Optimise your meeting spaces

Our ‘Optimise your meeting rooms’ event took place on 11 June 2024. We see time and again how businesses have not yet managed to set up their meeting rooms to cope with hybrid working. That’s a real shame because that means they are missing out on a whole host of opportunities. Do you know how much you can get out of a meeting room if you optimise them?

We take a look back on a day full of insights, inspiration and interaction and would like to thank all the speakers and participants for their contributions. The event took place at the Papendal Sports Centre and kicked off with a tour of the various training areas used by top athletes before attendees took part in numerous sessions on meeting room layouts and optimisation. From the best positioning of meeting room tables to acoustics, lighting and AV solutions, we covered it all and even set up two demo rooms where participants could experience the difference between a standard meeting space and one that had been taken to the next level. The afternoon was then rounded off with a quiz that saw Team Groen crowned as victors. Weren’t able to attend the big day? Not to worry. Read on as we take a look back on everything that happened.

Were you there? If you were, you have answers to questions including....

Your average meeting room

In the standard meetings, cables were lying all over the place, the room had a cluttered feel and was dark instead of filled with light. This mood lighting created shadows that obscured faces and when it was time to start the meeting, there were a whole heap of issues to contend with. What’s the meeting code? Are all the cables plugged in? Why isn’t the camera working? Where is the HDMI cable? It took a lifetime to connect with the other room, there was a terrible echo and the picture was all blurry as well. With the camera and microphone positioned below the screen on the edge of the table, not everyone could be clearly heard and the only view there was was of the room as a whole meaning those joining online felt a little shut out.

An optimised meeting space.

You could see the difference the moment you walked into the enhanced meeting space. Everything was brightly lit—the walls, the table and the people—thanks to the NatureConnect lighting above the table provided by Signify that simulates a skylight. That means the light changes as the day passes to make sure your biological clock doesn’t go haywire. The lighting can also be manually adjusted as required. The meeting was started at the push of a button, but a bit of time passed before everyone had joined. Thanks to a projector being installed instead of a screen, everyone could see themselves and each participant was shown side by side—a real benefit for those joining online as they felt like they were really part of the meeting. What’s more, those sitting around the table could be clearly heard as ambient noise was intelligently filtered out.

Expert sessions.

Setting the scene – Getting the most out your meetings.

“Can you hear me?”

“Hang on, I’m just making a coffee. Can you hear me now?” Kees Janssen, Team lead ITS Front End and Hardware Solutions Front End at Bechtle simulated a typical meeting scenario, which is unfortunately, all too common. The tone for the afternoon was informal, where serious issues were addressed, but there was space for some some fun as well.  Kees asked the group how they would go about getting a return on their meetings by transforming meeting rooms into profitable spaces. It's all about productivity, focus, attention, concentration. Kees noticed while he was studying Business Administration that he could focus much better with a noise cancelling headset, for example. He then went on to talk about the development of these headsets and smart lights, because, as we’ve mentioned before, lighting also plays a role. Smart lamps, for example, often have a mode you can use for concentrated working, giving you the optimal light to stay productive. “Combining the right ingredients together at the right time is a recipe for greater productivity,” Kees said. And that's exactly what the event was all about, and in the sessions that followed, there would be a more in-depth explanation of how exactly to maximise efficiency in your meeting spaces.

Meeting room design 

So how do you set up an optimised meeting space for hybrid working? Onno Janssen, audiovisual consultant at Bechtle, asked the audience what they need in a meeting room. Answers ranged from a camera, chairs and tables to light, ventilation, room booking system, and acoustics to name a few. According to Onno, you can divide your needs into three groups. The first is your core. If we think about a car, the core is its essential components and represent reliability, simplicity and stability. However, a drive to the supermarket is a bit different to a road trip to Spain when it’s all about the comfort. And the same is true of meeting rooms. The second is all about audiovisuals when you need to think about viewing angle, cameras and acoustics. When you dial in, you want to be able to clearly see all non-verbal communication, so you need the right camera to frame each participant separately and good lighting is crucial, too. Too much shadow cast across faces affects perception and visibility is so important. That’s why you often see matte instead of glossy screens these days. When it comes to the audio, you need to consider pick up, insulation and privacy. The third group relates to quality and collaboration. This covers a camera position, a digital whiteboard and how the tables are configured. A reuleaux-triangle set up promotes collaboration and engagement because distances, viewing angle and lines of sight between the people and the screen are shorter. And let’s not forget ergonomics. It’s quite strange that workstations meet ergonomic guidelines, but meeting rooms don’t. Having a screen at eye level, good chairs and the right viewing angle help a lot.

Achieve maximum meeting efficiency with the right lighting.

“Can you see me?”

As the next session kicks off, the lights go out. “Can you see me?” we hear Lisan Crommentuijn, Business Development Manager NatureConnect by Signify, ask. “Not that well. Is your camera working? Maybe the privacy cover is closed.” This was just a bit of fun, of course, but it happens more often than not. Backlight, bad fluorescent light, too little light—they are all part and parcel of hybrid meetings. Lisan spends the session talking about the influence of light and lighting. Light makes us feel good and in 2002, it was discovered that we have a third receptor in our eye that has nothing to do with what we see, but regulates our biological clock and affects how we feel. This light-sensitive cell responds particularly to blues on the light spectrum, so if you take this into account when thinking about lighting in meeting rooms, you can help to support alertness and focus. It’s also important to think about the amount of light. A typical meeting room should be lit to 500 lux during daylight hours, otherwise, it should be 750 lux. By comparison a sunny day reaches 80,000 to 100,000 lux, but because we spend 90 per cent of our time indoors, on a biological level, we basically live in the dark. This also explains why you can feel so tired after a meeting. Alongside the level of light, you also need to think about where your light sources are positioned. Let’s go back to the car analogy and consider its headlights. They shine the light where it’s needed. With the advent of hybrid working, we now spend most of our time looking at vertical screens while working and when sitting in meetings. However, we’ve not really got round to adjusting the lighting to suit that change in situation. With its NatureConnect solution, Signify is ahead of the curve, delivering a product that simulates a skylight and adjusts as the day wears on. This product was also on display in our demo room.

HP|Poly sneak peeks

In this session, the focus wasn’t really on what’s available now, but what the future holds. Specifically the next few months. In the future, we are going to see multiple cameras used in meeting rooms because this ensures everyone is in shot and can be seen front on. AI will also become more common, supporting speaker recognition, transcriptions and summaries. HP|Poly leverages AI in its audio and video solutions cleverly filtering out ambient noise using active and passive noise cancellation. In terms of videos, it will help zoom in on the speaker as well as with group framing and making sure empty seats at the table are kept out of shot. Then there’s recognising participants. If multiple cameras are being used, the people in the room can be filmed from three different angles with the best (usually front on) being selected and transmitted. If a person turns or moves so that the chosen image is no longer the best, another, better one is selected. It’s possible to manually adjust the speed at which the images change. all of which adds to optimising remote participants’ experience. HP|Poly's vision is to achieve total equality between those physically in the room and those joining remotely. In the next session, we looked up some new and upcoming projects from HP|Poly. But for now, we’re keeping that between us.

Inspiration session – With sportswoman, Esther Vergeer

We ended the day with an inspiration session. As we were guests at Papendal, we invited a top athlete to come speak to us. Talking to host Gijs, Esther Vergeer talked openly and honestly about her experiences as the world’s most successful para-athlete. She also shared her experiences of meetings as she tends to meet with people all over the world who are constantly on the go, saying Team NL can learn from everything she had seen at the day’s event. Her story of adversity and perseverance is truly inspiring and she is incredibly motivated and enthusiastic. Esther shares her experiences as a seven-time Paralympic Champion and her role as Chef de Mission of the Paralympic Games. Participants had plenty of questions and found the session incredibly valuable.