Meeting differently

Giving visitors good energy and just a bit more than they expect from an off-site meeting, work or training session, how do you do it? Different from before, that anyway. Different means taking people out of their regular patterns. Different from what they know from the office, where the meeting landscape has become increasingly dynamic, varied and informal, especially since COVID. So different is really different. More focused on encouraging active interactions, creativity, creating new insights, and beautiful moments that stay with you and take you forward. As an interior designer, teacher of experience and author of the book "New forms of work," I am happy to give you, as a provider of inspiring meeting rooms, some tips for this, illustrated with examples.

A conference or meeting venue today requires a variety of spaces and seating areas aimed at different goals. You need to facilitate both 'fresh and clear thinking', 'being creative and playful', 'inspiring and broadening' and 'relaxing and being able to focus'.

For free and fresh thinking, light, openness and freedom of movement are important. Looking at something freshly requires a fresh environment. Calm interiors bring calm to your thoughts. 

In training sessions, heath sessions and meetings, the trick is often to remain yourself in the dynamics of the company. The setting can help. Hotel, conference and meeting venue Kapellerput beautifully manages to evoke a sense of calm and the right 'mindset' for various meeting and training purposes. Architecture, art, design objects and meals there are very carefully matched. For instance, they offer 'The House Of', a private house with living room and kitchen where you can hold informal and completely secluded meetings. It has its own terrace and front door, behind which are slippers from the 1970s. The entire house features retro design furniture, retro wallpaper and retro colours, combined with contemporary stylish aspects and shades. Because, when you feel at home, you can be yourself and talk more freely.

For innovation sessions, playful environments are ideal. Innovation requires play space, to escape the structure of logic and order. A space where the furniture is movable, where walls may be covered and described, and where you can build and remodel something. A place where you can experiment, make it your own and visualise your thoughts. An interesting play space is the central training room of THNK - School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam. Really comfortable sitting in this space is not. This is where you get to work. There are mobile workstations on which you can work standing up, because when you stand, you are more creative. You can stick post-its on the sheets and write with markers. The drawers of this piece of furniture contain all kinds of tools such as scissors, lego, markers, etc. The poufs you can sit on are backless and put you in an active posture, where you can't help but hook into the session, into the conversation. 'An innovative playground, but not for my corporate client,' you might think. But this is where executives from all over the world come, who, regardless of age or industry sector, easily make the space their own.

I often hear from meeting venues that they can't get their hands on the paper. There is an increasing need for visualisation. We read an image, an icon, an infographic faster, easier and remember better than text. Visualising a problem, a customer scenario, a new situation gives such a representation of the whole that you can assess it better. So you can work faster and more effectively towards a good result. Likewise, sticking post-its on a board, explaining them, discussing them together, organising them and working them out, makes us work better together towards a common goal. It creates commitment, for simply breaking down complex problems and having a clear vision of where you want to go.

Just a bit different from what you are used to at the office, then!