Collaboration Spaces Aren’t Just Conference Rooms

Get the Right Solutions for Your Collaboration Spaces

In our commercial technology blogs, we’ve written at length about how businesses can maximize their conference rooms for the hybrid era. When people can directly face cameras and microphones, they’ll better engage with remote participants and improve company communication.

However, many companies are discovering that these setups don’t work as well for brainstorming and collaboration. Long, rectangular tables with seats facing a screen won’t leave much room for spontaneity.

If your business is updating its office layout, it’s smart to be strategic about each room’s specific purpose. Not every meeting room needs to be strictly for video conferencing. With both a conference room and a collaboration space, you’ll access the perfect tools for different meetings.

Here’s how you can improve collaboration spaces for your Nashville, TN, office.

Conference Room vs. Collaboration Space

Most modern conference rooms include rectangular tables with video displays across one or two walls. Seats may face one direction or cameras may be positioned to capture attendees from many angles. In many cases, microphones will be on the table or suspended from the ceiling.

While this works perfectly for discussions, especially in hybrid teams, it may not work when people are gathered to design a new campaign, develop a new concept, or literally “head to the drawing board.” People may want to stand and move around the room, shuffling papers and leaning in to sketch something. Side conversations and doodles may spark ideas—but none of that translates over a forward-facing video call.

Video conferencing is one of the modern miracles of today, but it doesn’t always work for in-depth brainstorming sessions. Your team may want to use pens, paper, and whiteboards to lean over and get elbows-deep in ideas. Many conference rooms we see are designed for presentations but not for creativity and collaboration.

Designing Better Collaboration Spaces

Collaboration spaces shouldn’t be rigid and formal. Instead, you need room for spontaneity and movement. Consider adding round tables, interactive whiteboards, and plenty of outlets for people to plug in their laptops. Maybe you’ll want an audio system to play background music, energizing the team with new ideas.

In truth, collaboration spaces are meant for in-person gatherings—and that’s okay. If you still need remote workers to participate, we can assemble a smaller video system with a camera and microphone so that they can listen in.

If your office building has enough room, why not install both collaboration and conference rooms? In your conference spaces, we can install all necessary conferencing AV to seamlessly host virtual calls and seminars. And in your collaboration rooms, teams can huddle around the table to dive into new concepts.

Upgrade Your Nashville Office with M3 Technology Group

Could your meeting spaces benefit from an upgrade? M3 Technology Group designs and installs state-of-the-art audio video and conferencing systems. Contact us here to get started today!