Creative Meeting Room Setups - Seven ways you can make an ordinary meeting extraordinary

Raise your hand if you've stifled a yawn at a meeting. Or snuck a quick look at your watch. Or (tsk tsk) sent a text message to someone that said, "Wot r u doing later?"

Don't worry; your secret is safe with us. But we've all spent a fair amount of time fidgeting in meetings. Perhaps its time to take a look at what can be done to energize them and keep people engaged.  It turns out that one of the most basic steps you can take to breathe life into an otherwise ho-hum meeting has to do with where you hold it and how you set it up.  Consultant Laurie Tema-Lyn has spent over 20 years working with Fortune 500 companies to energize minds and break down barriers to creative thinking. She shares these seven keys to success:

1. Set up for eye contact.

"The circle is an extremely powerful thing," Tema-Lyn says. Second best is a U-shaped setup. This format allows for eye contact and puts everyone on the same level. "Theater and classroom seating lend themselves to power plays," she says, "and it's too easy for someone to tune out."

The smaller the meeting, the more important it is to set up like you are gathering around a campfire, not a boardroom table. Recently, Tema-Lyn arrived at a venue to find that a meeting had been set up in one of those windowless rooms with moveable walls and harsh overhead fluorescent lighting.

"Outside the room, we found a lovely atrium area with glass walls, couches and low coffee tables. We were able to arrange to have the meeting there, and it was far more productive in terms of people listening to each other and sharing ideas."

Some people feel a little threatened when you take that central boardroom table away from them, because their knees are exposed. But they get over it quickly when they realize how much more comfortable they are.

What about situations that call for larger groups? "Even when I give a presentation to a larger group, I set up round tables that seat eight or 10 people to give everyone opportunity for communication, ideation and sharing."

2. Use open space and natural light.

Whenever possible, try to arrange for meetings (or breakout sessions) outside the classic four-wall meeting room. Windows that let in natural light keep people energized and contribute to mental stimulus. "Windows make a huge difference in our ability to think big and be open-minded," Tema-Lyn says.

For example, on a wintry February day in New Jersey, Tema-Lyn was hosting a creative idea session in a room with large windows on three walls. Winter snow on the surrounding fields made for a scene out of Currier & Ives, which became even more memorable when two baby goats nosed up to the windows looking for handouts. The experience sparked a variety of fresh ideas.

When the weather is good, small groups can meet outdoors, even poolside, to stimulate creative thinking and allow attendees to breathe in fresh air. It's especially important for corporate meetings to take place "off campus" whenever possible, so people avoid the usual workday distractions. Tema-Lyn, with the host's advance permission, has literally had attendees check pagers or cell phones at the door, so no one's train of thought is interrupted.

Sometimes a nice-looking space can make it difficult for people to stay focused. "I've worked in places that are lovely but have too many distractions -- things that clutter the mind like too many plants or paintings or chatchkas," Tema-Lyns says. She finds that a quieter and cleaner space, in terms of design, can be more appropriate, depending on what you want to accomplish with your meeting.

3. Provide comfortable seating or chairs.

Tema-Lyn makes sure that a variety of comfortable seating, ranging from straight-back chairs to couches or even beanbags, is available for meetings. "You need to take into account that people come to meetings with different physical needs, so a variety of seating is essential," she says.

Encouraging people to get up and move around is equally important. One option is a form of "musical chairs" in which attendees must sit in a different place when they return from breaks or breakouts, to stimulate a change in perspective. That also gets people who already know each other mixing with others, rather than clinging together junior-high-cafeteria style.

4. Play music to establish the mood.

Tema-Lyn once worked for a client who put together a focus group of young adults. She arranged for hip-hop music, played on a boom box. "When people came into the room, they realized from the get-go that this was not going to be your typical focus-group event," she says.

Once people got settled in and learned about the objective of the meeting, the music faded down and then out. But later, during the flip-chart sessions, the music came back up, to punctuate the meeting and get people comfortable. "I think they were able to be more creative and articulate as a result," Tema-Lyn says.

It's important to use music with a purpose in mind, not just have monotonous elevator music in the background. Tema-Lyn uses it to set the tone as people enter the work area, or to enhance a specific topic with themed music. You can also use music to change the energy in a room, by taking it up-tempo. "That livens up the mid-afternoon energy drop," she says. Alternatively, try Bach or Mozart for brainstorming sessions.

5. Add colors or visuals.

Often, you have to play the cards you are dealt, of course. Once at a meeting of engineers in a stuffy room with white walls, Tema-Lyn grabbed the flip chart and drew windows with billowing curtains and taped them to the walls. "I literally wanted the engineers to think they were outdoors," she said, "and to dream big."

Maybe your venue has artwork available for you to use to liven up a meeting room. Or you can work a deal in advance with a nearby gallery to provide stimulating artwork you can put on easels around the room. (This need not be expensive; the gallery could get credit in your program or make art available for sale to attendees.)

Since some people think best when they doodle, consider putting baskets with colored pens or pencils around the room, along with pads of stickies and colored paper. Tema-Lyn has often used this technique to stimulate the inner child in grown-up attendees.

6. Accommodate the "fiddle factor."

Just as some people like to doodle, others find that their creative juices start to flow when they have things to play around with. Tema-Lyn has found that even the most buttoned-up executive types will loosen up and let their ideas come out to play, when they have things to fiddle with. Examples include pipe cleaners, squishy nerf balls, hand puppets and even stuffed toys. Like the music mentioned earlier, it's important to make this kind of play purposeful, perhaps as part of a team-building exercise or brainstorming session.

(Feeling a bit skeptical? Take a moment to recall the items that tend to be the most popular premium giveaways in exhibit halls. Not the imprinted pens and pencils, are they? In fact, one of the most popular tradeshow booths ever seen featured a small racecourse with nerf pylons and a radio-controlled dune buggy.)

7. Engage all the senses.

Some meeting attendees get all the jolt they need from the smell of fresh roasted coffee or hot chocolate. In other cases, aromatherapy may be appropriate to enhance the meeting environment. As Tema-Lyn says, "Subtle scents warmed in a diffuser can enhance energy or relaxation. Candles work well also, provided that the venue allows them. Sliced oranges and peppermint are both scents proven to stimulate energy and creativity," she says. "I like to do that in the middle of the afternoon, when people tend to flatten out."

Food and beverage is another way to engage the senses. "I always try to have refreshments on hand during a meeting, placed for easy access," she says. "I make sure participants can help themselves to brain food, not things loaded with sugar or fat."

Extra effort, but worth it

Getting the venue to understand what you want to do and cooperate can be a challenge. "Only a few places get it right off the bat," she says. "I find that educating them in advance helps a lot. You may not be able to do all of these things -- and, of course, a lot depends on the type of function you are planning -- but the venue manager should at least accommodate some of this.

"Even so," she says, "I always arrive the night before, prepared to rearrange furniture or get rid of furniture, and do what I need to make a room workable. The payoff in terms of enthusiastic participation and positive comments is well worth the extra effort required to get the room setup just right."