It should come as no surprise that 76% of professionals prefer face-to-face meetings to other forms of meetings. Around 83% of employees spend one-third of their work week attending meetings. Today with collaboration tools like MS Teams Rooms, it’s easier for companies to organize these meetings in quick time even with employees distributed across locations.
Hence, more organizations are dedicating their time and resources to upgrading their conference rooms. The interesting part is that this effort is not directed at improving the room’s aesthetics, but towards driving up meeting productivity in this age of hybrid work.
Companies are upgrading their conference rooms to:
- Improve the productivity of in-office employees.
- Connect remote workers and help them collaborate with office employees with no compromises on their meeting experience.
In this blog, let’s look at 5 technologies (or applications) to consider when upgrading your conference room to the next level:
- Digital whiteboards
Digital whiteboards are emerging as key enablers of business meetings and presentations. This cloud-powered interactive technology is changing the face of board and meeting rooms. Effectively, it allows team members to share ideas, collaborate, and brainstorm new suggestions seamlessly and intuitively.
In the age of hybrid work, digital whiteboards are replacing “traditional” whiteboards. With this meeting room technology, attendees can take control and present their content from any location or device. Besides improving team communication, digital whiteboards are also environment-friendly as they eliminate printing of materials like presentations, handouts, and brochures.
- Video conferencing++
High-quality video conferencing is an ever-present AV technology in meeting and conference rooms. And with good reason too. Besides meetings, video conferencing is useful across use cases like hiring, training, and project reviews. However, today video conferencing systems are rising above providing mere utility. Today’s VC systems are sophisticated solutions that bring together high-quality hardware and intelligent software to create immersive and powerful meetings.
Video conferencing is also available in space-efficient types like portable systems, video conferencing bars, and wall-mounted systems. Besides, today’s AV systems are tightly integrated with next-gen platforms like MS Teams and Zoom. 98% of meeting participants include at least one remote attendee. Modern video conferencing systems are built to seamlessly include remote workers. For instance, by integrating Cisco and MS Teams Rooms, organizations can effectively reduce the gap between in-office and remote employees.
- AI-powered meeting assistants
Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations like ChatGPT are transforming multiple business use cases and processes. It’s no surprise then that AI-powered assistants are playing a role in business meetings too. For instance, AI-powered cameras can automatically track the speaker in the conference rooms, thus making it easier for virtual attendees to follow them.
Similarly, AI-powered assistants can help in meetings by:
- Scheduling the next business meeting and sending out invites to participants.
- Generating a transcript of the entire meeting and talking points.
- Recommending follow-up actions (post meetings) and answering common queries.
- Voice recognition
AV systems like Microsoft Teams Rooms can deliver an array of cutting-edge capabilities. VC systems can respond to voice-activated commands, thus adopting voice recognition (similar to Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri). Overall, voice recognition technology is upgrading conference rooms by controlling physical elements like room lighting, ventilation, and audio.
Voice recognition can improve employee productivity by enabling them to deliver commands without interrupting their meeting. Employees with disabilities can also leverage voice recognition to interact with meeting rooms.
- Meeting room displays
Meeting room displays (or interactive displays) are the best way for organizations to upgrade their conference rooms for the future. These touchscreen-enabled displays show the current availability status of each room along with the meeting agenda. Additionally, meeting organizers can use these displays to reserve space for their next meeting.
By integrating meeting room displays with calendar applications, organizations enable employees to check out meeting schedules and agendas from their computers. Using data analytics, meeting room displays can provide valuable insights into:
- How frequently is each conference room booked for meetings?
- Which teams use conference rooms the most?
Current trends, developments, and challenges
In 2024, conference rooms are not simply used as meeting spaces, but for effective collaboration and productivity spaces. With high-quality audiovisual capabilities, conference rooms can produce more engaging and productive meetings. Among the latest trends, more organizations are adopting wireless connections like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to reduce the physical clutter in their conference rooms.
Similarly, IoT integration is another emerging trend in conference room technology. This integrated technology can automatically track energy usage in the rooms and notify maintenance teams about any equipment malfunction or failure.
Among the common challenges, 58% of participants have reported technical challenges during meetings, mostly caused due to outdated technology in conference rooms or inadequate hand-holding and user support. Some of these technical challenges include poor audio quality or spotted visuals in video conferencing. High-quality audio systems like noise-cancelling speakers and array microphones can improve communications during meetings. Similarly, high-definition 4K displays and projectors can improve video quality during meetings and presentations.
As more organizations go hybrid, scalability is a growing concern for organizations using AV solutions. Scalable solutions are now a necessity for conference rooms with the growing demand for IT-related services. To be future-ready, enterprises need to modernize their meeting spaces with AI-powered tools like MS Teams Rooms.
In summary
Modern conference rooms are not just a meeting space but have evolved into a space for higher productivity and collaboration among employees. In this blog, we have discussed 5 technology trends that are upgrading conference rooms for future demands.
As an AV integrator, Resurgent brings you the best of AV solutions for your conference rooms. This includes technologies like video conferencing, interactive displays, and digital whiteboards. Here’s a case study of how a major pharmaceutical company improved its conferencing capabilities with our AV solution.
Are you planning to upgrade your conference room? Book a free consultation with our team today.
