Corporate Client Chat

“We’ve taken an old structure that was all about history and our past and turned it into being all about our future.”

CLIENT CHAT

SMBW sat down with a past corporate client to explore the influence their branded conferencing center had on their project objectives, collaboration and culture.

SMBW collaborated to create signature conference rooms based on their iconic product brands. With a diverse portfolio of well-known brands that cater to various consumer preferences, each space offers a unique and immersive brand experience.

When you first conceived of the space, what were your goals for the project?

The main goal of the project was to bring our brands to life, creating a three dimensional brand experience. Overall, our employees felt like we looked more like an insurance company than a company with a long history and iconic brand legacy, and prior attempts to embody that were pretty weak.

Another goal of the project was to create more rooms with better usage. There's a culture here where people don't open a closed conference room door and stick their head in, because that would be deemed inappropriate. As a result, we had a lot of rooms wasted simply because the door was closed, creating a perception that there were never any spaces to meet. That required changes in both human behavior and physical space.

Was this project predicated on a change in your organization?

This project reflected a huge cultural shift in our organization. What is now conferencing space for everyone, used to be known as Executive Row. The Row had been an ivory tower of private offices with secretaries out front, private bathrooms, and individual coffee stations—a perception of an untouchable space that you had to be invited into.

Our leaders didn't want to send that message, and instead wanted to be more open with their teams.

We saw this project as an opportunity to distribute leaders with their teams and make a space that once embodied hierarchy accessible to all.

What kind of constraints did the building’s historic nature present?

As the building is on the historic register, there were many restrictions that we had to contend with.

In essence, they want you to be able to put things back. We wanted to be very careful to preserve the building’s history and context, but we also needed to change the building enough for it to have a future. This required a balance. By leaving the iconic details and materials, you could still get a sense of what the space used to feel like.

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Do you have other conference spaces in the other part of the building as well?

We have three approaches to our conference rooms.

First, we have the conference center, which can be booked by anyone in the company. These spaces are managed and offer a more curated experience, and users have access to support from the manager for booking and any situations that arise while using the room. Then, we have publicly bookable rooms throughout the rest of the building that aren’t managed. These are also themed, but not as heavily; with memorable names, brand artifacts, art work, and other two dimensional elements. The third type of conference rooms are assigned to business functions. For example, the tax department has their own conference room, finance has several rooms, law has several rooms, etc.

What changes have you seen in how people use the conference rooms?

Previously, there weren't nearly as many conference rooms, you couldn't see if a room was in use without popping your head in, and there was no booking system to free it from Outlook if the meeting didn't happen. Now, the conference rooms feel more accessible, most have glass fronts or sidelights so you can see if a room is occupied. Additionally, our outlook system releases the room If you don't check in for your meeting. It’s a very different conference world now compared to before.

What response have you received in reaction to your space?

Employees love seeing the brands and the level of detail. I get so many comments saying, “Oh, that's really clever or I would never have thought to do that.” The new building does take some explanation, though, so we make an effort to give guided tours where we’re able to share specific insights about how the spaces embody a specific customer or brand. This room, for example, reflects a day at the lake or a man cave kind of experience, with string lights, a refined palette, and duck decoys—and everything supports that story. We tease out the individual details and then everything comes together to form a theme, and the guests are fully immersed in the brand. When we get one on one time with the group, we try to encourage them to tell others so that the employees are educating the rest of their teams about how these spaces embody the business and tell a story.

Which rooms here are the most frequently booked for use in the conference center?

Probably the big multipurpose rooms because they accommodate larger groups. I think people tend to choose these rooms for their feel, though the multipurpose rooms with more flexible furniture are popular because the wheels on the tables and chairs make the space really easy to reconfigure. I think people like to be able to customize the rooms to suit their needs.

How did the process of this project differ from others you’ve worked on?

I think sometimes designers feel that they have to have all of the answers, but they can be limited by their knowledge of materials, detailing, fabrication, or construction. There were several aspects of this project where the designers had a vision, but then drew on the knowledge of the fabricator to circle back around and deliver a design that got it right.

With a project like this, with so many elements pushing their differences as much as they could, we needed that kind of approach.

How did leadership engage with the process?

Early in the project, the CEO said, “Why do we always put giant tables in meeting rooms? The longer the room was, the longer the table." I didn't really have a good answer for him other than that’s corporate America: if you have a big meeting, you have a big table. He responded that he had never had a business deal or business success that benefited from a giant table— can we not have things that are different? That response was the freedom I needed to push the design team to go away from more conventional corporate office furniture. I would never have started out with these chairs, I would never have suggested a rattan seated, slat backed, attached cushion, front porch chair. With him saying that, though, all of a sudden I had the courage to push the differences.

Is there any advice that you would give yourself or someone else working on a similar project?

Understanding the client, understanding what they're asking for, having a clear goal, and knowing what success looks like. I've learned on this project that taking that time to understand the goals and needs at the beginning pays dividends on the back end, because from the start you know what the end goal is and you have ways to check that you're on track throughout the process. It helps the team from getting distracted by shiny objects, cool layouts, or strong personalities that are really trying to drive something that isn’t aligned with the actual end result. That’s the advice I would give to myself and others, don't discount the value of that initial process of discovery, understanding, and establishing a really clear idea of what you need and why.

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