The Challenge:
Founded in 1950, Redwood Credit Union serves California’s North Bay and San Francisco region. With nearly $2.7 billion in assets, Redwood is one of the largest credit unions in the United States. As membership continues to grow, so too does the use of Redwood’s Executive Conference Room; a large custom-built space supporting everyone from senior leadership to community members.
“We have some pretty large meetings [in this space]—whether it’s our board meeting, our leadership team’s strategic visioning, even our community partners that come in from time-to-time. It’s about putting that best foot forward for us—and making it the most useful meeting for their time.” —Samantha Paull, Events and Meeting Manager for Redwood Credit Union
In recent years, the technology in this space had become antiquated and the productivity and effectiveness of its participants was being impeded. Vital strategic planning sessions that called for simple breakout group collaboration work was being addressed by paper and dry-erase boards around the room. This needed to be transcribed into a presentation and projected on screen at a later date.
“Time is everything for us, and for most organizations. [The challenge] was really the time being spent both in meetings and extrapolating what was coming out of those meetings and putting that back into our everyday work.”
Redwood needed an updated executive boardroom, reimagined for the challenges and expectations of today’ workforce. Due to the popularity of this space, they required a design that was flexible enough to support the evolving collaboration needs of its community members, but reliable enough for the everyday use of senior leadership.
The Solution:
With over 20 years of experience assisting organizations with audio visual implementations and collaboration solutions, IVCi was able to design a state-of-the-art meeting room capable of dividing into 4 breakout areas and allowing team collaboration and group work. Each huddle area consists of a dedicated 65” LCD monitor and, for the first time, wireless content sharing capabilities. The Barco Clickshare was specifically selected to handle wireless presentation for it’s ability to support multiple simultaneous connections, mobile device access, and strict security protocols in line with Redwood Credit Union’s thorough policies.
“We have so much growth opportunity with this technology, and it allows us to use the [tools] already in our staff and boards hands, [their] iPad … When they walk into this room, if they have something to share with anybody in attendance, they can throw it right up on the screen creating that ease of use as well.”
Video conferencing was also enabled for the first time to permit remote access by workers and management. A ceiling recessed camera lift was installed immediately behind a main projection screen to address challenges resulting from a lack of front wall space. The VC camera is controlled via RS-232 and automatically lifted into position anytime Video Conferencing mode is selected on a new, custom programmed and very simple to navigate, touch screen controller. To avoid any wires on or to the table, and to accommodate a very tall ceiling, the ClearOne Beamforming Microphone was installed to address audio and video conferencing needs. With 24 microphone elements and adaptive acoustic processing to automatically adjust for room configuration, only two ceiling mounted mics were required to effectively cover 31 seated participants.
Lastly, IVCi worked closely with Redwood staff to upgrade an additional meeting room for adequate overflow capabilities. Breakout sessions and other mission-critical, collaboration-intensive meetings could now be accommodated in a room, around the office, or on the go.
The Results:
Redwood Credit Union continues to see increased traffic in their Executive Conference room. Most importantly, meetings are decisively more effective, allowing for members to accomplish more in less time and maximizing the use of their space. Seamlessly integrated collaboration tools have facilitated meaningful teamwork and innovative thought processes, and staff are excited about how their collective intelligence has already brought measurable improvements to the day-to-day needs of their members.
“Each of our members is an owner, so when they’re a member of [Redwood], they’re that critical to us… Being able to work together in such an efficient and effective process… we’re already seeing the benefits of that, and we just know it’s going to continue to grow.”
For more information on what IVCi can innovate for you, feel free to contact us! Call us at 800-224-7038 or email us at info@52.170.5.194
Download the Redwood Credit Union Case Study:
