Category: General

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What Type of Meetings would you Prefer when you Return to Work?

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The pandemic has certainly changed the face of the business landscape. There was a point where nearly all businesses that did not require the physical exchange of goods migrated to a digital format, at least temporarily in some capacity. There were entire teams, departments, and even organizations that were suddenly thrust into a digital meeting space that seemed so limiting at first.

But like anything else, we adapted, business at large adapted, and the virtual meetings became routine and unexceptional. Many people realized, however, that in-person meetings were not as necessary as we always thought, and while they do offer the ability to read body language easier, remote meetings have become preferred in nearly all situations. Let’s examine several reasons why.

Comfort

This is a big upside. More people find remote meetings to be more comfortable, not just because they don’t have to wear pants, either. There is a great deal of anxiety and even apprehension that can occur with even the most boring, pre-scheduled meetings. Holding remote meetings can help reduce these feelings of anxiety and result in a more comfortable workforce.

Flexibility

The ability to hold meetings and communicate in a group environment is vital to a healthy team. The flexibility of being able to hold a meeting without worrying about someone’s ability to physically attend the meeting can be a game-changer. Meetings can span zip codes, time zones, and continents without a hiccup. Remote meetings can also eliminate the problems of working around child care, transportation issues, or extended illness.

Scalability

One of the many benefits that meeting room software can offer in conjunction with remote meetings is the ability to seamlessly expand a meeting from 4 people to 400. The scalability of remote meetings means you don’t have to think about physical infrastructure to hold large meetings or discussions. You don’t need to think about how many seats are there or making sure everyone shows up, the software mitigates all of those issues.

Reduced Expense

There is a real-world, bottom-line cost to holding meetings in person. This doesn’t end at the payroll for the duration of the meeting and loss of productivity, either. This can be a big factor in meetings that often have hospitality, such as coffee, soda, snacks, and even lunch or dinner depending on the situation. Remote meetings cut that all out. Since people are in their own environment, they are not reliant or expectant of your hospitality.

More Focused

If you have never been a part of a remote meeting, and you have the opportunity to do so, you may never want to show up in another conference room full of off-topic chatter again. The amount of time that is saved and the enhanced focus and productivity of the meetings is really something to behold. Not only is there less crosstalk and interruption, but the integration of visual aids can help to illustrate conversational points much more effectively.

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Has IT operation in your Organization Changed Since the Pandemic?

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The Covid 19 pandemic has forced a lot of changes in organizations in almost every industry.

Granted, many organizations have well-structured systems to help them keep afloat after events like power outages, natural disasters, and even cyber-attacks. These systems, regardless of how elaborate they are, weren’t able to fully address unknown variables like the outbreak of the Novel coronal Virus.

Even now that many people have been vaccinated and businesses have started to open up, many business sectors are still undergoing changes.

In this article, we will be looking at how IT operations in many organizations have changed after Covid. Before we dive right into that, we will first look at the importance of IT (information technology) in the business space.

The role of Information technology in business  

IT has helped a lot of start-ups and large corporations achieve their goals and soar to new heights. It has armed businesses with the tools they need to solve complex problems through the use of smart applications and collaborative software and tools that makes it easier to analyze data and do research.

Making a good business decision has never been this easy. Without help, it is easy to overlook important factors, make laughable mistakes, and arrive at mistaken conclusions. Information Technology can help turn things around and help businesses make better decisions.

As you likely know, a good business decision is based on accurate market research. With Information Technology, teams can carry out surveys to learn about the needs of their customers. With this information, they will easily make intelligent decisions that will help them thrive without having long meetings at conference rooms and using AV management tools.

A close look at how IT in organizations has changed Post Covid

Increased reliance on IT

Since Covid, many businesses and organizations have become highly reliant on IT to ensure the smooth running of their core operations.

Presently, the key sectors of many businesses (supply chain and human resources) aren’t working at 100% even after the pandemic. To overcome this, organizations need solid intelligence to create an alternative route to achieve their goals. With information technology, businesses will be able to glean all the information they need to make strategic decisions and elaborate plans that will help them thrive in the post-Covid era.

Embracing IT to increase flexibility

A lot of businesses with rigid structures embraced flexibility during the Covid 19 pandemic. During the lockdown, they started to see the beauty in flexible working schedules. Even after Covid, businesses are still going to opt for IT solutions and flexible technology initiatives.

Increase in IT budget

IT has always been an integral sector in many organizations, even before Covid. To cope with the changes that occurred in the businesses space because of the pandemic, more attention was given to information technology.

Even after the lockdown, businesses will still spend a huge sum of money on IT operation and solutions to strengthen their infrastructure and automate their key operations.

Final note

The future of Information technology is indeed bright. Even when things return to normal, many organizations are going to need IT solutions to get an edge over their competitors and glean valuable information that will help them address the need of their customers better.

 

 

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5 New Ways Business Meetings have Changed since COVID

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A lot has changed in the business scene since the outbreak of Covid 19. To keep afloat, businesses had to revamp how they operate and employ new strategies to achieve their goals. Meetings, which are an integral part of the workday, are now done differently. Before the Pandemic, business meetings were mostly done face-to-face, but they are now being done virtually.

There is a possibility that the way meetings and other key activities are carried out will not go back to normal even after the pandemic. Read on to learn how business meetings have changed since Covid.

It is easier to see who is contributing

Many businesses have a dedicated space or meeting rooms where ideas are brainstormed and key issues are discussed. During these meetings, some participants are vocal and like to air their opinions, at the same time; others hide in plain sight and offer little or no contribution.

In a virtual meeting room, it is a lot easier to see who is contributing and who is not. With no corners and blind spots to hide, it will be easier to tell if everyone is contributing. What’s more, it will be harder for some participants to dominate the conversation.

Not all meetings are necessary

Since the pandemic, many business leaders have wised up. They now understand that herding everyone to the conference room for a meeting isn’t always the best decision. Of course, meetings are important, but they may hurt the productivity and output of a business when they don’t add any value or are too frequent.

With everyone working from home these days, things that were accomplished via meetings can now be done through wireless presentation, conference calls, or email.

Businesses and organizations that have eliminated unnecessary business meetings can achieve their goals quicker because their teams now have more time to focus on important tasks.

Flexibility in meeting timing

Before Covid, businesses and organizations don’t usually schedule meetings first thing in the morning. They seem to have a specific time of the day they schedule important appointments and meetings.

Since Covid, people have become more flexible. They are now willing to schedule meetings early in the morning or late in the evening.

This has helped a lot of organizations strategize better and adapt to the needs of their teams.

No more marathon work session

Not long ago, it was a norm for teams to have multiple days of planning sessions to brainstorm ways to address their current challenges. These gatherings are a mix of business, pleasure, discussions, team-building exercises, and many more.

Since Covid, most people no longer travel for business. Because of this, many organizations have scraped out long planning sessions and focused on solutions that will help their company reach new heights.

Move value on time

The value for time has never been this high. Businesses and organizations now understand that working from home doesn’t equate always working. To ensure that their employees get as much work done during their working hours, teams now brainstorm, exchange recommendation, and offer feedback during cable-free meetings, which usually lasts for a few hours.

Final note

It is hard to say if things will return to normal or if meetings and other key business activities will be carried out the way they used to. In the meantime, businesses should embrace change and adopt strategies that will guide them into the “new normal”.

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8 Ways to Use Technology to Improve Employee Experience (Post-COVID)

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COVID-19 and the rise of working from home have forever changed the workplace environment. But even though many of us are heading back to the office, we don’t have to abandon some of the technological tools we adopted to make up for being unable to collaborate in person.

Today, let’s take a look at eight ways you can use technology to improve your employees’ experience at work post-COVID-19.

Use HR/Recruitment Tools

For starters, leverage HR and recruitment tools to streamline the onboarding and employee recruitment processes. A good onboarding experience can make or break the first impression your company has on an employee. If you use good HR or recruitment tools, you can provide a smooth learning experience during the first few days at your company for all new hires. In this way, the best talent will be more likely to stick with your company over the long term.

Use Tech to Boost Employee Engagement

Of course, tech can also be used to improve employee engagement across the board. Digital platforms that support personal engagement, like digital surveys, reporting platforms, and polls can do a lot to help your employees feel like they are heard and that you take your concerns seriously.

Provide Tools to Improve Productivity

Naturally, tech can also boost productivity in the workplace. Day-to-day work tools like virtual phone services, calendar programs, and even collaboration tools like Slack can help your employees schedule their time more wisely, track progress, and assign jobs to one another quickly and efficiently. Or you can try Ubiq: a one-of-a-kind conference tool that lets your employees wirelessly share information in just seconds, all without having to deal with cable clutter.

Provide Communication Tools

Slack, Skype, and other communication tools many of us used over the course of the pandemic can also be used in the post-COVID workplace. These communication tools allow employees to collaborate and send messages without getting up from their desks, as well as let employees still working remotely contribute to office chit-chat and workplace meetings.

Optimize Your Self-Services Tools

Self-services tools, like online portals for clocking in or for writing reports, can do a lot to improve employee productivity and let your employees feel like they’re responsible for their workdays.

Leverage Self-Learning Tools

Similarly, self-learning tools, especially those that you provide to new hires, are great for ensuring everyone is up to speed with new workplace practices or procedures without having to waste a lot of time with big seminars or conferences. These tools can be doubly effective because many people learn at different paces from one another.

Always Keep Your Tool Portfolio Minimal

We’ve gone over a lot of possible tools you can implement in your workplace. But it’s vital that you keep your tool portfolio to a minimum. Simply put, the more tools your new employees (and existing employees!) have to learn, the less likely they will be to become masters at all of them. Try to stick with a handful of great tools and avoid bringing in too much tech too quickly.

Use Cloud Storage Wherever Possible

Last, be sure to leverage cloud storage as much as you can. Cloud storage allows you to not only benefit from better digital security, but also help your employees grab files or data wherever, whenever. Cloud storage may be more important if your workplace plans to keep remote work an option, at least in a limited capacity, for the foreseeable future.

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AV setup for showrooms

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Gone are the days when traditional methods such as whiteboards, and flip-charts, methods were employed to pass out information. As a business owner, it is imperative for you to go with the tides and embrace modern technology by using Audio-Visual Setup while in meetings, conferences, showrooms, and so on. Using AV for your conference room setup will not only boost your worker’s efficiency but also increases your company’s productivity.

Using the AV setup to streamline your conference room is one of the must-haves conference room technology to possess as a business owner.

Conference Room Setup
Relying on email, Slack, and web chats to build a team does not quantify digitalization. Those tools could be helpful for communication, but they don’t give space for accountability, commitment, or conflict resolution, which are critical functions of a team.

Talking about setting up conference room means more than adjusting attitudes or beliefs. However, you have to make virtual collaboration seamless, intuitive, and simple for remote workers. That does not mean you should bombard your conference room with glitzy conference room technology and robot. Meanwhile, all you need is to make space that encourages interaction and collaboration in a positive work environment.

What do you need to boost your conference room AV design technology?
Consider the following ways:
⦁ Connection upgrade
⦁ The right mix of speakers and microphones
⦁ Quality display screen
⦁ Use of an interactive whiteboard
⦁ Sensitive AV repair and support
⦁ Easy conference room schedule
⦁ Training employee how to use your technology
⦁ Content sharing with a wireless presentation

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Conference Room Chairs: 10 Styles to Choose From

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In our previous blog entry, we took a look at conference room tables. Since forcing your end users to sit on the floor during business meetings is usually frowned upon, you’ll probably want to buy some conference room chairs to go along with your table. If that’s the case, you’re in luck: We’ve looked at hundreds of conference room chairs and compiled a list of 10 that we think really stand out.

As we saw in the previous entry on tables, chairs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The trick here is to get chairs that aren’t stylistically the opposite of your table. For instance, if you’ve gone with a lush mahogany table out of The Godfather, you may want to refrain from buying hipster-y wooden stools to place around it.

And now without further ado, our list…

Farrah (National Office Furniture)

conference room chairs
Although intended for lounge seating, we think that the tapered legs and inset base panels would look pretty in a conference room.

Respect (National Office Furniture)

conference room chair
Environmentally-conscious companies may want to consider National Office Furniture’s Respect line, which earns SCS Indoor Advantage Gold and level 2 certifications, which means it can contribute to LEED points.

Lavoro (National Office Furniture)

conference room chair
National Office Furniture’s Lavoro combines sleek metal arm rests with a subtly curved back support that looks like it belongs inside a luxury Italian car.

Valoví Chair (Opendesk)

conference room chair
Engineered from 19 interlocking parts, Valoví features a curved seat and back to ensure maximum comfort.

Tivoli (Calibre Office Furniture)

Tivoli (2)
For companies that are unable to avoid longer meetings, uncomfortable chairs are bad for business (except for perhaps the chiropractic business). Calibre’s Tivoli, which features a stretched structural synthetic mesh upholstered with 10mm thick injection molded polyurethane foam padding, is ideal for those longer marathon sessions.

Sculpe High Stools (Calibre Office Furniture)Stools0-10196 (2)

There’s no rule that says conference tables need to have chairs. If your table is high enough, these stools from Calibre would get the job done just as well.

Balance Stool (Krost)

Balance-Stool-Side-to-Side
And now for something completely different: Not only does Krost’s self-balancing stool follow the user’s every movement, it also returns to its upright position after each use. For start-ups attempting to do something outside the box with their conference room, there are few better alternatives.

Page Chair (Boss Design)

boss-page-chairs-p1622-9549_image

For companies seeking a 60s vibe, Boss’s Page chair is a tour de force of retro chic.

RBG Task Chair (Teknion)

Low-RBTTask-Chair-3-4-View-Right-Polished-Aluminum-Base-tif
Teknion’s RBT (responsive back technology) chair incorporates patented technology that responds to the shape of the user’s back and supports continuous changes in posture.
This blog post previously appeared in the fourth chapter of our e-book Conference Room Design: A Guide For the Perplexed. To read the full e-book, click here.
ADDITIONAL READING
Top 5 Conference Room TVs of 2017
Wireless Screen Sharing vs. Conference Table Cable Management
Meeting Room Setup in 1 Day

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How Organizations Are Changing Their Office Spaces to Boost Productivity

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As we continue further into 2017, there are many trends that are springing up in workplaces all around the world that are assisting in making office spaces much more efficient and increasingly productive. In the past, designers used to try to make office spaces aesthetically pleasing in order to impress potential customers, but nowadays this isn’t always so. Here we will explore the latest office trends of this year and how they can help your office increase productivity tenfold (or at least 0.5-fold).

Integrating Technology

Advancing technology is making its way into offices more every year. With so many software platforms, cloud-based solutions and applications available to businesses, it has become crucial that these platforms can be accessed seamlessly. Offices are investing more money than ever to streamline these services, eliminating problems that would have otherwise lost time or cost money. For example, why waste hours trying to connect your laptop to your projector? Can’t access your emails from your mobile device on the go? By resolving these problems, you’ll have much happier employees and much more work being produced.

Open Plan Designs

As said in the introduction, physical fashion trends are becoming a thing of the past but more and more are we seeing office spaces with open plan designs. This means fewer desks and more social areas. Multi-function rooms such as sofa areas and multiple user tables are becoming more and more popular across all industries. Successful companies are making this transition to encourage connectivity and collaboration. With the ever-increasing impact of mobile technologies, employees no longer need to be confined to the space of a desk, which allows them a lot more freedom when it comes to working with colleagues, working in a comfortable environment, all of which combined leads to increased productivity.

Increased Focus on Well-being

A more recent trend that’s becoming increasingly popular is employee well-being. Taking center stage with companies of all sizes,  employees that are constantly tired, stressed or just overall unhealthy are not going to be working to their highest capabilities. With this in mind, more companies are investing in employee benefits such as providing on-site gyms or memberships, healthy meal options in cafeterias and more manageable work hours.

Many organizations are also investing in better seating options, indoor plants and relaxing social areas in the workplace, all together making employees a lot less stressed, increasingly happier and more able to work to their full potential.

Collaboration

Although briefly mentioned above, collaboration is one aspect more companies are focusing on than ever before. Not refined to the traditional ‘pig-pen’ office design, employees are able to integrate and help each other on projects and tasks, massively increasing productivity and how much work can be completed. This trend is mainly influenced by open space office design and social spaces.  By having desks that can be used by everyone, this also saves a business a lot of money and is a very cost effective solution.

ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Design: A Guide For the Perplexed
Picking a Conference Room Name: 5 Tips to Help You Get Started
5 Must-Have AV Products for Your Conference Room

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Telepresence: What Is It And Why Should You Care?

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Telepresence is renowned as the next step in video conferencing. Using the latest in virtual reality technologies, telepresence brings a very ‘real life’ atmosphere to meetings with life-sized people and imagery alongside crystal clear audio. All of this combined creates a distraction-free environment, allowing all members of a conference to fully focus on the tasks at hand, almost completely eliminating any chances for misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

What Is Telepresence?

While a typical video conferencing system includes monitors, microphones, and speakers, a telepresence system is much more complex. Telepresence systems are highly integrated setups that include multiple monitors, multi-channel speakers, numerous microphones, and advanced codec on both ends. By using telepresence systems, users receive a much more interactive experience, allowing for much more efficient methods of communication and collaboration.

A telepresence setup usually consists of three large, high-quality screens set up around a table, giving the feel that all members involved in the meeting are in the same room. Instead of individual microphones, multiple microphones are positioned on top of the screens, as are the cameras or webcams. This allows for much more flexibility in room positioning and much more space to explore new ideas and present information. Professional speakers are also positioned in key locations around the room.

The large screens are positioned together in a ‘wall’ arrangement, giving the viewers a complete, panoramic view. Using multiple cameras provides unparalleled image quality and using state of the art technology, spatial accuracy can be employed. This means that when an individual speaks, the audio speakers give the listener a feel for the location of the speaker in the meeting, contributing to the feeling that they are actually present in the room.

Why Use Telepresence?

Telepresence can be useful for a vast range of situations. With more screen space and clearer sounding audio, individuals can understand and read other members even more precisely, allowing for near-perfect communication, wherever you are in the world. With these added bonuses, you can also involve more props or presentations into meetings more clearly than you would if using standard video conferencing platforms.

As stated above, by utilizing market leading technologies, telepresence gives users the feeling that virtual members are actually present in the room. This allows for complete concentration during a meeting, allowing members to easily focus on what is important, minimizing the risk of errors and putting the organization’s best interests first.

Telepresence is also the perfect tool for collaboration. With optimal screen space, users have the ability to work simultaneously on projects, contributing effortlessly, ensuring tasks are completed quickly and accurately. You may also want multiple departments present, ensuring everybody in the organization is in the loop in regards to how far along a project is and whether every aspect is on target. You may also find a need to project presentations on screen, allowing for even greater accuracy, with no risk of losing crucial screen space.

ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Cable Management Checklist
AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?
Top 10 Conference Room Projectors of 2017

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3 Tips For Recording Meeting Minutes

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Do you have an upcoming meeting that you suspect will be even more boring than usual? Are you worried you might embarrass yourself in front of your colleagues with your freakish, abnormally loud snoring? Well, fret no more: We have an easy and counterintuitive solution for you. Simply volunteer to record the meeting minutes.
No one ever enjoys recording the minutes, but by forcing yourself to write down what people are saying, you not only dramatically reduce your chances of falling asleep, you also dramatically increase your chances of emerging from the meeting with a basic understanding of what people said.
If you’ve never recorded meeting minutes before, here’s what you need to know.

Why Are Meeting Minutes Important?

If multiple people miss the meeting, giving them a copy of the minutes is more efficient than tracking them down one by one and verbally recounting what they missed. Also, if someone forgets a decision made or an action item, giving them a copy of the minutes is more efficient than sending them to a hypnotist to retrieve the memory.

Use a Template

Before the meeting begins, it’s important to write down the following information: the date and time of the meeting, the purpose of the meeting, the meeting lead or chair’s name, and the names of the attendees. You’ll also need a space for assigned action items, decisions made, and general notes.
That’s a lot to remember, which is why the meeting minute template supply business is such a lucrative one. Hopefully, whoever organized the meeting will already have a template for you. (If the meeting organizer is particularly competent, they will have combined the meeting agenda and the minutes template into one integrated document).
In the off-chance that no template is provided for you, you can either search for one online, or do it the old fashioned way and write it out by hand.

Don’t Write a Word For Word Transcript

The most common mistake that rookie meeting minute recorders make is to try too hard. Unless your meeting also happens to coincide with humanity’s first encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial life, it is not necessary to write a word for word transcript. Nothing anyone says during the meeting will be important enough to warrant that level of scrutiny.
You don’t even need to write a summary of every minute. (In this regard, the term “meeting minutes” is a bit misleading — “meeting 5 minutes” or “meeting quarter hours” would perhaps be more accurate).
As long as your notes include actions taken/agreed to be taken, next steps, voting outcomes, motions taken or rejected, items to be held over, new business, and the next meeting date and time, you should be in the clear.

Don’t Wait Too Long To Write Up Final Document

As soon as the meeting is over, you should rush to a quiet room and write up the final document while the meeting is still fresh in your mind. This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. All you have to do is translate your rough notes into legible sentences and expand on things that may not be immediately clear.
When writing the final document, don’t be afraid to be boring. If every sentence includes a Joyce-worthy turn of phrase, you’re doing it wrong. Short, simple sentences are the way to go. “Mulligan suggested that the company seek legal counsel to deal with bankruptcy proceedings” is better than “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came into the conference room bearing a laptop on which a PowerPoint presentation arguing for the necessity of legal counsel lay in wait.” No one reads meeting minutes for their literary quality, so keep your adjectives and references to Ulysses to a minimum.
So what should the final document look like? Here’s a good example. If your document looks anything like that, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.
ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Design: A Guide for the Perplexed
Meeting Room Setup in 1 Day
AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?