The conference room has always been an important place in the office where team members come together – a space whose purpose is to encourage collaboration, teamwork, new ideas and strategies. But as companies continue to offer a combination of on-site and remote work, something needs to change. The traditional meeting room needs to be modernized to meet the dynamics of the changing work environment.
Today’s conference rooms are changing dramatically. The number of people in a meeting can be significantly different from the number of people in the room. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, workers attended 13 percent more meetings on average during the pandemic. It is also predicted that by 2025, more than one in five American workers will be working from home, an 87 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels.
These and many other statistics are shaping the future of office space design, especially conference rooms. Many companies now offer a more flexible work culture, so it’s imperative for them to invest in technologies that make remote collaboration more efficient and effective for everyone. The goal of meetings is to empower people to collaborate and share ideas, and advanced communication technology allows companies to achieve this even with remote participation.
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Conference rooms are more important than ever
Running an effective meeting is about the quality of presentation and collaboration, not who is in the room. A good contributor can be in any room, any location. Paradoxically, however, an organization’s conference room is more important than ever. As it serves as the hub for so many hybrid meetings, it must be equipped to support all participants.
Now it’s all about finding the right hybrid meeting setup that encourages conversation, productivity and collaboration from virtually anywhere. This includes everything from display technology and furniture to cameras and sound.
All elements of a conference room, including the technology and the room itself, must work together to ensure a high-quality experience from the moment a participant enters the room or logs in remotely to the end of the meeting. In response, manufacturers are developing technologies that are more intuitive and easily integrate with other tools and video conferencing solutions such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
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Companies looking to modernize their conference rooms for the era of hybrid work should consider the following suggestions:
- Display technology: For virtual meetings, optimal image quality is critical. Companies need display technology that allows everyone to participate without losing content. Modern projectors are an ideal solution, offering a variety of aspect ratios and sufficient scalability to display images large enough for almost any space without losing sharpness. The generous image size gives remote workers an equal presence in the room and provides plenty of space for presentations, chats, documents, and more. Projectors are redefining the way we visually connect in hybrid meetings, and unlike flat screens, they aren’t limited by a frame. With built-in interactive tools and third-party apps, projectors can enhance team collaboration whether employees are physically present or working elsewhere.
- Screens: While you don’t always need a screen to project onto a wall, it does help to optimize the viewing experience and the quality of the images displayed. From powered to fixed, portable or even rear projection screens, there are many screen options available today.
- Cameras: When looking for the right camera for your hybrid conference room, you need a solution that shows the entire room while ensuring participants can see everything. Wider angles and innovative all-in-one video conferencing solutions are changing the future of hybrid meetings. By incorporating smart features with built-in sound and artificial intelligence-enabled video and audio streams, these newer solutions simplify video conferencing and create a more natural connection between remote and in-person meeting participants for greater engagement and collaboration.
- Furniture: With the exponentially growing demand for all-in-one hybrid conference room solutions, furniture must also be compatible with today’s technology. Corporate furniture designers are taking this shift into account with offerings that better meet the needs of hybrid conference rooms. Look for carts, stands and furniture that allow users to get the most benefit from the technologies deployed in the room. From mobile to fixed solutions that integrate with modern conference room designs, you have plenty of options to choose from when selecting the right furniture to refresh your space.
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For many organizations, an all-in-one hybrid conference room with high-quality video and audio, as well as robust connectivity and sharing capabilities, is an ideal option. By adopting modern technologies that make hybrid working easier and more collaborative, organizations are well positioned to adapt to future advancements in conferencing and changes in the workforce.
