The Key to Creating Functional Meeting Rooms that Work: Keep It Simple

Technology has made so many aspects of our workspace simple. We ask our virtual assistants to keep track of our meetings and send emails. We’ve automated time-consuming administrative tasks such as HR paperwork. But, when we walk into the meeting room, we can’t figure out how to get our screen to share.

At RoomReady, we’re always interested in what makes our customers’ meeting rooms a headache. Our 2020 State of the Meeting Room survey found close to 60% of meeting leaders lose six minutes or more when technology mishaps occur. The challenges causing those mishaps run the gamut: poor device pairing (31%), subpar wi-fi (31%) and cables with no defined purpose hanging from tables and walls (22%) add complexity and lead to unproductivity.

Our team believes everything about the meeting room experience should be simple: the process of choosing the right technology, ensuring the technology not only works well but is intuitive, and achieving a smooth installation process. Complexity is – to put it simply – unnecessary. There’s a simpler, much better way.

Understand the customer’s needs

The first step in delivering a simple meeting room solution begins before our team even steps in the room. Oftentimes, the initial conversation between an AV integrator and a customer is so focused on the technology that what is truly needed gets lost. The solution: start with a non-technical conversation to identify the customer’s goals. How do you intend to use the room – for internal meetings, client-facing or both? Who in the company will use it? How many participants do you anticipate will use the room on average? What do you want the user experience to look like?

This high-level conversation is the basis for designing high-functioning rooms that meet customer expectations. Simply listening allows us to truly understand what our customers need and enables us to personalize the experience just for them – without a bunch of unnecessary components. Users don’t want to walk into a meeting room and have to ask themselves: Why are there four HDMI plugs in the table, and how do I know which one to use?

Deliver trouble-free and intuitive technology

The second step in supplying customers with a better, simpler meeting room is overcoming the problems inherent in unintuitive room design. Our solution: build a room that relies on logic.

For instance, if an employee walks into a room and plugs the HDMI cable into her laptop, she likely wants to share content on the meeting room display. So while we’re designing that room, our team thinks through every potential failure point and counteracts it. We would ensure the entire video system automatically turns on without the user having to do anything else – touch the panel, pick the input or select a screen for displaying content. We would make these kinds of assumptions, while at the same time providing the tools to change these presets if needed. The process is similar to being able to modify the presets in your car or computer.

Achieving simple installation and performance

The final step toward delivering a simple meeting room is reducing the potential time-consuming problems involved in installing the new technology. For RoomReady, we do as much of the work as possible before we even arrive on the site. When we install our patented wall-mounted rack, the RoomReady Set, our team preloads the rack with all the AV components needed. This ensures each component is neatly tucked behind the mounted the display when the Set arrives at its final location.

During the installation, all that’s needed to get the room up and running is data and power behind the display. Because everything is housed behind the display instead of inside the AV closet down the hall, there’s no need to use transmitters, receivers and tons of cable pulling hours from skilled laborers. Fewer components means fewer potential issues, and a more efficient installation process. By simplifying the design and putting all components behind the display in a consistent manner, troubleshooting is simpler, too.

Eliminate complexity – Give them simplicity

RoomReady believes that simple is better. Period. Through a consultative approach, customers get exactly what they need – no more and no less. Through intuitive logic – ensuring technology works as a user would want it to – customers are equipped with an easy-to-use trouble-free technology environment. And through the process of assembling and testing room solutions in our staging facility, clients receive consistent, quality work.

There’s no need for meeting room complexities and the headaches that come with them. Instead, we make the complicated awesomely simple, because this type of creativity is our craft. If you’re ready to make meeting rooms simple, contact us now!

Posts by: Aaron McArdle

Aaron McArdle

Founder & CEO