Irrespective of whether you are a small team or run a multinational corporation, your office is likely to have a conference room to engage all your employees and hold important meetings. Conference rooms allow you to hold team meetings, conduct video conferencing with international clients and suppliers, and strategize.
Ever since the growth of remote teams and a globally distributed workforce, the need for video and web conferencing has only grown which can be made possible only with well-equipped conference and meeting rooms. Hence, your conference room should be top-notch and fully equipped with anything your team could need.
Given below are seven tips for setting up or upgrading your conference room that will guarantee employee productivity:
1. Invest in smart technology
To truly enhance your and your team’s experience in the conference room, invest in smart technology such as voice assistants and smart lights. Voice and virtual assistants such as Alexa and Google Nest use language processing technology to carry out basic searches, dictate messages, fill calendars, set appointments, and assign everyday tasks. Smart lights, on the other hand, help you control the ambiance of your conference room, dim lights during presentations, and brighten them during discussions.
2. Set up a whiteboard
Whiteboards are great for conference rooms as they facilitate the flow of ideas, and are great for presenters to jot down important points or draw illustrations. While many lobby the use of smart and digital whiteboards, there is no alternative to the feel of using an evergreen black and blue marker combination to communicate something during office discussions. If you are not sure how to place a whiteboard in your office, there are multiple online resources with useful whiteboard setup ideas.
3. Install a 360 camera
A 360 camera in your conference room is essential to engage remote participants and make them feel like they are present in the room with their teammates. Establishing a connection and a sense of oneness can be quite a task if you simultaneously run in-house and remote teams. 360 cameras allow the remote participants, whether they be employees, international clients, or suppliers, to feel in touch with your company and your team. These cameras also have noise reduction and anti-echo microphone systems that make video conferencing very smooth.
4. Provide conference room with sufficient bandwidth
Your conference room essentially needs seamless internet connectivity, and you should be doing so by providing your conference room with more than enough bandwidth. This is especially important if you are likely to engage in a lot of video conferencing and video streaming in your conference room. There is absolutely nothing as worse as losing someone midway during a video call or seeing the video in front of you unnecessarily stuck and stammering. Hence, ask your IT support or technician to provide higher bandwidth to the conference room whenever it is in use.
5. Make sure that all technology is easy-to-use
Your employees cannot possibly be running to call an IT technician every time something is wrong in the conference room. Hence, make sure that all pieces of technology in the conference room are easy-to-use or at least that your employees are trained in their use. If the setup is intimidating, your employees may simply refrain from using the conference room to its full potential as they may shy away from seeking help. From booking the conference room to switching on the mics, screens, and projectors, all tech should be easy to use and simplified.
6. Integrate with reliable meeting software
The technology in your conference room should be integrated with reliable meeting software. While conducting meetings is the main solution that these video conferencing websites provide, they also benefit users by facilitating webinars, setting up sales meets, and conducting product demos. Some of the most popular options include Google Meet, Zoom, and Skype. You should integrate the screens in your conference room with your choice of video conferencing app to avoid hiccups or delays during meetings.
7. Install a tab with room booking software
You probably have only one conference room in your office which will be used by all the different departments and teams. Hence, to avoid confusion and to stop any employee from hogging the conference room for a long time, install a tablet on the door of your conference room that is set to a conference room booking software. Individuals should be able to enter the date, time slot, team leader name, and department name while making their booking. This software can also be linked to email accounts that send automated emails to the mentioned department notifying them about the time and date of the meeting.
Conclusion
Your conference room serves multiple purposes and is an important space in your office. Hence, you should leave no stone unturned in ensuring that your office is fully equipped for all your employees’ needs to improve their productivity and work efficiency.
Carol
Information sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
