TRENDS IN FOOD & HOSPITALITY

Meeting Space Trends & Changing Meeting Dynamics

By: Andy Ford

POINTS TO COVER

• Trends Overview

• Interactive

• Collaborative & Customizable

• Informally Intimate

• The Meeting on the Side (Ad Hoc)

• Naturally Healthy

Trends Overview The state of meeting trends is a contrast of

repurposing old conference space with more natural and home-like cues integrated with technology.

We will continue to to see companies creating

environments for collaborative engagements and integrating non-obtrusive technology

that anyone can use.

Technology has been mentioned twice, but ironically personal connections matter more than ever in today’s

meeting environments.

Forward Guiding Principles

• Flexibility • Ease of use • Participation by all • High speed & SECURE

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Interactive

This is a HUGE trend in meeting design and technology plays an increasingly important role. Watch the marriage of consumer-friendly tech, the continued rise of real-time participation & networking and the better use of presentation space take precedence.

Apps like Evenium, Bizzabo and a host of others are not only complimenting the traditional networking methods, but in some cases replacing traditional initial audience engagement with each other.

VS.

Audience participation is increasingly becoming more than raising a hand or stepping to a microphone in a larger setting. Technology is permitting feedback in real time that is keeping people more engaged.

Interactive Continued

Video generates a 400%-700% increase in viewer engagement and response rates using video compared to static content such as text and graphics

"We wanted to create a space that encourages participants to move around, interact across disciplines, and see movement and activity."

Interactive Continued

Meeting organizers are increasingly looking for actionable data analytics from attendees that show where interest or lack thereof is for sessions, speakers, sponsors and attendees. Key Performance Indicators will continue to be easier to understand and implement.

Interactive Continued

50% 35%

0 0 Meeting Planners

Attendees

Social Media? While no one is dispelling the lasting power of social media in the modern meeting setting, attendees and event planners place different levels of importance on the activity.

Interactive Continued

Collaborative & Customizable

People now want to be able to work in a controllable environment and have a meeting where it's not just someone presenting them information or working in a traditional boardroom-style setting. They want to have the ability to interact and have everyone in that meeting participate on an equal, peer-to-peer level.

Collaborative & Customizable Cont…

Tangent by Westin. Standardized collaborative space for small meetings. Spaces include variety of technologies and resources. Video conferencing and floor to ceiling white boards.

”This new move toward collaboration is as old as time. Socrates had Plato, Jesus had

twelve guys with him, and cholera was actually discovered through conversations in a 19th century

London coffee shop.”

Collaborative & Customizable Cont…

• 80-inch 1080p LED HDTV • Life-size high definition video conferencing

system. • Definitive Technology 7.2 surround sound

system • Smart Technologies Interactive whiteboard • Apple TV • Direct TV • Savant room controller with Apple iPad • Polycom conference phone • 100 Mbps internet connection

Informally Intimate

“Hotels and offices are reconditioning rooms into nontraditional meeting spaces - less formal and more intimate, in response to the increasing commingling of business travelers’ personal and professional lives.”

Informally Intimate Continued

The Lobby Den – Crescent Hotel Renovated the lobby to become more – flexible space for private meetings or open receptions

“No one is willingly put up stages anymore for a lone speaker to occupy while

droning on about numbers and stats…it’s an open

environment with a ringmaster”

Airbnb’s headquarters meeting spaces were recently overhauled and purposely made to look like a San Francisco Apartment

Informally Intimate Continued

Google Campus contains a series of flexible open-plan workspaces and lockers that accommodate hot-desking

“Many hotels and companies are taking advantage of wider

hallways built in the 80’s or 90’s and installing cove-like structures

for more intimate meeting settings.”

Informally Intimate Continued

“Pre-meeting, post-meeting…it’s the only meetings where real

things actually happen. I could write a book on the effectiveness

of the stand-up.”

Metal Walls on wheels for the stand-up presentation anywhere.

Meeting on the Side (Ad Hoc)

The way people have worked has changed, but the modern meeting dynamics has not adapted quite as quickly. People meet in coffee shops and airport lounges for important meetings… the meeting space needs to incorporate the gathering space.

Meeting on the Side Continued

Github corporate headquarters was redesigned with 33% of the space dedicated to gathering places.

Hotels represent the fastest growing on-demand meeting space in the US.

A recent Regent University study reveals the best meetings are usually planned but not completely prepared… “The Oops Meeting”

Naturally Healthy

Green is a minimum and LEED is better. Tie-in with local community vendors or restaurants provides a distinct experience that make a difference. Architectural and aesthetic details are designed to produce a healthier, more stimulating meeting environment, where attendees can move around, soak up sunshine, and enjoy refreshments on their own schedule.

Sheraton Alive on Five in Boston is a carbon neutral event space ”dedicated to the environment, social responsibility and facilitating the kinds of connections that get business done.”

Twitter’s HQ brings the natural light

Design firm helped Google bring “realness” to their meeting space with live trees and natural materials.

Naturally Healthy Continued

Forward Guiding Principles

• Flexibility • Ease of use • Participation by all • High speed & SECURE