Whether you have a small team with a small office or are in charge of a continuously growing and expanding team, there’s no doubt that you need a meeting or conference room. Every office today has one – a room (or several rooms) where you can all converge and talk about ideas, schedules and plans for the week, monthly forecasts, and more. Perhaps you need to talk with clients or suppliers abroad – then you definitely need a meeting room, preferably with a conference call setup. Speaking of which – is your meeting or conference room with the right tools and equipment you need? What are the must-haves in equipment, anyway? If you already have a conference or meeting room, but it sadly lacks the basic equipment, or you need to start from scratch, here’s how to set up the best conference or meeting room.
Select the proper equipment
The first step would be to select the proper equipment. You may already have an idea of what kind of equipment to use – but it would also greatly depend on the kind of meetings you have. For instance, if your work involves doing a lot of presentations, webinars, training, remote work, etc., you cannot function well without some technology. And technology for the modern conference room has integrated video, voice, content sharing, and messaging equipment.
Standardise the equipment
You may have more than one meeting room, and the equipment for all your meeting and conference rooms is put together haphazardly – from the projectors to the microphones to the remotes and the speakers. While this is not an issue per se, it’s better to purchase a ‘kit’ that contains all the hardware you need. This is important because when you opt for a bundled package, it will often come with integrated or built-in software for meetings. This is convenient for you because you can easily organise, schedule, and hold conference calls and meetings.
Know the must-haves
But this points us to the next question: what is a must-have for your meeting or conference room? As mentioned, not everyone works or operates in the same way, so each business or startup will have different needs. But in the same vein, every business will need a standard setup as well – and there are some equipment must-haves needed by all offices.
These must-haves are important because they allow you to organise and run your meetings and conferences efficiently. Needless to say, it is important to prioritise this equipment before adding various extras. So what are these must-haves? First, you need a web or video camera, and then you need microphones and speakers. Then you need a video display with a computer, a television, and a projector (you can place the projector on a shelf or mount it from the ceiling or the wall). Last but not least, you need a whiteboard.
Now, if you want to go all out with your meeting or conference room, you can think of some extras – some bonuses, if you will. For instance, you can opt for an interactive whiteboard – or even a ‘smartboard’ such as the Microsoft Surface Hub or the Jamboard from Google. You can also have booking software, or you can go for a 360-degree web camera and a wireless system for presentations, such as Airmedia, Solstice, or more. Good luck!
