might feel like you need a podium for the long presentations, or maybe you want to have additional sitting arrangements in the form of a sofa or a few extra chairs. You know what are your needs and you should keep them noted while setting up your conference room.
It might seem like with little furniture, there’s barely any room to decorate a conference room but you can reflect your taste and creativity even in the setup of your conference room. We shall discuss them in more details in the coming days. In the meanwhile, stay with HATIL and browse through our huge collection of office furniture before you make up your mind.
