I’m starting a new series on meeting inspirations.

Tired of the same old meeting…wanna experience something different?

My hope is that this will give you some ideas on HOW TO BE DIFFERENT.

Classroom set-up be gone!  Welcome to the Lounge…

A little background on this meeting: The client didn’t want a typical meeting.  They wanted the group to hang out and relaxed.

This meeting took place at Hotel Vitale in San Francisco.  This is a great little hotel located along the Embarcadero and perfect for those not wanting a corporate feel and for smaller groups.

When we first went to the hotel – the thought was to have the meeting outside because the hotel offers some fabulous terraces.  How cool would that have been?  It would have been great, especially since the weather in the bay area has been fantastic…but for those who know the bay area…the weather could change at the drop of a hat (also the hotel is across the street from the Ferry Building where they have an amazing clock tower that likes to chime loudly on the hour – could be a bit distracting).  So instead – we thought about doing an amazing dinner here.

With the terraces not working for the meeting, option 2 was to headed inside to the Americana Lounge.  This was a great space and fit the coolness factor we were looking for – not to mention that we wouldn’t need to rent furniture (Do I hear some budget savings!).  But there was one key element it was missing…privacy.  This space was semi-private and even though the client wanted an informal meeting, the information they were working on was confidential, so we nixed that option for the meeting, but kept it out there for meals. (We did end up using it for breakfast and lunch.)

So on to option 3, the Amalf room we went.  This was the perfect room for them – natural light and really a blank canvas to get to work.  We did have rent furniture and linen (we weren’t grooving on the color options the hotel had).  We were conscious of the budget as we didn’t want to break the bank and I’m happy to say – we were able to do some nice things with a decor budget of about $2000.

The Outdoor Terrace for dinner

The company colors were 2 shades of blue.  We decided the linen would be gray, but when we got in the room, we were swimming in gray…it was way too much.  The hotel had just got in some brown linen (that wasn’t part of our original color choices they had given us) and viola!!  Gray, brown and touches of blue which made such a great impact.  Not to feminine and not to masculine – perfect for “The Lounge.”

Sofas from Hartmann Studios
Barstools from Hartmann Studios
Linen from Hartmann Studios & the hotel
Market Umbrellas from Hartmann Studios
Wooden Bowls (they were salad bowls – but you would have never known it) from Pier 1
Pillows from Target
Lanterns from Pier1
Votives from Bed, Bath & Beyond

Great places to get event related decor at affordable prices…Target, Ikea, Pier 1, Bed Bath & Beyond and even Dollar Stores.

My challenge for you…to change things up at your next meeting.  I would love to know what you did.

~Caryl