As the largest hotel chain in the world by number of available rooms, Marriott International needs little introduction. With franchise locations dispersed all over the globe, the American multinational offers a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities and runs major hotel brands like Sheraton. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged them to think about the future of hospitality and meeting the evolving needs of their guests.
The need for accessible, hybrid hotel workspaces is growing as companies are moving away from big, ballroom meetings and seeking ways to unite their remote and present workers in more compact meeting spaces. This is where Barco’s ClickShare Conference came in the picture—allowing guests to instantly connect their device wirelessly to all the speakers, mics, and cameras in the existing meeting rooms. Hotel guests are able to set up a meeting with their remote co-workers while all the participants in the room are captured equally on video and audio. For Marriott, it was the perfect solution.
Before being rolled out on a large scale, Marriott International personnel had a chance to experience for themselves the hybrid meeting experience that ClickShare Conference brings. Neil Smith, director, IT Business Partnership & Planning – Digital Guest Experience for Marriott International, was immediately a fan: “The ClickShare CX-20 demo unit that we got to try has worked flawlessly for us. I’ve spent the last three weeks with it working from home, and it has been so convenient and easy to use. I cannot wait to get this into our hotel spaces and see our guests take to it!”
Adapting to a changing workforce
How companies operate has drastically changed over the last year—with remote work becoming omnipresent and everyone now used to being in online meetings. This experience, however, is often far from perfect and workers are looking forward to having in-person meetings again. Hybrid meetings offer a middle ground, where a part of the meeting takes place on the spot, but remote colleagues can also be included via a video call. As hotels were previously true hubs for work meetings, they have to adapt to this advancing hybrid trend.
Marriott has shown they are not afraid to take the lead in this field—investing in ClickShare Conference to facilitate the future of hybrid meetings. “ClickShare Conference allows us to turn our existing meeting rooms and hotel lobby spaces into hybrid workspaces where our guests can easily connect with remote colleagues.” Marriott leadership emphasized, “We build on our hotels’ prestigious reputation as true meeting hubs by engaging in innovative technologies that are appealing to our guests.”
Setting up a meeting within seconds
The call for an easy-to-use system is even more pressing in a hotel meeting room context, as it’s not feasible for Marriott staff to give guests an extensive explanation on how to use the meeting room set-up. With ClickShare Conference’s intuitive user interface, any guest can set up a hybrid meeting within seconds. And there’s no need for cables, adapters, or a specific meeting platform; ClickShare Conference is compatible with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex and more—optimizing the guest experience and eliminating the hassle for the hotel staff.
Ultimately, ClickShare Conference helps Marriott leadership express their core values of readily welcoming change and always putting people first, “By equipping our hotel lobbies with ClickShare Conference we embrace the change that hybrid meetings bring in the workplace and are able to position our lobby to our guests as an attractive collaboration space.”
