5 Conference Room Technology Trends and Why They’re Important

April 16, 2020 | Technology

Conference Room Technology Trends – Creating the Meeting Rooms of the Future

The modern world as we know it was established behind the doors of countless conference rooms. Nearly every governmental agency has them; nearly every university has them; no corporate office building is complete without one. And while a fair amount of people would love to rid themselves of meeting rooms altogether, nothing comes close to replacing face-to-face meetings—not soon at least.

Even in a digitally-driven age, conducting face-to-face meetings is critically important when it comes to networking, brainstorming, converting clients, and connecting with others in general. Most people admit they get a lot more work done when they’re collaborating with others in a conference room setting compared to virtually. For this reason, it’s well worth the time and money to invest in modern, updated conference room technology. Let’s go over the top five conference room technology trends and why they’re important.

1. AV-as-a-Service

With the advent of services such as Netflix, Blue Apron, Spotify, and Hulu, consumers merely pay a monthly fee to access films, television shows, music, and gourmet food. These types of services were designed to prevent consumers from having to invest money in unnecessary things. For example, Netflix eliminated the need for consumers to buy DVD players since they now could stream videos to their devices. The as-a-service model has also taken the commercial industry by storm with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and now AV-as-a-Service (AVaaS).

AVaaS surpasses traditional AV technologies by providing a pay-as-you-go model. Service providers use various software, network providers, cloud services, and technicians to constantly operate and monitor AV systems. In essence, AVaaS takes AV systems beyond hands-off. In addition to that, this service model uses information received from the system to predict and circumvent system crashes while decreasing energy consumption and increasing space efficiency.

2. Project Management Software and Tools

Effective meetings should be high-energy affairs. This is why a lot of time and energy goes into such events long before people are called to the conference room. Good team leaders know that great meetings require preparation and effort. If people aren’t well-prepared going into a meeting, time slows to a crawl resulting in attendees feeling mentally and emotionally drained, as well as frustrated. Improving team meetings is the single most important thing a manager can do as a leader. Not only will the team members appreciate the hard work but well-organized, highly productive meetings will give the organization a positive image.

Project management software and tools help structure project deliverables (project plans, project reports, minutes, among other things); they help you outline timetables to keep everything and everyone on schedule. You will also be able to monitor those involved to ensure they’re achieving their assigned goals—keeping people up to speed. Examples of such project management software and tools include Basecamp, Asana, Trello, Wrike, Monday.com, Confluence, Bitrix24 and a long list of others. Using these tools guarantees the things you discussed before the meeting are assigned to the correct team members and are getting accomplished.

3. Enterprise-Based Wireless Presentation System

All of us have attended a presentation where the presenter fumbles around looking for the correct dongle (a small device that plugs into a computer and serves as an adapter or as a security measure to enable the use of certain software) needed to connect their laptop to a projector or other display. The most embarrassing result of this could be finding out that the correct dongle isn’t even available.

The entire point behind technological advances is to make things in life more straightforward. Nevertheless, as newer technologies replace older ones, we realize the older technologies no longer make things easier. Thanks to wireless technology we no longer have to worry about maintaining various adapters in the hopes of having the right one—unquestionably not the simplest way of preparing for a presentation.

Employing an enterprise-based wireless presentation system simplifies the whole process for everyone. It allows users to toss out the dongles and eliminate the time wasted trying to figure out what dongle fits with what. Simply get the presentation on the screen and get the presentation underway without any delays. Furthermore, if your conference room is fitted out with an enterprise-based wireless presentation system, any outside guests that come to do presentations can keep their dongles in their bags because the system should be compatible with most if not all laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

4. Interactive Whiteboards or Smartboards

Along with searching for the correct dongles, there is the issue of finding a dry erase marker that works. The most embarrassing thing is mistaking a permanent marker for a dry erase marker and ending up with a permanent black mark on the board for the entire meeting. If there isn’t a whiteboard marker handy, you’re left waiting for someone to go on a quest in search of one. Besides those issues, several other things make traditional whiteboards less than practical these days. Thankfully, you can replace that old whiteboard or projector with interactive whiteboards or smartboards, as many people call them. Interactive whiteboards are one aspect of a complete enterprise-based wireless presentation system.

SMART® Technologies is one of the industry leaders in interactive whiteboard tech. It offers both the SMART Board® for educators and the SMART Board® Pro for enterprises or institutions. SMART® Technologies also provides specialized software for schools and businesses. For this reason, the term smartboard is often used synonymously with the term interactive whiteboard. Thus, they are the same thing—and though many people have incorporated the SMART® brand name to refer to all interactive whiteboards, the latter term is more correct overall.

5. Smart Raised Access Floors and Adaptive Cable Management

Whether you’re looking at the technology to install a completely wireless conference room or not, most if not all AV equipment requires communication and power cables. In addition to that, it’s a good idea to have your conference room(s) connected to the rest of your workspace for good measure. All of this connectivity means cable management will become a major issue at some point sooner or later—usually during routine maintenance. Including a smart raised access floor low profile raised floor system for building cable management is the only way to future-proof your next conference room renovation.

Gridd®, the award-winning raised floor is an Adaptive Cabling Distribution System® that features technologies such as Gridd Power® and Gridd Mobile®. Gridd Power® replaces out-of-date power cabling with an integrated modular power system that runs neatly under the Gridd® floor inside its well-designed channels. The 50-amp electrical bus track system makes connecting devices and appliances to the Gridd system effortless. Gridd Mobile® is an unprecedented app that provides maintenance personnel, IT teams, electricians, and facility managers access to information about their power and data cabling system running underneath the Gridd® floor—right on their smart devices.

This kind of conference room technology combined with a raised access floor means organizations can incorporate energy control with cable management, saving them a lot of money in the long run. Further, the Gridd® Adaptive Cabling Distribution System® is manufactured in the United States, uses no plastic, is much safer than other raised access floors, and uses state-of-the-art components that require no special tools, glues, or fasteners. The revolutionary Gridd® Adaptive Cabling Distribution System® has been installed in facilities owned and managed by some of the world’s most influential organizations.

Some notable adopters include Google, Netflix, Vanguard, Bank of America, AT&T, the United States military, and a long list of others. To learn more about conference room technologies and why a Gridd® Adaptive Cabling Distribution System® is vital, contact one of our knowledgeable and friendly experts today!

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