Building Collaboration Rooms

Most meeting and conference rooms are designed for presentations, not collaboration. The standard set-up is a long conference table, surrounded by chairs, perhaps a white board, an overhead projector and, maybe, a video system. They are primarily designed for information presentation. One person sits or stands at the front of the room and presents information via the whiteboard, the overhead projector or the video monitor. Participants are focused on the front of the room and the information being presented. Discussion may or may not be encouraged but participants are seldom invited to take control of the pen (or overhead or monitor). There is no real co-creation of information and understanding.