5 Things to Consider When Designing the Perfect Meeting Room

Image by reynermedia

Even if the purpose of a meeting room seems evident from – well – the name, there are many different kinds of meetings. Ideally, the perfect meeting room will be suited to the style and focus of the congregations held within it. Of course, most offices have more than one meeting room, so it’s a rare occurrence that a single place will have to meet an overly wide a range of needs. However, whether you’re coming up with designs for multiple meeting rooms or just one, it’s important to keep the following considerations in mind:

Formality

Are you meeting with prospective or current clients? Having executive board meetings? Coming up with creative ideas? The atmosphere of the meetings you intend to hold will dictate the level of formality required when designing the space. Sleek, modern furniture looks good for formal meeting rooms, but might be stiff and unwelcoming for a more casual creative meeting – in which case, you may want to consider breaking out some beanbags.

Colour

Colour can have a massive impact on a space – the colour of a room has an effect on how big said room feels, not to mention the strong psychological ties that most people have with certain colours. Red is powerful, bold, and attention grabbing – therefore suited to meetings with prospective clients. Bright colours may be suited to a room used for creative brainstorming. It’s also important to consider whether you want all the walls to be the same colour. Would an accent wall perhaps be better? What colour would suit the tone you’re going for?

Lighting

Supplementing colour-based considerations is, of course, the issue of lighting; no one likes having meetings in a darkened space. If your meeting room isn’t on the outside of the building, then a room constructed from glass partitions can still benefit from natural light and feel open and airy. On the occasion that a meeting needs to be private then you can just use curtains or blinds to shield the view. However, if all of your meetings are private then solid partitions and overhead lighting could be more practical.

Electronics

Will you need a computer in the room? Several? Perhaps a large projector screen? A phone? The level of electronic usage in the room will dictate the layout to some extent, so it’s important to figure all that out in advance. You don’t want to blow your budget by installing expensive gadgetry in every meeting room if there’s a large chance it will go unused. For more casual rooms, sometimes a whiteboard and some markers might be all you need.

Company Image

Finally, the overarching consideration of all this is: what’s your company’s image? How does it lend itself to meeting rooms, especially (but by no means limited to) those where you meet with clients? What do you want people to get a sense of when they walk into a room? A meeting room should remind people of your company’s vision and philosophy, especially when working out new directions or ventures.

Do you have any more suggestions on how to design the perfect meeting room? Discuss them in the comments!