Building a brand new office is an exciting time for any company. You have purchased or leased the land, had an architect design the building, and watched all of the construction efforts come to fruition. Now you have a fresh blank space to design and make the office inviting for all your employees and visitors. One area that seems to be glossed over is the conference room. We have all seen the standard long rectangular table surrounded by chairs, but this space can be better utilized as your epicenter of collaboration – a place where big ideas will be discussed with profits hanging in the balance. With this in mind, Claridge Products would like to provide some tips to help you design the perfect conference room with all the tools you will need to help your company succeed for years in an evolving hybrid working world.
One of the first things to consider is going with an oblong shaped table as opposed to the traditional rectangle. The straight lines of the latter means that people will be sitting in a straight line which in turn forces people to look over and around each other. Someone like myself who is 6’6” has no trouble in this regard but the average male and female heights in the US are 5’9” and 5’4” respectively so some one of that size would definitely have sight issues. An oblong shaped table allows for better sight line to any sort of presentation that’s going on in the front of the room. Also, as a little helpful tip, be sure no on is sitting at the head of the table, or make sure it is the presenter, as that can block visibility for people in the back.
Now you may think to yourself Claridge doesn’t make tables so why is this blog talking about the line of sight a table provides? Well, the answer to that is you will need to be able to see whatever has been written on a whiteboard being used during a presentation, or a television/monitor. With some clever installation, a TV can be recessed into a wall and then used in conjunction with our horizontal or vertical sliding systems to create a truly unique interactive wall. With the TV mounted in a cutout in the fixed back panel, sliding panels can easily be moved over it when not in use to display written ideas or charts and those same sliding panels can also be used to cover up writing surfaces that are not in use or to cover information that is to be revealed at a later point in the presentation. Sliding units are also fantastic considering the evolution of the hybrid work environment. Group A who is only in the office on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays can make notations and jot down ideas and then those panels can be covered up by blank panels which can be used by Group B that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It is no secret that we champion our sliding units but if that isn’t for you Claridge also has several traditional markerboard options to choose from. First on that list is the glass markerboard which has been increasingly growing in popularity due to its wonderful aesthetics such as the ability to make the board in almost any color imaginable, and we think our standard colors are just as fantastic too, as well as the crystal clear writing surface that allows for maximum visibility for everyone in the room. One thing to note is that if your room has several windows and is exposed to a lot of natural light we would recommend going with our non-glare glass as glass is a naturally reflective surface. Our LCS porcelain markerboards, which are also top of their class for writing visibility, are no slouch either and because of their lighter colored surface, which reflects more light, an LCS surface is absolutely ideal for projection. If you are in need of a larger writing surface for additional collaboration space Claridge also offers glass and porcelain marker walls in heights up to 10’. These are a fantastic option to encourage everyone in the meeting to participate.
As we have detailed here, a conference room does not just have to be a big table surrounded by chairs, it can be a fun and interactive environment that allows you to turn your work space into an idea place. At Claridge we are always here to help so reach out to our friendly customer service team or one of our amazing local sales reps to see how we can help provide the tools to make your new conference room truly unique.