TECH AND NON-TECH STRATEGIES IT PROS SHOULD KNOW

Crossover Near-Site Wellness Center - Mountain ViewPhoto: Chad Ziemendorf

7 STEPS TO CREATING AN AWESOME HUDDLE ROOM

So you’ve been charged with building a huddle room. Or maybe you’re considering ways to get more usage out of your existing conference rooms.

Here’s the first thing you should know: A huddle room is a small-to-medium sized meeting space that’s transformed into an oasis of productivity and collaboration.

They’re equipped with high-quality (but affordable) audio, video, display, and system technology.

And they should be utterly awesome.

Wait, what?

Yes – awesome is a must. Here are 7 steps to creating a cutting-edge huddle room that will surely turn some heads.

Gemcorp – London OfficesPhoto: Alexei Kalabin

Appboy – New York City OfficesPhoto: Claire Esparros

STEP 1

Prepare your room

Huddle rooms are meant to support quick and easy presentation and collaboration between users inside and outside of the organization.

Be sure to prepare your huddle room with the following:

• Reliable Wi-Fi coverage

• Ample power sources

• A reasonably sized table and seating

• (Optional) A range of connectors

If your software solution requires the use of adapters (see slide 12) be sure to mount adapters directly to HDMI cables using cable ties or cords so they don’t disappear.

BGB Group Offices – New York CityPhoto: Eric Laignel

Ask for input from employees. Ultimately, they’re the ones who will be using the space. What type of environment would they feel inspired to collaborate in?

STEP 2

Gather room design input

You should want to take part in the room aesthetics; it’s part of the overall package. While working with people

outside of IT to create the space, you should weigh in on elements that may be outside of your traditional domain,

like design.

Get a jump-start on inspiration: Look for ways to incorporate aspects of the company’s brand or “soul”

into the huddle room — for example, a logo emblazoned on the meeting table or a motto on the wall.

STEP 3

Kitting out your huddle room

When kitting out your huddle room, be sure to include:

A large, high-definition display for video communications and content presentations.

HD camera

Speaker and microphone

iPad Mini

Computer (NUC)

A huddle room won’t be awesome if the acoustics suck. So, you should consider soundproofing. Soundproofing panels can be mounted on the walls, and even customized to fit the décor. Even better: If you’re on a tight budget,

installation of these panels can be a simple, inexpensive DIY project.

BlueJeans has a ready-to-launch hardware kit you can purchase to get your Huddle room up and running quickly. Or if you want recommendations for affordable, high quality hardware, click here.

BGB Group Offices – New York CityPhoto: Eric Laignel

STEP 4

Make it feel like somewhere else

The huddle room can be a special destination for collaboration and inspiration. People who use the space should feel transported.

A huddle room also should have its own identity and spirit, regardless of whether it features any of the company’s familiar branding. It is a contained environment that is clearly separate from, but contained within, the four walls of the organization.

D&B Cloud Innovation Center – Vancouver OfficesPhoto: Ema Peter

Odnoklassniki - Saint Petersburg OfficesPhoto: Ivan Sorokin

RB Canada – Ontario OfficesPhoto: Alina Cornea Architectural Photography

Avito.ma Offices - MoroccoPhoto: Alessio Mei

Digital Telepathy Offices - San Diego

Chartboost – San Francisco OfficesPhoto: Jasper Sanidad

ProfMedia’s Moscow OfficesDesigner: UNK project

Airbnb Offices - BeijingDesigner: Studio of Design and Architecture

STEP 5

Choose easy-to-use, flexible software

The huddle room should be “at the ready” to accommodate all types of meetings — from impromptu strategy sessions to formal presentations to customers.

Make sure you select technology that has an easy and familiar UI. A huddle room is only as good as the software supporting it. If users find the video communications technology difficult or frustrating, your room will definitely NOT be awesome.

IT getting bombarded with support tickets would also not be awesome. Bottom line, software and user experience is critical.

Runway East Offices - LondonPhoto: Tom Fallon

Outstanding audio, video, display, and system technology are hallmarks of any quality huddle room that’s built for collaboration.

But the space should also have an array of non-tech tools and surfaces to support creativity when inspiration strikes. Some ideas:

• Chalkboard walls and whiteboards (or whiteboard paint!)

• Clipboard walls

• Butcher paper rolls for writing and doodling

• A moveable cabinet chocked full of pens, markers, colored pencils, or crayons

STEP 6

Add non-tech tools for creation

McKinley Burkart Offices - CalgaryDesigner: McKinley Burkart

STEP 7

Measure ROI

Nothing says awesome like a huddle room that delivers measurable ROI.

Huddle rooms are more cost-effective than large conference rooms, and can create value for organizations in many ways.

For example, a huddle room with high-quality video communications can:

• Reduce the need for employee travel

• Support team mobility

• Foster collaboration throughout distributed or remote workforces

• Get increased usage our of your existing room investments

• Reduce the burden on IT (yes!)

When searching for a video communications provider, look for one like BlueJeans that offers

a strong analytics engine so you can measure how employees use the huddle room and determine what

impact it’s having on the company’s bottom line.

Check out our virtual tour of BlueJeans Huddle and try all of the features! Then build your own awesome huddle room

with our 30-day trial.

TAKE THE VIRTUAL TOUR

BLUEJEANS HUDDLE

Offer the latest and best features

BlueJeans Huddle is incredibly IT friendly. Central configuration, management and moderation tools let IT easily deploy and support

rooms from everywhere.

More affordable than traditional room systems, Huddle uses commodity components combined with video as a service. Being fully interoperable, it works with standards-based room systems.

Users benefit from seamless calendar integrations, and one-click entry that starts a meeting in seconds. No more IT tickets!

Wireless screen sharing lets users simply enter a short URL to instantly share their screen. No adapters required.

BlueJeans is the world’s leading provider of interoperable video communication, bringing video to you wherever you are. Thousands of global companies use BlueJeans every day

for meetings, events, and on social networks across any location or device including mobile, desktop, and room systems. BlueJeans replaces traditional web conferencing technologies for a modern workforce, delivering face-to-face video communication for any organization

who wants to bring their employees, leaders, and partners closer together. For more information, visit www.bluejeans.com