Bob Marsh November 16, 2021 For some people, the concept of a huddle space conjures up images of sports teams and game-day locker rooms. Now, companies use them to align their teams and rally them around specific goals.
But what do modern huddle spaces look like? Put simply, they’re incredibly efficient multipurpose rooms that operate as traditional offices and high-tech meeting rooms. Instead of separating conference rooms, break rooms, or atriums, huddle spaces meet all of these needs for in-person and remote employees.
The bevy of unique benefits huddle spaces offer means they’re growing in popularity. For starters, they make good use of blank space, which helps savvy companies make good use of high-priced office real estate. Additionally, different teams can use them in various capacities throughout the workweek. They can get your team focused on the task at hand quicker by bringing small groups of people together and giving them all the tools they need with fewer interruptions than they’d encounter in large conference rooms.
But with all these benefits, the question remains: What assets do huddle rooms need to provide the most value?
How to Make the Most of Your Huddle Rooms
If you’re unsure how to create a huddle room, don’t worry — you might be closer to it than you think. According to Wainhouse Research, about 50 million huddle rooms already exist around the globe. Still, more than 50% of them don’t have the necessary technology to function as effectively as they should, especially for largely remote workforces.
While in-office meetings seem few and far between, employees will still need places to connect and collaborate. Here’s how to build huddle spaces that do just that:
1. Explore voice activation technology.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to have an AI personal assistant at your fingertips during a conference? Or to be able to play a video with a simple voice command? With voice activation technology, your huddle space becomes more convertible, and these hypotheticals become realities.
Don’t have voice activation technology? You can set it up yourself or work with a vendor to install it. For example, our company uses Crestron’s Voice-Activated Huddle Rooms, which offer a versatile array of voice-activation functions. Specifically, voice activation enables you to reserve rooms remotely in advance. Plus, it allows you to use external room availability signals and manage room equipment remotely.
2. Incorporate collaborative solutions.
Beyond voice activation, use top-shelf visual collaboration technology to bring your huddle space to life. We use T1V’s ThinkHub collaboration solution to join in-office and remote workers at our convenience. These types of technologies unite teams around the globe to spur collaboration and encourage togetherness.
Specifically, technologies like ThinkHub allow you to edit shared documents together, begin projects in one room and then continue them in another, and more. The objective should be to make huddle spaces feel like shared spaces from anywhere. It should feel as though everyone is working from the same whiteboard.
3. Inject entertainment with different displays and sound solutions.
When you equip huddle spaces with the appropriate tech, you aren’t just creating a higher-functioning meeting room; you’re also making it more fun and engaging. For instance, each huddle space could have a specific theme using multiple displays. We’ve seen companies make a huddle space with an “under the sea” theme. The table and screens were integrated with images of coral reefs to go with the theme.
You can even display the meeting on one screen and then put appealing visuals on another. For more immersive sound quality, try using tabletop microphones and microphones on the ceiling. The options here are endless, and as are the ways to customize huddle spaces to make them more inviting and on-brand.
As you can see, a huddle space is not fully functioning without tech solutions. Outfit your huddle spaces with the latest in collaborative and convenient solutions to build an area that allows in- and out-of-office employees to thrive.
If you are interested in more huddle space trends that can make your office look and feel more comfortable, check out Bluewater’s back-to-work guide, “AV System Integration,” by downloading it here.
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