The setup of a meeting room might be an afterthought for most business leaders, but each layout serves different purposes. If you’re looking into every detail to ensure that your business meetings are conducted in the way you purposed, here’s a look at common room setups and their inherent advantages and disadvantages.
Conference Type
Conference rooms in West Palm Beach feature a boardroom style set up where participants are seated around one common long table. Often, presenters or facilitators move around or have their own place at the table.
Pros: This is excellent for small group meetings and discussion. And since everyone shares a common table, this setup often connotes equality among the participants — an excellent atmosphere to foster if you want everyone at the table to speak up, share their ideas and offer insights.
Cons: This isn’t ideal if you want the participants’ attention solely on the speaker or the visual presentation in front of them. This also doesn’t work well when you’re meeting a good number of people.
Classroom Style
Just like any traditional classroom, this type of meeting room features chairs behind tables facing the presenter.
Pros: All chairs face the presenter with less risk of distraction. And since the layout is arranged in rows, this is a relatively good arrangement if you’re squeezing the most out of every square footage of the room while still giving ample room for the attendees.
Cons: The layout is reminiscent of a traditional classroom, and people may feel like they’re back in school where lecturers drone on and on and bore them to death. This arrangement doesn’t suit group discussions and interactions.
Team or Clustered Style
Round or rectangular tables are arranged strategically around the room so that the attendees will be sitting together in smaller groups.
Pros: This arrangement is excellent for small group work and interactions. This is also a systematic way of placing together a set number of people in a group even before the meeting starts.
Cons: Some members of the group may have their backs on the presenter, especially during group discussion. Also, you’ll need a large space to pull this off without compromising ample room for people to move around.
U-Shape
Just as its name suggests, the tables are arranged in a U-shape formation, around the perimeter of the room. The presenter can be smack dab in the center and the audience face inward.
Pros: This layout allows participants to focus on the facilitator or presenter and at the same time, facilitate discussion and interact with each other.
Cons: This layout only works well with smaller groups and you need to have ample room space, or it could feel cramped for the participants with substantial space allocated at the center.
Theater
A good part of the room features rows of chairs with aisles in between, all facing the stage or at least a platform where the presenter stands.
Pros: You make the most out of the floor space with this kind of layout. This layout is ideal if you want the presentation to be the sole focus of the meeting. This is excellent for a large gathering.
Cons: Participants are confined to their seats with little space for them to move around. This doesn’t work well with teamwork and discussion among the group.
Every meeting has different objectives. If you want to stack the odds in your favor and have desirable outcomes, consider these different pros and cons of each layout and choose a setup that works excellently in your situation.
