Imagine you have to have a big meeting and lots of people will be there. Now add that you want to, for some reason, have that meeting in a room. In one single room with all those people. If all those people are going to leave wherever the came from and go to this room it's going to be pretty important. It could be for a long time. You might want to let them all sit down, a chair would do this well. But where do you put those chairs? Now I don't want to tell you how to do your meeting but I would suppose around a table would be a good option. So now you have a lot of people sitting in chairs around a table for a meeting all in the same room. This is great. Everyone can hear each other and see each other without having any pesky internet troubles get in the way. Except you probably can't see each other. Everyone can see the person next to them. They can see the people on the other side of the table. But they can't see the person next to the person next to them. At least not very well.
This concludes the imagination part of this blog.
This is a real problem with a lot of big tables. A big long table with lots of people sitting right next to each other means that it's hard to see everyone.
The Problem: How Do I See The Person Next To The Person Next To Me?
The Solution: A Circle.
A circle or round table does solve this problem. It means that everyone can see around the table and make eye contact with anyone. But the circle, especially for a very big table, leaves some things to be desired.
The Problem: Everyone Is SOOOOOOOO Far Away.
The Solution: A Rectangle
A circle table means that you can see everyone, but they're all the way across the table. To seat even 10 people comfortably a circle would be 7+ feet across. This not only means people are all far apart, but is also requires a room shape that, let's face it, you probably don't have.
A rectangle will fit your space better, which is why it's such a classic shape. It also allows most people to be close to more people that a circle would. We're back to the original problem.
Real Solutions:
An oval combines a rectangle and circle in a lot of useful ways. For a conference room table this means that people can talk easily, and make eye contact. It also makes good use of longer narrower space. The only shortcoming of these elliptical oval tables is that they don't allow people to sit on the ends. In many settings this isn't an issue at all, as you can sit people along the long edge. For a boardroom table or conference room table though, it's often important to have someone at the end. This could be a presenter or the leader of a business or group. This makes an oval an imperfect fit for these sorts of office tables.
The Squoval.
So this is the solution. A table that combines the curved nature of the oval and circle with the usability of a rectangle. A squoval table is long, with curves along the long edges. This lets everyone make the eye contact necessary for great communication. The ends of the table are then squared, making lots of space for using the ends.
While this isn't necessary for every boardroom table, a large one will benefit immensley from this curve. This is truly the ideal shape for a meeting table, a boardroom table, or a conference room table. Really any table over 8 feet long this shape should be very much considered.
If you have any questions about Squovals, let us know here!
or! check out all our boardroom table and conference room table offerings here!
