The Bbox in Maastricht – A first step into the future of business

The Bbox in Maastricht, Hotel Beaumont

My first thought when I entered the BBox was that I opened the wrong door. Had I arrived in a private dining club or a lounge bar?

The Bbox does not look like a regular meeting room in the sense that there are no standard tables, no stack chairs, no coffee cups nor pieces of paper or pens.

In fact, the Bbox feels like more a business lounge, with its LED coloured lighting, its bar corner, meeting area and see-through curtains.

The idea to offer a new type of meeting room was conceived by Harry Beaumont, owner of Hotel Beaumont in Maastricht. When in 2009 the demand for meetings drastically decreased as a consequence of the economic slow down, Beaumont decided to look into ways to better cater to the needs of companies in terms of meeting facilities.

Beaumont turned for advice to workplace consultant Pierre Buijs, who helped him envision a new and more effective meeting concept based on the mobilisation of creativity.

In Buijs’ view, conventional meeting settings are no longer adapted to current needs. “Bringing people together costs a lot of money. Not only the costs of transportation, room rent and food but even more so the cost of time. Before the economic crisis, meetings mainly revolved around powerpoint presentations, with one person talking and the others listening. Now companies can’t afford to organise these types of meetings which are not perceived as essential. Presentations of that type can easily be sent by email, at no cost. Nowadays there must be a good reason to justify the costs of a meeting, which is why meetings should become more effective, more interactive and more creative.”

Workplace consultant Pierre Buijs, conceiver of the Bbox

Creativity is the keyword
“Every company should make creativity a core competence,” says Buijs. “Creativity leads to motivated employees, innovation and better results in general.”

This is not to say that there were no effective ways to gather in the past. Buijs: “The more succesful meetings were planned as much as possible in creative or peaceful surroundings, a forest hotel, a spa hotel, any location that would create a break from the daily routine and generate a creative mood. Coffee breaks were held close to the meeting room so that participants would stay in the same flow and use the opportunity to exchange their views on the topic at hand. In fact, the most interesting ideas were often discussed during this type of non-meeting room environment: coffee break, dinner, a swim or a walk in the forest.”

Buijs and Beaumont’s challenge was to to reproduce these conditions in the centre of Maastricht.

“The advantage of a city location is that it attracts people, it’s dynamic and easy to reach,” says Buijs.

A new meeting room concept
What they had at their disposal was a room with four walls, some windows, some doors and a ceiling. In a short time this space was to be reborn as the BBox. “The BBox refers to a box”, Buijs explains, and the B comes from Beaumont.”

The original meeting room at Hotel Beaumont

“In order to create the atmosphere of a place of retreat within the city, it was obvious that the interior design had to feel warm, cosy, inspiring and surprising. It was also obvious that everything had to happen in this one room. From coffee break to meeting to dinner.”

The BBox officially opened in January 2010. Buijs eagerly describes the specificities of the new meeting room concept: “The room is equipped with a fresh air control CO2 metre and LED lighting with RGB colours which can be adjusted to the mood of the meeting. It offers the most up-to-date technology with three flatscreens, internet connection, laptop plugs for everyone, video game consoles, the possibility to conduct in-between polls, questionnaires or quizzes. External guests can be invited to take part in the conference via satellite connection. The see-through curtains allow the room to be divided into several areas, or can be opened to create one single larger area. A bar area and coffee machine make it possible to hold coffee breaks in the same room. The flatscreens can switched to any TV channel during the coffee breaks. Or people can relax on the cosy couches and let themselves be surprised and inspired by the colourful wall. Even the toilet is located next to the room, so that there is no need to leave the BBox.”

The actual meeting area can accommodate 15 to 20 participants. The oval-shaped table, open on one side, and the chairs are placed high of the ground, just like in a bar, “to keep things dynamic.”

“Basically everything was conceived to tickle the senses of the participants, to keep them creative.”

“No, the BBox is not unique,” admits Buijs, “but I have not seen this logical implementation of technique, meeting room, bar, lounge and all other aspects before. Everything was well thought through. For example, the colour of the light. Red tones are warm and create a cosy informal environment, whereas blue is colder and more direct. Bright white lights are known to keep people focused and awake. There are colours for every mood and colours are known to affect people’s moods. The creative process can be assisted by a simple switch of colours.”

The Bbox: is it a lounge?

“We also applied the fishbowl format for the meeting table. This format provides an outer area where people listen, and an inner area, the fishbowl, where people can enter in dialogue about a certain topic. It creates an exchange of ideas.”

“Wow-effect”
What can be expected to happen in this room? “We have tried to create the ideal setting for modern-time creative sessions”, says Buijs. “Companies can rent the room with all its facilities and it is up to them to decide how and what they want to use in the room. If requested, we can provide the services of a moderator who will sit down with the organising party and discuss how the functions of the BBox can best be used and integrated. The moderator can also host the meeting to make it as effective as possible.”

Buijs believes that the BBox is suited to all types of creative sessions. “Topic experts can be beamed in via the screen and the attendants can actually ask questions and discuss ideas with them. This saves a lot of time and travel costs. I can also see workshops, brainstorming sessions, dinner meetings, network events taking place here and even new methods being used. For example why should people need to introduce themselves, if they can be looked up via Linked In or Facebook?”

“We once hosted an event for a racing team during which the participants watched a racing game and were able to get involved in the race. One of the attendants actually drove a car! It was exciting to be present and see the ‘wow-effect’ happen.”

A gathering at the Bbox with PechaKucha Night speakers

According to Buijs, the BBox is even proving to be more flexible than originally envisioned. “We have started using the BBox in the evenings as a business lounge for hotel guests. Also, based on the concept of unconferencing, we came up with the idea of organising undinner parties. Usually these take place in a restaurant, where participants are obliged to move their notes and papers when the dishes arrive and the dinner becomes more important than the meeting. Our undinner meetings are designed in a way that participants don’t get disturbed by the dinner and don’t need to move any notes. The creative process is not interrupted.”

New investments will be required – within two years time, Buijs expects – to keep the BBox suitable for evolving needs. “ Looking at the future I definitely feel that 3D technology will improve and become more and more important,” says Buijs. “We see it in movie theatres already. It is already possible with 3D holographic projection to project items in 3D that are not actually there.”

Still, one can wonder, can’t companies conduct creative meeting sessions in their own meeting rooms? ”I don’t think this is the direction that companies would want to go into,” Buijs replies. “As a workplace consultant, I see that more and more companies are looking into ways to save costs on office space. People will start working from home or public areas with free wifi. The BBox offers such a public space and all the facilities modern-time business people need.”

In Buijs’ view the future of business and meeting will evolve around two core ideas: decreasing costs and increasing creativity and innovation.

The BBox is just a first step.

By Mario Defauwes
Freshly Made